What other related needs do you have

Under the flickering light, Qiu Lingfeng’s expression looked rather sinister.

He studied the Slime before him, as though seriously evaluating the credibility of its words.

“So you’re saying that I came all this way today and won’t be able to find out anything?”

The Slime had already crawled back onto its mushroom cap.

“Yes, you could put it that way. It’s not our fault that the information hasn’t been recorded!”

Qiu Lingfeng nodded and made no further attempts to probe for information.

He simply pushed open the glass-candy doors and strode away. His figure blurred into a vague silhouette behind the doors before gradually disappearing into the distance.

Zhu Yan followed warily.

But Qiu Lingfeng didn’t do anything out of line—

He merely found a shortcut as a matter of routine and left directly through it.

Only after the other man had gone completely out of sight did Zhu Yan cautiously transform back into human form.

He really wanted to follow him to the Recitation Stage to see what was going on, but time was running short.

He’d better go find The Art Student first.

After all, the person he needed to frame this time was a Hunter. Mount Fangcun ought to have some way of fooling Paradise, right?

Zhu Yan pulled the stiff paper card from his ring.

The last time he had seen The Art Student, the man had said he was moving.

The only way to contact him temporarily was through this stiff paper card.

…

“What?!”

The Art Student sprang up from the sofa in astonishment, knocking over the coffee beside him.

“Bamboo Salt, have you finally made something of yourself?!”

The place he had chosen this time was far better than the small storage room from before.

It was the first floor of an old residential complex that had once been converted into a stylish little café.

Because the owner had evacuated in a hurry, the place still contained a large supply of coffee beans, an extremely high-end coffee machine, a refrigerator, a projector, and plenty of ingredients for making desserts.

When Zhu Yan arrived, An Xuyin was pulling the curtains shut and watching cartoons on the projector while eating to his heart’s content.

Zhu Yan looked up at An Xuyin’s exaggerated reaction, then sank farther into the sofa.

“Come on, don’t look so surprised.” He narrowed his eyes indifferently and rubbed the sandalwood beads around his wrist. “After doing something like this, getting hunted is only natural, isn’t it? This has to be dealt with somehow.”

An Xuyin was at a loss.

He paced back and forth, his soft chestnut hair looking messy beneath the lights. His cream-stained mouth opened and closed as he launched into a furious tirade.

“So this is your solution? You’re planning to make a puppet as a substitute, then keep deceiving the Abyssal Eye?”

No. Strictly speaking, he wasn’t planning to use a puppet to deceive the Abyssal Eye Club.

What the Abyssal Eye wanted to capture—or, more accurately, the player they wanted to capture—was someone with the player ID “Account Deleted” and the appearance of “Zhu Zeyu.”

Those were two entirely different concepts!

Zhu Yan now intended to use the hapless Qiu Lingfeng to take the fall. In other words, he would make Qiu Lingfeng take on Zhu Zeyu’s appearance, then hand him over to the terrifying creatures of the Abyssal Eye.

But if he stopped there, Merry Paradise would lose an excellent Hunter for nothing, while Zhu Yan would also lose a perfectly good shell and alternate identity to level up with!

His previous occupation of the Auditorium had already angered Merry Paradise. Zhu Yan had no intention of provoking it again this time.

What if it really imposed restrictions on him and interfered with his ability to trick people?

But if he could get an extra puppet that Merry Paradise neither knew about nor recognized, things would be entirely different.

Zhu Yan could first use Qiu Lingfeng, transformed to look like “Zhu Zeyu,” to take the blame. Then he could point at the real Qiu Lingfeng and tell Merry Paradise, “This is another one of my puppets.”

After that, he could use a puppet in Qiu Lingfeng’s likeness to inherit the man’s abilities and identity. Pointing at that puppet, he could tell Merry Paradise, “This is my friend, Qiu Lingfeng.”

That way, the members of the Abyssal Eye would be able to vent their anger, Merry Paradise wouldn’t lose its excellent Hunter, and Zhu Yan would gain a new identity, the territory, bone coins, and abilities he wanted. Perhaps even Qiu Lingfeng’s sins in life would be wiped clean in recognition of his noble sacrifice.

How could this not count as a perfect three-way victory?

Just thinking about it made Zhu Yan feel completely at ease.

“That’s right. Exactly.”

Zhu Yan patted the base of the black-and-white cat’s tail, signaling it to rub against The Art Student and help him build up some goodwill.

“Seriously, don’t you think using a puppet is the most harmless option? It won’t hurt anyone! And think about it.”

Zhu Yan concealed his true objective and began patiently guiding him toward the conclusion he wanted.

“If I buy a puppet from the organization that can freely change its appearance and copy or inherit my abilities, it’ll be like having another clone. That’ll make things so much more convenient from now on!”

“I wouldn’t dare mention this to the Lazybones Craft Shop. If I commissioned something like that from them, Merry Paradise would be the first to find out. And how could a product from Paradise possibly keep anything hidden from Paradise itself?”

An Xuyin stopped walking, his eyes complicated yet clear.

“I do understand how difficult things are for you…”

He unconsciously grabbed the phone in his pocket.

Bamboo Salt was a good person. Not only had he given him a phone, but he had also just handed him a pile of bone coins under the pretext of “commissioning work for the Vine Cage Girl.”

The Art Student knew it was really charity in disguise. After all, he no longer had a player mark on his palm. Without a sufficient supply of bone coins, it would be very difficult for him to survive in a world where Merry Paradise was about to descend and bone coins were on the verge of becoming the dominant currency.

Based on the prices he had learned so far, that pile of bone coins would be enough to let him sneak into a safe zone from time to time for some expensive snacks and live comfortably for a whole year!

Zhu Yan had practically won him over through sheer emotional manipulation!

But then again—

“I’m mainly worried that your Zhu Zeyu account will be ruined…” The Art Student let out a long sigh. “You worked so hard to raise that alternate identity to where it is now. You even made it onto the player rankings! If you do this, what if the Abyssal Eye realizes that the person they chopped up was fake? Won’t they boil you alive?”

Zhu Yan had no idea what he had done to leave The Art Student with such a pure and innocent impression of him.

“That’s why I need Mount Fangcun’s help.” He spoke solemnly. “I need it very badly.”

The Art Student scratched his hair.

“…Fine.” He finally gave in.

“Don’t leave yet. Stay here and let’s discuss exactly what you need. Mount Fangcun has specialized workshops, apothecaries, and the like. Their products are no worse than Merry Paradise’s. Once you complete one more mission, I can take you to unlock the Beginner District.”

“Do they use bone coins there too?” Zhu Yan asked.

“No,” The Art Student said. “It’s not quite what you’re expecting. They don’t sell tasty food there—only alcohol and steamed buns. You’ll see when the time comes.”

He took out his phone and opened the notes app.

“Tell me. What requirements does the puppet have? And besides the puppet, what else do you need to go with it?”