MS Chapter 101 [Epilogue]

Lu Ji’s return to life did not cause much of a stir.

After all, he had been revived through proper procedures, and the rules had accordingly altered the traces of his existence in reality.

The grave on the feng shui treasure land at the back of the mountain disappeared without Lu Qingjia having to lift a finger, as if it had never existed.

In the memories of the neighbors and fellow villagers, Lu Ji had handed over the shop to Lu Qingjia after he graduated from university and went abroad to train in his craft.

Now that he had returned after completing his studies, it was only natural.

Fortunately, Lu Ji had always lived a low-key and simple life, with few friends outside his hometown, so his return did not attract much attention or disturbance.

However, the employees at the shop, especially the younger ones hired after Lu Qingjia took over, were shocked.

Xiao Wei and the others served the dishes and then gathered outside the private room to whisper—

“Wow, is this the legendary big boss? He’s so handsome.”

“What’s there to be surprised about? Just look at the boss’s appearance; his family genes are amazing.”

“This isn’t just about genes; it’s like magic. The boss is a magnet for beautiful people. Just standing there, he attracts all the handsome men and beautiful women.”

At this point, a long-time employee chimed in, “The big boss’s looks haven’t changed in over a decade. When he first returned, which girl in the village didn’t want to marry him?”

“Back then, there was a family with a factory who thought they were wealthy and influential. They even tried to force their daughter to marry him.”

“Really?” the others exclaimed. “What happened next?”

They had only been around for a few years and always thought the area was scenic and peaceful, with a simple and honest village atmosphere. They had no idea that the place used to be harsh and full of troublemakers.

The old employee laughed, “Well, you should have seen the big boss’s skills. That family ended up in jail and still hasn’t come out.”

As they were chatting, they suddenly saw the billionaire enter from outside.

Xiao Wei greeted him with a smile, “Mr. Fu, you’re here?”

“Where’s Jiajia?”

“He’s having dinner. His uncle just returned from abroad today.”

The billionaire’s eyes lit up. This was a rare opportunity to win over the family.

Thinking of his impressive appearance and clean family background, he was sure to be more favored by the elders than Zhong Liyu, who had a shady past.

He quickly rummaged through his space for suitable gifts and knocked on the private room door.

As soon as he entered, he started fawning over Lu Ji, almost calling him “uncle” like Lu Qingjia.

Zhong Liyu, mindful of the elders’ presence, restrained himself. Otherwise, he would have thrown this guy into the sea like he did the last two times.

Lu Ji was a simple man, slow and straightforward when it came to emotions. He still hadn’t figured out whether Zhong Liyu or Ouyang Bai was his nephew’s partner, and now here came Fu Shou, trying to win him over.

Fu Shou had recently become an Advanced Player after the instance he participated in. Seeing Lu Qingjia frequently enter instances to boost his strength, Fu Shou, who had been taking his time, felt a sense of urgency.

Now, his progress wasn’t far behind Lu Qingjia’s, and his strength was formidable.

Compared to Zhong Liyu’s reserved demeanor as the main partner, the would-be homewrecker was much more obsequious.

“Mr. Lu, try this.”

“This soup is very flavorful, give it a try.”

“The vegetables were picked this morning, very fresh. Uncle, have some.”

Lu Ji was starting to wonder if he had memory loss and actually had more than one nephew.

Zhong Liyu couldn’t take it anymore and pressed the billionaire’s head down, “What the hell, acting like you had anything to do with the dishes here? You’re useless at work but first in line to take credit, huh?”

Fu Shou retorted, “Look where we are. This isn’t the place for you to throw your weight around.”

“Besides, I know all the signature dishes at Jiajia’s shop, which shows how much I care. I’ll be quick to get up to speed when I run the place with Jiajia in the future.”

Zhong Liyu sneered, “We’ll have our own kids, no need to adopt such a big son.”

He pointed at Ouyang Bai, “Besides, there’s already a line of people waiting to be adopted here.”

Fu Shou scoffed, “You’re just cheap labor, useful when there’s a lot of work. When winter comes and things slow down, I’ll find a reason to fire you.”

Lu Qingjia said, “You make me sound like a black-hearted small workshop boss.”

Fu Shou, “Then give him a raise.”

Lu Qingjia, “…He’s doing fine. The economy isn’t great right now, and the shop is going through tough times. As an employee, he should be willing to make some sacrifices to help the company get through this.”

Zhong Liyu, “…”

Why do I feel like crying?

But at least Jiajia stood up for him.

Lu Qingjia said to Fu Shou, “Don’t waste your energy on me. Although I’m incredibly beautiful as a woman and handsome as a man, one idiot is enough for me in this lifetime.”

“Oh, by the way, the ladies who’ve been giving you advice are coming over to play tomorrow. You might want to lay low.”

During his attempts to steal the show, the billionaire, with his less-than-stellar tools, had repeatedly clashed with Zhong Liyu, a granite-hard obstacle, and ended up with literal head injuries several times.

He began to question the effectiveness of his sisters’ advice.

They were seasoned players in the game of love, and while their character might be questionable, their professional skills were beyond reproach. This led to several heated arguments.

Later, one of the sisters found her way to Lu Qingjia’s social media account, which featured numerous vlogs shared by tourists, occasionally capturing glimpses of the handsome boss, leaving her in awe.

Already dissatisfied with the billionaire, the sisters instantly understood why he had so readily embraced his new orientation—with looks like that, it was no loss.

They decided that if Fu Shou doubted their expertise, they would take matters into their own hands, win over the handsome man themselves, both securing a good catch and infuriating Fu Shou in the process—why not?

Fu Shou was nearly driven to despair and confronted Lu Qingjia, “Why are you letting them come? They’re after you!”

Lu Qingjia, “Many people are after me; it’s not my fault for being too charming. I can’t let my popularity disrupt my life.”

Fu Shou, “…”

He glared at Zhong Liyu, “Aren’t you going to say anything? If you don’t even care about this, how can you claim to be sincere?”

Zhong Liyu, with a look of resigned acceptance that the green on his head was here to stay, said, “They haven’t even arrived yet; it’s too early to worry.”

Then he smiled, “Besides, when I get jealous, I get candy—a sweet and sour delight. It’s not the same as your bitter nonsense.”

Fu Shou was almost in tears, tugging at Lu Qingjia, “Are you really not considering changing boyfriends?”

Lu Qingjia, “Not considering.”

Fu Shou, after a long pause, gritted his teeth, “What about adding one more?”

In the end, he was beaten to a pulp and kicked out.

Lu Ji could only lament that when he died, his nephew was a naive child with no romantic history. Now, he was so adept at handling emotional matters; it seemed he had missed a lot over the years.

He didn’t voice this thought, or the mere mention of ‘naive child’ would have shown everyone present the thick lens through which he viewed his nephew, utterly unaware of its distortion.

Although Lu Qingzhou didn’t do much right, one thing had to be acknowledged: he had managed Lu Ji’s body exceptionally well.

So much so that upon revival, Lu Ji became one of the powerful Administrator Trainees newly added to the Horror Game.

However, after waking up, Lu Ji became even more laid-back, not particularly concerned with the game. If it weren’t for his concern for his nephew, he might have started to retire.

The old uncle had become much quieter since his revival, and Lu Qingjia understood why.

Since Lu Ji had managed to upgrade to a quasi-administrator state as a walking corpse, as previously mentioned, his bodily functions were no different from when he was alive.

Ouyang Bai had been able to extract a wealth of information from his memory. Upon revival, the years in between weren’t blank; he remembered them all.

It wasn’t just the intense infatuation and sparks of passion that had briefly ignited during that instance. There were also years of companionship and constant presence.

The bond between him and Lu Qingzhou was too tangled and complex for outsiders to meddle in, and he himself couldn’t unravel it all at once.

During this time, Lu Qingjia had rapidly leveled up.

As Zhong Liyu had anticipated, after the competition, Lu Qingjia entered a cultivation instance. Normally, entering such an instance required a certain opportunity and trial.

But perhaps Lu Qingjia’s remarkable feats of killing two administrator-level entities and his adept manipulation of the rules had already met the criteria for entering the cultivation world, so the game promptly allowed it.

Cultivation instances often span decades, even centuries, within them. Although the perception of time is compressed to prevent players from considering the cultivation world their true home in terms of life’s timeline, Zhong Liyu couldn’t possibly tolerate being apart from Lu Qingjia for so long.

Even if it was only two seconds for him.

After decades, Lu Qingjia completed his cultivation and gained his own rule ability—Deception.

It could turn falsehoods into reality and reality into falsehoods, intertwining truth and lies until they were indistinguishable, even capable of deceiving the rules to a certain extent.

The rules, “…”

After exiting the cultivation instance, Lu Qingjia naturally threw himself into the competition for administrator selection.

He secured his position smoothly and without suspense, taking over from the Mermaid and becoming one of the top figures in the game.

At the new administrator’s welcome meeting, all the administrators from the Horror Game were present, including the Data Emperor, who hadn’t even shown up for the competition.

Everyone congratulated Lu Qingjia while casting expectant glances at him and Zhong Liyu.

Their nosy looks made him uneasy, “What? What are you looking at? Believe it or not, I’ll poke your eyes out—still looking?”

The Two-Headed Snake asked Lu Qingjia with anticipation, “Before you entered the game, becoming an administrator was your goal, right?”

Lu Qingjia nodded, “Yes.”

The Fake Taoist Priest, “Since you didn’t have the qualifications at the time, you must have schemed a lot against Char Siu, huh?”

Lu Qingjia, “…Yes.”

The Data Emperor was the most blunt, “Now that you’ve achieved your goal and your strength isn’t lacking, when are you going to ditch the useless guy?”

Zhong Liyu stood up like a cat with its fur bristling, “Damn it, I knew you meddlesome jerks had ulterior motives. I wondered why everyone was so quick to attend this meeting and even brought gifts—who sent these?”

Zhong Liyu glanced at the promotion gifts placed beside the meeting table, some of which had been opened by someone.

They were supposedly for Lu Qingjia, but when giving them, everyone had meaningfully said that since they were a couple, it was the same as giving them to Old Zhong.

Turned out they were all green hats, high-quality ones made from top-tier spiritual jade from the cultivation world, their shapes, colors, and styles could change at will.

The Two-Headed Snake, who disliked Zhong Liyu the most, fanned herself, “Oh, be magnanimous, Old Zhong.”

“Isn’t the ultimate quality of a sucker to wish the other happiness after being squeezed dry of all their usefulness?”

“Look at the Sucker, in a similar position, he doesn’t make such a fuss.”

The Sucker, “…I remember your suitors 1, 2, and 3 from the cultivation world are still out for your blood. Need me to give you a free ride?”

Zhong Liyu sneered, “Not just them, they brag about their conquests and compete in hunting men, and it’s not just limited to the cultivation world.”

“There are even quasi-administrators from the three major games among them. I’ve already sent out your real identities and real-world coordinates, no need to thank me.”

“You—” The Two-Headed Snake was startled, glaring at Zhong Liyu, “Char Siu, you’re really playing dirty now, huh?”

“Like you’ve been playing clean,” Zhong Liyu stretched his legs onto the meeting table, “I have nothing holding me back now.”

“Jiajia has become an administrator, and with your level, batting your eyelashes won’t help. Instead, you should be worried about whether you’ve cleaned up your messes. Don’t let personal affairs jeopardize the game, or you might lose your administrator seats.”

The Fake Taoist Priest, “Don’t talk about the ladies like that. With the Mermaid gone, the Two-Headed Snake is one of the rare flowers among our administrator ranks, we should protect them.”

Zhong Liyu gave the Fake Taoist Priest a ferocious smile, “You’re speaking up for them? Better watch out for yourself.”

“Don’t forget who stood up for you when you were scared of ghosts during instance assignments,” Zhong Liyu said to the game, “I’m handing back all the Paranormal Instances under my name that were originally his responsibility.”

“Let’s see if he can keep his head up when he has to personally inspect instances and is more terrified than new players.”

The Fake Taoist Priest quickly said, “Bro, we can joke around, but don’t mess with serious matters.”

The Data Emperor, “You’ve been scamming for so many years, it’s time to grow up.”

Seeing the Fake Taoist Priest about to blow up, the Data Emperor quickly added, “If you really can’t get used to the visuals, you can give me your eyeballs for a makeover. I’ll make it so that when you see spirits, they’ll automatically be beautified or pixelated, not scary at all. If you don’t believe me, go home and watch ‘Ju-On’ with the beauty filter on.”

The Fake Taoist Priest’s scalp tingled, and the Data Emperor said, “This is as far as a brother can help you. Blame Char Siu for being petty.”

Zhong Liyu said to the Data Emperor, “And what are you pretending to be? I haven’t even reported you for downloading porn with the simulation system yet.”

The Data Emperor, “…”

Ouyang Bai glanced at everyone and whispered, “Has this guy gotten carried away?”

“Absolutely carried away, his tail is up in the sky.”

“The swindler master’s promotion ceremony, it’s like his wedding.”

“Wasn’t the Master Swindler dangling the promise of getting married after becoming an administrator to keep him hooked?”

“Hey, I think you’re all being a bit too harsh.”

“The sucker—I mean, matters of the heart are personal. Look at the Sucker, he’s like this every day, and he’s quite happy.”

“Can’t help it, that Char Siu is loaded and has plenty of resources and leverage. You’d better be more polite.”

“What about the game?”

Everyone turned to see the game, listless and ignoring the commotion in the room, “It’s already dead.”

Although it was known that these administrators, formidable in the outside world, were quite unreliable in the Absolute Territory, it was only upon interacting with them as equals that Lu Qingjia truly understood the atmosphere of the Horror Game’s management.

It wasn’t that there was no competition or selfishness, but compared to the scheming in the Infinite City, he preferred this place where different paths led to the same goal—protecting a fool.

The fool seemed to have heard his thoughts, lifting his soft, listless black-haired head to look at Lu Qingjia.

With a proud huff, he returned to his normal size and stood at the center of the meeting table.

In an unusually formal tone, he announced, “Player Lu Qingjia, from this day forward, is officially an administrator of the Horror Game.”

“Codename—Master Swindler.”

 

Author’s Note:

The end.

This novel is contracted for physical publication, with an exclusive 8,000-word special chapter about the past of 67+ and Green Bro. The manuscript will be handed over to the editor in a couple of days, but it’s unclear when it will be released.

Interested readers can follow my author’s column or my Sina Weibo (Jinjiang Silver-Haired Dead Fish Eye).

For those interested in A Yin’s writing style, you can click on the pre-order for the next book in my column.

Don’t hit me yet; the outline for the next book is already done, but I’m still struggling with the title and synopsis (hit me).