Chapter 21: Ruby Tavern
Still on East Cross Street, still in Tang Cuo’s small room with the broken window, Chi Yan, acting as a true warrior, faced the exact same scenario Wen Xiaoming had back then.
This was called Two Butchers and a Dinosaur Waiting to be Slaughtered.
“Tang-ge, listen to me explain—” Chi Yan was also feigning innocence, blinking his eyes rapidly in an attempt to garner the big boss’s pity. But Tang Cuo ruthlessly cut him off.
“Did I give you permission to speak?”
Chi Yan shrank his neck aggrievedly, but Tang Cuo’s face remained dark.
Just a moment ago on East Cross Street, after Jin Cheng showed off a little of his skill, no one dared to step forward and provoke them again. The veteran players retreated in droves, while the new players were so excited they almost pledged their allegiance to Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo on the spot.
Fortunately, the two reacted quickly. Grabbing Chi Yan, they ducked back into the building and managed to escape.
After a long while, Tang Cuo’s anger finally subsided slightly. “Speak.”
Chi Yan quickly explained, “I was tricked by them! A couple of days ago, I came to Zone F looking for you, but I couldn’t find you. Then I heard that a ‘Knife Gang’ had been formed here. When I asked around, they said the gang leader was you, Ge, so I joined!”
Hearing the words “Knife Gang,” Tang Cuo’s anger flared up again. It was Jin Cheng who smilingly stopped him, raising his chin slightly to signal, “Keep going.”
Chi Yan: “Well, honestly, everyone just didn’t want to be exploited by the veteran players anymore. Once someone led the resistance, others responded. Plus, we had weapons! The supermarket knives work really well!”
Tang Cuo’s meat cleaver had truly pointed everyone toward a bright path. Under the premise that new players generally lacked self-defense weapons, even though supermarket kitchen knives had no bonus stats, a knife was still a knife!
“We also bought a lot of pepper, chili powder, water guns, fishing rods, all sorts of things! We’ve fought many times these past few days. Although we lost most of them, we have new people joining every day!” As he spoke, Chi Yan even started feeling proud. “And today, with you two stepping in, Tang-ge, it’s a sure win!”
Sure win, my ass.
Tang Cuo hadn’t expected that new players would actually form a gang under his name. Forming a gang was one thing, but they had chosen such a tacky, terrible name. And this Chi Yan, despite his young age, actually dared to step up and rally the crowd. Wasn’t he afraid of getting his arms broken?
Jin Cheng was quite interested in him and asked, “Those lines you shouted just now were pretty smooth. What did you do before?”
Chi Yan instantly looked a bit embarrassed. Scratching his head, he blushed and said, “Hehe, I used to build guilds in online games, and I also loved participating in group activities at school. Just now, I got fired up and just shouted a few words.”
Tang Cuo didn’t think he had “just shouted a few words.” Those lines hit all the right points and were highly inflammatory. Even if Chi Yan wasn’t a genius, he was definitely a twisted talent.
“You’re not from Zone F?” Tang Cuo asked.
“I was assigned to Zone E.” Chi Yan nodded. “There aren’t many new players in Zone E, and I didn’t see anyone I recognized. I was a bit scared being alone, so I came over looking for you. By the way, Ge, are you a new player too? That move you did just now was amazing, absolutely badass!”
That last half sentence was directed at Jin Cheng.
Jin Cheng acted exceptionally friendly. “I’m Jin Cheng. I’m not a new player; I just happen to know your Tang-ge.”
Hearing this, Chi Yan originally wanted to call him “Jin-ge,” but “Jin-ge” sounded a bit like Guo Jing, so he simply called him “Cheng-ge.” Cheng-ge was a great guy. Not only did he agree to let Chi Yan stay, but he also let him sleep in the room next door.
In just a short moment, Jin Cheng’s status in Chi Yan’s heart soared, directly chasing Tang Cuo’s.
“By the way, Ge, have you seen that little girl?” Chi Yan grew slightly more serious, frowning with the air of a little adult. “I’ve searched in Zone E and Zone F, but I couldn’t find her anywhere. She’s so small and stands out so much. With Evernight City being like this, I’m afraid something might happen to her.”
Tang Cuo also remembered the bald little girl. She hadn’t escaped cancer, nor had she escaped Evernight City. With four or five days having passed, it was hard to say what might have happened to her.
Jin Cheng then asked, “What kind of person is she?”
Chi Yan quickly told him everything he knew. Jin Cheng thought for a moment and said, “In Evernight City’s evaluation system, your rank represents your survival capability, while points represent your performance. Having a high survival capability doesn’t necessarily mean good performance; the two aren’t equivalent. From Zone F to Zone A, although the condition for promotion is points, the core is actually the rank. If the little girl you mentioned really died from cancer and is very young, it means her survival capability won’t be very strong. She was most likely assigned to Zone F.”
What Jin Cheng said basically aligned with Tang Cuo’s deduction. His own assignment to Zone F, aside from the negative points debuff, was probably also due to Mr. Crow. Just like how Jin Cheng was punished by being sent back to Zone F.
Chi Yan didn’t quite understand. “But if she’s in Zone F, how come there’s been no news of her for several days? She can’t be hiding in her room all the time, she has to eat!”
“Maybe she’s already dead.” Jin Cheng said this with exceptional lightness.
Chi Yan choked, involuntarily looking toward Tang Cuo.
Tang Cuo was deep in thought. “What’s the difference between dying in Evernight City and dying in an instance?”
This was what Jin Cheng liked most about Tang Cuo. He was very smart, and his questions always hit the nail on the head. “There are seven major zones in Evernight City. A through F only make up six zones. Take a guess what the last one is.”
Chi Yan obediently shook his head.
Jin Cheng: “It’s the prison. When you first entered the game, you should have all heard the system say a phrase: Evernight City’s First Law—Survival is Justice. Any player who dies within Evernight City violates this law of justice. Whether you lack the capability to survive or the courage to survive, you will be punished.”
“What about the people who kill? The murderers?” Chi Yan’s eyes widened. “The murdered are guilty, but the murderers are fine?”
Jin Cheng spread his hands, a smile lingering on his lips. “This is Evernight City.”
Chi Yan was shocked to silence. For a hot-blooded teenager like him, such a reality was hard to accept. And if that little girl had been thrown into prison, it was even harder to swallow.
“Then can I go look for her in the prison?” he asked quickly.
“The warden of Zone G is a psycho that even I don’t dare provoke easily. If you feel you’re living too comfortably, you can go wander in front of him.”
Hearing Jin Cheng say this, Chi Yan inevitably felt a bit deterred. But thinking of the little girl, Chi Yan couldn’t bear it. Fortunately, being locked in prison was only a guess; Chi Yan felt he could still keep looking.
Following that, the three brought the topic back to the Knife Gang. Tang Cuo had absolutely zero desire to be the spokesperson for this ridiculous kitchen-themed gang, but Jin Cheng held a different opinion.
“Having a faction like this is pretty good, but the name has to be changed.” Jin Cheng enthusiastically taught Chi Yan the ropes, and Chi Yan listened with immense interest, nodding repeatedly.
Tang Cuo didn’t participate in the discussion at all. Only after Chi Yan had received Jin Cheng’s true teachings and was sent out to handle the specific operations did he speak up to ask, “Why let him stay?”
Standing by the window, overlooking Chi Yan blending back into the crowd of newbies, Jin Cheng said, “The two of us are too conspicuous in Zone F. We need an even more conspicuous existence.”
Tang Cuo raised an eyebrow. “The only one who’s conspicuous is you.”
“That’s not true.” Jin Cheng chuckled, leaning against the window frame and looking back. “I wasn’t the one who started hacking people with a kitchen knife.”
“It was a meat cleaver.”
“Aren’t they both kitchen utensils?”
Tang Cuo didn’t bother responding.
Jin Cheng then regained some seriousness. “There’s one thing I didn’t lie to you about: I really do have a lot of enemies. Although people from the high-level zones rarely come down to the low-level zones, news of me being here definitely won’t stay hidden, especially since I’ve already made a move just now. To be safe, we need to find two permanent teammates, otherwise the higher we go, the more dangerous it gets.”
After a brief thought, Tang Cuo understood what he meant. People from different zones couldn’t do missions together, but that didn’t mean Jin Cheng’s enemies couldn’t mess with them inside instances. They could bribe others.
Theoretically, as long as they kept a close eye on the two of them and accepted missions at the exact same time, there was a chance they could be assigned to the same instance.
“But why do I have to team up with you?” Tang Cuo asked sincerely.
“Because you still owe me money,” Jin Cheng answered him just as sincerely.
Tang Cuo instantly became expressionless, turning around to walk back to the bed to prepare for sleep. Watching him take items out of the supermarket plastic bag one by one, and then shove the meat cleaver under his pillow, Jin Cheng said, “Are you planning to murder your instructor in the middle of the night?”
Tang Cuo looked back. “I’m more curious as to why you’re still here in the middle of the night.”
Jin Cheng spread his hands. “Because I gave the room next door to Chi Yan.”
Tang Cuo: “Does that have anything to do with me?”
Jin Cheng: “If I say it does, it does.”
Tang Cuo wanted to fight him.
Forget it, I can’t win.
Eighteen-year-old Tang Cuo would have fearlessly attacked and then been pinned to the ground and rubbed into the dirt by his instructor. Twenty-four-year-old Tang Cuo had already begun to prioritize planning before acting—like launching a sneak attack in the middle of the night while he was asleep.
Jin Cheng narrowed his eyes. Intuition told him Tang Cuo was thinking about something not very nice, just like back in the military camp. Da Li and the others used to constantly tease Jin Cheng, saying he’d capsize in a ditch sooner or later and get usurped by a rookie. But Jin Cheng didn’t care.
He felt Tang Cuo was like a little tiger—the kind that would sooner or later become the king of the beasts. Other people teased cats; he teased a tiger. How badass was that?
However, in the end, Jin Cheng still didn’t sleep in Tang Cuo’s room. He was afraid of getting bitten by the tiger and having nowhere to get a rabies shot. He didn’t tell Tang Cuo where he was going either; he simply walked out of the room, went downstairs, and left East Cross Street.
Tang Cuo stood by the window watching, his gaze distant.
Half an hour later, at the Ruby Tavern in Zone F.
Amidst the jingling of the wind chime, Jin Cheng pushed the door open and walked in. He greeted the waiter waiting by the door with familiar ease. “One signature brandy. Is your boss in?”
The waiter, wearing a clean, neat Western-style uniform, was polite and courteous. “He is, sir. Private Room 19.”
Jin Cheng nodded and headed straight for Room 19.
This tavern was different from the other small ones. It featured typical Baroque styling—luxurious, ostentatious, with the scent of money permeating every corner. Correspondingly, the prices on the menu were exorbitant; even a regular glass of beer cost a quarter of a player’s point.
There were hardly any customers in the tavern.
Jin Cheng waited in Room 19 for a while before the door opened. A long-haired man dressed just as luxuriously as the interior decor walked in. His facial features were bewitching, with upturned phoenix eyes, and his purple suit made him stand out uniquely.
“I was just betting with Black Hat the day before yesterday, wondering what big scheme you were quietly working on lately. Turns out you got knocked back down to Zone F again?” He casually slid a glass of liquor over to Jin Cheng. On his thumb was a ruby ring, red as blood.
“Why do you people have so much nonsense to say all day long? Were you all mutes in your past lives?” Jin Cheng took the glass and took a sip, his tone mocking yet cold.
The other party didn’t mind, leaning back against the booth in a lazy posture. “Speak. What did you look for me for? You can’t possibly be interested in Zone F, right?”
“Why can’t I be interested? I want all current intelligence on players and missions in Zone F, the more complete the better. Focus on two people: one named An Ning, the other named Chi Yan.”
“Is your brain broken?”
“Just tell me if you have it or not.”
“Of course I have the intel. The Ruby Tavern never ruins its own reputation. But I really want to know why. Last time you were punished and sent back to Zone F, you only stayed for a week before leaving. What do you need so much intelligence for?”
Swirling his glass, Jin Cheng asked in return, “You want to fish for information from me? What’s the price?”
The other party smiled. “I’ll give you a twenty percent discount.”
“Half off.”
“Are you the merchant or am I the merchant? You’re bargaining harder than I am.”
“Didn’t you know? People from Suzhou always cut the price in half.”
“Isn’t your ancestral home Beijing?”
“Oh, my disciple has arrived. He’s from Suzhou.”
“Do you think I don’t dare kick you out?”
The other party was nearly infuriated into laughter by Jin Cheng’s twisted logic for bargaining. However, Jin Cheng’s words did reveal an important piece of information. He pondered how much truth there was to this “disciple.” Finally, he said straightforwardly, “I’ll give you half off. Two hundred points.”
Jin Cheng set down his glass. “Deal.”
“I’ll put the word out. As long as it’s my territory, if anyone sees this disciple of yours, they’ll give him three points of courtesy. But you have to tell me which one is your disciple.”
“You’ll know soon enough.”
“Will you die if you stop being so protective? Are you a mother hen?”
“None of your fucking business.”
Jin Cheng tossed back the last mouthful of liquor, set down the glass, and left without another word. He came with style and left with style, leaving the other party both angry and speechless.
Halfway out, he turned back and ordered like a big shot, “Remember to have the stuff sent to me at East Cross Street.”
Answering him was a glass flying through the air. Jin Cheng tilted his head to dodge it. With a loud crash, the glass smashed against a pillar. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, gone just like that.
Jin Cheng shrugged. It wasn’t his money being smashed anyway, so he didn’t feel the slightest bit of heartache.
Leaving the Ruby Tavern, he returned to East Cross Street.
The people on the street had dispersed, and most of the windows of the houses facing the street were tightly shut. Occasionally, a few people would peek out, only to quickly pull their heads back in. But if one looked closely, they would discover several pairs of eyes hidden in corners all around, secretly spying on everything.
Among these eyes were the results of Chi Yan’s real-world application of Jin Cheng’s teachings. The so-called Knife Gang was, in the end, just a loosely gathered pile of loose sand, far from truly establishing a foothold. Being able to hold onto East Cross Street was already impressive enough.
As for the other spying eyes, they came from further away.
News regarding East Cross Street rippled outward through the night. Some of it faded into silence, while some of it stirred up waves.
In a split-level apartment in Zone F close to the central district, a man fell straight out of his hammock. Clutching his rear, he asked, “What did you say?”
“It’s a man with a scar on his face.”
“Handsome or ugly?”
“Uh… handsome.”
“Fuck.”
The man cursed in a low voice, pacing back and forth in the room. After a moment, he gritted his teeth and said, “Have people keep an eye on him. Unless necessary, don’t provoke him for now. Also, tell An Ning and the others to get ready to do a mission and rank up to Zone E.”
