Chapter 187

Chapter 187

Any veteran player with eyes and a little experience could see through Tang Shouren’s methods.

He had not turned his blade on his teammates, nor was he a Party-Wipe Player like Su Yang who harmed others purely for amusement.

He simply exploited his teammates’ admiration and trust to make them test the path for him.

Monkey had brought about his own death at the beginning, but Kiki’s and Tang Ying’s deaths were probably both inseparable from Tang Shouren.

Tang Shouren was not the kind of man who forced someone to die at knifepoint. He worked silently from the shadows.

But the route he had tested with his teammates’ lives could not be wrong, leaving only two possibilities.

The first was that he had truly found his own way out of the company.

The other was that his assigned personality at the company matched his real one: he operated from the shadows.

He usually gave impassioned speeches and stirred other people’s emotions, then hid behind them and collected the benefits.

Would someone like that truly step forward and raise his arm to lead the cause?

The answer was no.

Cheng Miao put down her phone and stopped reading Tang Shouren’s group messages. Whichever possibility was correct, the result would appear soon.

While Tang Shouren frantically exposed the company’s crimes online and called on everyone to resist, Qiudong was walking back to his office.

Suddenly, the brightly lit corridor plunged into darkness.

Qiudong’s breathing did not change. He stood quietly where he was.

As a cleared player, Qiudong had lost his original Items and buffs after choosing the identity of a receptionist.

Thus, he did not possess the protective Items carried by Baili Qianqiu, Lian Ge, Jiang Chen, and the others.

But he did not need them.

Years of living as a cat had honed his already exceptional five senses to their absolute peak.

He silently listened to the thing creeping through the darkness. Anyone else probably would have sensed nothing.

The face bleeding from all seven openings intended to catch Qiudong off guard when the lights returned, frighten him half to death, then slowly kill him amid his terror.

The lights came on as expected. A blood-covered, deathly pale face hovered inches away, maximizing the horror.

But the person opposite it did not show even the slightest flicker in his eyes.

As the thing hesitated between pouncing and trying to frighten him again, Qiudong moved. With extreme agility and extraordinary balance, he appeared behind it in an instant.

Then, without a single feint, Qiudong gripped the tragic face identical to his own between both hands and exerted force.

Crack.

The thing’s head was twisted 180 degrees to face Qiudong.

Qiudong knew that alone could not kill a ghost.

Without hesitation or pause, he shaped his right hand into a blade. While the thing remained stunned, he thrust it straight through the back of its chest and closed his hand around its nonexistent heart.

There were many ways to deal with ghosts. Most relied on something like Cheng Miao’s Kun-Bone Dagger, Qin Musong’s Eagle-Eye Gun, or Jiang Chen’s Gentleman’s Cane.

But there was also a more violent method: fight it bare-handed, as Qiudong did, and scatter the spiritual essence housed in its heart.

The effect matched that of an Item, but because the method was so difficult, almost no player used it.

The hideous ghost screamed and vanished. The intermittently flickering lights returned to normal.

Qiudong examined his spotless hand, then turned and went to the restroom.

Lin Zhu’s current concern was that although he could keep stalling and refuse to participate in any more illegal activity, his past actions still gave others leverage over him.
If the matter were exposed, he would definitely be fired, and he knew what happened to fired employees.

Qi Jiajia thought the solution was simple: kill the other person, blame everything on him, and end the problem once and for all.

But Lin Zhu could not do that. Even if the man was only an NPC, he was still human, just like Lin Zhu.

Besides…

If they truly fought, there was no telling who would kill whom…

Without a better solution, Lin Zhu could only search his past records for clues.

As he read, he suddenly discovered a problem…

The signature on the form Yun Su had sent him looked different from Lin Zhu’s usual signature.

The discovery energized him. He carefully found the screenshot of their conversation, enlarged the image inside, and printed it.

Then he found his signatures on other ordinary documents.

Sure enough, they were different.

Lin Zhu’s signature on the receipt Yun Su sent was neat and proper. But even on documents intended for the chairman, his real signature was bold and illegible.

Lin Zhu picked up a pen and wrote his name.

Exactly. His normal scrawl matched his own writing habits.

It appeared the original Lin Zhu had also feared leaving evidence behind and deliberately planted a tiny flaw.

Lin Zhu proudly raised his head, the tuft of hair atop it standing at attention. As expected of me!

Only one problem remained. If a confrontation occurred, Yun Su alone could testify that Lin Zhu had admitted the signature was his.

He could delete the chat history on his side, but what about Yun Su’s?

That woman was excessively rational and might truly refuse to cover for Lin Zhu.

If he sought her out now, she might never have noticed the exchange, and he would only remind her.

But if he did not… he might miss the chance to negotiate…

Lin Zhu fell into a new round of indecision…

Tang Shouren stared at the group where no one had answered and felt like a fool.

Fortunately, he had kept his wits about him and excluded all leaders and section chiefs in case the route failed.

Many people had agreed with him in old chat histories, but once they entered the group, none dared utter a word.

Tang Shouren quickly dissolved the group. Rubbing his fingers together, he wondered whether this route was impossible and he truly had to compete for a key employee position.

He rose to fetch a cup of water, then sat in his chair and drank slowly.

Lin Zhu and Qi Jiajia shared his office. Neither liked to meddle in other people’s affairs.

People like them could not be exploited to test a route. Tang Shouren sighed. If only Monkey had not died.

He lowered his head and blew on the water. Just as he prepared to drink, a hideous human face appeared on its surface.

The face looked wretched, and its venomous eyes stared at him.

Tang Shouren’s hand shook, and the cup shattered on the floor, drawing the attention of the surrounding coworkers.

Cold sweat covered Tang Shouren’s forehead. He forced himself to fetch a broom and mop, cleaned the floor, then sat blankly in his chair for a long time.

Once he was certain he remained alive, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Perhaps his recent behavior had broken a rule. It should have been only a warning. Thank goodness.

He reached behind his neck and massaged his cervical spine. He had only been here a few days, yet his neck condition was already about to flare up.

Suddenly, Tang Shouren felt a hand clamp tightly around the one still massaging his neck and shoulder.

The hand was cold, rigid, and immensely strong. Tang Shouren’s seat stood against a wall, meaning there was nothing behind him but that wall.

Therefore, this hand had appeared from nowhere.