Chapter 152: Baekje Black Sky

On paper, even Baozhai itself did not know the seller or buyer of the 【Toy Factory Key】.

All transaction operations were handled by AI programs; the buyer and seller never met. Even the final game currency transfer was processed through the Whale Song Organization's fund clearing system. The buyer and seller did not even need to add each other as friends.

Li Cheng silently noted this down, took Guiyu out of the arena, and returned to the real world.

He had barely sat down when the system alert sounded in his ear.

【Task trigger conditions met】

【Task type: Script Task (Solo)】

【Task name: Baekje Black Sky】

【Phase One Objective: Find clues to Jiang Shaoxi】

【Task time limit: 20 minutes】

【Task reward: 100 experience points】

【Task failure penalty: Stranded in the script world】

【10 minutes until teleportation. Teleport immediately?】

"Just bought gear and now a task pops up? What are the odds."

Li Cheng muttered with a dead-eyed stare; the Halloween Carnival was a player-triggered routine task and would not override the arena system's scheduled script tasks.

"Baekje Black Sky—the task name seems to be set in Korea?"

He searched recent Korean news on his computer, focusing on explosions, fires, murders, or new urban legends. After checking, nothing matched.

He then searched for "Jiang" followed by "Hou," probably Shaoxi—but found no useful information.

Li Cheng called for Guiyu, prepared himself, and stood quietly in the living room waiting for the teleport timer to end.

The teleportation was as uneventful as ever; when he opened his eyes, Li Cheng found himself standing in a dark, filthy alley.

Night had fallen. Outside the alley, the street was packed with people; under colorful neon lights, young men and women in trendy clothes laughed and chatted in Korean. Shopfronts played EXO's latest hit single, and Korean taegeuk flags were planted everywhere.

Several digital clocks displayed the current date: August 15, 2014. This was Korea's National Liberation Day, commemorating its independence from Japanese colonial rule.

This confirmed that this was indeed a fictional world set in modern Korea.

【Appearance changed】

Li Cheng frowned slightly, running his hand along his sleeve—the tactile sensation confirmed he still wore the bulletproof vest from teleportation, but externally, he now wore a black food delivery rider's uniform, denim pants, a motorcycle helmet, sunglasses, and a mask, completely covered.

【Full roleplay mode? Doesn't interfere with my gear skills. First, figure out who I'm playing.】

Li Cheng removed his helmet and mask, then looked down at his reflection in a puddle.

His current appearance was that of a middle-aged East Asian man nearing forty, with short black hair, an ordinary face, heavy dark circles, and an expression of extreme exhaustion.

Moreover, in the pockets of his black delivery rider's uniform were a utility knife, an iPhone 5, and a wallet.

【This body clearly showed no signs of long-term physical labor; instead, the thumb and index finger of his right hand bore calluses. Combined with the brand-new utility knife and his haggard expression, he was certainly not a delivery rider.】

As Li Cheng suspected, the resident registration card (Korean ID) in the wallet revealed that the body's owner was named Jiang Wanyong, thirty-nine, residing in a wealthy district of Ansan City, Gyeonggi Province, Korea.

The iPhone 5 was unlocked and usable. Through the phone's search engine and call recordings, Li Cheng further learned Jiang Wanyong's identity.

(The iPhone 5 had no built-in call recording function, but the original owner had downloaded a third-party app to save all call logs.)

He was a moderately famous manga artist specializing in horror and thriller themes, who had bought a villa with manga royalties and lived happily with his wife and daughter.

Until four months ago, his daughter Jiang Meixi, on her high school graduation trip, died in a maritime accident. Jiang Wanyong's wife, Jiang Shaoxi, who was then pregnant with their second child, endured her grief and held the funeral for her eldest daughter, rapidly growing gaunt and worn down.

Even worse, seven days ago, as Jiang Shaoxi neared her due date, she vanished mysteriously from their home in the wealthy district—entirely unrecorded by the neighborhood's surveillance cameras.

The only clue was a phone call Jiang Shaoxi made to her husband Jiang Wanyong from a signal tower in Jiangdong District, Seoul—interrupted abruptly before it could connect.

Upon learning of his wife's disappearance, Jiang Wanyong immediately reported it to the police in both Ansan and Seoul, but the officers in both cities were extremely inefficient; after seven days, they found no leads.

The Seoul police responded to Jiang Wanyong's pleas and demands with utter indifference. After multiple calls, the call recordings revealed the officers' growing impatience, telling him to wait at home and not interfere with the investigation.

【Jiang Wanyong carried a utility knife in his pocket—he must have gone mad from his daughter's drowning death and his pregnant wife's mysterious disappearance.】

Li Cheng muttered to himself, quietly tucked away the wallet and phone, and turned to walk deeper into the alley.

The address on the ID was thirty kilometers from Seoul—round trip would far exceed the 20-minute time limit, meaning the system had automatically ruled out Ansan City as a source of clues.

That left only one path.

Li Cheng passed through the alley and looked up at the police station building bearing the Golden Eagle emblem.

He did not walk in directly—Jiang Wanyong's attire proved he had lost all faith in the Seoul police; conventional methods would yield no clues.

Li Cheng circled to the parking lot behind the police station, picked up a few loose stones from the roadside, flicked them with his fingertips, and knocked the surveillance cameras out of alignment.

Then he chose a moderately aged Kia sedan, slammed the door hard to trigger the alarm, and rolled under the vehicle, lying flat on the ground.

"I should be under the car, not inside it~"

Li Cheng hummed a tune slowly, calmly waiting.

Moments later, a young male officer emerged from the police station—he was the car's owner—muttering curses like "Sigeo! Dentist shakeit!" as he circled the vehicle.

Nothing seemed wrong.

The officer, puzzled, turned to leave—when suddenly, "whoosh!" Two hands shot out from beneath the car, grabbed his ankles, and yanked him violently to the ground.

"Hehehehe—"

A chilling chuckle echoed from under the car; ignoring the officer's frantic struggles, he was dragged forcibly beneath the vehicle.

All was silent.

Moments later, Li Cheng, now wearing the officer's uniform, calmly crawled out from under the car.

He straightened his clothes, shoved the unconscious officer—still in his underwear—into the trunk, then his face rippled and reshaped into the officer's likeness. He walked toward the police station.

(End of Chapter)