Chapter 77

Fine, talk about the devil and he appears.

Still gripping his sword and rolling his eyes, he flipped the middle finger at the heavens.

"Mr. You, what exactly happened?" Xiao Feng asked anxiously.

"Just call me by my full name—'Mr. You' sounds weird."

It feels like it might subtly associate with 'Auschwitz Bathroom' or 'Adolf Anti-Oil Shampoo'—those 'eighty-year-old bestsellers from Europe and America.'

You Anjian paused, then told Xiao Feng and his wife the truth: "The general situation is this—your family has been drawn into the killing ground and has become the mission location."

Li Cheng thought for a moment, then turned to Xiao Feng and asked, "How well do you know Zhao Xinglang? How was his relationship with your parents? Does he know his family went bankrupt because of your father?"

Seeing Zhao Xinglang resurrected, Xiao Feng's family was even more terrified, but the three players immediately noticed that Zhao Xinglang's feet cast no shadow.

Li Cheng pondered for a moment: "In this pre-death footage, Zhao Xinglang's left hand seems to be holding something—thin and flat, probably paper. It's likely still in the study. Everyone, help look for it."

A living person who had been visible just hours ago had suddenly died—You Anjian's expression wasn't good either. He was just about to step around the remains when Li Cheng, who had been silent until now, suddenly crouched beside the debris, flipped his palm, and pulled out a pair of chopsticks?

Thus, only one option remains.

"Wait, why are you checking his contacts?" You Anjian couldn't help asking. "Isn't the mission objective to find Feng Youyun? The system only gave us fifty minutes."

Unfortunately, because the study curtains were drawn, the interior was dim, and all they could faintly see in the eyeball's reflection was a figure standing there—unable to identify who. When they shone a flashlight, the excess light passed straight through Zhao Xinglang's body.

As Feng the Elder had said, Zhao Xinglang was relatively reclusive; his contact list held few acquaintances—only Feng the Elder, Xiao Feng, some classmates, and the villa's maid and gardener. Among them, his note for Feng the Elder read: 【Uncle】.

"Found it." After a moment, Bai Zhi pulled a yellow sheet of paper from a crack beneath a cabinet. "Is this it?"

Before he could finish saying "Come," his body suddenly stiffened, then swelled rapidly, and moments later exploded just as they had seen before.

Wait—the pre-death footage means Wang Beipo is definitely dead?

You Anjian spun around sharply and saw Li Cheng still standing at the study door, his expression serious and solemn.

He seemed to be speaking to someone who didn't exist. After a pause, he angrily said: "You use such a young child as a sacrifice? Isn't it enough? Do you deliberately orchestrate all this? How could you bear it?"

A child? A sacrifice? Who is he talking to?

Tap-tap-tap!

Rapid footsteps came from above. Wang Beipo's figure flashed past the second-floor railing—his face tense with fear, his shoulders, ribs, and arms covered in superficial wounds, as if fleeing from something.

Zhao Xinglang was alive again—or rather, his image kept repeating. He now stood in the study, left hand holding something missing, right hand slamming the table in rage at someone who wasn't there: "What is this? What is this? How can you believe such nonsense? Destiny patterns? All lies!"

Since this is a mandatory mission, we're definitely going to carry it out. You two have two choices: first, stay in the car and wait for us to return. Second, come with us back to the mountain villa."

The yellow sheet was full of creases, its edges scorched, one side smooth as if cut from an old book.

Li Cheng said casually: "Feng the Elder's company is based in Sucheng, and his primary residence is also in Sucheng. This mountain villa in Wudun Town is just his ancestral home—he comes here for a while each year."

Xiao Feng, overwhelmed by grief and terror, turned pale as death; his wife vomited outright onto the roadside grass.

Upon hearing this, Bai Zhi piloted the drone to circle the mountain villa—but found no trace of living beings. When the drone attempted to fly inside the villa, its connection to the remote controller severed cleanly, and it slowly descended to the ground.

You Anjian hesitated, drew his sword, and lightly tapped Zhao Xinglang's shoulder with the scabbard.

The group entered the house together. The surrounding light instantly darkened; a chilling, eerie cold filled the air, and their breaths were visibly steaming.

"Not clear yet."

You Anjian was startled—he'd only heard from Changsun Yao that Master Pi Fu was a peculiar new recruit, but he didn't know exactly how peculiar.

【Jia Shen Ji Si Xin You Jia Wu】 【Zhuguang Baoqi Pattern, Peace and Joy】

"Alright." Seeing his determination, You Anjian said no more and pressed the accelerator.

"'Defying Heaven to Alter Fate'—does that refer to destiny patterns?"

The scabbard passed through Zhao Xinglang's body as if it had no substance; Zhao Xinglang remained oblivious, continuing to slam the table in rage, muttering, "I'll never believe you again,"

Then he stormed out of the study, pulled out a cellphone—exactly the one found among the corpses.

Then he took a disposable phone, inserted Zhao Xinglang's original SIM card into it.

You Anjian leapt up the second floor in a sprint, chasing after him—but around the corner, Wang Beipo's footsteps vanished, and all the doors on either side of the hallway were shut.

【Ren Wu Gui Mao Geng Xu Ding Chou】 【Wan Fu Changsheng Pattern, Longevity and Extended Life】

"Holy shit, bro, are you hungry?!"

"During the two years after I brought him home until my mother passed away, she treated him exceptionally well—like her own son."

These possibilities cannot be ruled out yet."

What is this? Birth chart, destiny divination?

Li Cheng's mind raced: "The former: April 12, 2002, 2–3 a. m. The latter: June 11, 2004, 12–1 p. m."

Personally, I think the second and third possibilities are more likely."

When he's away, the villa is managed by the butler (adopted son) Zhao Xinglang, the maid, and the gardener. Now Zhao Xinglang is dead, Feng the Elder is listed as missing in the mission log, so the villa should still have the maid, the gardener, and the temporarily summoned Wang Beipo.

Perhaps everyone in the villa is dead, and only Feng Youyun is alive—he witnessed the transformation.

"Of course not, and it's not familiar either."

"Running that fast?"

Li Cheng muttered casually—he had no intention of eating, but held the chopsticks and picked through the bloody debris, retrieving Zhao Xinglang's wallet (containing ID documents) and the shattered smartphone, from which he extracted the SIM card.

"Alright." After a moment's hesitation, Xiao Feng gritted his teeth: "We'll go with the three of you."

The ground was littered with fragments of human bones, skulls half-buried in soil, faces unrecognizable, bloodied and mangled; the thick stench of blood drew flies, buzzing in circles above.

Li Cheng circled to the front of Zhao Xinglang and carefully observed his eyeballs, trying to discern who he was speaking to by the reflections in the irises.

Once the vehicle chose to move forward, the ghostly loop vanished instantly, and the group found themselves back at the iron gate.

As for the content of the paper.

"Xinlang…" Xiao Feng's face was sorrowful; You Anjian's expression flickered uncertainly—he now understood: that was Zhao Xinglang's pre-death footage. It had no substance. Thus, only one human explosion mark remained on the walls and ground around the gate.

You Anjian couldn't help asking: "Who is he talking to? Feng the Elder? The maid? The gardener? Surely not Wang Beipo?"

Xiao Feng, suddenly asked, blinked in surprise, then, urged by his wife, replied: "My relationship with Xinlang was okay. He knew early on about his family's situation with mine—his father's business was already struggling; even without my father's competition, it wouldn't have survived."

"The mission objective: 【Find Feng Youyun, Uncover the Truth of the Residence】—at first glance, it seems to suggest Feng Youyun caused the villa's anomaly and knows its truth. But if you flip the perspective, this objective could also be a narrative trap."

He had encountered some information about the Killing Ground and knew full well how dangerous it was, and even more so that in such an environment, only by staying close to the Extraordinary could one increase the chance of survival. Besides, his father was still inside the villa.

Li Cheng casually said, stepping toward the left side of the corridor—he seemed to hear a sound from there.

The study door was open. Zhao Xinglang, who had just been brutally killed before everyone's eyes, his body exploding into fragments, stood calmly behind the desk, his expression agitated as he spoke to empty air: "How can you believe such nonsense? Destiny patterns are all lies!"

This phenomenon had also occurred in the previous "Curse of the Dead" scenario task—it resembled a residence enveloped by some force, severed from the real world.

It was no illusion; the farther they walked, the clearer the voices from the study became.

(This type of disposable phone is a prepaid, non-contract device, already loaded with sufficient credit, primarily for overseas tourists or temporary users, requiring no registration or contract. Available for purchase in Lujie.)

Contacts could be stored in the phone's memory or on the SIM card; fortunately, Zhao Xinglang belonged to the latter, making it easy to retrieve his contact list.

The group followed the strange Zhao Xinglang, watching helplessly as he walked out of the villa, entered the iron fence, and dialed Xiao Feng's number: "Hello, I've learned something. Where are you? Don't return to the villa—run, don't come back."

"Wait! It's us—don't run!"

You Anjian urgently drew his sword and shouted, waving his arms, but Wang Beipo acted as if he heard nothing, lowering his head and sprinting forward, his figure darting like a hare and falcon vanishing around the corner of the second-floor corridor.

Li Cheng stood calmly in place, even taking the time to pull out a measuring tape, exhaling as he measured the length of the heat haze, saying casually: "Three possibilities: one, he has a special skill that lets him project shadows. Two, he's been affected by something and can't see or hear us. Three, he's already dead, and what we saw just now was an illusion."

Zhao Xinglang replayed the conversation again and again, like a stuck tape in a recorder.

Perhaps one or more of these three living people, along with the dead Zhao Xinglang, had colluded with external enemies, triggering this anomaly.

"Is that so?" Li Cheng thought for a moment, said nothing more, and turned to Bai Zhi: "Is the drone still charged? Could you please scan the house first?"

The splattered flesh and gore from the explosion had left a human-shaped shadow on the stone pillar beside the fence, still preserving the posture of dialing the phone.

Seeing his calm analysis, Bai Zhi couldn't help turning to ask: "Aren't you afraid?"

You Anjian frowned tightly and returned to the first floor. Not only because chasing further would separate him from his teammates, but also because—

"Wang Beipo doesn't have a shadow, right?"

"Why be afraid? The four of us arrived at the villa last night, and the mission didn't trigger then—it only triggered this afternoon when we split up. It's likely the system judged that if all four players stayed together, the difficulty of this mission would drop drastically."

He remembered how Xiao Feng had mentioned on the car ride that he and his wife married very early, getting their license as soon as they met the legal age. Li Cheng turned to the two of them, squinting: "Is this… your birthday?"

In shock and disbelief, the two slowly nodded.

(End of Chapter)