The noodle restaurant owner gave Bai Liu two coins as change and Bai Liu put them in his old wallet. The kind-hearted restaurant owner hesitated a long time before telling Bai Liu the number and address of the couple. He said in a sorrowful tone that if Bai Liu could help them then help. It wasn’t easy for people to live.
It started to rain slightly when Bai Liu left the restaurant. He held a black umbrella and took a bus to the cemetery mentioned by the restaurant owner. In front of a silent gravestone, he quickly found the couple who had appeared on TV.
They weren’t holding umbrellas and stood in front of their daughter’s gravestone with red eyes. Their only umbrella was placed on the gravestone, covering the black and white photo of Guoguo who was smiling happily.
“You are… Bai Liu?” The mother’s voice was rough and hoarse due to crying all morning. She looked at Bai Liu with a hostile expression. “You called and said you have a way to bring Li Gou to justice? What can you do? What do you want? Money?”
Bai Liu smiled in the rain, the fog around his face giving him a strange sense of holiness. “I’m here to make a deal with you but I don’t want money.”
This might be the first time in his life that Bai Liu said, “I don’t want money.”
He told them, “I will help you realize your wish and get rid of Li Gou. In return, you will sell me your souls.”
The mother sneered as expected. “My soul? Another liar.”
She turned her head and stared at the black and white photo of Guoguo with red eyes.
The father watched Bai Liu vigilantly. Due to Guoguo’s matter, they had asked for help from many people during this period. They had tried all types of methods and encountered many swindlers.
They were prepared for a liar when they came to meet this person who said he could let Li Gou get retribution. They just wanted to try their luck. Unexpectedly, Bai Liu said something so outrageous. It was the first time they met a liar who wanted to buy their souls. He was just playing with their feelings.
The father gave a cold warning. “Liar, get out of here!”
The unmoved Bai Liu crouched down on one knee and stared at the photo of Guoguo on the gravestone. “Li Gou, 47 years old. A few months ago, he killed Liu Guoguo, a female student, at the entrance of Majia Alley and was sentenced to death. A week ago, all the evidence and documents related to the evidence suddenly disappeared. The relevant people involved also had vague memories and stated they don’t remember if they had seen the evidence. It has gone up for a retrial.”
Hearing the facts, the eyes of Liu Guoguo’s parents became full of resentment. They gritted their teeth and clenched their fists as they stared viciously at Bai Liu.
Bai Liu didn’t seem to notice that these two people were angered by his words and were ready to hit him. He just continued calmly, “If my guess isn’t wrong, this Li Gou said he will be released from prison without charge and the evidence will disappear.”
“How did you know?” The mother looked at Bai Liu with amazement.
They had been paying close attention to Li Gou’s actions in prison. Initially when he went to prison, Li Gou was irritable and crazy. He knew he might be sentenced to death and shouted all day long, angry and resentful. He said he wanted to retaliate against them.
Then not long ago, this person’s attitude suddenly changed. In the past one or two weeks, Li Gou even hummed in a good mood. He said that sooner or later, he would leave this damn place and the evidence would disappear. God wouldn’t wrong good people.
It seemed that he had expected to get out of prison so they suspected that someone was protecting that animal.
“Yes, you can understand it like Li Gou made a deal with a devil and sold his soul. That is why he could erase the evidence.” Bai Liu stood up and looked at the parents. “I am here to steal business from this devil.”
Liu Guoguo’s parents looked at Bai Liu suspiciously like they didn’t believe his words but a trace of desperate despair and hope filled their eyes.
People who were well-informed could indeed inquire about these things. They couldn’t rule out that Bai Liu was a liar deceiving them. However, they had really used all possible methods. They even asked someone to perform a ceremony to help Guoguo’s soul find peace even though they previously laughed at these feudal superstitions. They had done it several times.
“What are your conditions?” Liu Guoguo’s mother asked cautiously. “Is it money? We don’t have much money.”
Bai Liu smiled. “I said it from the beginning. I don’t want money. I want your soul debt.”
He was just curious. What would happen to the system if he bought the souls of these players before they entered the game? Would he have a higher level of authority than the system in the game? If Bai Liu had a higher soul authority than the system over the parents then could he control the parents’ system by manipulating the parents? Would he eventually dominate the system?
Bai Liu liked money but he hated being ridden by someone above him to make money. This made him feel like a low-level social animal at the bottom of a company. Therefore, he wanted to try and control the system in turn to gain the highest authority.
It seemed to have sensed Bai Liu’s dangerous thoughts. The coin on Bai Liu’s chest started to become hot and an alarm sound in a bad electric current sounded in his ears.
[System warning: zzzi—forbidding player Bai Liu—zzii—from acquiring the soul debt right of reserve players! Player Bai Liu is prohibited from trading with non-players outside the game!]
[System warning: Will soon—zzi—seal player Bai Liu’s Empty Old Wallet skill!]
Bai Liu sighed regretfully. The real world was monitored by the game. It seemed he couldn’t grab the souls of reserve players that the game was aiming at. That’s right, the game shouldn’t allow players with a higher authority than it to exist. If Bai Liu was the game designer then he would also stop it. Still, Bai Liu had to try even if it didn’t succeed.
Just as Bai Liu was going to give up, the fish scale hanging around his neck along with the coin started to slowly grow to wrap around the coin. The cold scale encased the hot coin and cooled it down in an instant. Then the system gave off an electric current that sounded like a scream.
[Warning—zzzi—abnormal data from the fish scale is invading—bug data intrusion—the abnormal data is being cleared—failed to clear abnormal data—occupied by abnormal data—zizizi.]
After the messy electric sounds, a new cold and magnetic electronic male voice was heard.
[System: Hello player Bai Liu. Do you want to use your personal skill?]
Bai Liu raised his eyebrow at this voice. This system voice was subtly familiar. It might have an electronic quality but it was better than the previous system. it was a few degrees colder than the previous system but it was still very nice. Bai Liu thought that this voice was a bit like the NPC Siren King that he met…
Bai Liu laughed. [Of course I want to use it.]
Liu Guoguo’s parents couldn’t understand some of Bai Liu’s words. They were hesitant but they really had no other choice. Even if Bai Liu was a liar and someone from a MLM coming to trick them, they needed to give Guoguo a bit of hope! Even if it was fake!
The mother took the lead in collapsing to her knees while crying. “As long as you can kill Li Gou, you can take whatever you want! Take it all! I can give you all my money!”
This was treating Bai Liu like a gangster.
Bai Liu smiled. “No, I’m not going to ask you for money. On the contrary, I will give you money.”
He took out the two coins that the noodle restaurant owner had given him and placed them on his spread open palm. Bai Liu looked down. “I will use one coin to buy your soul. Are you willing to make this deal with me?”
The mother gritted her teeth and took the coin. The father hesitated for a few seconds before also taking a coin from Bai Liu’s hand.
“I want to.”
It didn’t matter what this person did or if he was a madman speaking nonsense. As long as he was willing to help them get revenge for Guoguo then they were willing to give it a try.
[System reminder: Player Bai Liu has used two yuan (RMB) to buy Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua’s souls.]
[System reminder: Player Bai Liu is the first purchaser of Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua’s souls. You have the highest authority and can transfer part of Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua’s soul debt.]
The moment Xiang Chunhua said these words, she felt a strange sensation in her body like something heavy had been taken from her heavy body and stored somewhere. She looked at the smiling young man in front of her and felt a sense of trust and sincerity in her heart that she couldn’t express.
Xiang Chunhua was stunned before asking, “You are Bai Liu right? What do you do? Where can we find you?”
“I am unemployed, a poor wanderer.” Bai Liu looked down at the new coin in his wallet. “You will find me in a game. I hope that when we meet, you will have survived the first game.”
On the coin, there was an image of Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu standing to the left and right of the gravestone while crying desperate tears. The two people gently stroked the top of the gravestone like they were stroking the top of their child’s head. The photo of Liu Guoguo was smiling while covered by an umbrella to block the rain. The lower right of the coin said ‘2 yuan’ and the back said ‘soul coin’, followed by a small line of words: Issued by a non-system bank. The highest authority belongs to the owner Bai Liu, not the system.
The corners of Bai Liu’s mouth rose slightly.
[Hey new system, good job.]
The system was silent for a few seconds. [Thank you for the compliment.]
The fish scale wrapped around the coin on Bai Liu’s chest warmed slightly before becoming cold again.
There were still two days remaining until the deadline of a week to enter the game as stipulated by the system but Bai Liu was ready to enter the game.
He sorted out his things and sent a message to Mu Ke that he was going to enter the game. Then he called Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu several times but no one answered. They also didn’t pick up the landline. Bai Liu roughly had a guess. These two people should’ve entered the game and must’ve fallen asleep.
Bai Liu took a bath and put on his favorite and most comfortable clown nightcap with pompoms and his pajamas. He covered his chest with a quilt and held the coin around his chest.
[Login to the game.]
[System: Does the player Bai Liu want to confirm that he is logging into the game?]
Bai Liu closed his eyes. [Confirm.]
[System: Logging in…]
[Wait!] Bai Liu suddenly opened his eyes again. He got up to go to the bathroom and turned off the electric switch, natural gas valve and water of the house before lying down in a satisfied manner. [While I am logged in, these valves might leak some water or electricity when I’m sleeping and I will lose money.]
[System: ……]
[System: Logging into the game…]
Bai Liu fell into a whirlpool of black sleep. Once he woke up again, he was already standing in the hall where people were coming and going.
[System: Since player Bai Liu has some popularity, do you want to use some of the appearance value to hide your identity?]
[You can also adjust my appearance data?] Bai Liu became interested. [Can I design my own appearance?]
He was quite good at transforming his face.
[System: Yes, you need to pay 300 points to enter the face adjustment program. Does player Bai Liu want to pay it?]
[It requires money?] Bai Liu quickly gave up. [Then you can adjust it for free as you want.]
[System: Entering the random facial adjustment program: eye color changed (black→blue), hair color changed (black→colorful), lip color changed (fleshy color→black)…]
Soon, a person with colorful, messy hair and painted black lipstick that made people think of ‘Ai Shi ① A Kind of Sorrow’ wandered around the game hall with a casual attitude, attracting dull and shocked gazes.
Cheap wasn’t good. Bai Liu had expected that the face he changed for free wouldn’t be too good-looking so he calmly accepted this non-mainstream shamate appearance. In any case, he couldn’t see what he looked like. Bai Liu didn’t care if it was terrible in someone else’s eyes.
Proofreader: Purichan
Comments