Chapter 52
Chapter 52
At the name “Zhao Xiuming,” every player’s expression grew extraordinarily complicated.
From what they had overheard, they suspected Zhao Xiuming was their mission target.
As Grotesque Game’s advance team for a new instance, their squad’s mission was to find the instance boss.
They would convey the great Grotesque Will to the boss, opening up the instance and turning it into a distinctive world their game operator could keep accessing, a signature attraction for Grotesque Game.
Competition between game operators was fierce these days. Every game had instances that only its own players could enter.
The advantages were obvious. Take the most basic benefit.
An instance accessed by several game operators would steadily lose fortune. The rewards players received would naturally dwindle, until there was too little to go around or the instance ceased to exist.
An instance accessed by only one operator was that operator’s private property.
It could plunder however it pleased, without sharing anything with other operators’ players.
Generally, the instance boss was the strongest anomaly in its world. Find the most powerful anomaly in all of Zimu City, and they would find their target.
Grotesque Game had assigned the players the roles of mainlanders at the start, with secret identities as masters working for Huang Jinsheng. The clue was that Huang Jinsheng had a connection to their mission target.
Following that lead would surely take them to Zimu City’s boss. They had already uncovered quite a bit of “hidden truth.”
In the tea room, the heads of Zimu City’s two gangs began with Liu Wenhe’s death, demanding an explanation from Huang Jinsheng.
Their surveillance items recorded everything that happened inside.
The players were crowded into a small massage parlor near the tea room. They had drawn the curtains and gathered in the sitting room, with several masseuses bound hand and foot and knocked unconscious.
The Grotesque Game players hadn’t knocked out the masseuses because they feared the NPCs would overhear. They wanted to avoid trouble.
Before them, the sound and images transmitted by the surveillance item played in midair, much like a screen.
The tension in the tea room was plain. Since Dahu had been carried away, the three principal men had been edging toward open confrontation, none willing to give ground.
The players now knew that the two gangs and Huang Jinsheng were engaged in a monstrous trade. It was coming back to bite them, and Zhao Xiuming, a malevolent anomaly, had begun killing in earnest.
Just as the conversation reached a juicy part, the squad member they had sent out interrupted with news: he had encountered Zhao Xiuming.
“What do we do, Captain? Do we go over now? If we don’t, Five can’t take on the boss alone. He might die there.”
Six players had entered through Grotesque Game. They called one another by numbers; as it happened, all the odd-numbered players were men, and all the even-numbered ones were women.
Their captain was Number One. Calm and composed, he said, “Tell Five not to make any rash moves. Ideally, he should hide and avoid alerting him. If he’s discovered, he can try approaching Zhao Xiuming.”
“Even if he is an anomaly boss, he doesn’t know Grotesque Game exists. We met him on our first day in the instance.”
That was why their expressions had grown so complicated at Zhao Xiuming’s name. They had gone to such lengths to find the target boss.
Who could have imagined they had met him on their very first day in the instance, even interacting with him at close quarters?
Later, wanted posters for Zhao Xiuming had covered Zimu City. Even with something so obvious staring them in the face, the players hadn’t suspected a thing. They had truly thought he was just a murderer.
Even though this was an unexplored instance they were opening up for the first time, their faces still burned.
“We have legitimate identities here, and so far we haven’t intervened in the struggles between NPCs.”
Number Two interrupted the captain. “Wait, Captain. Are you sure we haven’t intervened in the struggles between NPCs?”
Just then, another conflict erupted in the tea room. The Tianding Society’s Incense Master’s furious voice came through the item’s feed. “Huang Jinsheng! Are you sure Zhao Xiuming didn’t kill Liu Wenhe because you were trying to find masters to deal with him?”
“Don’t think you’ve covered your tracks perfectly. I’ve investigated those mainlanders thoroughly.”
“They aren’t pigs meant for the human trade. They’re masters you brought in from elsewhere.”
“What exactly are you trying to do? You’ve already cost me so many brothers. You owe us an explanation, at the very least.”
“We’ve had two cups of tea and wasted all this time on you, and you haven’t said one truthful word. Are you determined to force an open break?”
Huang Jinsheng coughed into his handkerchief. In a sickly voice, he said, “It’s not that I’m lying. You simply won’t believe me.”
“I’ve told you. I want to meet Zhao Xiuming.”
“He’s so good-looking, and I like men. What’s wrong with wanting to meet him?”
“Don’t blame me for your gang members’ deaths. If you insist on pinning it on me, then explain why Zhao Xiuming helped one of your Tianding Society men kill the Longhu Society’s Red Bandanna.”
Those words smacked of an attempt to drive a wedge between them. Huang Jinsheng made no effort to hide his malice. “Surely the malevolent anomaly Zhao Xiuming doesn’t just prefer the Tianding Society over the Longhu Society?”
The Tianding Society’s Incense Master laughed in fury. Fortunately, his Longhu Society counterpart wasn’t taken in. He said bluntly, “Huang Jinsheng, we all know how you made your fortune. They say there’s something sinister behind you, keeping you rich and prosperous while you commit every kind of evil.”
“Give us a straight answer. Is Zhao Xiuming that thing protecting you?”
“Has Zhao Xiuming gone after the gangs because you and that thing have fallen out?”
The Tianding and Longhu Societies’ Incense Masters suspected this because Liu Wenhe had been secretly finding masters for Huang Jinsheng.
The two gangs had come to demand answers because they feared a dispute between Huang Jinsheng and the anomaly behind him might spill over onto them, bringing attacks that wiped out both gangs before they even understood what was happening.
Huang Jinsheng clapped as he coughed. “Ha! So that’s why you’re both in such a hurry. You’re afraid of an anomaly.”
“None of us is a good man. We’re all in this together. If one day we all get what we deserve, wouldn’t that be perfectly natural?”
“You!” The Longhu Society’s Incense Master slapped the table and stood. His men closed in from all sides. If persuasion wouldn’t work, they would use force.
Just then, footsteps sounded.
Tap, tap, tap.
They sounded like a child’s footsteps, rather than an adult’s. But who would bring a child here at a time like this?
Sure enough, a tiny figure came up from downstairs. Strangely, no adult accompanied the child.
The players in the massage parlor hadn’t yet processed everything they had heard when the newly arrived child drew all their attention.
It was a very pretty little girl, short and dressed in a loose white dress.
The child’s features were delicate and adorable, with no adornments in the loose hair.
Clutching a strange-looking fruit plush toy, the little girl went around the confronting adults and came to Huang Jinsheng.
Huang Jinsheng’s arrogant expression immediately softened. Respectful and obedient, he asked, “What brings you here?”
The little girl didn’t answer, but bent to search the floor. Suddenly, the child reached beneath a seat and pulled out a bead.
The girl dropped the beloved plush toy, clasped the bead, and smiled sweetly. “Gege.”