Sensing the air of satisfaction around Yin Chen, Lan Yu Heng’s expression instead grew slightly more serious.
Like Zhang Ming Shen, she had initially been ostracized by able-bodied people in the Infinite Game because of her physical disability. If they wanted to survive, the two of them had no choice but to stick together and risk their lives side by side.
That was how things remained until they met Yin Chen.
Lan Yu Heng had worked under Yin Chen for a very long time and had never once considered quitting.
She and Zhang Ming Shen followed their boss into instances to earn points, climbing step by step from complete rookies to the top. Yin Chen had never particularly looked after his subordinates, but from then on, no other player ever dared ostracize them again.
After all, no one dared target Yin Chen. It was always Yin Chen who inexplicably drew his blade and started cutting people down.
Then one day, Zhang Ming Shen secretly told her that Yin Chen’s complexion seemed to be getting worse and worse.
It was not the visibly haggard look of illness, nor the weakness that came from injury. It was simply… that he barely looked like a living person anymore.
Cold and gloomy, deathly still, he looked like the eerie protagonist of a horror movie whenever he curved his lips into a smile. His beautiful phoenix eyes seemed capable of holding nothing but dark, twisted murderous intent.
He also liked to disappear on his own for a while during instances. Whenever he returned, he would be languid and relaxed, his entire body wrapped in the lingering smell of blood, like a lone wolf returning satisfied from a hunt.
Yet within a few days, that blood-soaked vitality would gradually drain away from him again, and layer upon layer of gloom would settle once more over his handsome, cold-pale face.
That condition was obviously extremely unhealthy.
Only much later did they learn that Yin Chen’s condition fluctuated so wildly because he had been using that knife without the slightest restraint!
A permanent item with an extraordinarily steep activation cost!
It was as though he had never taken his own life seriously.
Lan Yu Heng understood that every player had a story behind them. Any one of those stories could fill an extraordinary novel—or turn out to be a tragedy painful from beginning to end.
Many players with similar experiences talked to and comforted one another, even holding a regular peer-support meeting once every month.
But no one knew Yin Chen’s story, and no one had ever been able to stop him from doing whatever he wanted.
“Is your body going to be okay if you keep this up?” Lan Yu Heng asked out of basic courtesy.
“Mm. I’ll take care of myself,” Yin Chen replied carelessly. Then his tone abruptly cooled. “If you’d drunk one less mouthful of fish soup today and let me have it instead, I would definitely be healthier than I am now.”
Lan Yu Heng: …
There’s an entire ocean out there. You couldn’t finish drinking it in this lifetime. If you want fish soup, just ask Song Zang to make you more!
Why are you still holding a grudge over something this stupid?
Lan Yu Heng did not understand and had no desire to understand, but she needed Yin Chen to stay alive.
Her mother’s ashes were now kept in a small urn on the bedside table in her bedroom.
Before Lan Yu Heng herself slipped up and died, she had to save enough points to bring her mother back.
For that, she could become blind. She could work for a temperamental lunatic of a boss. She could kill as many people as necessary.
She decided she would go talk to Song Zang, even if she had to do it in the middle of the night.
＊
Of course Song Zang was not asleep.
He was still tinkering with his iron wok, trying to figure out whether it could make a nutritionally balanced meal for a dog.
Once he revived Xiao Bai, he wanted Xiao Bai to be able to eat well with him too.
Because he needed ingredients for his experiments, Song Zang had hauled back an enormous pile of food, filling the little refrigerator in his suite to capacity.
This had become Song Zang’s favorite form of entertainment lately. He was completely obsessed with experimenting and, while he was at it, even tossed one of his gold bars into the wok to stew.
—The result was a neat row of gold-foil dark chocolates. They were delicate and beautiful, and the gold had suffered a catastrophic loss in value, but the chocolate itself was rich and fragrant.
Satisfied, Song Zang broke off a small piece and ate it with hot milk as a midnight snack. It was wonderfully comforting.
“If you misbehave, I’ll eat you too.” Happily playing with the little Director’s Seal, he threatened it in a soft voice.
The seal instantly sprang into the air and tremblingly hid inside Song Zang’s pillowcase. Clearly, it understood perfectly well how formidable the iron wok was.
Song Zang was having such fun that he was rummaging around, trying to drag it back out and threaten it some more, when the doorbell suddenly rang.
“Who is it?” He immediately tossed the raised pillow back into place.
“Lan Yu Heng.”
Song Zang got up and opened the door, looking somewhat surprised.
“Sister Lan, is something wrong? Come in and sit down.” He shook the chocolate in his hand. “Want some? I just made it.”
“No, thank you.” Lan Yu Heng was not carrying her white cane, yet she still walked steadily inside, felt around for a chair, and slowly sat down.
The moment she settled into her seat, she went straight to the point with a worried expression. “Could you help me persuade Yin Chen… to take better care of himself?”
“Hm? What’s wrong with him?”
Song Zang blinked, looking completely bewildered.
Although a faint trace of blood clung to Lan Yu Heng and was slowly spreading through the living room, Song Zang behaved as though he could not smell it at all and tried to play dumb.
He suspected Yin Chen had been in a bad mood and had probably sneaked out in the middle of the night to hack apart a few things… or perhaps a few people.
But asking Song Zang to persuade Yin Chen to take care of himself was genuinely difficult.
What if I’m the reason he was unhappy in the first place?
What if something I say has exactly the opposite effect?
It would hardly be the first time. Recently, Song Zang seemed to be the person most capable of making Yin Chen angry.
After thinking for a moment, Lan Yu Heng cautiously asked first, “Did the two of you have some special relationship before? Stepbrothers? Old classmates? Ex-boyfriends?”
Song Zang almost choked. He hurriedly clarified, “Of course not! Nothing at all. Absolutely nothing!”
Hearing that, Lan Yu Heng fell silent, clearly wanting to say something but thinking better of it. Feeling Song Zang’s innocent, bewildered little-rabbit stare, she ultimately decided not to spell things out too clearly.
The more I look at this, the more it seems like Boss is forcing this whole thing on him by himself. Poor kid.
Suppressing her faint guilt, Lan Yu Heng briefly explained the situation.
“Old Zhang and I are both worried that if he gets addicted to cutting people up, he’ll accidentally burn through his entire lifespan. This may sound cold, but we still need him… We need him standing at the front.”
“Mm. I understand,” Song Zang said softly.
“You’ve probably noticed that Boss treats you differently. He’s very easily affected by you. Of course, I’m not asking you to do anything more than you want to. But could you be just a little nicer to him and keep him calm when it matters?”
“Of course.” Song Zang agreed without hesitation.
A calm and happy Yin Chen benefited everyone. Song Zang certainly understood something that simple.
“Thank you. In return, I can offer some help to your organization in the future… the Future Research Institute, right? I actually heard about it a long time ago, but I was greedy and chose a faster shortcut instead.”
Lan Yu Heng paused, then continued with a smile. “If we meet in future instances, I’ll protect you as much as I can too. Is there anything you want to learn?”
Song Zang immediately perked up. “I want to learn how to fight with my eyes closed!”
“All right. Once this instance ends, I’ll formally visit Helin Estate.”
With that settled, the two chatted happily for a while, and Lan Yu Heng ended up eating the extravagant chocolate made from a gold bar after all.
Song Zang picked up his milk. “Sister Lan, I’ve actually been curious. What kind of person is Yin Chen in the real world?”
Lan Yu Heng shook her head. “I don’t know either. None of us have ever met him in the real world.”
“That’s strange.”
“Right? Almost every conversation I’ve ever had with him has been in the café. Old Zhang doesn’t know his real identity either.”
“The café with Clerk No. 1?”
“Mm. Maybe he has an even bigger secret in the real world. He keeps himself incredibly well hidden.”
Yin Chen really is such a strange person.
Song Zang fell into thought.
He had never appeared in the real world. No one knew who he truly was. Put another way, it was impossible even to tell whether “Yin Chen” was his real name…
Song Zang suddenly realized that he had developed an irrepressible trace of curiosity about Yin Chen.
Unfortunately, someone who guarded his real identity this carefully must have secrets he did not want anyone else to know.
Song Zang could not simply ask. Some questions in this world did not yield answers merely because someone had asked them.
For example, the reason Yin Chen paid so much attention to him. Song Zang had quietly asked before, but all he had received was an ambiguous, almost mocking little hmph.
The only path left to satisfying his curiosity seemed to be getting along better with Yin Chen.
Until then… being a little nicer to him would not be difficult.
Song Zang had already grasped one crucial requirement: whenever he had something good he wanted to share from now on, Yin Chen had to receive a portion first.
Late at night, satisfied with Song Zang’s answer, Lan Yu Heng left.
As she walked toward the smoking room while biting into her chocolate, she suddenly sensed the faintest movement of air brushing past her ear.
It was Yin Chen… appearing silently behind her. He nearly scared her to death.
Yin Chen folded his arms. “Why did you go see him?”
Expressionless, Lan Yu Heng pulled a large, fully wrapped piece of chocolate from her pocket. “I asked Song Zang to treat you a little better from now on. He agreed. Here. He saved you a snack.”
Yin Chen: !
“Thank you.”
His phoenix eyes lowered slightly. His sinister expression instantly became as calm as still water, and he even turned polite.
“Boss, look how nice that kid is. He’s obedient and goes along with everything you ask.” Lan Yu Heng complained speechlessly, “I genuinely don’t understand what you spend all day being unhappy about.”
At that, Yin Chen curved his lips and gave a quiet laugh. “No. He isn’t nice at all.”
“He’s the worst and cruelest person in the world. I hate him to death.”
Lan Yu Heng: ?
She was very glad she did not have real eyeballs, because otherwise she might have reflexively rolled them at her boss.
As a simple, hardworking employee, she was completely incapable of understanding such a tangled emotional relationship.
After running around all day, Lan Yu Heng was exhausted in both body and mind. She leaned against the doorway to the smoking room and quietly lit a cigarette.
“Boss, want one?”
“No. The bad guy doesn’t like the smell.”
“…”
Lan Yu Heng finally failed to control herself. The snow-white artificial eyeballs in her sockets trembled, then rotated through a full three hundred and sixty degrees.
I cannot understand this man!
＊
While undercurrents continued to churn inside the hotel, Long Jian Feng seemed bursting with energy. He drove the Dragon Nation warships and submarines at full power, sending them down into the depths to work through the night.
At sunrise every day, several ships loaded to capacity with Dragon-Tongue Incense ash returned to the hotel. Every shipment was tightly sealed and turned over to the Agency’s researchers for proper disposal.
Judging by appearances, Long Jian Feng had behaved himself ever since Song Zang and Yin Chen threatened him and had not dared cause any further trouble.
Before long, the Deep Sea’s basic demands had been satisfied.
Communicating with an intelligent anomaly really was convenient. Just as before, the Deep Sea sent Song Zang a message, saying that it was willing to formally join the Agency and was also willing to help chase away the extra sun.
However, the employment contract had to include one additional bonus benefit—regular Dragon-Tongue Incense cleanup.
Receiving the Deep Sea’s thoughts, Song Zang touched the beautiful scales once again growing and shifting along the side of his neck… and agreed without hesitation.
Hurry up and finish this. I need to get away from this enormous thing that contaminates everyone around it without even realizing it!
Song Zang reached an agreement with the Deep Sea, and they scheduled its “induction ceremony” for noon.
It was truly an exciting moment. Unfortunately, not everyone was capable of witnessing such a spectacular scene.
Ning Yan had hidden far away in the hotel long beforehand, too afraid to come closer because he was worried he might lose his mind again.
Lan Yu Heng, on the other hand, feared nothing and stood around waiting in boredom. Without actual eyeballs, visual contamination was usually meaningless to her.
Yin Chen cared even less. He even opened a video call so Zhang Ming Shen could watch the spectacle too.
Zhang Ming Shen was currently packaging Dragon-Tongue Incense on the production floor, secretly checking his phone while he worked.
He had been doing such a respectable job lately that he had even received an Outstanding Employee commendation. Apparently, the factory director thought highly of him and planned to promote him again in a few months. At this rate, he might even manage to become deputy factory director one day.
Lan Yu Heng casually chatted with him while he responded now and then with a few careless mmphs and ahhs.
For safety, Carp Nation’s capital had been completely evacuated. Standing in the middle of the vast, empty observation platform, their voices gradually echoed through the emptiness, making the conversation strangely awkward.
There was no helping it. Aside from the few players whose Resistance was high enough, the other NPCs… probably could not even safely watch a video recording.
Wrapped in a large scarf and looking somewhat nervous, Song Zang was secretly stroking the scales on his body as he spoke to the Deep Sea. “Do you think there’s any way to convince that sun to join us too?”
【No. It will not allow itself to be recruited. It has wandered for a very long time, and its heart is colder than the stones at the bottom of the sea.】
The Deep Sea’s response was leisurely.
“All right. Then what about the other Legendary-rank—”
【Be quiet. It’s starting.】
Song Zang immediately perked up and raised his eyes toward the sky. The others sensed the change at once and turned toward the distance as well.
Rumble—
Along the long coastline bathed in brilliant sunlight, the light visibly began fading little by little.
With the rumbling sound, an enormous wave wide enough to blot out the sky surged upward and charged toward the heavens.
The sky abruptly darkened as icy seawater of unfathomable depth rose like an immense wall, building higher at a terrifying, almost mythical speed.
The instant the water touched the edge of the sunlight, its advance paused. Then, like the Heavenly Dog devouring the moon, it surged upward with terrifying force and completely swallowed the torn-open sky beneath silent ripples.
Elio’s Notes: The “Heavenly Dog devouring the moon” is a traditional Chinese image for a lunar eclipse, in which a celestial dog is imagined to swallow the moon.
The entire nation of Carp was sealed inside a vast bubble of water and fell into deathly silence.
Then came a violent szzzt—! as a fierce burning sound exploded through the air. The noise invaded everyone’s hearing without restraint, forcing them to endure terrifying dizziness and ringing in their ears.
Song Zang reacted quickly. He immediately pretended to be in pain as well, covered his ears, and crouched down.
Yin Chen bent over to support him. Song Zang did not pull away and lightly rested his head against Yin Chen’s strong arm.
Lan Yu Heng, whose complexion looked equally poor, rummaged through her pocket and handed him a mint.
“Th-thanks…”
The cool, refreshing taste burst across his tongue and competed with the ringing in his ears for his attention. It genuinely made Song Zang feel considerably better.
Yin Chen looked at her. “Where did you get the mint?”
Lan Yu Heng rummaged through her pocket again and tossed one to Yin Chen as well. “The vending machine downstairs.”
“Next time, give it to me first. I’ll give it to him.”
“Boss, are you—”
“I’m mentally ill.” Yin Chen expressionlessly anticipated her question.
Meanwhile, Song Zang was biting his lip and struggling desperately not to laugh.
Yin Chen is getting more and more blatant. He actually says things like that right in front of me now…
My ears are ringing. I’m not deaf!
Fortunately, he did not have to suppress his laughter for long. The Deep Sea moved extremely quickly.
Once the extra sun was completely obscured by the dark water, the sky suddenly plunged into darkness beneath thick clouds.
Masses of black cloud, thick as ink, churned strangely and slowly across the sky.
The deadly sensation of suffocation Song Zang had once experienced instantly descended upon everyone along Carp Nation’s coastline.
Fortunately, the Deep Sea retained at least some sense of restraint. The sensation lasted only an instant before it was quickly withdrawn.
Lan Yu Heng steadied herself and discovered that two fish scales had actually appeared on her wrist. Disgusted, she immediately ripped them off.
Then the sun hiding behind the sky… began to rain. Yes, rain.
Drops of water were somehow hanging faintly along the edge of that distant, enormous golden sphere, and not even its extreme heat could evaporate them.
The enormous droplets fell from the sky, dividing again and again in the wind until they became a warm salt rain that spread across all of Carp Nation.
It seemed the sun had been beaten until it cried. Once it finished raining, it immediately turned around and fled.
The sky that had remained torn apart for days finally returned to normal, leaving behind only a clean, brilliant blue.
The contract in Song Zang’s hand floated into the air on its own. A deformed sea fish sped past riding a stream of rainwater, caught the contract in its mouth, and carried it down into the Deep Sea’s territory until both vanished without a trace.
Song Zang stared blankly at the miraculous sight before him. Before he even had time to marvel aloud, a system panel rapidly appeared before everyone.
【Clear Requirement: Investigate, subdue, and contain (or eliminate) three Legendary-rank anomalies (1/3)】
“Is that it?”
“That’s it!”
A researcher monitoring the data in real time sent them a message. “Director, Director! A huge section of the Fog Barrier disappeared!”
＊
That evening, the hotel held a grand victory banquet.
Carp Nation provided the venue and food, while Long Jian Feng paid for everything out of his own pocket. The Agency staff only had to eat as much as they pleased.
Song Zang was a man who kept his promises. The moment the Deep Sea was successfully contained, he had Long Jian Feng receive the proper treatment he had been promised.
Long Jian Feng spent the entire afternoon looking wilted, but he recovered quickly. By the time he returned to the restaurant, he had once again become the impressive and energetic Deputy Commander Long.
“Thank you, my Mother Sea.”
Ning Yan opened a bottle of alcohol and obediently raised a glass toward the ocean, his voice still carrying a trace of lingering fear.
Even now, whenever he looked at the sea, a strange sense of belonging would rise inside him. He wanted nothing more than to strip off his clothes, jump straight in, merge with the seawater, and head toward the deepest reaches of the ocean…
The Deep Sea stated that this was not intentional. It was simply an unavoidable aftereffect of a human nearly being assimilated into a Deep-Sea Subject.
The unfortunate people who had transformed into merpeople still had not recovered. The Deep Sea likewise claimed there was nothing it could do, so the researchers would have to find a solution themselves.
Song Zang assigned the research project to a senior employee, told him to report it to the Carp Nation government immediately, and obtained a sizable sum of startup funding along the way.
As for Song Zang himself, he wanted to eat two little cakes first.
Carrying his plate and eating as he walked, Song Zang leisurely approached Long Jian Feng and abruptly asked, “Commander Long, how much wear and tear did the submarines suffer?”
Long Jian Feng jumped in surprise, but quickly recovered and smiled. “Oh, Director, I was just about to come talk to you! Don’t worry. Those big beauties can keep diving for another thirty years.”
“That’s good. Did you lose any personnel?” Song Zang naturally sat down across from him.
“A few hotheaded idiots weren’t careful and came into contact with the contamination. They turned into those… merpeople or whatever and haven’t changed back. This really is troublesome. We can only rely on the Agency’s expertise…” Long Jian Feng paused, then cautiously asked, “I actually wanted to ask you something. Roughly how long will it take to develop a treatment?”
Song Zang politely curved his lips and casually invented a deadline. “The project’s startup funding has already been approved, with the Carp Nation government paying for it. We expect to have preliminary results by the end of the year.”
“That fast? Wonderful, wonderful. The Agency truly is overflowing with talent. Remarkable!”
Just as before, Long Jian Feng believed every word Song Zang casually made up.
The two exchanged insincere pleasantries for quite a while. Song Zang still could not figure out exactly what was wrong with Long Jian Feng. The man looked perfectly healthy, full of energy, and spoke with a powerful voice.
For a powerful middle-aged man, his belly was not particularly large, but his capacity for putting up with things certainly was. Even after Song Zang had openly threatened him, Long Jian Feng could still sit there laughing heartily and chatting with him…
A person like that was either naturally upright and broad-minded or extraordinarily good at acting—pleasant and friendly to your face while secretly causing trouble behind your back.
Clearly, judging from Zhang Ming Shen’s previous encounter, Long Jian Feng belonged firmly in the second category.
So after the banquet ended, Song Zang tugged lightly on Yin Chen’s sleeve. “I think we still need to investigate him.”
“All right, Teacher.” Yin Chen curved his lips, then immediately turned to Ning Yan and assigned the job with characteristic bluntness. “007, go spy on Long Jian Feng right now.”
“Huh?”
“He’s staying aboard Warship No. 1, in a suite on the third deck. Wear your police uniform and blend in. Put on a miniature camera. If you get caught, jump straight into the sea.”
“Oh, oh…” Ning Yan processed that for a moment, then instantly became energetic. He patted his chest. “Don’t worry. My skills are unmatched under heaven. I’ve never failed an infiltration mission!”
“Be careful,” Song Zang added softly.
Ning Yan genuinely loved infiltration missions. Even late at night, he sprang into action as though he had been injected with pure adrenaline.
He clipped the miniature camera beneath his collar, casually stole the cap and shoulder insignia from a drunken soldier, and pulled the cap low over his head to conceal most of his face.
For authenticity, Ning Yan even splashed some alcohol onto himself. Reeking of liquor, he staggered into the group and lined up to board the ship with his head lowered, only to receive a vicious dressing-down from an officer.
“Those pretty boys from the Agency are pissing right on our heads, and the lot of you aren’t ashamed—you’re proud of yourselves! One after another, you’ve drunk yourselves red as monkey asses! Are you happy? Proud?”
“I’m telling you, none of the credit for this is going to our Police Bureau. Those pretty boys are getting all of it!”
“Fuck, just looking at those wimps pisses me off. All of you, get back inside and sleep! Special training starts at five tomorrow morning!”
“…Hic. Y-yes, sir!”
Ning Yan obediently took the scolding, let out a foolish drunken hiccup, and was finally allowed through by the disgusted officer.
He staggered down from the deck and continued deeper into the ship. Only after he escaped the sweep of the searchlights and darkness gradually swallowed his silhouette did Ning Yan’s expression slowly become calm again.
He walked without making a sound and stopped around the corner from Long Jian Feng’s cabin, pressing his back to the wall as he listened carefully.
—There were actually no guards outside the door.
There was no time to waste. Ning Yan flipped himself up into the ventilation duct overhead and crawled quietly through it, moving slowly until he reached the space above the cabin.
Looking down through the metal grille of the ventilation duct, Ning Yan’s eyes widened. He covered his mouth and tapped the camera.
An old-fashioned record player sat inside Long Jian Feng’s room, filling the air with elegant classical music.
A layer of snow-white powder was spread across his otherwise empty desk.
Long Jian Feng wore an intoxicated expression, his body swaying gently with the music. He rolled a Dragon Nation banknote into the shape of a straw and scraped together a small line of white powder.
He placed one end of the rolled bill over the powder and pressed the other to his nostril before inhaling several deep snorts.
Long Jian Feng then let out a long, relaxed sigh of satisfaction, tossed aside the banknote, and collapsed backward onto the bed. His entire body trembled with pleasure.
Is this old geezer seriously doing drugs? Ning Yan could not help wondering.
Everything he saw was being livestreamed to the other players.
Song Zang and Yin Chen exchanged a look, identical suspicion appearing in their eyes.
“What is it?” Lan Yu Heng could not see and hurriedly asked.
“Looks like drugs. Have Ning Yan steal some and bring it back,” Yin Chen replied.
Stealing something was hardly difficult for Ning Yan.
Long Jian Feng, thoroughly satisfied, had already passed out on the bed. He was completely unconscious, his face still wearing a blissful smile.
Ning Yan carefully pried open the metal grille and lightly dropped into the cabin. Holding his breath, he stealthily wrapped a small amount of powder in a tissue and slipped it into his breast pocket.
Then he glanced through the door at the corridor outside. There were still no guards.
Apparently Long Jian Feng himself knew that what he was doing could not be discovered and had deliberately dismissed all of his personal guards.
So Ning Yan openly pushed the door and left. Before going, he even borrowed Long Jian Feng’s key, opened the room next door, and took a quick look around.
There were no particularly interesting secrets there, but there were spare uniforms belonging to the guards. Ning Yan stole one without hesitation, changed into a different set of shoulder insignia and a different cap, and walked all the way off the warship without encountering any resistance.
Back at the hotel, Ning Yan took out the packet of powder. Yin Chen accepted it and immediately handed it to Lan Yu Heng.
“It has a smell. Check it.”
“All right.”
Lan Yu Heng opened the tissue but did not bring her face close. Instead, she stood beside the window and let the breeze carry the scent toward her as she sniffed lightly.
“The texture is distinctive. There are occasional granules, but most of it is smooth and fine. It must have been carefully ground.”
She turned her head as she spoke. “Take a look for me. Is all the powder white, without any impurities?”
“More or less…” Song Zang narrowed his eyes. “A tiny amount looks gray.”
“I understand. I recommend arresting Long Jian Feng tonight and interrogating him immediately.”
“Huh? Is it really that serious?” Ning Yan asked in surprise.
Lan Yu Heng’s expression became solemn as she said heavily, “This is Dragon-Tongue Incense. It was recovered after use, then reprocessed and ground into a fine powder. Trust my judgment. I studied perfumery and fragrance formulation at university. There isn’t a scent that can escape my nose.”
“I’m certain Long Jian Feng has been snorting Dragon-Tongue Incense ash!”
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