Give a dog a bad name and hang him.

Yang Zhanbai had misunderstood.

But this didn't hinder Zhu Yan's next move, so Zhu Yan didn't mind.

He smoothly accepted Yang Zhanbai's grateful look, watching the other man let go of his arm and naturally retreat back into the dimly lit hall.

"Hurry up!" the "police officer" sneered with a weird accent.

Zhu Yan was violently dragged into the crowd by it, squeezing a path through the line.

"What's going on?"

"Taken away by the police right from the start..."

He turned sideways, brushing past the crowded students and their whispers, dragged all the way out of the glass doors by the "officer."

A blast of cold air that didn't belong to August hit his face, and Zhu Yan couldn't help but shiver.

Anwu City has no sun.

These words struck his heart like a bell. Zhu Yan couldn't help but turn his head to look at Anwu North Station behind him.

The massive building was enveloped by an even more massive colorful shadow.

The four characters for "Anwu North Station" were illuminated in a dazzling array of neon lights. Zhu Yan strained his neck to look up, only then seeing the gigantic Hovering Clock.

The colored light came from a laughing face on the clock dial.

Flesh-colored skin, green eyebrows, blue eyeliner, along with exaggerated thick lips and white teeth—all of these were glowing.

Neon lights were embedded in it like nails. As the lights shifted, the face's expression bounced back and forth between terror and wild laughter.

The only things not glowing were the two eyeballs.

They darted around incessantly, the black pupils reflecting colorful spots of light and mirroring the crowded flow of people below.

Some students, like Zhu Yan, turned their heads to admire this behemoth.

Hearing wave after wave of whispered gasps of amazement beside him, Zhu Yan felt a heavy sense of foreboding rise in his heart.

He forced himself to turn his head back, no longer looking at those unsettling eyes, and cast his gaze forward.

He had to stay focused.

There were more important things to do!

The dark night sky was somewhat murky. A dozen meters away, rows of storefronts were bustling and crowded together.

Zhu Yan craned his neck, his gaze crossing the crowd to land on the "police officers" standing at the shop entrances.

Unlike the terrifying creatures wearing armed police uniforms behind the cordon, this batch of "officers" wore quite ordinary work clothes, and some wore masks.

At this moment, the students outside the station were lining up in long queues, noisily entering the warm stores under the arrangement of the "officers."

The "officer" dragged Zhu Yan into a narrow intersection but showed no intention of entering any store. Instead, it ignored its kind and kept moving forward.

Zhu Yan kept his nerves taut, his gaze sweeping over the storefronts on both sides, carefully observing everything in front of him.

CC Flower Shop, Great Happiness Convenience Store, Lainiao Post Station.

There was even an "X Tea" milk tea shop. Inside the bright storefront, besides the "officer," there was a young man making milk tea as if no one else was there.

It was completely illogical, yet no one noticed.

The "officer" wore a smile, distributing the prepared pearl milk tea to the students entering the shop.

"It was so hard to get this shop approved by the leadership," Zhu Yan heard it realistically mimicking a human voice. "Everyone feels that you kids burn a lot of energy, so you need to replenish your sugar and keep in a good mood."

Keep in a good mood!

These words acted like a switch. Zhu Yan felt the pleasure that had been quiet inside him for so long suddenly pour out.

An invisible but forceful power tightened around Zhu Yan's heart, climbing up his blood vessels to his head. A trembling, numbing sensation instantly jolted his brain.

The sickly sweet smell of milk tea in the air filled his nasal cavity. In an instant, an intense craving swept through every cell.

Sweet, so sweet!

Zhu Yan suppressed the urge to break free from his restraints, biting the tip of his tongue hard to let the pain steady his precarious willpower.

No, this is too abnormal.

Why, when the pleasure exploded, did he crave milk tea so much?

Was something added to the milk tea?

Could this be related to the game's clues?

Zhu Yan looked back at the milk tea shop.

Under the warm white light, the "officer" had already raised its head. Its Adam's apple rolled stiffly, and its black eyes fixedly tracked their direction.

"Mister, what's the deal with that guy? Why was he taken away?" A girl curiously followed its gaze.

In just a split second, the "officer" returned to normal.

"Don't worry about that, just take this and drink."

It smiled broadly as it stuffed a cup of milk tea into a girl's arms and handed over a straw, as if silently urging her.

Zhu Yan's heart stirred.

These creatures clearly knew something.

If he could figure out a way to pry clues from them, it would be much more convenient than toiling away looking for them himself.

If he used the appearance of that "Captain," would everything go smoothly?

At the same time, the "officer" stopped stiffly in its tracks.

Its neck drove its body to turn to the right, and Zhu Yan had to accommodate it by circling to its side.

This was a street corner, no more than twenty meters away from the milk tea shop.

A dark blue police duty booth stood silently, light struggling to shine through the black-tinted glass.

The white letters on the booth were glaring, and Zhu Yan felt a groundless panic.

If even buildings like this could be replicated, just how many people would die tonight?

"Come here, you beast," the "officer" said coldly, knocking hard on the glass door three times. "Don't play tricks with me."

Fine, beasts are meant to be eaten, and he, this Hunter, was also an ingredient.

Zhu Yan sensibly memorized his designated role.

"Come in," a familiar voice said.

The duty booth was permeated with a strong smell of rust.

The light shone warmly. "Guan En" stood under the light, a pinkish-white bone tossed at his feet.

He had his back to Zhu Yan, but his neck tilted backward at a grotesque angle, his head folded upside down over his shoulder. The large patch of dried crimson on his chin was nauseating.

Zhu Yan's gaze moved down from the chin, meeting those deep black eyes.

Okay, this was highly inappropriate.

But he really wanted to take a picture and show it to Guan En, because this horror creature's imitation was just too brilliant.

"Captain?" Zhu Yan asked tentatively.

Seeing that "Guan En" didn't object, Zhu Yan immediately mimicked a neck-turning motion at him.

"Human necks turn like this, Captain."

That bizarre neck let out a teeth-grating creak. Zhu Yan could see the undulating joints beneath the thin skin suit.

"Guan En's" head quickly returned to a normal forward position, then creaked as it spun 180 degrees, once again facing Zhu Yan at a terrifying angle.

"I like it this way. You talk too much."

It spoke with a strange intonation, looking with dissatisfaction at the "officer" beside Zhu Yan.

"What is this thing you brought? Why isn't this player scared?"

"Did he buy... something from us?"

Zhu Yan furrowed his brow, sensing something unusual.

Indeed.

For this "Captain" to strike such a pose without knowing he was a Hunter was far too risky.

What if he were a normal player who would get scared? His screams might attract the attention and suspicion of other players outside.

This went against their goal of eating as many people as possible!

But why did this "Captain" look like he actually wanted him to be scared?

What did he mean by "bought something"...?

That sentence likely hid a clue about the Alpha Wolf.

He had to find a way to coax it out of them.

"No, Captain." The "officer's" voice became shrill and piercing. "He said he is a [Hunter]."

"He requested to act alone and even tried to bribe us with a human leg..."

The "officer" suddenly split his mouth wide open, grinning to reveal a full row of gleaming teeth.

"Hehehe... Captain, don't you think that's funny?"

The "Captain" tilted his head stiffly and coldly.

Zhu Yan focused his mind, gripping the dagger tightly in his palm.

"Is that so." It twisted its tone. "Then let's just take one of his legs. The flesh of a [Hunter] is much more delicious than a player's!"

The moment those words were spoken.

With a slight shift of his consciousness, Zhu Yan directly activated the ability [Complaint]!

The Alpha Wolf was only level five, and his [Complaint] was also level five.

This "Captain's" level was unlikely to be higher than the Alpha Wolf's. Using [Complaint] to deal with him would be more than enough.

"Enough, you idiot!" Zhu Yan shouted.

The moment the word "idiot" left his mouth, the Captain's neck went soft for a split second like a rubber hose.

The effect was remarkable.

Zhu Yan sneered and unleashed a barrage of insults right to their faces.

"A dung beetle's eyes would light up if it saw your brains. I thought the Alpha Wolf's subordinates would at least be wolves, but seeing you today, I realize you're just dog shit..."

The "officer" let out a bizarre shriek.

Its body completely lost its balance, falling straight to the ground like a stiff Barbie doll.

The Captain lunged at Zhu Yan in fury, but his strength-drained body was far too clumsy.

Zhu Yan watched as that shriveled, crumpled face magnified endlessly before his eyes, and he gently curled his lips into a smile.

Now!

Squelch.

The dagger pierced the Captain's chest with a faint swoosh. Pitch-black liquid spewed out, staining Zhu Yan's cuffs, but it dried up at an incredibly fast rate.

Its body rapidly deflated visibly to the naked eye, just like a leaking balloon!

Zhu Yan did not waste any time.

He pulled the dagger out of the frantically shrinking and hardening human skin, locking his eyes on the "officer" crawling toward the door.

A hoarse hiss tore through the night sky before coming to an abrupt halt. Zhu Yan looked down, admiring the black sludge gushing from the center of the "officer's" back.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry."

Zhu Yan watched as this body deflated and shrank, slowly turning into a crumpled sheet of skin.

He wiped his dagger on the empty uniform lying on the ground, stood up, and balled up the two human skins like pieces of trash.

Behind him, someone forcefully banged on the glass door.

A strange voice penetrated the glass, sounding somewhat muffled.

"Captain, we're here responding to the alarm. Why did you make a sound like that?"

With a thought, Zhu Yan activated [Roleplay].

"It's nothing," he said, mimicking the Captain's bizarre intonation. "Something violated the rules and accepted a bribe, so I disposed of it."