Adam led the chestnut-haired girl, walking cautiously. Countless security personnel crossed paths with them, brandishing batons and shouting as they charged forward, only to be torn apart in mere moments by the Fierce Ghosts commanded by the girl.
The once serene museum had become a sea of blood. They passed through the sculpture gallery, the hall displaying Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, and finally arrived at the modern art exhibition hall, where they found the beautiful girl No. 13, who had been placed in a small room and fainted from the horrifying scene.
“This is where we parted,” Adam said, trying not to bite his tongue out of fear.
The chestnut-haired girl nodded absentmindedly. She stared at the lighter on the ground, lost in thought.
At that moment, the entire museum suddenly shook violently. After a brief moment of silence, all the fire extinguishing devices on the ceiling began spraying water!
Adam, now drenched: “…”
“What is this…?” he wondered.
The loud commotion made everyone—whether potential criminals or security personnel—pause their pursuit and look up at the ceiling in astonishment.
Lu Xiaotian, Zhao Jingtian, and others, who had been in the midst of battle, also looked around in confusion. Then, all the broadcast systems simultaneously began playing the prelude to Christmas carols. The cheerful music, the classical museum, and the blood-soaked battlefield created a scene that was both elegant and absurd, like a man in a haute couture suit adding a piece of instant noodles bought from a supermarket into a chef’s meticulously prepared seafood soup at a Michelin three-star restaurant…
“Beep—”
A piercing electric sound echoed through the air, and everyone covered their ears and crouched down. Then, a somewhat gloomy voice rang out: “…Hey… #…”
He seemed to be arguing with someone, his voice unclear. Among the players, the inconspicuous office worker, upon hearing this voice, excitedly shouted at the fat man, “It’s Brother Lin’s voice! Brother Lin has finally escaped from those people’s clutches!”
The fat man: “…I think it’s more like those people have finally been tortured to death by him.”
“First using fire extinguishers and vibrations to halt everyone’s movements, then announcing his arrival with music and alarm sounds—such a bold and grand entrance. Truly worthy of Lin Huai…” Zhao Jingtian thought coldly as he looked at the camera.
“Let’s all be quiet,” Lu Xiaotian signaled to everyone. “Let’s hear what Brother Lin has to say…”
At that moment, the previously indistinct voice finally became clear.
And they also heard a second voice besides Lin Huai’s.
“…This should be the broadcast button, right, Brother Chu…”
“I told you, if you don’t know what each button does, don’t just press them randomly…” another helpless voice said.
Zhao Jingtian: …
For once, he felt a sense of “I overthought this.”
“…Speaking of which, this control room is really something. It even has buttons to control the central water spraying system and arrange vibrations. What’s the purpose of this vibration button? To simulate an earthquake? And with so many red buttons, how am I supposed to know which one is… And isn’t being bad with machines kind of a charm point—”
“Uh… sorry to interrupt,” a cold female voice rang out, and Zhao Jingtian vaguely remembered it belonged to a popular potential criminal named Eva. “The communication system seems to be set up now.”
“…”
“That means everyone just heard that conversation.”
Lin Huai: …
After a brief moment of silence throughout the museum, Lin Huai’s voice came through the broadcast: “As you all just heard, everything you heard was a conspiracy by the upper echelons of the greenhouse to slander me. Please be rational fans, don’t believe or spread rumors… Tsk, forget it.”
The voice paused, then continued: “Good evening, everyone. I am Lin Huai, a trainee with one and a half weeks of practice. I like singing and dancing… Oops, wrong script. This message is for everyone in the museum.”
“First of all, from this moment on, I declare that the museum has been occupied by me alone, and the VIPs in the broadcast room have also been surrounded by me. Five minutes from now, I will raise the museum’s protective shield. From the moment the shield rises—the entire museum will be my territory, and those who do not obey me will face only one outcome—”
“Being in charge of cleaning the toilets,” Lin Huai said coldly. “After all, I don’t want to spend the next three weeks in a dirty and chaotic environment…”
Everyone: …
“Damn it, ignore this lunatic,” the security captain shouted into his walkie-talkie, arranging for the strongest dozen men to follow him as they rushed toward the control room.
Due to the malfunctioning surveillance footage, he had no idea what had happened in the broadcast room, and thus was blissfully ignorant. The control room was located on the top floor of the museum. Along the way, they saw several unconscious security guards lying on the ground or leaning against the walls.
“This is…”
The captain didn’t think much of it, as attacking a few isolated guards wasn’t particularly difficult. They finally arrived outside the main control room, exchanged glances, and drew their guns. The captain cautiously scanned the surroundings and nodded to his team.
The team members understood and took out their tools to open the door. As they worked, the voice of the young man in the broadcast continued to sound unhurriedly: “…Eighty-nine, eighty-eight, eighty-seven…”
It seemed he had no idea of the enemies’ arrival outside. The captain licked his lips, thinking this was a perfect opportunity to catch the turtle in the jar, get a promotion, marry a wealthy old man, and reach the pinnacle of life.
“Forty-nine, forty-eight…”
The door to the control room finally opened. The captain and his team charged in, but to their surprise, the empty control room only had buttons and screens flickering, with no one in sight.
“This…”
They looked around, only to find a recorder on the red swivel chair next to the microphone. The young man’s voice was coming from the recorder: “Twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven…”
“Damn it, we’ve been tricked!” the captain spat. “Let’s go, he’s not here…”
As he spoke, he vented his frustration by grabbing the recorder and smashing it to the ground, as if it were the No. 81 who had played them like a fiddle. However, even after being smashed, the recorder stubbornly continued to count down the last two numbers: “Twelve, eleven…”
Then, the voice abruptly stopped.
“Return to the first-floor lobby, and then…” the captain was saying when all the lights in the control room went out.
Then, he heard a deep voice: “Ten.”
The voice was pleasant to the ear, but it made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. They looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man in a red suit leaning against the door, hands behind his back. Through the gaps in his bangs, a pair of smiling eyes looked at them.
“Nine.”
A voice with the same tone as his came from the recorder: “First of all, congratulations on successfully reaching the control room. As a reward, you get to see me…”
“Eight.”
“In the past thirty years of your lives, you have considered yourselves gods, freely judging and slaughtering the lives of others. And now…”
“Seven.”
“You are surrounded by me.”
Every cell in their bodies sent a warning to their brains at the same moment, but everyone present found that, under the red light, they couldn’t muster even a hint of resistance. The captain’s mouth hung open, his hand still on the baton at his waist, but the young man simply walked past him, counting down the numbers as he headed toward the control room.
“Zero.”
When the countdown reached zero, he pressed the button to activate the protective shield. A light blue shield rose along the edges of the museum, enveloping the entire building.
This was the highest level of protection, originally intended to safeguard the museum’s collections in case of wartime attacks—but now, it divided the inside and outside of the shield into two separate worlds.
“Well, the countdown is over,” Lin Huai clapped his hands, and the demon who regarded others as nothing finally looked at the security guards surrounding him, who didn’t dare to breathe. “The door is over there. Now, anyone want to escape? No?”
Even though he was the one surrounded, he spoke such brazen words. Yet, what was even more terrifying was that no one present felt there was anything wrong with what he said.
“Since no one wants to escape,” he shrugged and gave a friendly smile, “then let’s begin now.”
Five minutes later, Lin Huai walked out of the control room. He casually pulled off the gloves from his fingers and threw them into a nearby trash can.
Then, he dragged a dozen unconscious security guards and locked them one by one into the foul-smelling restrooms.
Eva and Aileen had already been sent to the first floor by him. On the way to the control room, he hadn’t even lifted a finger—instead, he left all the fighting opportunities to these two seemingly delicate girls.
He smashed the glass display cases holding exquisite weapons and threw the knives or guns inside to them. Then, he ungentlemanly let the two girls fight the security guards in front while he admired the artworks in the back. In his words: “Having me bully these security guards is like a max-level character beating up low-level ones.”
Then, he sent them to the first floor, telling them to organize the order within the venue and to take his token to find Zhao Jingtian and Lu Xiaotian. Lu Xiaotian was his fanboy, and Zhao Jingtian was a chuunibyou full of friendship, love, and courage… With their help (and force), the museum’s order would likely be restored.
And then… it was time for his own fun.
After reaching the control room, he had already snapped his fingers once in the broadcast room. Before that snap, all the VIPs of the greenhouse had maintained their gentle and rational facades. Although undercurrents surged within the venue, the surface remained orderly. The museum director and others had expertly manipulated the crowd, maintaining the current good order.
But after that first snap… everything changed.
Before he even stepped into the broadcast room again, the strong smell of blood made him raise an eyebrow. A sense of “so evil it’s awesome” unique to villains welled up in his heart.
“One, two… seventy-five… Hey, you guys really overachieved,” Lin Huai raised an eyebrow.
Two unrecognizable corpses were placed in the center of the stage. From their attire, Lin Huai could vaguely identify them: Dr. Lucifer and the museum director. The leader of the surviving audience trembled and said, “The masterminds are here. Please…”
…Please, spare us.
But the young man at the center of the stage only glanced at the two corpses and slightly curled his lips.
“Well done,” he said succinctly. “Looking forward to your next performance, and…”
He raised a finger.
“My next appearance will be in half an hour,” he said. “Before that, please make your preparations.”
With that, he bowed to the crowd and left the broadcast room, which couldn’t be described in detail.
A soft chuckle rang in his ear. Lin Huai turned and saw a Fierce Ghost boy in red robes in the shadows of the corridor.
Half of his face was covered in black wrinkles. Behind him, a girl wearing a sunflower on her head clapped her hands. She pointed in the direction of the broadcast room and said with a smile, “You’re really violent.”
“…Just average, still better than a crossdresser,” Lin Huai said.
The girl curled her lips. Her figure dissolved like candy in water, and the next to appear was a young man in a black hood with a pierced right ear: “You saw through that? I thought I disguised myself pretty well…”
“Stop, stop,” Lin Huai extended two fingers. “Let me get straight to the point. What do you want from me?”
“I thought since we haven’t seen each other in a while, we could exchange some pleasantries,” Xia Xingye smiled like a fox. “How’s Yan Xi doing with you?”
“There’s no need for pleasantries with someone like you,” Lin Huai cut him off coldly. “As for Yan Xi or Xu Chi, there’s no need for you to worry… The one by your side, is he also a Fierce Ghost you captured from some world?”
“What, seeing him under my command makes you feel a bit sympathetic?” Xia Xingye had the Fierce Ghost boy return to his side, unfazed.
“Seeing the curse mark on his left face like a QR code, I’m just worried about your taste.”
Xia Xingye: …
“First of all, congratulations on turning this world into this state,” Xia Xingye glanced at the devastated broadcast room, then looked down at the running crowd below the railing. “You’re the first player I’ve seen… who plays in such a unique way.”
“Thanks,” Lin Huai said. “You’re also the first crossdresser I’ve met.”
With that, he turned to leave, but Xia Xingye laughed behind him: “Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”
“I don’t want to know, and I have no intention of knowing.”
“…I’m here to obtain something,” Xia Xingye stared at his back. “A map.”
“A map?”
“…Have you heard of ‘the Door’? To enter the Door, you need thirty-two codes, also known as keys. For many people, the distribution of these codes seems random, but the truth is, two years ago, someone had already calculated the probability distribution model for all the keys.” Xia Xingye said. “That thing is the map.”
“Who calculated the map is unknown, but the only thing certain is that it eventually ended up in the hands of someone called ‘Crow.’ He used the map to find twenty-five keys, and under the pursuit of others, hid the map in one of the worlds he had visited. Recently, someone got news that the world is ‘Civilization World,’ the instance we’re in right now.”
“…So?”
“This secret has been monopolized by Chen Xing, but since none of their members have ever been to ‘Civilization World,’ they couldn’t obtain a visa to enter the world from the Tasker Camp. Although I’m not interested in this map, I am interested in causing some trouble for my dear older brother. I’d love to see his face when he hears that his supposedly disgraceful younger brother got the map before him and has to come begging me to sell it to him.” Xia Xingye blinked. “Now that our tasks are complete, are you interested in collaborating with me?”
Lin Huai was silent for a long time, then said: “I don’t understand…”
“Don’t understand what?”
“I don’t understand how your skin is so thick,” Lin Huai said with a deadpan expression. “If it weren’t for the fact that you didn’t do a slow motion with me, I’d suspect you’re in love with me…”
Xia Xingye smiled: “Because I’m a businessman who seeks to maximize profits.”
“At Minghua High School, your value as a Fierce Ghost was clearly greater than your value as a teammate, so I chose to try and subdue you,” Xia Xingye said unhurriedly. “Now, I’ve obtained him—a Fierce Ghost who belongs to me. Although he’s weaker than you, his attributes are very compatible with me. So, starting from this instance, I consider you a potential ally. Are you satisfied with this answer?”
“Of course, in terms of profit distribution, you also don’t need to worry at all. Everyone who has traded with me says I’m fair and honest.” Xia Xingye smiled, his eyes curving as he pulled out a ledger-like object from his sleeve. “Would you like me to read it to you?”
“…For some reason, I feel like your style has changed…” Lin Huai muttered.
“Moreover, now you’re also an intermediate field player. Although you are indeed strong, once you reach the advanced field, you’ll find that relying on your own strength alone isn’t enough to dominate. Just like how many people come to me to purchase Fierce Ghosts, there will definitely be no shortage of people who covet you.” Xia Xingye persuaded. “You’ll find that our alliance is mutually beneficial, just like I know how to capture and train Fierce Ghosts, I also know how a Fierce Ghost can escape human bondage…”
This did indeed make Lin Huai somewhat tempted. However, Xia Xingye’s credibility with him was almost bankrupt. Although both he and Xia Xingye were smart and cunning, if it came down to scheming, Xia Xingye might not be able to outwit him, but he was still too lazy to bother with such dealings. Lin Huai narrowed his eyes: “With just you alone, you could still find the map, right? Why go through all this trouble to collaborate with me?”
“Because another advanced field player has also joined the competition for the map,” Xia Xingye said, somewhat gritting his teeth. “So, I need a helper…”
“Who is that person?”
“He…”
Before Xia Xingye could answer, Chu Tianshu’s voice came through the broadcast next to Lin Huai: “The person he’s talking about is me.”
