Hidden and Unreleased

Zhu Yan pricked up his ears.

"[Concealment]: This item can completely hide two key pieces of information within a specific event and use a larger event to divert others' attention, ensuring that the matter the user cares about will not be pursued in the short term."

The female voice broadcasted the instructions with a rhythmic cadence, pausing at just the right moment.

"The item can monitor specific events, but the user must manually input the key information they wish to delete."

"Once confirmed, it cannot be changed."

Zhu Yan found this novel.

He had never seen it before; to him, this thing was unprecedented.

The two key pieces of information that could be deleted were actually meant to be inputted by himself!

A mix of delight and secret thrill rushed through his heart.

This meant that if the inputted key information was appropriate, the item's effect would be even greater than he imagined.

Zhu Yan looked at the bustling morning rush hour traffic outside the car window, his brow unconsciously relaxing.

"The maximum delay time for the event is two years. The specific duration depends on what you input..."

"...and your subsequent efforts."

"Please continue, don't stop!"

Two years.

Zhu Yan curled his lips, unable to hold back a smile.

Two years was certainly best, but instances were constantly descending.

Under these circumstances, if he could delay it for three to six months, he could rest easy.

The taxi turned a corner, passing a brightly lit coffee shop that had opened early under a department store.

People with tired faces were rushing to their early shifts; everything looked perfectly normal.

But Zhu Yan knew that the reality he was in was being eroded by the [Carnival Paradise]. Just in the early hours of the morning, the first incident had already occurred in Anwu City.

Calculating at this rate, in three months, the police department would be overwhelmed with work.

By then, even if the [Concealment] item reached its time limit, they wouldn't have the energy to dwell on his old, trivial matters.

"The item has been automatically distributed to your phone. Please use it within two days."

Huh?

Phone?

"Don't rush, be patient," the female voice said.

Zhu Yan suppressed the urge to immediately take it out and look, planning to wait until the female voice finished broadcasting.

"I will continue to broadcast your remaining rewards."

"Player Level: Lv.2. Currently, you can withstand skill attacks from 75% of players."

This meant that among the closed beta players, 75% of them only had level 2 abilities.

Abilities were determined by a person's innate talent.

Was he really that much of a drama queen normally?

"[Acting] Ability Level: Lv.5. To progress from level 5 to level 6, you need 3 closed beta instances."

Zhu Yan was quite satisfied.

Looking on the bright side, for a player who had only cleared two instances, a level 5 ability was already good enough.

"[Complaining] Ability Level: Lv.4. Your aunt couldn't scold with such advanced vocabulary as having large intestines in her brain."

"[Bullying] Ability Level: Lv.2. Keep up the good work!"

Among the three abilities, the only one Zhu Yan hadn't used was [Bullying], and [Bullying] was also the only ability that hadn't leveled up.

It seemed that to level up an ability, one had to use it frequently.

"Reward broadcast complete. Good luck, player."

"See you next time."

The female voice disappeared, and Zhu Yan's world returned to tranquility.

Anwu City was huge; there were still 30 minutes before reaching his destination.

Zhu Yan couldn't wait to take out his phone and check. Sure enough, there was a change below the time display on the home screen.

There was a strange and eye-catching new app there.

On a light gold background, a delicate pattern of a black caged bird was drawn, with every feather of the bird looking lifelike.

Compared to other simply designed logos, it seemed to exist on a completely different layer.

Below the icon were four distinct red words: "Concealed and Unfired".

This distribution method was truly erratic and too novel.

Zhu Yan tapped to open the app, and the phone screen turned pale yellow.

Right in the center of the screen, the black caged bird flapped its wings rhythmically.

Zhu Yan stared at the icon for a moment.

Did this mean... it was loading?

A few seconds later, the bird's movements stopped, and several eye-catching lines of text popped up.

"Congratulations, lucky player."

"After monitoring, we have confirmed that you are in a predicament. The specific event is as follows."

So it was monitoring just now.

This was very interesting. Zhu Yan once again felt a sense of novelty.

His gaze eagerly moved down, and as expected, he saw the complete event description.

"Event [Illegal Absconding]: You deliberately hid your player identity, defied the official will, and left the eroded city, resulting in an inter-city pursuit by the police department."

Zhu Yan stared at the bright red words a few more times, confirming his previous guess.

The item from the [Carnival Paradise] also described the descent of the [Carnival Paradise] as "erosion."

What kind of scene would it be after the real world was completely eroded?

"Specific reason for pursuit: The police department believes that your escape might bring the erosion of the [Carnival Paradise] elsewhere, bringing a survival crisis to humans in other cities."

Fine. Zhu Yan helplessly leaned his head against the car window, letting the warmth of the sunlight slowly seep into his scalp.

If the police viewed those inexplicable sudden deaths as part of an epidemic, this concern was somewhat justifiable.

The subtitles let out a Shakespearean sigh.

"Injustice, thy name is Zhu Yan!"

Zhu Yan glanced at the driver and talked back in a voice too small to be heard.

"How are you doxing me? My name is Account Deleted."

The subtitles quite swiftly erased that line of text.

"After monitoring, a larger event with enough influence to cover up [Illegal Absconding] has currently occurred around you. The details are as follows."

"Event [Death of a Police Officer]: In the instance [Cat and Mouse Game] you experienced, a doppelganger ate half of a non-player police officer."

"[Carnival Paradise] does not provide non-player humans with the chance of resurrection or the benefit of ten minutes for last words, let alone the privilege of an [Intact Corpse]."

The red words pierced Zhu Yan's eyes, and a gloomy chill exploded at the top of his head.

When the female voice broadcasted earlier, he thought that police officer would be like the others, with a natural and peaceful state of death.

But!

If the police officer directly returned to the train in a state of having "half a body," and if such a scene was witnessed by the crowd outside the train, then it would be completely different.

Even if the situation was controlled externally, it would definitely attract considerable attention within the police department!

"This matter has already triggered a small-scale shockwave. Currently, its influence far exceeds the event [Illegal Absconding], enough to serve as a smokescreen for the event [Illegal Absconding]."

"Friendly reminder: These two events are not completely unrelated. On the contrary, they are intertwined and entangled, and the situation is complex."

"There is a high probability of triggering a chain reaction."

"Players are urged to seriously consider the information that needs to be concealed."

"In the later stages, the player needs to take active action and not give up."

Zhu Yan sat up straight, unconsciously leaning closer to the phone screen.

Do not give up.

Of course he wouldn't give up.

"The scope of information concealment includes: concealment of information data and blurring the memories of relevant individuals."

"Player, please input."

The pitch-black screen flickered, and all the text disappeared.

A blank cursor blinked on the screen, and the phone's keyboard popped up from the bottom.

Zhu Yan kept the page open, looked out the window, and pondered for a moment.

The taxi was stuck in traffic on the overpass, and Zhu Yan could see the hazy old city district in the distance.

Old-looking buildings were stacked layer upon layer, squeezed together haphazardly.

Some buildings were connected by covered bridges, just like the two incidents monitored by [Latent Concealment].

If the police department investigated the [Death of an Officer] incident, they would follow the clues to find out the reason for Guan En's business trip, thereby bringing to light the [Illegal Abscondence] incident.

The reason for Guan En's business trip was the [Illegal Abscondence] incident itself. This was not a single piece of information, so [Latent Concealment] couldn't erase it either.

Zhu Yan had no way to completely sever the connection between the two incidents using just two pieces of information.

This was an unavoidable thread!

All he could do was hide himself.