Anchor Hall
Chapter 532: Figaro
After parting with Wu Zhu, Wen Jianyan hurriedly left the bar.
The atmosphere all around was still thick and fiery. At every gambling table, chips clattered, surrounded by fanatical, focused, and seemingly possessed faces.
Ecstatic laughter, the rage of failure, resentful grievances… countless emotions mingled together, and the entire casino seemed to be swept up in a frenzied atmosphere.
But Wen Jianyan’s expression was cold, completely out of step with his surroundings.
He took a deep breath, lowered his head to take out his phone, and began to compose a message.
“To the meeting point, immediately.”
Chen Mo and Wen Ya were the first to reply:
“Received.”
About five minutes later, Kong Wei sent a single word: “Okay.”
Another ten minutes or so passed before Ma Qi belatedly appeared, sending a rabbit-saluting emoji: “Instructions received! Moving out!”
Wen Jianyan stood in place, slightly raising his eyes to look up.
The casino had a domed ceiling with swirling patterns that resembled a giant vortex. Below the vortex was a massive screen.
On the screen, countless rows of numbers were scrolling rapidly, so fast that they were nearly impossible for the human eye to capture, leaving only afterimages in their wake.
“…”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze darkened.
What was Nightmare trying to do?
He couldn’t figure it out.
This wasn’t Wen Jianyan’s first time on the ship. But the last time he was here, it was, for the most part, a relatively normal casino.
After all… that was already enough, wasn’t it?
Real-world casinos didn’t need to cheat, yet they still had thousands of gamblers who would go mad for them, to the point of losing their fortunes and ruining their families.
What’s more, this was Nightmare.
All the anchors knew they could die at any moment. They were all desperados with no tomorrow.
Under the heavy pressure of alienation brought by their talents and death from the instances, the entire Nightmare system was like a den of demons that amplified humanity’s dark side. Here, the vast majority of anchors had already lost any sense of bottom lines or restraint.
Therefore, even if Nightmare did nothing, this place would still become a den of iniquity, a paradise of debauchery that anchors flocked to.
Wen Jianyan even knew that many high-level anchors in other guilds would board the ship immediately after finishing an instance, spending almost all their points on a single massive gamble.
He stared at the screen above his head, unconsciously rubbing his ring, his eyes gloomy.
The numbers on the screen, as well as the slight adjustments to the probabilities in the casino, had only appeared after this reality show began.
Was this just to get the anchors addicted?
But hadn’t Nightmare already achieved that? Why go to such great lengths?
What was it trying to achieve?
The first to arrive at the meeting point were Chen Mo and Wen Ya.
The two were panting, seemingly having rushed over, and they carried the unique damp chill of the sea breeze.
“Captain, what’s wrong?” They looked at Wen Jianyan and, noticing his expression was off, immediately became alert. “Did something happen?”
Wen Jianyan’s gaze fell on their slightly damp clothes, and he raised an eyebrow. “What were you two just doing?”
From the looks of them, it didn’t seem like they had been in the casino for long.
“Outside. It’s all this workaholic’s fault,” Wen Ya rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Not long after we separated, he went to handle guild affairs. And handling them himself wasn’t enough, he had to drag me along. I haven’t even had time to finish my livestream tasks yet.”
“…” Chen Mo looked away, seemingly aware he was in the wrong, and his voice softened. “It was mainly because this involved negotiations with your old guild, Yongzhou. With your help, I could be twice as effective.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
As expected of you.
But he had to admit, he felt a slight sense of relief upon hearing that the two hadn’t participated in any activities just now.
Wen Ya: “So, President, why did you call us over in such a hurry?”
Before Wen Jianyan could speak, a third person arrived.
The third to appear was Kong Wei.
He was holding a tray with a huge pizza, which seemed to be more than half-eaten.
“Hello, President.” Kong Wei greeted Wen Jianyan in his usual dull tone. “What did you need us for?”
“Uh.”
Noticing everyone’s gazes focused on his hands, Kong Wei lowered his head and tried to hide the pizza behind his back, explaining somewhat shyly:
“There’s a buffet area over at the casino.”
Wen Ya raised an eyebrow:
“But, at the breakfast table earlier, didn’t you eat three servings of steak?”
Chen Mo, with his arms crossed, silently added, “And by the pool this morning, you ate all the complimentary pastries.”
Kong Wei was silent for a long moment before squeezing out two words: “Sorry.”
He offered the pizza to Chen Mo, as if trying to make amends: “Do, do you want some?”
Chen Mo: “…No, thank you.”
Before Kong Wei could manage to say anything else, Ma Qi’s voice came from not far away:
“I’m, I’m here! I’m here!”
The next second, she stumbled and rushed in front of everyone, then bent over, hands on her knees, panting heavily. “Ha… ha… ha…”
“Is your physical fitness really that bad?” Chen Mo frowned. “It was only a few steps.”
Ma Qi lifted a sweaty, flushed face, her drenched hair sticking to her cheeks. “Hoo… hoo… Vice… Vice President, you don’t understand…”
“Just, just now,” her eyes sparkled as she gasped for breath, “someone in my livestream chat issued a task… one thou- a thousand burpees! One thousand burpees for five thousand points!”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
He looked at Wen Ya and Chen Mo. “So, you two were working this whole time?”
The two looked at each other blankly, but still nodded in unison.
He looked at Kong Wei. “You went straight to the buffet area after you came in?”
Kong Wei’s face turned red, and he buried his head in shame. Despite his tall stature, he looked like a pitiful quail at that moment.
“And you,” Wen Jianyan looked at Ma Qi, hesitated for two seconds, and couldn’t help but ask, “Can… can you really do a thousand burpees in a row?”
Impossible, right? Even I can’t do that!
“You don’t believe me, President?” Ma Qi’s eyes widened. “I, I can keep going! I haven’t reached my limit yet!”
With that, she got into position, ready to demonstrate for Wen Jianyan, but he hurriedly stopped her:
“Alright, alright, I believe you. You don’t have to show me.”
Ma Qi let out a sigh of relief and whispered, “That’s great, I really can’t do any more.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.
The anchors in his guild were truly a bunch of hidden geniuses.
However, this at least put his mind half at ease.
Although their reasons were all different—and each one made Wen Jianyan want to complain—it was clear that the few people in front of him had not yet been drawn into the vortex deliberately created by Nightmare.
But—
Wen Jianyan frowned, took his phone out of his pocket, and glanced at it.
No new messages.
Ji Guan, Blond, and Chang Feiyu—their chat windows were all silent. None of them had replied to his message.
Wen Jianyan frowned deeply, his heart tensing up again.
There was no time to waste.
“Forget the tasks, split up and find them now.”
Wen Jianyan looked up at the people before him, speaking quickly and concisely.
“No matter what they’re doing or what excuses they give you, bring them back by force—use violent means if necessary. I’ll tell you the reason once everyone is here.”
The group exchanged glances and nodded.
At the gambling table.
The chips had already been stacked high.
The cheers that erupted with every bet and every reveal, the chips pushed towards them time and time again, the gradually increasing stakes… all of it felt like a joyous and magnificent dream. Their feet felt light, their ears as if stuffed with cotton, and the only sound they could hear was the clatter of dice shaking in the cup.
The clattering sound faded.
The dice cup was opened again.
“Whoa—!”
“We won, we won!!”
“Damn, lost again. Fucking hell, bad luck.”
“Good, good, keep going!! Again!!”
“A four-to-one payout! Damn, those two next door have some really good luck!”
Looks of envy, jealousy, and greed were cast from all directions, landing on the center of the crowd.
“Holy crap, look at the chips next to those two! That’s fucking incredible!”
“How many chips do we have now?”
Ji Guan stared at the dice cup not far away, his tone excited.
Beside him, Blond counted the chips on the table, his breathing rapid, his voice filled with the same excitement. “Three, five, ten… I can’t count them all, but, but, there should be at least eighty thousand!!”
Their original stack of chips had increased more than tenfold!
With a one-to-one exchange rate for points, that was eighty thousand points.
The entire income of an ordinary anchor from a B-rank livestream—an amount earned through exhausting work, hovering on the line between life and death for hours, or even days—had flowed into their pockets with ease after just a dozen minutes at a gambling table.
This trip was so worth it!
“How about it,” Ji Guan was in high spirits, “one more round?”
Blond was a little nervous. “Still, still want to go again? What if…”
Ji Guan: “What’s the big deal! We’ve won so much, even if we lose a round or two, what does it matter? We came here to have fun anyway!”
With that, he casually grabbed a couple of chips from the pile in front of him and was about to throw them out, but his wrist was suddenly grabbed by a hand reaching out from behind.
“?!?!” Ji Guan was startled, his body reflexively preparing to resist as he shot a sharp glance backward.
However, when he saw the person behind him, the hostility in his eyes quickly vanished. “Ah, Vice President, you scared me. Why don’t you make any sound when you walk?”
It was Wen Ya.
She stood behind him, her brow furrowed, her slender fingers gripping Ji Guan’s wrist tightly.
“How about it, want to play a round?” Ji Guan asked.
He pointed at the chips on the table, his voice filled with unconcealed excitement. “Look, we won all of this. Impressive, right?”
“…” Wen Ya’s gaze swept over the high stack of chips on the gambling table, clearly a bit surprised, but she quickly came to her senses and said in a calm voice, “The President is looking for you.”
“The President?”
Ji Guan was also a bit surprised. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know either,” Wen Ya shook her head, not letting go of Ji Guan’s wrist. “But neither of you replied to his message, so he had everyone split up to find you.”
Wen Ya emphasized her words: “He said, no matter what you’re doing, you are to stop immediately and go to the meeting point.”
From the way she spoke, Ji Guan caught a hint of something unusual.
He frowned, his expression turning serious as well.
“Alright.”
“Hey, gather the chips.” Ji Guan turned to Blond beside him. “We’re done playing. Let’s go.”
“Huh… okay!”
Blond snapped back to reality. He hastily gathered the chips from the table, put them in his pocket, and then quickened his pace to catch up with Wen Ya and Ji Guan.
Soon, Wen Ya brought the two to the meeting point.
Wen Jianyan stood with one leg bent, leaning against the wall.
His expression was calm, even carrying a certain indifferent coldness that made him seem out of place with the surrounding environment, like a solitary island.
He looked up and over at them.
His gaze sent an inexplicable shiver down their spines, pulling them out of the noisy, feverish atmosphere of the casino.
“Found them?” he asked.
Wen Ya nodded and let go of her grip. “Yes.”
“Let’s wait for the others.” Wen Jianyan said, lowering his eyes again.
Ji Guan and Blond looked at each other, their eyes filled with confusion.
Soon, the others returned one after another, but behind them, Chang Feiyu was nowhere to be seen.
“Not in the north,” Kong Wei said sullenly.
Chen Mo shook his head. “Same for the south.”
Ma Qi ruffled her hair in frustration. “Argh, where the hell did that Chang Feiyu guy disappear to! Can’t find him at all!”
Wen Jianyan let out a slow breath, seeming somewhat helpless.
“…Alright then.” He straightened up. “I’ll talk to him separately after he’s found.”
Indeed, this was a major hidden danger.
But with Chang Feiyu nowhere to be found in the entire casino and unreachable by phone, this was all Wen Jianyan could do for now.
“Follow me.”
With that, Wen Jianyan turned around.
“?” Although the others didn’t understand, they obediently followed.
Soon, they arrived in a VIP lounge. The heavy, soundproof door closed, shutting out the clamor of the casino. It suddenly became quiet, creating an unreal feeling.
“Have a seat.”
Wen Jianyan sat down in one of the chairs, stretching his limbs.
“Are all the livestreams off?”
Everyone nodded.
Wen Jianyan: “Good.”
“The first thing is about that screen outside.”
Although he spoke in his usual tone, it made everyone instinctively hold their breath.
“The numbers on it—the left side is the number of chips won by the anchors, and the right is the number of chips taken by the casino.”
After hearing this, everyone couldn’t help but be shocked.
This…
How did he reach that conclusion?
There was so much data up there—
Before anyone could figure out the answer, Wen Jianyan continued.
“According to my calculations, the casino adjusts the win rate every fifteen minutes—not lowering it, but raising it. After being raised, the gambler’s win rate can be as high as 88%. But after fifteen minutes, the win rate returns to normal.”
Wen Jianyan leaned forward slightly, propping his chin on his hand. He lifted his thin eyelids, his pair of light-colored eyes watching the people before him.
Without any preamble, he threw out the answer so casually, like a straight punch landing unexpectedly on everyone’s faces.
“Based on my understanding of casinos… it should be setting a bait.”
“By deliberately creating such situations, it accelerates the process of anchors getting addicted by tenfold, or even a hundredfold.”
“——!!!”
For the veteran guild members who were in frequent contact with Wen Jianyan, it was manageable. But for the newcomers who had just joined, this scene was quite unfamiliar.
Although they had long known about Wen Jianyan’s terrifying record of consecutive Platinum ranks and his direct ascent into Nightmare’s top ten, it always felt somewhat unreal… After all, in front of them, Wen Jianyan was always lazy, friendly, gentle, and even often looked helpless when being bullied by his own vice president.
So, when they truly faced this side of him, they couldn’t help but shudder, their hair standing on end.
…So this was Nightmare’s top ten.
To sniff out hidden clues that no one else could, to do terrifying things that no one else could.
Both terrifying and powerful.
“Wait, so the points we just won—?”
Ji Guan sucked in a sharp breath.
As if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head, the heat from being drunk on victory cooled down almost instantly.
Wen Jianyan nodded, confirming his thoughts: “Yes.”
“Holy shit…”
Blond’s eyes widened involuntarily.
He recalled what had just happened and couldn’t help but shiver. He hadn’t felt it while he was in the midst of it, but now, looking back from a distance, he was suddenly struck by the terror of it all, a chill running down his back.
Although the others hadn’t had a chance to touch the tables, they couldn’t help but feel a chill in their bones.
“But, what is Nightmare’s purpose in doing this?” Wen Ya frowned, her usual sharpness leading her to the key question. “If it’s just to get anchors addicted, it shouldn’t be this much trouble.”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, I’m not sure yet. But… whatever the answer is, it’s definitely not simple. If I’m not mistaken, the livestream tasks for the next few days will also be related to this.”
Although they could selectively accept private tasks, they couldn’t refuse public ones.
More critically, the price of refusal was very high.
Chen Mo pondered for a moment and said, “In that case, let’s get off the ship early.”
They were receiving these public tasks mainly because they were on the Lucky cruise ship. In other words, once they disembarked, the daily public tasks they received would no longer be related to any facilities on the ship.
“That’s what I was thinking too.”
Wen Jianyan nodded and stood up.
“You guys contact the butler to handle the disembarkation procedures. I’ll make up for the vacation time you missed later.”
“Wait, ‘you guys’?” Ma Qi tilted her head. “President, aren’t you planning to get off the ship?”
Wen Jianyan paused his movement.
As expected of a psychic, she’s sharp.
However, he had no intention of hiding it.
He nodded. “Right.”
“In five days, there will be an auction on the ship, and there’s something I want in it,” Wen Jianyan said. “So you guys can just disembark. I’ll meet you off the ship in five days.”
“…”
The entire private room fell into a dead silence.
A few seconds later, Wen Ya slowly said, “In that case, we have even more reason not to get off the ship.”
Wen Jianyan was taken aback and looked over.
“I think, this ‘modification’ by Nightmare,” Wen Ya sat upright on the sofa opposite him, her back straight, her face as beautiful and calm as ever, “is targeting you, President, isn’t it?”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
If it were anyone else, he might have been able to bluff his way through, but the problem was…
Wen Ya was different.
She had personally experienced the “Fantasy Amusement Park” instance. That meant, to some extent, she had also touched upon Nightmare’s core and was aware of Wen Jianyan’s wolfish ambitions… She had probably even guessed that the subsequent chain of events might be related to it.
“Mmm,” Chen Mo pondered for a moment and nodded. “Wen Ya is right. If Nightmare is targeting you, President, it would be easier to handle. We could just stay away from you. But the problem is, this reality show is being held in the anchor Hall. If it really has some kind of conspiracy, we’d be more vulnerable to being picked off one by one if we separate. That would be very dangerous. It’s safer to stay with the main culprit.”
Wen Jianyan: “?”
Easier to handle if it’s targeting me? Listen to yourself, are those words a human should say?
“Mmmhmm! That’s right!!” Ma Qi, beside him, nodded like a garlic-pounding pestle. “How could I not participate in such an important situation? Wouldn’t the vacant vice president’s throne be snatched away?”
She shot up to her feet and said solemnly, “I need to make a good impression and perform well in front of the President so I can strive for a promotion!!”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
“Don’t make me cancel your tickets!”
“You can’t,” Wen Ya said calmly. “I read the relevant rules before boarding. Once you board, the ticket is considered consumed. Even the person who paid for it cannot cancel it.”
“…………”
Wen Jianyan stared blankly at the people in front of him. After a long silence, he sighed helplessly. “Fine, do whatever you want.”
“Yay!!!” Ma Qi jumped up.
But perhaps because she had done too many burpees just now, as soon as she jumped, her face contorted and she fell back onto the sofa. “Ouch, ouch…”
“Since you’re all determined not to disembark, I’m going to set a few rules.”
Wen Jianyan pressed his temples, which were throbbing faintly, and said in a cold voice.
“First, for the next few days, apart from completing public tasks, you are absolutely forbidden from placing a single bet in the casino.”
The group nodded repeatedly. Ji Guan and Blond nodded even more vigorously.
“Second, as long as you’re on the ship, you cannot act alone. You must be in groups of at least three. Wen Ya, you’ll be with Kong Wei and Ji Guan. Chen Mo, you’ll be with Ma Qi and Blond. As for Chang Feiyu… I’ll decide which group to assign him to when I see him.”
The group nodded again.
“Finally, do not ignore my messages under any circumstances. I want you to reply instantly, understand?”
Soon, the three rules were established.
“Alright, for now, act according to the groups I just assigned.” Wen Jianyan sighed and leaned back on the sofa. “If I remember correctly, some of you still haven’t completed your public tasks and livestream hours, right? You can go and finish them.”
“What about you, President?”
“I’ll rest for a bit, then go find Chang Feiyu.”
Wen Jianyan waved his hand listlessly.
The group left the private room one by one.
Only Wen Ya hesitated and stayed behind.
“President.”
“Hm?” Wen Jianyan looked up.
“Your grouping method…” Wen Ya frowned. “Are you worried about Ji Guan and Blond?”
Separating the two and pairing them with others who hadn’t touched gambling at all was obviously the intention.
Wen Jianyan replied, “Yes.”
Wen Ya sighed. “…You should probably trust them a little more.”
“I think there’s something you should know. When I went to the gambling table to pull them away earlier, although they were indeed caught up in it, the moment they heard you were calling for them, they stopped everything and came with me immediately.”
At the end of the day, they were no longer newcomers.
After knowing the seriousness of the problem, it would be truly foolish to gamble again.
Although Ji Guan and Blond weren’t as experienced as Wen Ya and Chen Mo, they were still veteran anchors who could hold their own—they had brains, and they were loyal enough.
Wen Jianyan was silent for a long moment.
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps…” Wen Ya sighed softly. “President, you can also trust us a little more.”
With that, she turned and left the private room.
“…”
Wen Jianyan sat alone in the room, staring at the patterns on the ceiling.
Did he not trust Ji Guan and Blond?
No, in previous instances, they had already proven themselves to be trustworthy.
He just…
didn’t trust human nature.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and raised his hand to pull out his phone.
Top 10 Challenge in progress. The bright red [LIVE] next to it was piercing.
The countdown showed 34 hours remaining.
…In just over a day, the Top 10 Challenge would end, and the new top ten would be selected.
【55/300】
Wen Jianyan’s gaze rested on the numbers behind the challenge.
The number of challengers was three hundred.
Now, only 55 were still alive.
An elimination rate of nearly five-sixths.
“…Hoo.” Wen Jianyan let out a long, turbid breath and put his phone away.
Forget it, no use thinking about it.
Wen Jianyan stood up and left the private room.
The boisterous atmosphere of the casino rushed towards him, sweeping away the previous cold silence. He felt as if he were almost immediately enveloped in a vast, scorching living entity.
Alright, how to find Chang Feiyu now?
Though somewhat reluctant, Wen Jianyan still opened his phone, sighed, and sent a message to someone in his contact list.
Ten minutes later, a white-haired, black-eyed youth appeared before him.
“You were looking for me?”
His eyes were eerily black, but his expression held a hint of anticipation.
“Yeah…” Looking at the other’s pure, innocent face, Wen Jianyan’s teeth ached a little. “I actually… need your help with something…”
He was truly forced into a corner.
Wu Zhu couldn’t be of much help.
Although his own livestream was closed, other anchors’ were not. Even if Wu Zhu could make others ignore his presence, his actions would still be somewhat restricted—and the risk of being discovered by Nightmare was high, the cost too great. Using him was not worth the loss.
Furthermore, Wu Zhu’s temperament was too uncontrollable. If he found the person and then had a whim to kill them, Wen Jianyan would have a huge headache.
If he couldn’t use Wu Zhu, then the only one left to use was…
Bai Xue.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath. “I need you to help me find someone.”
“Okay.” Bai Xue agreed directly without a second thought.
In Bai Xue’s livestream chat:
“Baby, what’s wrong with you!! Why did you agree so easily!!”
“Ahhh! The way the anchor used to refuse others so decisively is how unhesitatingly he agrees to this liar… Sob, it feels like the precious daughter I worked so hard to raise has been tricked by a bad man from outside! It hurts so much!”
“What about this guy is so interesting to you! Remember how he just took the chips from the slot machine for himself and righteously refused you!”
“Then…” Bai Xue tilted his head.
Wen Jianyan sighed. “Play cards with you, right?”
Bai Xue nodded vigorously. “Mhm!”
Although his face was still expressionless, he somehow seemed very happy.
“Lastly,” Wen Jianyan was a little worried, “will this be a burden on your body?”
Bai Xue shook his head. “No.”
His talent was a passive skill. Countless “probabilities” were like threads that bound everyone. He could see them whether he activated his talent or not.
In other words, as long as he was alive, he would be semi-forced to use his talent, constantly approaching alienation and death—
This was less a talent and more a curse.
If it was just “looking,” the impact on his degree of alienation was minimal. However, if Bai Xue actively changed the probability of something, or seized the probability of others’ survival, the degree of alienation would deepen significantly.
Wen Jianyan sighed. “…Alright then.”
Bai Xue looked up, his pair of eyes appearing even more strangely black under the lights, like a black hole that could swallow all light. He seemed to be looking at Wen Jianyan before him, yet also seemed to be looking through him at something deeper, farther away.
Finally, after a few seconds, he retracted his gaze.
“Over there.”
Bai Xue raised his hand, pointing confidently in one direction.
“Thanks.”
Wen Jianyan breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in thanks.
Under Bai Xue’s guidance, he pushed forward with difficulty through the dense crowd.
The gambling tables and the crowds surrounding them were a great hindrance to his progress, but as Wen Jianyan continued forward, the surrounding crowd soon thinned out. Soon, the thick air of the casino seemed to be left behind, and it gradually became quiet around him.
Wen Jianyan looked up, and his heart was suddenly struck.
Not far away, in a corner without light or shadow, stood a familiar elevator.
The old, rusty iron door, the red velvet interior walls, the cold light, and the pale attendant standing behind the iron door with a smile on his face.
The other’s gaze seemed to fall on him through the gaps in the elevator door, like a silent inquiry.
【Going down?】
Just as Wen Jianyan was stunned, his shoulder was suddenly patted lightly.
He froze and subconsciously turned his head.
Light ash-blond hair, a sunny and cheerful face.
It was Chang Feiyu.
“President? What are you doing here?”
Wen Jianyan composed himself and withdrew his gaze. “I came to find you.”
“Find me?” Chang Feiyu was surprised for a moment, then quickly smiled. “That’s perfect!”
“As you know, I only recently transferred to your guild. Before joining, I belonged to a freelance mercenary association,” Chang Feiyu scratched his head, showing a slightly embarrassed smile. “To be honest, the president of our mercenary association is on the ship right now, and we just had a chat—he seems to be very fond of you. After knowing that I’m working under you now, he really wanted me to introduce you… I wonder if you’d be willing to meet him?”
Wen Jianyan froze. “Your former boss? He’s here?”
Chang Feiyu smiled. “Yes.”
He pointed not far away. “That person at that gambling table is him.”
Wen Jianyan followed the direction Chang Feiyu was pointing.
Not far away was a gambling table.
It was strange, but before Chang Feiyu pointed it out to Wen Jianyan, he didn’t seem to have noticed there was a table there.
More importantly…
The felt cloth covering the gambling table was not the usual green, but a blood-like scarlet.
Wen Jianyan’s heart sank.
It was the same as the gambling table Dan Zhu sat at before.
At the side of the table, a tall man sat with his back to him. Seemingly sensing Wen Jianyan’s gaze, the man turned around and looked in this direction.
“——!”
Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank.
Appearing before him was a familiar face.
A handsome, pale face, upturned, foxy eyes, and a faint smile on his lips. Even without saying anything, he gave off an inexplicably dangerous feeling.
It was him!
The man from Yuying Comprehensive University, who had been hired by the Oracle to follow him into the instance and had even used a weasel to ambush their team!
Wen Jianyan clearly remembered that this guy was skilled with a huge scimitar, was deeply calculating and malicious, would lie in wait for a long time when at a disadvantage, and would immediately retreat once he sensed the situation turning against him.
A very terrifying person.
If it weren’t for the fact that all of Orange Candy’s traitors were distrustful of each other… otherwise, the others might have really met their end in that classroom.
The moment he saw Wen Jianyan, the smile on the fox-eyed man’s lips deepened immediately.
He turned his head and whispered a few words to his companion, then stood up and walked over.
“…”
Wen Jianyan watched the other approach step by step, his shoulders slightly tense, as if contemplating something.
In just a dozen seconds, the fox-eyed man had come close. He shook his head, smiling as he stopped Chang Feiyu’s yet-to-begin introduction. “No need.”
Chang Feiyu paused and said no more.
He looked at Wen Jianyan with a smile, greeting him with a familiar attitude:
“Mr. Pinocchio, we meet again.”
Wen Jianyan didn’t reply.
“I didn’t get to introduce myself last time, my apologies—”
With that, the fox-eyed man leaned forward, a bright smile on his face, looking very detestable. Like a magic trick, a gilt business card appeared between his long, slender fingers.
“My name is Figaro.”
“The current president of Nightmare’s largest mercenary association.”
His gaze lingered on Chang Feiyu for a moment.
“I didn’t expect my former subordinate to choose to find employment with you… This is truly my honor.”
“…”
Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes, watching the other without a word. A few seconds later, he took the business card, glanced at it lightly, then opened his fingers.
The card fluttered down and landed on the carpet.
He let out a light laugh. “Is that so?”
Although the young man’s expression was lax and he was wearing a loose, casual floral shirt, he had a powerful aura that couldn’t be ignored. Standing with the well-dressed, dangerously charismatic Figaro, he didn’t seem to be at a disadvantage at all.
“I don’t see what’s so honorable about it.”
“What, didn’t Chang Feiyu tell you?”
Seemingly not annoyed by Wen Jianyan’s actions, Figaro blinked, showing a hurt expression:
“I have admired you for a long time.”
“—I’m something of a fan, you could say.”
Author’s Note:
Figaro’s first appearance is in Chapter 466.
