Chapter 61

Chapter 61

The video ended. Zhao Yang’s manner of death had been even more horrific, leaving everyone even more terrified.

What they had not expected was that the system would actively deduct fans.

But very soon, Xiaoshuai sensed something was wrong, because he discovered that his own fan count had also gone down.

When this task began, he had asked the staff in his organization to look into it and learned that each fan could follow several celebrities at once.

On his side, the change was Fiend: his fan count had dropped by more than a hundred thousand, and he immediately thought of Zhao Yang.

A bad premonition rose in his heart. He picked up his phone, about to call the staff in his organization.

But the moment he picked it up, his hand stopped.

Then he dialed another number instead.

“Hello? I need a favor.”

Soon, he received a reply. And even someone like him felt a chill of terror at the information it contained.

“This is bad!”

…

At that moment, Lei Long was looking at a photo of his daughter.

Because of his divorce from his wife, he had not seen his daughter in a very long time. His daughter was also one of his fans.

But after that incident had been broadcast live, he felt he no longer had the face to meet her.

Just then, he suddenly received a call from his agent.

“This is bad, Lei Long! Ah Hao is dead!”

“What?”

Lei Long shot to his feet in shock. Ah Hao was also a celebrity, and the two of them had always been on very good terms. Although some of Ah Hao’s views were hard for Lei Long to accept, that did not stop them from being friends.

He immediately put on his clothes, asked the director for leave, and rushed to the hospital.

Xiaoshuai happened to see him leave. A moment later, Xiaoshuai headed toward the restroom.

When Lei Long arrived at the hospital, he saw many doctors hurrying back and forth.

Lei Long found his agent, but the agent pulled him aside.

“Brother Long, do you know how strange this is? Just this morning, a large number of people suddenly died, and all of them died from cardiac paralysis. You have to be careful too, especially with that show you’re on. It’s the most torturous one of all. You absolutely can’t overwork yourself.”

Lei Long nodded, then went to the morgue. He wanted to see his old friend one last time.

After arriving at the morgue, he saw his friend lying on the cold mortuary table. Lei Long’s expression was filled with grief. Pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers, he glanced absently to the side, only to discover that several other people were lying there as well.

He knew those people too. They were also Ah Hao’s friends, and they had all shared the same dream as them: going to Meilijia.

But now, they were all lying here.

If he had not experienced everything happening now, he would not have thought too much of it. But just like Xiaoshuai, he thought of Zhao Yang.

His face instantly turned deathly pale. He grabbed the agent beside him at once.

“Old Bai, help me find the full list of everyone who died today. Hurry!”

The agent had no idea what was going on, but immediately found the list and gave it to him.

Lei Long glanced over it. Sure enough, everyone similar to Ah Hao was dead. And all of them shared one trait: they were Zhao Yang’s fans. They worshiped Wang Yang in particular and believed everything Zhao Yang said was right.

Now, every single one of them was dead. To verify his guess, he immediately checked the rest of the deceased. In the end, he confirmed that they had all been Zhao Yang’s fans.

And all of these fans had died at the exact same time-the moment Zhao Yang’s fan value hit zero.

The phone slipped from his hand and fell to the floor, its screen shattering instantly.

He had confirmed it. The number of fans eliminated during the task was not merely a numerical decrease.

They were truly dying!
As if something had suddenly occurred to him, he immediately picked up the phone from the floor.

Ignoring the cracks across the screen, he dialed a number.

“Hello? Sweetheart, unfollow me right now. Hurry!” Lei Long shouted.

“Dad, what are you talking about? Why would I unfollow you? I heard about what happened. It was a little… ugh, but you still held yourself back. You’re still my good dad. I’m not unfollowing you!”

“No, you-”

“Okay, that’s enough. Dad, I’ll help talk Mom around. When you get back, you better seize your chance, okay? I’m hanging up!”

With that, the line went dead.

Lei Long leaned blankly against the wall.

At the same time, the official departments of Xia Kingdom also received the news. More than two hundred thousand people had died all at once. This was not something that could simply be covered up.

After an investigation, they successfully zeroed in on the variety show Liu Ye and the others were on.

“This Fiend is far too dangerous. More than two hundred thousand people died just like that. If anything else goes wrong, the consequences will be unimaginable!”

Frog Mask said in terror.

After all, if all these celebrities’ fans were added together, there were at least two to three hundred million of them, and most were young people. If anything happened to them, the consequences would be beyond disastrous.

“But if we intervene and end up angering the Fiend, what then? If it launches a large-scale invasion, that isn’t something we can withstand either.”

Swan Mask spoke up.

Everyone present fell silent. It was not as if no one had ever interfered with a mission from the outside before, but those had all been very small-scale interventions.

Even so, the consequences back then had been extremely severe, let alone this time, when they would be touching the core of the matter.

Just as everyone was nursing a headache over it, a voice rang out.

“It’s fine. Send someone to do it.”

“But what if-”

“There is no what if!” that person said firmly.

“With that man there, there is no need to worry about these things,” the person said with a smile.

Only on closer look did they realize that this person was John! Because the incident last time had caused such a huge stir, he had directly joined the official organization. After all, he had quite a few friends here, and compared to others, he was subject to far fewer restrictions.

“You mean that high-level player who saved you twice before? He’s there too?”

“That’s right. And I can confirm that the deaths of those two hundred thousand people this time were precisely the signal he sent out to us!”

John spoke with great fervor.

As expected of Mr. Liu Ye! What an enormous move. Not only had he used the Fiend’s ability to pass them a message, he had also borrowed the Fiend’s hand to help the nation clear out those annoying parasites. It was simply killing two birds with one stone!

He had deliberately looked into it. Of the two hundred thousand people who died this time, nearly eighty percent had connections overseas. As for the remaining twenty percent, they were all foreign-worshiping bootlickers. Every last one of them had posted inappropriate remarks on public platforms. No matter how many people like that died, they would not feel the slightest heartache.

As for why he was certain this was Liu Ye’s doing, wasn’t that obvious? Those two people had both been sent in by Liu Ye.

“So that’s how it is!”

After hearing John’s meticulous analysis, everyone suddenly understood. None of them had expected that man to be so formidable. It truly filled them with admiration.

And so, they immediately began to act.

Meanwhile, the celebrities inside the villa suddenly saw their follower counts begin dropping at an astonishing speed.

“What is going on? What happened?!”

Someone cried out in panic.

Xiaoshuai, however, looked as if he had expected this all along. Sure enough, he had known the nation would take action!