Chapter 91

Chapter 91

He didn’t just know Ning Wang.

He had dealt with both versions of Xie Ning.

With Ning Shuo, he at least had the chance to trade a few insults. After all, ever since the man had been injured, he used his mouth whenever he could instead of his hands, and sometimes even used Shu Yan for a bit of verbal sparring practice.

With Ning Wang? Ha. The moment they disagreed, he started swinging. After the beating, he would step on Shu Yan and ask if he yielded.

If Shu Yan had to pick one person in the System he would never casually mock, it would one hundred percent out of ten be Ning Wang.

Being trampled under someone’s foot was just too humiliating.

Since the Accusation phase had already begun, he wouldn’t have many chances left to catch up with old friends and exchange barbs.

Although it looked like a coffin from the outside, it was actually connected to the underground, making it about eight or nine meters deep.

Bored, Shu Yan picked at his nails at the bottom of the pit. Then he suddenly noticed something falling from above-

Shu Yan immediately dodged and realized it was a net with a person wrapped inside.

Just as the net was about to hit the ground, it abruptly stopped, then slowly settled down. Shu Yan took a closer look and only then realized it was actually a corpse.

NPCs couldn’t see the coffin, much less throw anything into it-

Using the hollows in the pit wall, Shu Yan leaped up in a few steps. After dodging several more rounds of corpses, he clung to the coffin wall. Just as he was about to curse, he met a pair of eyes.

The person he had only seen a few minutes ago smiled at him. “We meet again, Shu Yan.”

“…”

Shu Yan’s head, which had just poked out, withdrew halfway. Then he thought about it and decided he couldn’t back down. Just as he was about to ask what he was doing, someone patted him on the shoulder from the side.

He turned and saw a man with the same face as Ning Wang, except with long hair tied back, his eyes curved in a smile. “First time meeting you. Hello. I’ve heard a little about you from my Ningning. You’re the strongest Joker currently in the System?”

Ning Shuo smiled brightly. “In that case, if I defeat you, does that mean I can go straight to the Main God?”

That was one thing, but if he was going to ask, why did he have to say “my Ningning”? For some reason, it sounded like the rightful spouse staking a claim.

Seeing Ning Shuo’s intention, Shu Yan sneered. “With you in that half-dead state, you want to defeat me? You’d have better luck in your dreams.”

Ning Shuo commanded, “Knight, go forth for this King.”

Shu Yan: ?

He saw Ning Wang answer respectfully, “Your subject obeys.”

Shu Yan’s half-exposed head withdrew again. “…Come on. Is that really necessary?”

After thinking it over, he simply climbed out of the pit. Reading the room perfectly, he helped them toss the corpses into his own office. “They’re just NPCs. Why are you even collecting their bodies? They’re not like Lolita. They don’t have their own consciousness. They only act according to the Script’s settings.”

Ning Shuo smiled. “But isn’t more than half of the Zone F Team made up of NPCs?”

“Since we’re all NPCs, none of us needs to look down on anyone else.”

Shu Yan shrugged. “So you’re giving them special treatment because they’re NPCs?”

Ning Shuo gave him a half-smile. “That’s quite the label you’re trying to slap on us. If our captain heard you say that, she’d at least smack you twice and scold you for sowing discord.”

“The rest of our team are normal people. If you really pinned that label on us, Nan-ge and Sister Yao would be unhappy.”

Shu Yan still wanted to ask more, but Ning Wang pressed a hand onto his shoulder. “Less talking, more doing.”

…Were those four words the reason you always attacked first and then asked if I yielded?!

Even if I did talk less, it wasn’t so I could say, “I don’t yield”!

Shu Yan buried the corpses in frustration, thinking that after they returned to Main God Space, he would absolutely have to find a chance with the Main God to win back his dignity.

The Notary Office was filled with corpses from the mass grave. Ning Shuo covered them with soil, closed the coffin lid, and then set the Registry Book alight.

Only when the flames by their feet gradually died down, leaving nothing but black ash scattering in the wind, did they move.

They set up an unmarked wooden plaque in front of the building, bowed twice, and then left.
Shu Yan, who had been quiet this whole time, followed them openly from behind. “You used my office, so you have to take responsibility.”

Ning Shuo said, “The strongest Joker, and yet you have nowhere to go?”

Shu Yan reacted as if he had only just realized something. “How do you know I’m the strongest Joker?”

Then, as if he had only just noticed he had let something slip, he flew into embarrassment-fueled rage, opened a shuttle gate, and left.

Ning Wang said, “He ran fast.”

Ning Shuo said, “He’s in league with the System. It’d be strange if he could actually tell us anything.”

The two exchanged a look. Without saying anything more, they brought Jiang Shu and rushed toward the Tian Family.

Lightness Skill was useful in every Script. For instance, they could fly over the back roads where there were fewer NPCs at night, and with Ning Wang’s speed, it was very hard for anyone to spot them.

Sensing someone approaching, Song Zhu snuffed out the candle and immediately pulled Zhuang Yao onto the bed.

Zhuang Yao’s Script identity was a woman Song Zhu had bought. Alert beside him, she asked, “NPCs? Or people from Zone C?”

Song Zhu frowned. “Neither, I think. That movement’s a little too direct.”

The next moment, the window was opened, and Ning Shuo said, “Z, good to see you again.”

Jiang Shu automatically avoided the awkwardness. After learning that they had come to find Song Zhu, she said she could go look for the other teammates in the Tian Family on her own. If she ran into NPCs, she could even use the female ghost story as cover and pretend to be one.

Ning Shuo kneaded his wrist. Song Zhu understood at once and said, “All right.”

Ning Shuo let out a breath of relief and said, “The Judge this time is Shu Yan too. He should be on our side.”

Song Zhu really did not know 003’s real name. Ning Shuo told him what had just happened, then asked, “Based on what you know about the System now, can the cover Ningning and I gave Shu Yan just now work?”

The thing about him being the strongest Joker had purely been Ning Shuo testing Shu Yan after learning that Shu Yan’s code name was the very highly ranked 003, and that, like Song Zhu, he was different from the other mechanical Clowns in that he had a real name.

And when Ning Shuo mentioned it the first time, Shu Yan had actually gone along with it. The second time, he acted as though he had only just realized.

Song Zhu shook his head. “If it’s like you said, then right now, he’s deliberately exposing that he’s currently the System’s strongest usable force. That’s the same as indirectly telling us the System doesn’t have many useful people left. But whether the System will discover it still depends on whether he can talk his way out of that line.”

“And besides, 003 has been connected to the System for so many years. It isn’t something he can sever just by saying he’s severing it.”

…

Electric current surged through his entire body. Shu Yan could not stop himself from dropping to his knees before the high platform.

The Optical Brain’s voice was clearly suppressing fury. “003! You actually betrayed me?! Have you forgotten how 002 died?!”

002…

003 curled his lips in a bitter smile. “How could I forget? It’s precisely because I haven’t forgotten that I’ve worked for you all these years.”

“I don’t want to end up like 002.”

First, show weakness.

The Optical Brain sneered. “Since you haven’t forgotten, how dare you expose the usable forces in the current space to them?!”

“Now you’re joking. It isn’t as if you don’t know me. By nature, I can’t stand letting someone get the better of me verbally. His words were obviously contemptuous of me. How could I not fire back? It was my nature. Overlooking the fact that his line was a probe was only a momentary mistake.”

Then, declare loyalty.

The current gradually subsided. The Optical Brain said suspiciously, “Only a momentary mistake?”

The Optical Brain sneered. “Since even you can make mistakes, you might as well be formatted like the other Judges!”

Countless tentacles lunged toward Shu Yan, only to stop abruptly in front of him when he spoke his next words. “Formatting means acting according to your program. Surely you haven’t forgotten that more than half my power comes from my brain.”