Chapter 170
Chapter 170
Qin Wen remained crouched there in a daze.
It had been a very, very long time since anyone had called him by that name.
Ever since his younger brother died, he had taken his brother’s name and imagined that Qin Wu was still alive.
He lived as neither man nor ghost.
Every player who had entered an instance with him only knew him as Qin Wu, a death-defying madman.
He never teamed up with anyone, and the way he cleared instances bordered on self-torture.
Only after Cheng Miao sighed, turned away, and led the others off, and long after they had disappeared, did Qin Wen clutch the old-fashioned phone in a death grip. He hugged his knees, buried his head in his arms, and broke down sobbing.
After what happened with Qin Wen, Cheng Miao and the others no longer felt like exploring the casino. They made another circuit and had just found a few seats, but before they could sit down, two hulking security guards strode toward them.
“Good afternoon, honored guests. Our boss would like to see you.”
The boss?
Why would the casino’s owner want to see them?
The muscular security guards were utterly businesslike and refused to offer a single extra word.
While Cheng Miao and the others stood there at a loss, Qiudong opened his eyes. “Let’s go see.”
Cheng Miao noticed that after Qiudong spoke, the two men in sunglasses looked almost incredulous.
Cheng Miao and the others followed the guards into an elevator. The first man in sunglasses took an access card from his pocket, tapped it against the reader with a beep, then pressed the button for the fifth floor.
The elevator ascended slowly. Through its transparent walls, the casino’s dazzling colors looked even more brilliant.
It was as though countless lives had intertwined into one radiant bubble after another, breathtakingly beautiful and terribly fragile.
When the elevator doors opened, the two guards held them apart and gestured for Cheng Miao’s group to proceed inside.
Cheng Miao stepped out of the elevator and into a luxurious suite.
High-quality velvet carpeting covered the floor, while towering wine cabinets displayed countless famous vintages.
The room resembled an office. The wall facing the casino had been made from ultraclear floor-to-ceiling glass, beside which stood a desk and an enormous chair with its back to them.
Anyone working here could turn their head and see the full spectrum of human life unfolding throughout the casino.
“I was just thinking how rare it is to see a player help someone else these days. If that hadn’t piqued my interest enough to make me look closely, I really might have missed you.”
A slightly husky female voice came from behind the chair. Then Cheng Miao saw the chair move and slowly turn around.
A woman lounged lazily in it, with burgundy waves, heavy smoky eye makeup, and brilliant red lips.
A long smoking pipe rested loosely between her fingers, a thin curl of smoke rising from its smoldering tobacco.
The woman closed her crimson lips around the pipe, drew in lightly, and exhaled a cloud of white smoke. “Long time no see, Qiudong.”
Cheng Miao was not surprised in the least when Qiudong straightened on her shoulder and looked coolly at the seductive woman before them. “Long time no see, King.”
Cheng Miao raised an eyebrow slightly. This sexy, mature woman had a nickname usually associated with men: King.
At the same time, King was studying Cheng Miao.
The girl stood there with an air of cool detachment. Her clear black-and-white eyes seemed to hold a spring of limpid water. Though she was watching King with unusual focus, King did not feel offended.
The girl was quite pretty. She was not an unrivaled beauty, but she possessed a distinctive quality of her own.
King narrowed her eyes and bit the mouthpiece offered to her lips. What did that quality remind her of?
It was like sunlight spilling across wheat in the early morning, rising, bright, and clean.
After spending so long in Survival Inn, all she usually saw was darkness and negativity.
Even the splendid lights of the cities around the Grand Hotels and Hotels could not conceal the defeated air radiating from the players.
That defeat was like gray-black mist, corroding the cities and everyone around them.
The name of that mist was despair.
This girl, however, appeared to have cleared quite a few instances. Her eyes held the resolve of someone who had witnessed life and death, but none of that ashen decay.
She had suffered the setbacks of struggling through Survival Inn, yet she still looked forward to everything and retained her love for life.
She also had hope for the future.
In a place like Survival Inn, once hope was gone, nothing remained.
King ran a casino and had seen far too many players.
She had seen newcomers who had just entered the Game and regarded everything with extreme caution and vigilance. She had also seen veteran players trapped here so long that they abandoned themselves to every sensual pleasure, even as their intoxicated eyes rotted from within.
To be frank, she had seen many women prettier than Cheng Miao.
Some had given up struggling and traded their bodies for room fees and food. Others were clever, powerful, and capable of killing their way through any opposition.
But Cheng Miao was the most unusual of them all.
King took a draw from her pipe, and smoke spread before her eyes.
She thought it might be because of the light in Cheng Miao’s eyes.
“Did you call us up here just to stare at her?” Qiudong was clearly familiar with King. Displeased by the way the woman kept staring at Cheng Miao, he interrupted her.
Cheng Miao stroked Qiudong’s head to soothe him. As if she had not noticed King’s surprised expression, she asked in an even, amiable tone, “May I ask why you called us up here?”
King could tell that Cheng Miao was the leader of this small team. She gave a captivating smile. “No particular reason. I merely spotted an old friend I haven’t seen in years and wanted to say hello.”
Qiudong showed none of the excitement one might expect upon seeing an old friend. “Oh.”
King did not mind. She seemed accustomed to Qiudong’s temperament. Turning to Cheng Miao, she asked, “I noticed you haven’t joined any games. Have you not found one that appeals to you?”
Cheng Miao shook her head. She declined the whiskey a server brought and ordered a Coke instead.
She did drink alcohol, but she would not drink in a casino.
“We only came to broaden our horizons. We weren’t planning to play,” Cheng Miao answered honestly. Since King was Qiudong’s old friend, there was no need for diplomatic pleasantries.
King arched an eyebrow. Every facility in a casino was designed to make guests join the games.
The music, the lighting, the color of the wallpaper, and the advertisements playing on the televisions all served that purpose.
Few people could wander around for so long without their hands itching or their hearts stirring.
As she studied this team of distinctive individuals, King grew serious for the first time.
“You can bet more than Travel Coins here. You can also wager Items. You can even pay me a service fee to transfer buffs that belong to other players.”
That was something Cheng Miao had not expected. No wonder the casino did such good business.
Some Items obtained from instances were listed at astronomical prices in the General Store. If a player got lucky at the casino and won an Item they normally could not afford, it would be tremendously useful in clearing instances.
And that was to say nothing of the buffs one could only encounter by chance.
Cheng Miao met the faintly enticing look in King’s eyes and shook her head.
King was genuinely surprised this time. She had met people who were not tempted by Items or Travel Coins, but she had never met anyone unmoved by buffs.
For ordinary mortal players, having a buff was equivalent to possessing a cheat. It was something every player in Survival Inn longed for.
Looking at the confusion in King’s eyes, Cheng Miao spoke with a hint of pride, though her expression remained cool and detached. “We don’t lack any of those.”