Chapter 692: Let me clarify
The sudden, ear-piercing mechanical noise rang out through the entire live broadcast room. Viewers who had been eagerly anticipating the room’s reopening stared dumbfounded at the text on the screen, almost unable to believe their ears.
What did “Livestream room signal reconnection failed” mean?
What did “Livestream room image lost” mean?
They understood the meaning of every single word and phrase, but strung together, they formed a completely incomprehensible sentence.
[Aren’t the people already in the frame? How can the livestream room fail to open? What the hell is Nightmare doing?]
[Also, did the guy following beside the anchor just glance in the direction of the camera? My eyes weren’t playing tricks on me just now, right?]
In the live broadcast room, the viewers were messy with doubts, guesses, and arguments, unable to reach a consensus. However, regardless of whether they understood the current situation, the fact that the [Integrity First] livestream room could not be reopened was undeniable. Thus, they unanimously chose another method—
[Hurry, go to the neighboring livestream rooms! Their streams are still running!]
[Right, right, watching from another perspective is still watching!]
And so, viewers eager to see more of Pinocchio swarmed into the livestream rooms of the other participants present. In the blink of an eye, the online viewer count in Chen Mo, Ji Guan, and Blond’s room began to skyrocket, instantly jumping to the top of the rankings.
However, these anchors seemed entirely unconcerned about this.
They had already focused all their spirit, all their attention, entirely on the figure approaching from not far away.
“Pre… President?”
Blond looked astonished, involuntarily taking a few steps forward and murmuring uncertainly. His gaze stayed fixed for a long time on that familiar face, seemingly confirming something.
Finally, the rims of his eyes suddenly turned red, his voice taking on a sobbing tone, and his pace abruptly quickened:
“President—”
However, before Blond could run more than a few steps, he was violently yanked back by Ji Guan, whose body had recovered:
“Wait!”
“Eh…?”
Blond stumbled from the pull. His expression, on the verge of crying, was frozen on his face, looking pitiful yet comical.
Ji Guan’s fingers tightened, digging dead into Blond’s arm. Even as Blond grimaced in pain, Ji Guan didn’t loosen his grip. His expression was gloomy and exceptionally grave, his vigilant and hostile gaze fixed firmly on the man standing beside Wen Jianyan:
“That ‘person’ is not right.”
As a medium, he could clearly sense the bizarre and terrifying aura emanating from the other—even from this distance, it still made his hair stand on end and sent a chill down his back.
Ji Guan’s calculating gaze shifted to Wen Jianyan. His lips moved, lowering his voice:
“We have to find a way to get the President away from that guy—”
Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Chen Mo: “It’s fine.”
“……” Ji Guan was taken aback by his tone and couldn’t help turning his head to look at him.
What kind of reaction was this?
Isn’t this a bit too calm?
“Did you forget? I mentioned it to you before.” Speaking up to here, Chen Mo’s expression suddenly seemed to become somewhat complicated. He paused, looking hesitant to speak. “This is the President’s, uh, ally.”
Ji Guan froze, the fingers that had been digging into Blond’s wrist involuntarily loosening.
Only then did he finally remember that Chen Mo had indeed mentioned the existence of this “ally” before—it was just that the time the other had appeared hadn’t coincided with him, so he had never seen him with his own eyes—
Seemingly thinking of something, Ji Guan revealed an expression as if he had seen a ghost:
“Holy shit, so the President’s weird fetish is catching—”
“?!” Startled, Chen Mo abruptly stepped forward and tightly covered Ji Guan’s loose, gossipy mouth.
While the two were tangled up, Wen Jianyan had already walked over from not far away.
“……What?”
He looked at the several people opposite him suspiciously.
Ji Guan: “Mmph mmph mmph mmph?”
“Nothing.” Chen Mo tightened his fingers, revealing a slightly stiff smile. “Just too pleasantly surprised to see you, President.”
At this moment, Blond finally broke free from his constraints. Like a wild horse slipping its reins, he dashed toward Wen Jianyan, whimpering:
“President, we missed you so much—”
Wen Jianyan stumbled from his charge. He struggled to raise his hand, patting his back comfortingly:
“Alright, alright…”
Blond sobbed: “I haven’t seen you in so long, President—”
Not far away, after giving Ji Guan a warning glare, Chen Mo finally let him go.
He took a deep breath, pinched the bridge of his nose, and stepped forward.
Looking at Wen Jianyan, who was being held so tightly by Blond that he couldn’t move, Chen Mo raised an eyebrow, seemingly thinking of something:
“It has indeed been a long time.”
Wen Jianyan: “……”
Suddenly, he had an ominous premonition.
Sure enough, Chen Mo’s calm and plain voice continued:
“President, do you know how long it’s been since you returned to the Guild? Do you know how many Guild affairs I’ve handled and how much overtime I’ve worked during this period?”
Wen Jianyan: “…………”
He smiled awkwardly: “Haha, sorry, I’ll pay double—no, triple overtime for this period—”
“Oh, come on, don’t listen to him act pitiful,” Ji Guan interrupted. He quickly stepped forward, glaring at Chen Mo with a sneer, seemingly expressing his dissatisfaction with the other’s rough gagging just now. “He’s just born to toil, he deserves it. Even if he gets nothing, he’d still work with enthusiasm.”
“President, but you,”
Next, Ji Guan’s gaze landed on Wen Jianyan, his brows furrowing in worry:
“We haven’t seen you in so long, how did you lose so much weight.”
“When we get back,” Ji Guan leaned in closer, lowering his voice. The fierce, cold expression from earlier had completely vanished, leaving only the appearance of an overly worried mother hen. “I’ve researched a lot of new baking flavors recently. Don’t worry, when the others asked for some, I didn’t give them a single one. I saved them all for you…”
Although the emotions of the other two weren’t as outwardly expressive as Blond’s, what they expressed through their words and eyes was no less than his.
“……”
Wu Zhu stood in place, watching the heavily surrounded Wen Jianyan, his golden eyes flickering for a second.
“?!”
Blond shuddered. Even though he was still in a state of overjoyed excitement, he nonetheless raised his head with the agility of a small animal, looking left and right in a panic.
Wen Jianyan kept smiling and making conversation, then seemingly inadvertently turned his head, casting a light, breezy glance at Wu Zhu.
Wu Zhu: “……”
Unwillingly, he withdrew his gaze.
In the livestream room, the viewers watching all this helplessly fell into a subtle silence.
[……]
[No, what kind of ally has this kind of interaction dynamic?]
[Bro, are you guys kidding?]
[Hurry up, bring out the clips from the previous instances and play them!! It’s fine to deceive others, but don’t deceive yourselves, okay?]
“Alright.”
Wen Jianyan raised his hands and peeled Blond off himself. His expression turned serious, bringing the topic to the main business. “We can catch up later—first, tell me, what exactly happened just now, and why were you so heavily injured?”
As soon as these words came out, the previously relaxed atmosphere instantly turned heavy.
Chen Mo’s expression darkened: “It was Gentleman.”
“What…?” Wen Jianyan paused, seemingly not expecting the other to give such a surprising answer. After realizing the seriousness of the matter, his eyes couldn’t help but grow solemn. “But, I thought he had already—”
“Died, yes.” Chen Mo nodded, taking over the conversation. “Gentleman’s livestream room has been closed, and his name has been permanently removed from the leaderboards.”
His eyes flickered, and after deliberating for a long time, he said:
“In fact, I don’t think the ‘thing’ that appeared in front of us was Gentleman himself.”
Wen Jianyan took a step forward, pressing: “Explain in detail?”
During Chen Mo’s recounting, he listened quietly without saying a word, his eyelids slightly lowered, casting deep shadows over his face, his thoughts unknown.
Soon, Chen Mo’s narration ended.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and looked up: “Okay, I think I understand… thank you.”
“So, do you know what this situation is?” Ji Guan frowned slightly, asking.
“Not yet.”
Wen Jianyan shook his head.
“But I think the answer will probably be delivered to us very soon.”
After all, no matter what Nightmare intended, its target was him. It probably wouldn’t be long before their paths crossed.
“Speaking of which,” Wen Jianyan asked, “where did the others go?”
“Chen Cheng is on his way to find Bai Xue. Orange Candy and Wen Ya have already regrouped.” Chen Mo quickly and simply summarized the current situation where everyone in the instance was wanted, as well as their assessment of the number of floors in the instance. “But we’re probably not on the same floor as them.”
Wen Jianyan nodded, quickly understanding their current situation.
He commanded concisely: “Send a message to the others, tell them all to find the elevator on their respective floors and maintain timely contact.”
“Okay.” Chen Mo lowered his head to type the message.
Meanwhile, Ji Guan stepped forward and pressed the elevator’s open button.
“Speaking of which, there’s one more thing.” Ji Guan seemed to remember something. He touched his wrist where the wound should have been, his gaze falling on Wu Zhu, probing tentatively, “Just now… was it your friend who healed us?”
“Yes.”
Wen Jianyan nodded.
“Then this is truly…” Ji Guan looked at Wu Zhu in amazement. Even though he still felt uncomfortable with the aura emanating from this guy, he was no longer repulsed. “Badass.”
With lingering fear, he touched the spot on his chest that used to be a wound.
“Thank you very much, uh…”
He hesitated, trying to address the other,
“The President’s ally?”
“Wu Zhu,” Wen Jianyan introduced.
Ding. The elevator arrived.
Accompanied by the harsh sound of colliding metal, the elevator doors opened to both sides.
But Wen Jianyan didn’t walk in immediately.
“Actually,” he stood in place, looking at the three people in front of him, and paused, “I heard what you were saying just now.”
Although he hadn’t heard the whole thing, a few keywords were enough to fill in the rest of the content. This wasn’t a difficult task for Wen Jianyan.
“?!”
Hearing this, all three of them jolted.
They all drew in a sharp breath of cold air, looking at Wen Jianyan in inexplicable panic.
“I don’t know what rumors you guys are spreading in private,” Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, speaking seriously and solemnly. “But I must clarify, I do not have any weird fetishes in my private life!”
Hearing this, the three exchanged glances and subtly let out a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, all of this really was just a rumor.
They also hoped the President could speak openly and clearly with the others like this later, otherwise, given the current situation, it was truly a bit too easy for people to misunderstand—
However, before they had time to put their hearts back in their chests, they saw the young man in front of them flash a look in his eyes and turn his face away somewhat unnaturally:
“Secondly,”
He cleared his throat:
“Uh… the two of us, well…”
“We are indeed trying out dating.” The young man’s eyes flickered. “Saying he’s my boyfriend is… not wrong.”
In the empty corridor.
Chen Cheng, with a gloomy face, walked briskly through the corridor.
Un-dried blood splattered on his collar and the side of his face, clearly indicating he had already encountered several attacks.
He lowered his eyes, his gaze landing on his phone screen.
It displayed the words “Call in progress,” but a busy tone came from the receiver.
Like this again, like this again!!
Chen Cheng hung up the phone, gritting his teeth.
Ever since sending him the word “No” in the group chat at the very beginning, there had been no movement whatsoever from Bai Xue’s side. He wouldn’t answer calls or reply to messages, acting as if he had vanished into thin air!
What the hell!
Obviously, that guy himself was the one who gave the prophecy “Going alone means death.” Yet, unexpectedly, once they really entered the instance, he acted so uncooperative, to the point that Chen Cheng couldn’t help but doubt himself slightly…
Was he really that annoying?
It shouldn’t be!
Just as Chen Cheng was frowning, looking down and pondering the contents of his phone, suddenly, he seemed to feel something and slammed to a halt.
“……”
Chen Cheng raised his head, his gaze cold and stern, staring dead into the depths of the corridor.
The darkness was a blur, making it seem impossible to see anything clearly, yet he knew… he was not alone.
Tap, tap, tap.
Accompanied by footsteps approaching from afar, a tall figure gradually emerged into the light.
A straight figure, tired eyes, one hand hanging by his side, slender fingers holding an unlit cigarette.
……Hugo.
He frowned slightly, staring at Chen Cheng not far away, seemingly not expecting to cross paths with him.
“Ha, I was wondering who it was. So it’s you.” Chen Cheng raised one eyebrow, resting his pitch-black Tang Dao on his shoulder, letting out a clear, loud sneer. “I truly didn’t expect our famous Hugo would actually specifically pick on someone who’s alone as an opponent—isn’t this a trick only petty lackeys would choose?”
“……” Hugo remained silent, staring at him intently.
His brow pressed heavily over his eyes, which flickered deep within the shadows, his thoughts unknown.
Soon, Hugo lowered his eyes. He took a step forward, walking straight in Chen Cheng’s direction.
Tap, tap, tap.
The footsteps drew closer.
As the man’s figure became clearer under the light, an invisible pressure closed in.
Chen Cheng narrowed his eyes, the muscles on his shoulders and back tensing up like a wolf or leopard.
However, Hugo did not assume a combat stance. Right before brushing past him, he merely turned his face slightly, his voice calm and indifferent:
“You are not the one I am looking for.”
Chen Cheng was stunned at first, then quickly let out a scoffing laugh: “No shit.”
He shrugged lazily. “Aren’t all of you looking for Pinocchio?”
The true target to be hunted down in this instance was Pinocchio.
The “red dots” marked by Nightmare were nothing more than “secondary targets” that had to be killed to achieve the “main objective.”
Hugo gave him a long, steady look: “Indeed.”
“Only by completing the secondary objective, killing me—or the other red dots on the map—will Nightmare provide Pinocchio’s location information,” Chen Cheng narrowed his eyes, his tone carrying glaring mockery, emphasizing the word “you”. “But you won’t fight me because I’m alone, and this doesn’t align with your ‘creed’ or ‘principles’… Right?”
“……”
Hugo still didn’t say anything, merely tacitly acknowledging it calmly.
“That works out fine then.” Chen Cheng tugged at the corners of his lips, sneering. “Letting you go doesn’t align with my principles either.”
Just letting Hugo leave here, allowing the other to let him off with the excuse of “not wanting to bully the weak,” and then letting him go kill his other teammates?
Chen Cheng couldn’t do that.
Hugo stood not far away. The cold light fell from above, hitting his hard-lined profile. Under the light, his deep gray eyes presented a ruthless, inhuman quality.
He spoke slowly:
“Commendable courage. But you cannot defeat me.”
“Oh, really?”
Chen Cheng held the pitch-black Tang Dao, the sharp edge of the blade reflected in his eyes, and gave a wild, arrogant laugh.
“Who knows unless we actually fight?”
“Could it be that you’re scared, old man.”
__
Author’s Note:
Wen Jianyan: To clarify, we are indeed dating.
