HAGLTP Chapter 52

Although there were some discrepancies from what he expected, Xiao Lu ultimately gained a European emperor teammate.

Even though he clearly told Rulwen that he was going to find the scientist Frankenstein Zhou Gu, and that the other party was most likely not interested in living women.

This confident and domineering CEO still insisted on meeting the master of this place, while also providing a 100,000-word exaggerated description of his own abilities.

Xiao Lu felt his toes once again making intimate contact with the shoe sole.

However, with Rulwen accompanying him, the charm of the protagonist’s halo became evident.

Rulwen didn’t need to make any marks, and he didn’t even quite understand why they needed to navigate a maze. He simply walked casually in the direction he liked, yet the two of them never retraced their steps.

A pure white door, full of a sense of technology, appeared before them.

With such a design and technological feel, it matched the boss’s identity and status perfectly.

However, the door was tightly closed, and there was an installation nearby that didn’t seem to serve any purpose, but was likely related to security.

While Xiao Lu was still pondering how to bypass the security measures, Rulwen had already pulled out a pure white card with intricate technological patterns from his pocket.

How to put it?

It looked like it matched the style of this door perfectly.

Xiao Lu was shocked by the effect of the protagonist’s halo: “Where did you get that?”

“This?” Rulwen twirled the card on his fingertip, “I was a bit thirsty earlier and wanted to find a room to have a cup of coffee.”

“Did you know? That office looked pretty well-decorated, the desk was solid wood, but he was actually drinking instant coffee. That kind of stuff that has no aroma, only bitterness and acidity, filled with unhealthy saccharin and essence, is simply an insult to coffee—”

“Get to the point.” Xiao Lu quickly interrupted his lengthy discourse on instant coffee.

If he didn’t do this, perhaps another 100,000 words would pass. God knows why the domineering CEO had so much nonsense to say.

“This thing was just sitting on the desk, I thought it was interesting, maybe I could use it to trade for Ziyan, so I took it.” Rulwen said matter-of-factly.

Xiao Lu felt a pang in his heart. Is this what a domineering CEO is like? Even if he understands nothing, acts rough and casual, he can still easily handle things.

He wasn’t jealous, not at all jealous.

His mood was very calm.

Calm as if he had been dead for three days.

Rulwen was completely unaware of Xiao Lu’s inner turmoil; he confidently stepped forward to swipe the card, opening the door.

Under the powerful aura of the domineering CEO, not a single security device was triggered, making this the smoothest entry into the boss’s territory that Xiao Lu could remember.

Stay calm, stay calm.

The CEO’s aura is something that must be exchanged for intelligence.

Xiao Lu took a deep breath, adjusting his state to the best, and stepped into the room with Rulwen.

It was a very large room; calling it a room was an understatement, as its size was enough to be a large research lab. Various instruments were placed throughout the room, along with many jars of different sizes, some containing animal specimens, others human organs.

There were also some large glass tanks filled with liquid, and inside were even human beings.

Among them were men, women, old, and young; some were humanoid, while others exhibited various bizarre mutations, three parts human, seven parts ghost.

Rulwen frowned, looking at these unrecognizable bodies: “I can understand your urge to beat him up now.”

“Let’s go.” Xiao Lu didn’t look any longer.

These people were already dead; no matter what he said or did, their lives would not return.

Acts of revenge for the deceased, in fact, the dead could not feel at all; it only provided comfort to the living.

The further they went, the thicker the mist became, even more so than on the street before, which gave Xiao Lu a bad premonition.

Suddenly, he kicked something soft underfoot.

Xiao Lu looked down and found it was a grayish-white hand. It seemed as if all the blood in the body had been drained, the skin pale and dry, clinging to the slack muscles.

The owner of the hand was a blonde foreigner, lying in the half-open doorway, wearing a white lab coat, presumably a researcher from the lab.

But interestingly, he was holding a gilded playing card. The face of the card was a Joker, but the image inside was not the usual jester, but rather a grim reaper with a scythe slung over his back.

A dying person holding a strange playing card was hard not to attract attention.

Xiao Lu picked up the playing card, and a line of text suddenly floated in the air.

【The Reaper’s Forgiveness (Used)】

【The Reaper has decided to grant you a chance to escape death, but you need to seize it well, for He may retract it at any time.】

This thing is a prop.

In this fast-travel world, there are almost no props that can be used by the players on the surface; their only opportunity to exchange props is through the system’s hidden shop opened between life and death.

Items in the exchange shop require expensive points, which Xiao Lu had never opened before. But given the current situation, even if he obtained a life-saving prop, it might not guarantee survival.

What a pitiful dog system.

“What’s wrong, do you know him?” Rulwen walked over.

Xiao Lu stood up and shook his head: “No, I just want to know how he died.”

“What’s your conclusion?”

“Unclear.”

There were no visible external injuries on this person; unlike the previous changes in Holin, he didn’t have any black spots on his body’s surface, but rather seemed to have faded in color, and it was uncertain whether he had fallen victim to those shadows.

A player appeared here, still wearing a researcher’s outfit; perhaps this was someone who chose to follow the villain.

Does this mean they were very close to the boss?

After walking a bit further, their footsteps had to stop.

Because there was no road ahead.

The smooth corridor was covered in black spots, from the floor to the ceiling, none were spared, resembling a moldy old house, and the path ahead simply vanished into darkness.

And in that darkness floated half a corpse.

Wearing a researcher’s white coat, one half of the body was neat and clean, while the other half was grotesque and muscular, like a zombie, with strange pus-filled bumps and spikes.

This was the boss Zhou Gu.

His body was left with only the upper half; below the waist had completely merged into the darkness, his eyes wide open, staring at the two people before him.

Zhou Gu was actually dead?!

But the plot line of this world had not reset, still developing in an uncontrollable direction.

“Ha, this is the fate of someone who competes with me for women.” Rulwen sneered.

Xiao Lu’s shock was immediately replaced by speechlessness: “…Is this really the time to say that?”

An unknown force invaded the world, using an unscientific method to eliminate the boss. And this domineering CEO, instead of focusing on the situation, was filled with melodramatic thoughts about competing for women?!

Can’t this person think of something useful?

“And besides, he didn’t even steal your woman.” Xiao Lu was quite certain.

“You don’t understand, he must have had such thoughts.” Rulwen was very confident in his judgment, confidently absurd.

The dignified big boss Zhou Gu, who was wholeheartedly focused on research, believing that women would only slow down his work, was suddenly turned into a melodramatic love story in the bizarre thought process of the domineering CEO.

A timeless grievance.

While the two were talking, Xiao Lu caught a glimpse of the surrounding black spots seeming to move slightly, but when he focused, they didn’t.

He looked around, keenly noticing that the black spots were closer to them.

“Something’s not right, we should hurry.”

As soon as he spoke, the black spots occupying the corridor seemed to come to life, stretching out tendrils towards them, writhing on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

The two of them took off running.

Don’t be fooled by Rulwen being a domineering CEO who rides in luxury cars and travels by private jets and yachts.

After all, he was set up to be able to fight off pirates alone, and his athletic ability was not weak at all; he took long strides, running swiftly, nimbly dodging every shadow that came at him, and not getting caught at all.

Xiao Lu glanced back.

It felt like the dark corridor and the extending tendrils were like a monstrous sea creature, greedily wanting to make the two of them its little snacks.

Xiao Lu kept running.

But at this moment, he felt a bit lost. Zhou Gu was dead, so where did the original virus zero on him go? Could it have been swallowed by those shadows?

What to do now?

Should he jump into the shadows’ belly to fish out the zero virus?

Whether he could retrieve it was uncertain, but even if he obtained the zero virus, it seemed that this world had already deviated from its original operating order, and how could he leave now?

Xiao Lu felt a bit troubled, scratching his head hard.

“Young man, what are you worried about?” Rulwen stylishly flipped his hair and asked him.

Xiao Lu pointed around: “Don’t you think everything at this moment is strange?”

Rulwen nodded: “But I still haven’t found my Ziyan; these are just tests of fate for me.”

“……” Xiao Lu gave up on communicating with this guy.

The domineering CEO’s acceptance of unreasonable environments was indeed high; perhaps his very existence was already unreasonable.

The two of them ran wildly in the research institute, with the shadows chasing closely behind.

The shadows were getting closer and closer.

Yet both of them suddenly stopped.

Because they saw a strange sight: a grayish world, the air filled with mist, modern high-rises standing tall, yet not a single person in sight.

Both of them still remembered they were deep underground.

But at this moment, they saw the sky, looking gloomy and oppressive, yet the slowly flowing clouds were real.

Now ahead was an abruptly appearing unknown world, and behind them were the shadows wanting to make them their snacks.

Xiao Lu and Rulwen didn’t communicate but made the same decision simultaneously—enter that strange new world.

Xiao Lu clearly knew the fate of being swallowed by the shadows; although the world ahead was unknown, at least there was a glimmer of hope.

And Rulwen… probably thought Ziyan would be over there.

Don’t ask Xiao Lu how he knew; it was just an intuition developed from spending too long with the domineering CEO.

Stepping into the gray world, Xiao Lu smelled the damp, cold air, which seemed to carry a faint musty odor, like an old house on a rainy day, filled with a sense of decay.

The two turned back to observe the shadows behind them.

But they found that the shadows were still lingering in the previous corridor, clearly just a step away, yet they no longer advanced.

The two sides were at a standstill for a moment, and the shadows slowly retreated, as if losing interest in them.

A strange action.

“I’m leaving now, young man.” Rulwen’s voice pulled Xiao Lu’s thoughts back.

“Where are you going?” Xiao Lu instinctively asked.

Rulwen gave him a look that said, “How could you not understand?”: “Of course, I’m going to find Ziyan; she must still be waiting for me to take her back.”

“And I—” Rulwen patted his chest, “will absolutely not take another man, especially a good-looking man, to rescue her; you can forget about trying to show off in front of Ziyan.”

Xiao Lu: “……”

He really wanted to say, I didn’t.

But it felt like saying it wouldn’t help, as the other party’s bizarre thought process wouldn’t understand his intentions.

The two of them had not built a deep friendship along the way. But Rulwen had lent his CEO aura to Xiao Lu for such a long time.

Without him, Xiao Lu probably wouldn’t have found the boss so easily, and later, escaping under the pursuit of the shadows would have taken even more effort.

Although Xiao Lu believed that the Ziyan Rulwen was looking for might no longer be there, what if?

So he changed his wording: “Good luck.”

“Thank you for your kind words.” Rulwen waved at him, leaving behind a carefree figure as he walked away alone.

In the empty city, the solitary man had broad shoulders and a straight back; even surrounded by the unknown, it couldn’t affect his pace.

When this person didn’t speak, he still looked quite handsome.