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What a juicy bit of gossip first thing in the morning.

Curled up beneath the covers, Zhu Yan turned over languidly and continued listening with half-lidded eyes.

He really wasn’t fully awake yet, but that didn’t stop him from thinking.

The Buddha in the small room.

What was that supposed to mean?

Judging from the context, it sounded as though, besides the main hall of Tanyu Temple where Guanyin Bodhisattva was enshrined, there was also a small room where another Buddha statue was worshiped.

From Qiu Lingkai’s thoughts, it seemed that most people didn’t even know this place existed.

There was a brief silence on Qiu Lingfeng’s end.

“Don’t worry,” Qiu Lingkai continued, trying to reassure him. “Hunter No. 1 is just an ordinary student. There’s no way he could have connections like that.”

“I only found out because I tracked down the former director of the Religious Affairs Bureau and got in touch with the previous abbot of Tanyu Temple, who had inspected the place before.”

Qiu Lingfeng’s face remained expressionless, the sharp corners of his lips pressed downward.

“That’s true. In any case, the current abbot of Tanyu Temple is dead, so it’s just an empty temple now.”

“Even if Hunter No. 1 had a way to get inside ahead of time, there’s no way he’d find that hidden chamber.”

“Exactly.” Qiu Lingkai’s thoughts immediately followed. “Even back then, that was a place only distinguished guests who had donated a large amount of incense money to the temple were allowed to visit!”

All right. Interesting.

But the Hunter No. 1 they were worrying about already knew.

Zhu Yan forced himself to stay awake and listened for a while longer. Once he confirmed that there was no more important information, he sank back into a deep sleep.

He slept all the way until the afternoon.

It wasn’t until around ten that night, after Zhu Yan and Yang Zhanbai had finished a bowl of beef soup and were strolling back toward the dormitory, that he finally heard the female voice announce:

“Long time no see, dear Hunter!”

“We have detected that your cooperative mission with Hunter No. 3 will begin in seven hours.”

“Please make the necessary preparations. At that time, you will be transported directly into the dungeon, Tanyu Temple!”

“We look forward to your outstanding performance!”

Zhu Yan glanced at Yang Zhanbai, who was enthusiastically preparing for the next day’s dungeon, and decided to keep quiet.

How should he put it?

As long as he managed to get Qiu Lingfeng’s costume this time, explaining why he had skipped the dungeon would be effortless.

…

Early the next morning.

Zhu Yan gently silenced the vibrating alarm on his phone and climbed out of bed without making a sound.

This time, he didn’t use a puppet. For once, he used his original body.

While Yang Zhanbai was still asleep, he quietly made his way to the door.

Two minutes later, an enormous force suddenly seized his arm and yanked him forward.

Without hesitation, Zhu Yan deactivated [Roleplay] and returned to his original appearance.

The next instant, the scent of morning grass, trees, and damp earth rushed straight into his nose.

His feet landed on a patch of rough bluestone paving. After his vision spun for a moment, he steadied himself.

“Number One?” a familiar voice asked.

Zhu Yan looked up.

Before him was the narrow gate he had seen in the temple’s social-media testimonials. A thin layer of white mist drifted beyond it, and the plaque above the gate, bearing the three characters “Tanyu Temple,” looked even more dilapidated than before.

Leaning against the gate was a masked man.

When he saw Zhu Yan arrive, he straightened and extended his right hand from a distance.

“Number One?”

Zhu Yan knew that voice well. It belonged to Qiu Lingfeng, who was wearing Qiu Dehai’s costume.

Even though Zhu Yan had deliberately switched off [Mind Reading] to keep the surroundings quiet, he could still tell that Qiu Lingfeng was behaving differently from usual.

He was clearly making a deliberate effort to appear friendly.

When Zhu Yan didn’t respond, the other man actually took the initiative to walk over, his voice carrying a smile as well.

“Oh my, I’m Number Three. I’m a little older than you, but I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

From Qiu Lingfeng’s perspective, the young man before him had sharply defined features, yet no matter how carefully he looked, he could never remember them.

That was clearly why the police station had never managed to find this man.

“Hello.” Hunter No. 1 sounded cautious and cold. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I look forward to working with you. However, could you please take off your mask?”

Qiu Lingfeng was an extremely suspicious man.

Zhu Yan thought it would be better to add that request.

After all, in Qiu Lingfeng’s eyes, Hunter No. 1 could not possibly be a simple person.

If he acted too trusting and naïve right from the start, Qiu Lingfeng would only become more suspicious.

Instead, Qiu Lingfeng put on an impressively frank act and removed his mask without the slightest hesitation.

“No problem.”

Both his tone and expression resembled those of a kindly elder.

In any case, there was another costume beneath his mask.

He had come wearing a costume today precisely so that Hunter No. 1 wouldn’t notice anything amiss later.

“Let’s go. We should enter the dungeon before the worshipers start arriving.”

Qiu Lingfeng smiled as warmly as a spring breeze, his eyes curving until they almost completely concealed those deep, unfathomable eyes.

Zhu Yan activated [Mind Reading].

“Oh, right. Did the broadcast notify you?”

He spoke as casually as if they were making small talk while leading Zhu Yan inside.

“It told me that, to clear this dungeon, we’d need a sufficient amount of [Thrill and Euphoria].”

That was something Qiu Lingfeng had made up himself.

The Narration Platform had given him two bottles of specially formulated [Thrill and Euphoria]. What the higher-ups of the [Manic Happy Land] meant was already obvious.

One of the bottles was clearly meant for Hunter No. 1!

No matter what, Qiu Lingfeng had to find a way to force this bottle of [Thrill and Euphoria] down the young man’s throat.

Even if it wouldn’t be easy…

Qiu Lingfeng clenched the hand hidden inside his sleeve.

His thoughts entered Zhu Yan’s ears one sentence at a time.

Zhu Yan fell silent for a moment, but ultimately decided to follow the lead provided by Qiu Lingfeng’s thoughts and pretend to be difficult.

He said, “My ability itself consumes [Thrill and Euphoria]. As for what you mentioned, I haven’t heard anything about it.”

He trusted Qiu Lingfeng to find a way to feed him the [Thrill and Euphoria].

“Oh, I see.” Qiu Lingfeng chuckled. “Ah, now that you mention it, I understand. Look.”

“Qiu Dehai” flipped his hand, and two bottles of the [Thrill and Euphoria] Zhu Yan knew all too well appeared in his palm.

“The Narration Platform told me to collect these yesterday.”

The wrinkles at the corners of “Qiu Dehai’s” eyes crinkled kindly, and his face still wore the affectionate expression of an elder looking at a junior.

If Zhu Yan had known nothing about this man or the schemes running through his mind, he might truly have been fooled.

“I was wondering yesterday why they gave me two bottles all at once. Now I understand. It should be one bottle for you and one for me.”

Hunter No. 1’s expression clearly shifted in surprise, his eyes fixed intently on the two bottles of [Thrill and Euphoria].

For a moment, he even lifted his hand, as if he desperately wanted to take them.

But he held himself back and shook his head at Qiu Lingfeng.

“We’ll see when the time comes. I don’t accept things from strangers.”

Qiu Lingfeng sneered inwardly.

What a phony.

His body language and expression made it obvious that he was dying for it, yet he was still forcing himself to hold back.