Chapter 146

Chapter 146

Ning Wang’s expression darkened so visibly anyone could see it. He shook out his hand, and the girl who had been trying to strike up a conversation with Ning Shuo thought he was about to hit her, so she immediately moved farther away from them.

After shaking out his hand, Ning Wang put it behind his back, as if the gesture had only been an unconscious move. “If your district treats ordinary people as less than human, then we’d be better off leaving outright!”

Right now, they posed a threat to Zheng Chigao, so naturally he wanted them gone. But Ding Pan’s Murderer still hadn’t been found, and Team F had not been fully cleared of suspicion either.

It was a dilemma either way.

Just then, the subordinates sent to search Team F’s rooms and the rest of the base for a murder weapon returned.

Originally, if Team F had been locked up, it wouldn’t have mattered whether a murder weapon was found or not. Zheng Chigao would have forcibly pinned the crime on Team F, the group capable of killing Ding Pan in a single blow, then let the rest of the base-those who knew nothing-believe Team F was merely being detained, while sending Team F off for zombie experiments.

But now, Zheng Chigao himself was caught in a storm of suspicion. This also wasn’t the time to just go for broke and seize all the ordinary people for experiments.

After all, quite a few ordinary people were relatives of espers. They could die in accidents, or be killed by zombies while leaving the base, but they could not die because the base had driven them out or seized them for experiments.

Zheng Chigao knew very well what to do in what kind of situation. Now that the people searching for the murder weapon had returned and confirmed Team F was not implicated, he immediately shed his earlier cold, harsh demeanor and turned to Ning Wang with a beaming smile and an apology.

At that point, if Team F still insisted on leaving, it would instead make them seem a bit unwilling to let things go despite being in the right.

A normal person probably would have taken the out.

But no one in Team F was normal.

If they were already in the right, why should they let anyone off?

Ning Wang said, “So after we were nearly dragged away, nearly tortured, denied even a chance to defend ourselves, and after all the contributions we’ve made to the base over the years were completely ignored by Captain Zheng, all it takes to settle everything is one apology?”

Ning Shuo looked shocked. “My god, Team F has done so much for the base, and we can’t even get a proper apology? Since when does anyone apologize with a big grin like they’re joking around? Captain Zheng, you didn’t look like this when you were trying to arrest us just now. You really scared me back then.”

Qin Genan asked in confusion, “Captain Zheng, if you’re apologizing, why are you only apologizing to our Captain? Were you only planning to arrest our Captain?”

Song Zhu said, “That doesn’t seem right. I remember you said, ‘Take all of Team F away.'”

Rao Lin immediately chimed in, “That’s right. That’s exactly what happened. He was targeting us.”

With them tossing lines back and forth, they directly stirred up the emotions of the people around them. In the end, Ning Wang delivered the final word: “We want a vehicle with a full tank of gas, five guns, five knives, five swords, and enough food and water to last us a week. After that, we will never return to the base.”

The base’s industry had already gotten back on track, so these supplies were hardly anything to the base.

But Zheng Chigao still felt something was off.

It felt like he’d been played.

However, the crowd’s emotions had already been stirred up. Although quite a few people said they were all from the same base and there was no need to hurt their relationship over a small misunderstanding, perhaps because the earlier confrontation had carried an undercurrent of opposition between ordinary people and espers, even more people became indignant and, for no clear reason, began supporting Team F’s departure from the base.

On the city wall, Fei Jinnian watched the situation through binoculars and clicked his tongue in amazement. “If they leave the base, how are they supposed to find the drug manufacturing plant?”

Rong Xi sat beside him in the wind. A tender sprout swayed in his palm with the breeze, making him look calm and at ease. “King will definitely have a way.”

Seeing how thoroughly Rong Xi had already been influenced, Fei Jinnian said in puzzlement, “So many players entered the System, and even the best of friends drifted apart. How is it that after two years, you’re still as constant as ever in…”

He paused, searching for the right words.

“…serving your King?”

Rong Xi shook his head. “Uncle Fei, you know it too. In a life-and-death game, a person has to hold on to something to have any chance of surviving.”

He looked at the tender sprout in his palm, young yet unbroken by the wind, and smiled. “A person has to love something, just as plants and trees are devoted to the passing of time.”

When he had first entered the System, he constantly thought of Ning Shuo outside the System, wondering if something might have happened to him.

Later, he began to dread seeing other people’s tears and the fear on their faces.

Rong Xi was deeply compassionate. He empathized easily with the suffering of others and always wanted to do his best to help the people in the same Script survive. When someone died, he would remember that person’s name too.

There was a Rest Area called Smiling in the Netherworld, where there were tombstones belonging to all kinds of people.

There were no buried bodies there, but even tombstones could leave the living with something to hold on to.

Rong Xi was the one who came here most often to erect memorial steles. Every time he came, there would be one more fresh bouquet laid before the stele of Smiling in the Netherworld.

Someone as soft-hearted and indecisive as Rong Xi should have had a hard time surviving in the System.

Even so, in one Script, he chose to stay behind alone so the others could escape, and the doctor captured him and dragged him back for human experimentation.

Although those who got away did eventually find the Notary Office, Rong Xi’s body had already been altered so extensively that even the System couldn’t restore it.

It was suffering, but also opportunity. It became the very capital that let him be loved later on.

Rong Xi had always been someone who knew how to love people. Whether he was strong or weak, he always did everything he could to protect others.

That was exactly what Fei Jinnian had always worried about: Kid, protecting people isn’t a bad thing, but in a Script, don’t go saving some other team and end up dragging your own team down with you.

Fortunately, Fei Jinnian’s worry never became reality. Rong Xi still knew where the line was. He might sacrifice himself to protect others, but he would never sacrifice his own teammates or his team’s interests to do it.

That was before Rong Xi went completely off the rails.

Fei Jinnian looked deeply troubled. “Rex, sure, you can give them a little leeway, but you’re not planning to give them two hundred steps, are you?”

Rong Xi smiled. “Uncle Fei, how could I?”

Thinking of the teammate who had died in the preliminaries, Rong Xi clenched his fists. “I won’t let another person on our team die.”

Besides, he really wanted to see whether, inside the System, he could beat Brother Ning even once.

He’d gotten absolutely crushed in all those modern games. At the very least, he had to win once in terms of Script progress.

The teammate sent to find the manufacturing plant returned. Team A, outwardly on a base mission, secretly headed for the plant in full force. But when they reached the entrance, they found several guards already knocked unconscious – and Ning Shuo’s group, who had beaten them there.

When Ning Shuo turned and saw Rong Xi, he was taken aback for a moment, then raised a hand. “Kid, you’re late. This King has already taken the first step!”

Rong Xi couldn’t help laughing.

As expected of him.

—

Team A originally had no way of making it through the doors, which were already closing at a steady pace.

Then a fresh, green scent swept through the air. Rong Xi stepped on suddenly sprouting vines, used them for leverage, and shot into the manufacturing plant. Team F could only watch as several vines as thick as arms wrapped around those few people and carried them right in after him.

Ning Shuo said, “Now that’s flashy.”

Diplomatic Ambassador Qin Genan acted as if the long-distance standoff between the two teams just now had never happened, swaggering over to strike up a friendly conversation like they were old buddies. Across from her, Fei Jinnian, who was likewise serving as diplomatic ambassador, cheerfully blocked her while speaking as though the two teams were one big family.

Rong Xi looked at them as if they were idiots, watching their conversation full of probing and testy undercurrents. Then he turned to Ning Shuo and said, “King, adults are so complicated.”

Ning Shuo replied with fatherly kindness, “It’s fine. You just stay innocent.”

“Then how did you find this place? Was it because of Bao Yi or Ding Pan?”

Rong Xi knew Bao Yi and Ding Pan had definitely been killed by Player. If it wasn’t Zone A, then it had to be Zone F.

After glancing at his teammates and confirming they didn’t mind, Ning Shuo pulled an empty glass bottle from his Backpack. “Because of the label’s production site.”

Thank goodness the manufacturing plant had kept its old habits and still used labels.

And at the same time, many thanks to the late Teacher Bao Yi. After drugging them, he hadn’t thrown away the bottle used to hold the stuff, so when they searched him, they found it just like that.

Once they knew the exact location, they scammed the base out of enough supplies, then came to the manufacturing plant under heavy guard in the inner city. Taking advantage of the fact that they could fly, they successfully circled around to the main entrance, figured out the guards’ shift changes, and infiltrated the plant.

Oh, and the factory gate password was the production serial number.

Which was also on the label of that glass bottle.

Thanks again to the System. The Backpack could hold anything, including a massive vehicle.

After hearing all that, Rong Xi’s eyes lit up. “King, you’re so smart.”

Fei Jinnian smacked him on the head with a loud slap. “There you go, siding with outsiders again!”

Rong Xi nimbly dodged and asked Ning Shuo, “Then if you came to the manufacturing plant too, does that mean you’ve already found a way to search for the Notary Office?”

Ning Shuo’s gaze swept, almost imperceptibly, over Fei Jinnian behind Rong Xi, still smiling flawlessly, and another Player whose expression was slightly cold.

That Player was called Gu Meng, codename He Kuang.

The man currently talking to him was called Qu Xiang’an, codename Wushi.

The last one, the most bashful-looking of the group yet the bloodiest killer on the livestream, was called Tong Le, codename Li Li.

Ning Shuo leaned toward Rong Xi’s ear, just about to speak, when someone grabbed him by the back of the neck and hauled him back. He turned to see Ning Wang, who had already withdrawn his hand and was now talking to Rao Lin as if nothing had happened. “Captain, why are you interrupting my brother’s conversation?”

Rao Lin: ?

Ning Shuo let out an amused laugh and didn’t lean in any closer. “Xiao Rongzi, mind introducing everyone on your team?”

Rong Xi said, “Not yet, Brother Ning. We’re still inside the manufacturing plant, and the guards at the entrance switch shifts every half hour. Right now we only have…”

He checked his watch and smiled. “Twenty-seven minutes and thirty-seven seconds.”

“There’ll still be time to make friends after we get out.”

Ning Shuo shrugged. Zone F immediately split into two lines, and Ning Shuo, standing at the head of the group, made a welcoming gesture. “Then you go first.”

Rong Xi looked at Ning Shuo suspiciously.

Something was off. He was just giving up the advantage of taking the lead like that? Very off.

This wasn’t like Ning Shuo at all.

He probed, “Maybe your side should go first instead…”

Ning Shuo shook his head. “No. You first.”

“We’ve finally met again after so long. I never gave way to you before, so I can at least let you have this much.”

His brows and eyes were open and easy, as if he were genuinely moved by the weight of their old friendship.

As mentioned before, Rong Xi really was an indecisive man.

And now it showed. Even though he was wary of Ning Shuo, he was still softened by that expression.

It had been almost two years since they last met. Sure, Ning Shuo was usually an emotionless creature, but right now he looked sincerely heartfelt.

So Rong Xi completely forgot that Ning Shuo was a great actor. Deeply touched, he called his teammates over and started walking in front. After taking a few steps, he added, “Hey, Brother Ning, we can go together-”

He turned around.

The man had already vanished.

Rong Xi: not hehe.

Fei Jinnian put a hand on his shoulder and said solemnly, “Some people, once you miss them, you miss them forever.”

Rong Xi: …

He gritted his teeth. “Brother Ning is truly full of tricks.”

The very tricksy Ning Shuo was currently circling through another hidden passage toward the center of the manufacturing plant. As he walked, he praised Ning Wang, saying, “Ningning really is thorough. Even after going off to take someone out, you still remembered to search his office.”

Ning Wang lowered his eyes and sighed. “But no matter how thorough this subject is, the King still refuses to yield to this subject.”

Ning Shuo: ?

Ning Shuo said, “That was tactics!”

Qin Genan, who loved stirring things up and was never afraid of trouble, poked her head out from the side. “What tactics?”

Their first objective in coming here was to find the potion in the manufacturing plant.

Their second was to try their luck and see whether they could run into Zone A.

“And if we do run into them…?”

Rao Lin gave Qin Genan a light smack. “Find the Murderer!”

It still wasn’t the final moment. They were still in the game phase.

Qin Genan was bewildered. “You mean… just from those few lines Banxian traded back and forth with Rex, you already found the Murderer?”

Ning Shuo said smugly, “Being too smart is a sin in itself.”

He knew Rong Xi too well. Whenever they played offline werewolf-style games where they had to identify the Murderer, if there was any kind of team action, the people Rong Xi called on first would definitely be his own teammates.

It was an extremely subtle habit of Rong Xi’s, one even he himself didn’t know he had. And as far as Ning Shuo knew, since Rong Xi played mostly PvE in Zone A, very few people knew about it.

Originally, Ning Shuo hadn’t been sure whether that habit had changed. But by sheer coincidence, in Rong Xi’s previous match against Zone B, he hadn’t drawn the Murderer role. After observing for a round, Ning Shuo found that every time, the people Rong Xi subconsciously called first were always the Murderers.

That confirmed his guess, which left only two possibilities:

Either Rong Xi and Gu Meng were the Murderers;

Or Gu Meng and Tong Le were the Murderers.

Ning Shuo had already ruled out the first possibility. Since his natural suppressive effect on Rong Xi was obviously still there, with Rong Xi’s personality, if he really were one of the Murderers, he would never have talked with Ning Shuo for that many rounds. He definitely wouldn’t have tried to invite Ning Shuo to go with them at the end.

The tricksy Ning Shuo lightly pushed up his glasses and hmphed. “This King is so wise that even this King scares himself!”

Standing beside him, Ning Wang curled his lips into a smile. But when his gaze swept past a certain spot, it suddenly paused.

He said, “King, it seems little brother has grown a few more schemes too.”

Ning Shuo: ?

Ning Wang plucked a grass seed from Ning Shuo’s hair. The seed was still glowing green.

He said leisurely, “If you want life to go smoothly…”

Ning Shuo: …

He shot Ning Wang a fierce glare, then stuffed the grass seed into his pocket. “If they played me, I’ll play them right back.”

This hidden passage was one-way. And judging by what happened at the entrance just now, Team A was no slower than they were, and probably faster.

Right now, they were likely just keeping some distance and following behind them to look for the potion.

If they just ran, they definitely wouldn’t be able to outrun them.

Unless-

“Ningning, take us all flying!”

Unless they used Lightness Skill to speed up.