Chapter 196
Chapter 196
Cheng Miao remembered the fresh-faced, innocent-looking young man on the screen. He was Yang Ke from the apartment instance. She later heard that he had formed a team with Freckles.
Judging by how he looked now, he was doing fairly well. At the very least, he had found a job.
She simply did not know how Freckles was doing…
But that young woman had a resilient streak. Cheng Miao personally believed she would be fine.
After the movie, the group went out for Japanese food.
In the real world, Cheng Miao and her companions were ordinary people and had never eaten authentic high-end Japanese cuisine.
Fortunately, they had Qi Jiajia with them, so they had nothing to fear.
The group followed her inside with borrowed confidence while Qi Jiajia walked in front, rolling her eyes.
Sakizuke, hassun, soup, sake accompaniments…
One exquisite dish after another arrived with the chef’s explanations.
Cheng Miao rarely ate Japanese food and did not know much about the culture there.
She had heard that before the country was incorporated into Huaxia, it had also been a powerful nation.
Now that its people had become part of the Huaxia nation, their food still retained names from a century ago.
After enjoying an extraordinarily attentive dining experience, Cheng Miao left while stroking the cat’s head, then turned into an all-night amusement park.
After everyone played wildly for a while, Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia walked toward the exit, each holding cotton candy. A man suddenly appeared from an unknown corner.
He was running rapidly and clearly did not notice Cheng Miao either.
Her training inside instances had greatly improved Cheng Miao’s reflexes. With a twist of her waist, she forcibly pulled back the step she had already taken, though her body inevitably swung backward.
The man brushed past her. Shaken by the close call, Cheng Miao patted Qiudong on the head to make sure the cat was all right, then looked curiously after the runner.
Before he got far, something seemed to strike him. His entire body went flying, then crashed heavily onto the road.
Cheng Miao’s eyes widened slightly when she saw the small robot emerge from the darkness.
The little robot was boxy, but judging by how it sent an adult man flying with a single blow, it was nowhere near as cute and harmless as it looked.
“Why did you stop running?” Another man strolled leisurely in the runner’s direction, walking toward them at an unhurried pace.
Under the streetlight, Cheng Miao made out a tall man with ordinary features. Yet he had an exceptionally deep and beautiful pair of eyes.
Whether it was Cheng Miao’s imagination or not, she could almost see countless interwoven threads within them.
Those eyes alone enhanced the man’s appearance enormously, making him seem no less striking than anyone else.
“Please, let me go. I was out of my mind for a moment.” The man who had fallen clutched his chest, unable to stand. He could only curl up on the ground and beg for mercy.
“Let you go? When you did those things to those two female players, why didn’t you think about letting them go?”
Hearing this, Qin Musong shifted slightly to shield Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia behind him.
He was especially protective of Qi Jiajia. He did not want her to hear any of it.
Unfortunately, Qi Jiajia had long since become numb to such things. She stepped back cooperatively only to spare Qin Musong’s feelings.
The man on the ground grunted twice and seemed to mutter something. The other man lowered his eyes and bent closer to listen.
In an instant, the supposedly gravely injured man sprang to his feet, a short, flaming spike appearing in his hand.
He seized the other man’s collar with one hand and drove the flaming spike toward his temple with the other.
Cheng Miao’s heart tightened, but the man seemed unaware of the danger and continued smiling at his attacker.
Clang!
It was the sound of a blade striking metal. When the dagger was only a few centimeters from the man’s temple, Cheng Miao saw a massive metal shield appear beside his head.
The dagger went flying when it struck the shield, demonstrating just how hard the shield was.
His attack failed, and the attacker instantly dropped to his knees. “I was wrong! I won’t dare do it again! Don’t kill me!”
The man looked down and watched him beg for a while, then extended his left hand, grasped the man’s collar, and effortlessly lifted him from the ground.
Watching him drag away someone about the same height as himself, Cheng Miao frowned. “Where is he taking that man?”
Qiudong licked Cheng Miao’s cotton candy, glanced at the receding figures, and said mildly, “He’s also a cleared player. His name is Zu Gehan.”
Qiudong found the cotton candy too sweet and wanted some water.
After drinking a couple of sips from Cheng Miao’s hand, he continued, “Zu Gehan is a very unusual veteran player. He has an almost obsessive fixation on crime, so after clearing the Game, he took on a role similar to a vigilante.”
Cheng Miao screwed the cap onto the bottle and led the others back. “But I remember Brother Qin saying that players could work at the police station. He’s a cleared player and powerful too, so that shouldn’t be a problem for him.”
Qiudong’s tail swayed back and forth, making Qi Jiajia itch to touch it. She did not dare grab it, so she tugged at Lin Zhu instead and made him lower his little topknot for her to pet.
“It wouldn’t be a problem, but Zu Gehan refuses. Even at the police station, he’d have to follow regulations. People who commit crimes in Survival Inn are punished by being sent into instances, but he doesn’t think that’s enough.”
“So…” Cheng Miao remembered Zu Gehan dragging the male player like a dead dog. “He just took that man away to kill him?”
Qiudong licked his nose and yawned. “Not to kill him. He’ll imprison him, then when it’s time for the criminal player to enter an instance, Zu Gehan will enter it too.”
“Only after entering the instance will he act.”
Cheng Miao sorted through that train of thought, and the corner of her mouth twitched. To carry out his own justice, this man had to laboriously follow the criminal through an entire instance. What was the point?
Qiudong knew what she was thinking and answered before she could ask. “Because violence isn’t allowed in Survival Inn. Otherwise, it counts as a crime.”
Zu Gehan had a peculiar sense of good and evil. He lived by his own philosophy and did these things for no reason beyond his own desire to do them.
He believed Survival Inn’s rule against violence outside instances was reasonable. Although his ability was powerful enough to let him escape unscathed even if he broke the rule, he continued to obey it.
As for those he considered criminals, he had his own standards for judging and dealing with them.
“Survival Inn is actually very tolerant of cleared players. What Zu Gehan does can be extreme at times, but it also maintains a kind of order, so the Game leaves him to it.”
Cheng Miao nodded. As expected, cleared players were all formidable figures with fascinating personalities and tempers.
The group selected gifts and returned to Starry City at the appointed time.
Li Cheng’s group of four and the couple Bai Jiang and Tong Qian were already waiting at the barbecue restaurant. The owner was an otter. Since Li Cheng’s group wanted to cook the food themselves, it bowed, then waddled away with its round waist swaying.