Chapter 777: Cold Bright Blade (1/2, please subscribe)

"No! We absolutely cannot give him too powerful a strange object! Otherwise we'll lose our ability to keep him in check! If I could, I'd even want to take back the parchment in his hands!"

"You know that's impossible. Forcing our own people into a corner won't do us any good."

"Then there's no need to provide too good a weapon either. If there's truly a need, we can assign him a powerful strange object on the spot when that time comes."

"And what if there's no time? What if, because of such a trivial matter, he's unable to perform at the level he should, and loses the ability to fight the Cheaters?"

"..."

The discussion about Fang Yue grew increasingly heated, while Fang Yue himself had already returned to the room where Yuan Jie was resting.

These past days, Yuan Jie had been living in constant fear. She was clearly just an ordinary person, yet she'd been exposed to things far more dangerous than she could have imagined, and the mental pressure on her was immense.

Fang Yue comforted her with a few words, steadied her emotions, and only then began to think about how to settle Yuan Jie.

The day of 【Heaven Devouring】 was drawing near. What exactly would happen that day, Fang Yue already had a vague inkling.

Without a doubt, it would be an event that posed a tremendous challenge to both the Alliance and the Cheater groups.

And after that day, how many people would still be alive? Yuan Jie had always been unarmed — how was she to protect herself?

Although the Alliance had said they would take over and keep Yuan Jie safe in his place, Fang Yue didn't trust the Alliance all that much. Sure enough... he still had to get Yuan Jie into the game...

But entering the game carried too much randomness, and now they were in the high strange-density storyline phase — die in the game, die in reality. That risk was one Fang Yue couldn't afford to take.

The most suitable compromise would be to have a protective strange object, or to have someone assigned specifically to protect her — then he could rest a lot easier.

It was just that the Alliance side wouldn't be easy to talk to.

Knock. Knock.

Just then, a sudden knock came at the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's us."

The arrivals were, to everyone's surprise, Qiu Dugu and Director Jiang.

Seeing Yuan Jie was also present, the two gave Fang Yue a meaningful look.

Fang Yue immediately understood, followed them out the door. Once they reached the corridor, the two finally began to tell Fang Yue what was going on.

It turned out the two of them had checked the surveillance, only to find that the footage looked as if it had been tampered with — over a stretch of time, it was stuck in an eerily frozen frame.

Without a doubt, the incident had taken place during that window, but even after getting someone to help restore it, nothing came of it.

They questioned the staff member on duty at the time, but that also yielded no progress.

"Are you feeling any discomfort right now?"

The two had already confirmed that something had indeed happened to Fang Yue, but what exactly, they didn't know.

Fang Yue shook his head slightly. Apart from the pinhole, there seemed to be nothing else.

This was baffling. What kind of person would go to such great lengths to infiltrate the Alliance headquarters just to prick Fang Yue with some needle?

Could it be... some kind of prerequisite condition for a strange object?

At the thought that this was a possibility, no one dared let their guard down.

After telling Fang Yue to be careful, the two prepared to go find the President to report.

"... Who do you think is targeting me?"

"It's hard to draw a conclusion for now. But since it all happened at Alliance headquarters, and someone tampered with you right under our noses, we can't just let this go — we have to get to the bottom of it."

"Alright, I'll wait for your news."

So he said, but Fang Yue prepared to take Yuan Jie and leave the Alliance headquarters first.

In a place like this, where an unknown enemy lurked, even staying put didn't feel safe.

After Qiu Dugu and Director Jiang left, Fang Yue discussed the matter with Yuan Jie. Once there were no objections, he prepared to wait until he had the Immortal-Slaying Water and the strange-object weapon in hand, then head straight back to Qingshui Branch first.

As for whether to go to neighboring Haiyu City, that would depend on the Presidents' final decision.

After leaving Fang Yue's room, Qiu Dugu and Director Jiang went to find the President.

But by then, in the conference room, only the Second President remained. Everyone else had ended the meeting and gone off to their own affairs.

"What is it?"

Watching the two come in to report, the Second President raised an eyebrow.

After the two reported Fang Yue's situation and the results of their investigation to the Second President...

"Understood."

And then, there was no "then."

Qiu Dugu was somewhat taken aback, and in the end was led away by Director Jiang.

He didn't understand — this should have been a very serious case of internal infiltration — why did the Second President look so utterly unbothered?

What Qiu Dugu didn't know was that after they left, the Second President took out his phone and made a call.

"How did the blood test results come out?"

"What? No different from an ordinary person's? Impossible! The power he displayed that day was already on par with a Cheater! How could his blood data be the same as an ordinary person's! Keep researching!"

"Huh? Someone came asking you for the blood report? No matter who it is... if it's those old fellows, you can share part of it — only what's available now. The results of any further research cannot be provided."

After hanging up, a thoughtful gleam flickered in the Second President's eyes. He turned off the conference room lights, his entire figure caught between the brightness of the corridor lights and the darkness of the conference room.

"Those old fellows don't dare make a move themselves, yet they want to take advantage of my work."

"But why would that fellow Fang Yue's blood show no difference from an ordinary person's? That doesn't make sense..."

Cheaters were Immortals — an Immortal's body had already reached a point beyond what existing technology could analyze. So even though they had this treasure trove of a Cheater, all they could do was stare at it helplessly, with no way to conduct research.

Fang Yue's situation, however, was clearly different.

He was a human still in the process of evolving toward an Immortal's body — a stage that was still researchable.

If, through systematic research, they could bypass the medium of the game and artificially manufacture more existences like Fang Yue, then the existence of Cheaters would no longer be so important to them. They could even tear up the agreement with the Cheaters and no longer be held in check.

After thinking for a moment, the Second President decided to first keep Fang Yue stable.

Until they got what they wanted, Fang Yue was still very important to them.

As for the weapon Fang Yue wanted, they could consider giving him a satisfactory one—Lao Long, level one or two.

Thinking about these things, the Second President walked outside.

……

The ghost-artefact weapon and the 【Immortal-Slaying Water】 had both been delivered.

The Immortal-Slaying Water needed no further explanation; Fang Yue got a waist pouch and kept it close to his body.

But the ghost-artefact weapon, he took a good while to admire.

It was a tachi, its blade cold as frost, possessing a unique beauty.

However, Fang Yue had never used a tachi before, and since Blue Sea Game was set in an ancient background, he had never seen this kind of tachi in the game at all.

This left Fang Yue somewhat puzzled—how could this thing be a ghost-artefact?

But soon, Fang Yue thought of something: that was… he had never left Qing Guo until now.

In other words, he had never seen what the countries outside Qing Guo looked like. It was possible that people in other countries used weapons like the tachi, so having a tachi ghost-artefact would make sense.

(End of chapter)