Since his state of mind wasn’t a peaceful one, Bai Yan decided to watch his legal TV shows until it was late.
In the end, he inadvertently fell asleep while sitting on his chair. He then crawled out of his chair and into his bed in a daze until he was slightly roused at 10:30 in the morning.
After fully regaining consciousness, the first thing he did was to give Ye Shangyu a call.
“What do you want?” Ye Shangyu’s soft voice echoed out accompanied by the soft pitter-patter of her keyboard typing.
“Want to team up?”
“There’s no need to form a team during normal difficulty levels. Let’s talk about this later.” Once Ye Shangyu finished speaking, she immediately hung up on the phone, seeming incredibly busy.
The way Ye Shangyu rejected his offer was incredibly decisive, but Bai Yan also picked up on her connotation.
There was no doubt that Ye Shangyu had intentions of teaming up with him, but from her perspective, if a person can’t even survive the normal difficulty levels, it wasn’t worth it to team up with them, which meant that getting a chance to team up with her would have to wait until after the sixth level.
On the other end, he could hear a boiling cauldron of voices with students buzzing around and exchanging words and the voice of a guardian picking up a child, which was exactly the opposite of Ye Shangyu’s quiet environment.
“If this is nothing important, then don’t call me. I’m busy, and I still have to study.”
Before Bai Yan could even talk, Luo Xing quickly blurted out, “If this is about teaming up, then you don’t need to look for me. I like simple and honest teammates. It’s like this, so I’m hanging up.”
Luo Xing hung up the call at the speed of light. Seeing how he reacted, Bai Yan shook his head in disappointment, thinking that Luo Xing’s basic mentality was simply no good.
Yes, he and Ye Shangyu almost pushed him into a pit during the last game, but weren’t they unsuccessful in cheating the lots? Should he still be on guard after the unsuccessful attempt?
Bai Yan lost his appetite from his humiliating defeat. It seemed that comrade Luo Xing wasn’t your standard honest person.
Bai Yan felt deep regret. An honest and sincere teammate was truly hard to find.
The sixth game was starting soon, and the further he reached the later levels, the harder it was to find pure and honest people. Honest people generally didn’t live until the end, but looking at how he had reacted just now, Luo Xing didn’t want to be an honest person anymore.
Being rejected by two people in a row, Bai Yan felt somewhat depressed.
However, what Ye Shangyu had said about the ordinary levels, the requirements for being her teammate weren’t that hard to meet.
Even if a teammate from a normal level courted disaster, it usually didn’t involve the others and only ended up with themselves getting into their own mess. But when reaching the harder levels, pulling one hair would result in the whole body moving. In that sense, teammates should be carefully selected, and it was better to have none rather than a substandard choice.
Moving on and accepting the matter about his teammates, as usual, Bai Yan worked out and then read through some posts to pass the time.
Halfway through, he opened Chu Fu’s live stream in passing.
After their face-to-face meetup, in reality, Chu Fu’s live broadcast was still ongoing and appeared to be more prosperous than its state half a month ago.
When Bai Yan opened it, Chu Fu had also just started her broadcast. Compared to half a month ago, the quantity of her food had also gradually increased.
At that time, Chu Fu’s live stream showed her eating 10 buckets of instant noodles, but they were only half the size of your average ones, the combined total only reaching five normal-sized bowls.
But this time, she had strategically arranged eight bowls in front of her. Each bowl could feed one standard person, setting them up to look full to the brim and look extremely filling.
Bai Yan didn’t follow the live broadcast closely and just took random glances once in a while.
With regards to Chu Fu, he would say that she was insignificant in his eyes and saw her as a waste of his time.
He was someone who wanted to clear the levels to obtain the reward, and Chu Fu was just someone who was destined to not live through the end, which made her unworthy of his attention. In fact, Chu Fu surviving up until this point had already made him surprised.
She almost had no brains, so how could she be alive until right now?
…
Time had quickly passed, and in a flash, the day to enter the game had arrived.
Bai Yan opened the app and pressed on the sixth level’s icon. After he pressed it, the scene before his eyes suddenly transformed. He was standing outside the entrance of a shopping mall, and the first thing he did was bow his head to look over his phone.
[Successful Matchup]
[Number of Players: 2 players]
[Level of Difficulty: Normal]
[Level Description: This round of the game is called ‘Fierce Ghost Mall.’ According to the game’s rules, finding the four missing people’s causes of death and successfully protecting the designated NPCs until they leave the mall will be considered as a victory.]
[Backstory: You are a famous detective, and recently, you have received four strange clients.
The relatives of these four clients had mysteriously disappeared. These missing people do not know each other and do not have a connection with one another.
The only clue you acquired was that they all disappeared in the same mall. Perhaps, this certain mall was concealing an unknown secret…]
[Game Rules:]
[1. At this level, the player’s identity is a detective, and NPCs would automatically trust the player’s identity. This game’s duration is 12 hours, exceeding the game’s time would be seen as a loss.]
[2. The designated NPCs would have their names in red text appear on top of their heads. Four NPCs will arrive at 9 AM, 11 AM, 1 PM, and 3 PM at the mall’s entrance. The player can wait for them there.]
[3. The player needs to find the cause of death of the four missing people and to protect the designated NPCs until they leave the mall. After accomplishing this, press the ‘Return’ button on your phone to leave the game.]
“So, it’s a protection type of game. It seems that NPCs can’t be used casually in this level…”
After reading the game’s rules, Bai Yan felt rather unfortunate.
The NPCs in this game were in a sense, kind of like the player’s second life since they could be used as scapegoats.
If they saw any danger, they could trick the NPC to do it first. But right now, he couldn’t use the NPCs as he pleased, undoubtedly increasing the difficulty of this level.
“Moreover, the app had directly referred to the native people in the game’s world as NPCs, so it’s no wonder that the players in the forum didn’t regard these NPCs as living beings. As expected, the app is harboring evil intentions.”
An idea flashed through Bai Yan’s eyes, but he didn’t continue to make a more in-depth observation.
As long as the app’s trifling matters didn’t interfere with his clearing the levels to obtain the reward, he was disinclined about the conspiracies behind the app.
His good brother was still waiting for him to help set up his life, so he didn’t have the time to delve further into these superfluous matters.
With his line of sight slowly moving away from the screen, Bai Yan stood by the mall’s entrance, carefully observing his surroundings.
At the entrance, groups of people in twos and threes roamed about while an employee dressed in a costume handed out leaflets, only a few people showing interest.
Bai Yan’s eyes swept across his environment, but he didn’t find any red words on top of an NPC’s head.
But, he still gained something in the end, because he caught sight of a familiar-looking person.
This made him feel incomparable disdain surging all over his body.
Before he could utter words of contempt, that person said in a startled manner, “Wang… Cough, how could you be here?”
Bai Yan let out a gentle chuckle while making an intimidating throat-slitting gesture.
At this moment, Chu Fu wanted to quickly cry out. How could she have such bad luck! How could she run into this mentally deranged person again?
She’s doomed in this round!
With one glance at Chu Fu’s brilliant and marvelous expression, Bai Yan knew that she was cursing him on the inside.
But Bai Yan paid no heed to it, and instead, he greeted her with a friendly smile plastered on his face, “What a coincidence, we meet again.”
“Ha… Haha… We meet again, it’s truly fate.” Chu Fu gave a hollow laugh as her eyelid twitched uncontrollably, “May I ask what I should call you in this level?”
“You can call me Wang Ze. This level only has us two in it, so there’s no third player who would know.” Bai Yan said meaningfully, “No matter what happens too.”
Although Chu Fu’s brain wasn’t bright, after hearing Bai Yan’s ‘implication’ being said differently, her face immediately became green—— It’s only the two of us here. No matter what happens, there won’t be a third person that will find out. What do you plan to do with me!?
Recalling how this person worked the first time, Chu Fu felt that she was in grave danger.
She had never felt that it was truly over.
Wang Ze was someone who was narrow-minded and only considered the small things, not the overall situation. She had never seen such a shameless man before.
Now, this closed game only had the two of them in it. Even if she acted foolishly again, based on the countless soap operas she had watched, she also knew what this meant. Wasn’t this a great opportunity to kill and forever silence someone?
Since he didn’t get rid of her in real life, how could this nutjob let go of this golden opportunity?
Chu Fu thought that she had matured a lot over her five levels worth of experience.
If she had just passed the first level, she’d surely make a break for it once she saw Wang Ze again. But right now, she had already steadied herself, stiffly smiling as she dealt with him.
Seeing that Bai Yan slightly narrowed his eyes, Chu Fu’s spine went rigid as she went on alert.
Chu Fu thought that she exuded calmness and collectedness, but as Bai Yan watched her awkward performance, his heart let out a sigh. Even after the player went through five levels, she’s still so stupid. How did she manage to survive up until now?
Originally, Bai Yan thought that teammates during normal difficulty levels weren’t that important.
But seeing Chu Fu for a split second, he later realized that he was wrong. Teammates were truly useful. If you didn’t look for a reliable person to be your teammate, you would be paired up with this kind of person.
If this was another game mode, it would still be okay, but this round required them to decipher the mystery and protect the NPCs, so he believed that he could entirely give up on his teammate’s wits.
Forget it! Figuring out the way to survive yourself would still be the same, so he might as well treat this as a single-player game.
Ignoring the not so natural acting Chu Fu, Bai Yan bowed his head and looked at the time. It was one minute till 9 right now.
And at exactly 9 o’clock, some red text had appeared above a small girl as she headed towards the mall’s entrance, hanging her head dispiritedly. She looked like she was around seven or eight years old, and her face was full of worry and restlessness.
Looking at her bloodshot eyes, it was clear that she had just been crying.
Seeing the NPC walk over, Bai Yan and Chu Fu quickly stopped her.
Although her path was blocked by two unknown adults, the young girl wasn’t afraid as she raised her head towards the two and tried her best to stand on the tips of her toes, meekly saying, “Brother, sister, are you the detectives that are gonna help me find my mommy? My mommy went missing. It’s already been a day since she came home, and I can’t find her anywhere.”
Seeing the two nod their heads in agreement, the little girl clumsily fished out a handful of coins from her pocket, reaching out her hands and softly saying, “This is all of my allowance, can you please help me find mommy? My name is Cai Yu. Brother, sister, you can call me Xiao Yu. The last time I saw mommy was last night, I’m really worried about her.”
Seeing how broken-hearted Cai Yu was, Chu Fu fell silent. Even if she knew that this was just an NPC, she didn’t have the heart to tell her that her mom had already passed away, and she’ll never see her living mother ever again.
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