This place felt far more welcoming than the outside. The doors inside were no longer cold steel, but beautifully painted reddish-brown wood, and there were far fewer rooms.
The chef pushing the food cart carefully checked the room numbers and finally stopped in front of Room 2320.
Besides the keypad lock installed on the wooden door, there was also a slightly lower card reader beside it.
The chef pressed his wristband against the reader. A short door popped open from the wall, revealing an enclosed space just large enough to fit the food cart.
Zhu Yan was pushed inside along with the cart. The door clicked shut, and he heard the chef respectfully press the meal-delivery bell three times from outside.
Footsteps sounded from within the room.
A few seconds later, the door on the other side of the small compartment opened. A hand reached through the invisible state of [Mist], grabbed the cart, and dragged it out.
“What a hassle.” That was Jin Rongxu’s voice. “I still can’t leave. Damn it…”
As Jin Rongxu moved, Zhu Yan’s vision brightened.
As he had expected, Qiu Lingxiao was not here.
This was a fairly luxurious living room. A crystal chandelier swayed gently, casting beautiful patches of light across a set of soft sofas.
The Seer was actually sitting in one corner of the sofa.
She was still wearing the same white clothes. Her expression was grave, and cold sweat had soaked a strand of hair until it clung tightly to her face.
“Fuck, there’s nothing here.”
Jin Rongxu lifted the silver lid. Today’s appetizer was a spicy minced-chicken flatbread.
He grabbed a piece and ate without much grace.
“…There isn’t even a decent woman here. Just you, this…”
For once, the Seer did not argue with Jin Rongxu.
The soles of her shoes rubbed restlessly against the carpet.
Even though the rich aroma of the food had filled the entire living room, she did not spare it a glance.
“My mind feels like it’s stuck together with glue.” She suddenly stood up and began pacing irritably. “I can’t see him. Now… I can’t even see the faintest outline of him!”
Probably because he had stacked the [Invisibility] ability.
Clinging to the ceiling, Zhu Yan thought gleefully.
“That’s your own problem,” Jin Rongxu said indifferently. “You keep saying that the outcome of the instance’s descent has already been decided, yet you’re this uneasy.”
“Miss Seer, if you keep acting like this, I won’t leave the [Prophecy] ability with you anymore.”
The Seer sat down again.
“No,” she said. “I just feel that something is wrong. I keep feeling that something is wrong. Think about it. If you really intercepted him, then why would the instance descend in the end?”
“If you really intercepted him, then why can I still know that he’ll strike the central control room and the routers in places where crowds gather?”
Jin Rongxu was unconcerned.
“Didn’t you say you couldn’t see him?”
He poured himself half a small glass of red wine as he spoke.
“If you can’t see him, then it’s only natural that you can’t see the outcome of him being intercepted.”
The Seer said nothing.
“Besides,” Jin Rongxu continued, “if we didn’t intercept him, then why has the scene of my eventual victory never changed?”
Wow. What confidence.
On the ceiling, [Mist] twisted itself into the shape of a question mark.
How could a person change so much in such a short time?
Anyone who didn’t know better would think that the Jin Rongxu who had been drenched in cold sweat and terrified in front of Director Jin earlier had already died.
“The Hunter is so elusive, and who knows how many things he has that I know nothing about. Miss Seer…” He turned back toward the sofa, a confident smile on his face. “To tell you the truth, if we haven’t caught him, then with my current abilities, I can’t say for certain that I could beat him.”
The Seer opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Zhu Yan could tell that she was doing her best to suppress the urge to snap back at Jin Rongxu.
“Then what about the instance’s descent?” the Seer asked at last. “What you’re saying is logically possible, but how do you explain the instance descending?”
Jin Rongxu raised an eyebrow.
“I think your mind is completely muddled now.”
“If the open-beta instance doesn’t descend, how am I supposed to obtain the Hunter’s abilities?”
The Seer was startled by his undisguised ambition and audacious choice of words.
“You mean that, for your own sake, you’d rather let the open-beta instance descend here?”
Jin Rongxu neither confirmed nor denied it.
“Don’t look at it that way. There’s a fairly high probability that [Madcap Paradise] will force its way in.”
The Seer stood up again. “In your mind, there’s a fairly high probability that you threatened the Hunter into cooperating with you—”
“Shut up!”
Jin Rongxu shouted. A sinister smile twisted across his face.
“You’re so confused that I can’t even read your thoughts clearly.”
“You get to enjoy everything here purely because of your ability! If you’re so confused that you can’t even see the next step, then why should I keep you alive?”
The Seer no longer had the energy to argue with Jin Rongxu.
“Looks like you’re certain of victory,” she said. “Fine. I’m going to sleep for a while. I really…”
Rubbing her head, she walked into one of the rooms and closed the door.
Jin Rongxu sat down on the sofa, lost in thought.
Only after a long while did he let out a mocking laugh.
“With precautions this thorough… How could he possibly succeed?”
Looking down at him from the ceiling, Zhu Yan thought it might be better to wait before making his move.
Wait until Director Jin reopened the shelter’s entrance. Wait until Captain Zheng changed shifts with Zhu Zeyu upstairs.
That way, Zhu Zeyu would have a perfect alibi. The instance could even descend simultaneously in the crowded examination room, throwing everyone off the scent.
…
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
A strand of [Mist] followed Captain Zheng all the way to the corridor outside Director Jin’s office.
This corridor was likewise sealed off by a steel door, though security was not as strict, and relatively more people passed in and out.
Zhu Yan quickly found an opening and slipped inside the office behind a mid-level administrator.
“As you instructed, I’ve made thorough preparations.”
This man’s posture and gait were both extremely rigid, as if he were from the military.
“Not just around the dormitories. Every place where residents gather is being watched around the clock.”
“Oh, and one more thing. As you instructed, we’ve stationed quite a few elite personnel in the rooms on this floor.”
A faint smile appeared on Director Jin’s face.
“Have them reopen the shelter entrance,” he said calmly. “Hopefully, that boy won’t escape this time.”
…
An hour later, Zhu Zeyu received a private message from Captain Zheng informing him that the shift change was ready.
Following Captain Zheng’s instructions, he led three [Walking Corpses] toward Director Jin’s office.
Some of the invisible [Mist] remained where it was. Another portion drifted into the elevator shaft and flew rapidly toward Level B1.
The final portion hovered on the ceiling above Jin Rongxu, watching with interest.
He had no intention of giving up on his plan for Level B18.
There was only one thing left to do: lure Jin Rongxu out and hit him with something big.
Zhu Yan didn’t mind pretending to be caught and letting Jin Rongxu believe that everything was accomplished.
That way, the other man would lower his guard and leave the room.
Once he left the room, Zhu Yan could tamper with the elevator without anyone noticing.
And also…
Zhu Yan thought of Qiu Lingxiao and couldn’t help smiling to himself.
He had seen Qiu Lingxiao’s “father” and older brother before.
Jin Rongxu was high-level; [Impersonation] might not be enough to fool him.
But if he used [Impersonation] to take on the appearance of Qiu Lingxiao’s father or older brother in front of lower-level players, could he at least confuse things a little?
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
