Chapter 13: Do I Look Like a Pervert?
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Cao Yu left with Chen Ran and An Li.
Zhou Fan and Zhou Zheng teamed up and headed for a nearby cat café.
“Cao Bao and Annie were probably discussing who should be the first to carry out the ‘self-destruct clear method.’ They may already have reached an agreement.”
As they walked, Zhou Zheng analyzed the situation.
“My guess is that Annie gave way. They should be heading to the Matchmaking Buddha Mother Temple to obtain the deity statue stickers.”
“If we quietly follow them and observe from the shadows, we’ll know whether the method is safe once they’ve carried it out.” Zhou Fan curled his lips. “That’s what you were trying to say, right?”
Who would have thought? With those thick brows and honest-looking features, Zhou Zheng actually had quite a few little schemes of his own.
Zhou Zheng nodded.
“I know it’s somewhat despicable, which is why I’m still hesitating. I wanted to hear your opinion.”
Although Zhou Zheng was young, he was still a graduate of the Fourth Academy. He was worlds apart from the naïve little rabbits raised in ivory towers.
In any case, Zhou Fan had no intention of looking down on him.
“As players, we shouldn’t be overly concerned with morality. Despicable is despicable. But…” Zhou Fan shook his head. “Let’s forget it this time.”
“Because they’re your classmates?” Zhou Zheng asked.
“Not entirely.” Zhou Fan smiled. “I judge each situation according to the people involved.”
Cao Yu and Annie had reached an agreement in private. They had brought Chen Ran along but excluded Zhou Fan and Zhou Zheng. The implication was obvious: they weren’t going to let anyone freeload this time. If they wanted to do it, they would have to handle it themselves.
Zhou Fan knew when to stop.
Not daring to offend them was one reason.
Another was that he still hoped the powerful expert would continue taking him into dungeons in the future.
…
Zhou Zheng’s guess was correct. Cao Yu, Chen Ran, and An Li had indeed gone to the Matchmaking Buddha Mother Temple, where they successfully obtained—or, more accurately, purchased—a deity statue sticker of the Buddha Mother.
Naturally, they had no money on them. They had therefore been forced to play the part of robbers. In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures were necessary.
Simply snatching the sticker had never been an option.
The Buddha Mother worshiped at the temple was a genuine divine being capable of manifesting miracles. Faced with such an existence, who would dare run wild on her territory?
On the drive back from the temple, An Li used her phone to look up the text of the Rebirth Mantra. Then, using the paper and pen they had taken from Du Ruo’s home earlier, she wrote the mantra backward on three sheets of paper and handed one to Chen Ran.
The two began memorizing it in reverse, familiarizing themselves with the incantation in advance.
Chen Ran recited hers aloud, and quite loudly at that. She was reciting it for Cao Yu, who was driving.
The car had been stolen as well.
Such ruthless behavior had been unavoidable. They would only be staying here for twelve hours, and there was truly no time to acquire transportation legally. In an emergency, one had to make do.
When they returned to the city and reached the outer area of Senbei Park, Cao Yu parked and switched off the engine.
Since they had encountered no danger along the way, Chen Ran could not help relaxing.
“Looks like the Buddha Mother doesn’t pose a threat to us.”
An Li handed Cao Yu the remaining sheet bearing the backward Rebirth Mantra and asked, “What do you think the Buddha Mother’s role is in this dungeon?”
“She’s probably the supernatural source of the dungeon—the underlying logic that allows it to keep operating.”
Cao Yu accepted the sheet.
“Even if we kill the Puppet-Wrath, as long as the Buddha Mother continues to exist, new supernatural creatures will eventually be born here. The dungeon will open again and again, testing successive batches of players.”
He shook his head.
“Don’t set your sights on the Buddha Mother. At least, not yet.”
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He knew that An Li was tempted.
He was tempted as well.
It had already been two and a half years since the Evolution Game descended, yet in the Federation’s public database, not a single player had ever obtained an S-rank dungeon rating.
The difficulty was self-evident.
Such a rating probably could not be achieved through normal means.
The Buddha Mother’s existence gave the two of them hope.
But Cao Yu managed to suppress his desires.
It was not that he lacked the courage. Rather, to deal with the Puppet-Wrath, they first had to rely on the Buddha Mother’s rules to transform themselves into ghosts.
“By the way, why did we come to Senbei Park?” Chen Ran asked, puzzled. “This is a famous destination for couples, so it’s highly attractive to ghosts. Judging by the noise… the park is already in complete chaos.”
She glanced at the player interface.
“It’s three in the afternoon. Shouldn’t we find somewhere to rest and conserve our strength, then act at seven tonight?”
“We’re going to kill ghosts and save people,” Cao Yu replied.
“…Have you suddenly become overly compassionate?” Chen Ran asked suspiciously.
It was not that she lacked kindness or sympathy. The problem was that after drinking blood, those corpse ghosts possessed strength and speed beyond human limits. The more blood they consumed, the stronger they became, and they could even defend themselves with a Blood Shield.
Chen Ran reminded him, “Although these ghosts don’t regard us as targets of attack, the situation may change if we deliberately provoke them. We’ve already called the police and given them all the information about the ghosts. Gaitan City will send troops to deal with them.”
At that moment, An Li turned to Chen Ran.
“What’s your relationship with Cao Yu?”
“Good friends… Wait!” Chen Ran suddenly realized. “How do you know his real name?”
An Li looked at Cao Yu.
“Can she really be trusted?”
“Don’t worry,” Cao Yu assured her. “She won’t reveal your secret.”
Earlier, when he and An Li had discussed their cooperation in the bedroom, they had talked about quite a few things during those ten-odd minutes.
For instance, An Li had admitted that she had awakened a superpower as well: Ability No. 152, Puppet Refinement. One of its effects was the ability to refine corpses into puppets.
In return, Cao Yu had agreed to help An Li capture corpse ghosts. That was the reason they had come to Senbei Park.
There was no record of Ability No. 152 in the Federation’s public database. Thus, even if An Li had been lying, no one in this dungeon would have been able to tell…
Unfortunately, she had miscalculated.
Cao Yu had merely glanced at his system shop and learned that the true Ability No. 152 was Winter Summoning—a superpower capable of summoning and controlling phenomena of extreme cold. It had absolutely nothing to do with refining puppets.
Naturally, he saw through her lie without exposing it.
After all, the girl was exceedingly clever. If he revealed his suspicions, she might infer that he possessed a list of superpower numbers, and then wonder how he had obtained it…
When dealing with intelligent people, one had to keep a few extra cards close to the chest.
“A secret?” Chen Ran asked. “What secret? What exactly did you two discuss in that bedroom?”
“She has a superpower that allows her to refine corpse puppets. We need to help her capture three corpse ghosts as powerful materials for puppet refinement,” Cao Yu explained. “Oh, and don’t tell anyone about this. She doesn’t like people knowing her secrets.”
“So… the condition for her being the first to verify the ‘self-destruct clear method’ is that we help her capture ghosts first?” Chen Ran understood. “So that’s what you were discussing earlier.”
She patted her chest.
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep it secret. But wouldn’t capturing living corpse ghosts be difficult? We don’t have any means of restraining or immobilizing them.”
“We only need the corpses. Whether they’re alive or dead doesn’t matter,” An Li said. “Even if they’re smashed into pieces, that’s fine.”
“Is that so… Wait!” Chen Ran eyed her suspiciously. “At the funeral home earlier, why didn’t you take Du Ruo’s corpse to refine into a puppet?”
An Li cast an obscure glance at Cao Yu before replying, “I forgot.”
Naturally, she had not truly forgotten. Earlier, at the funeral home, she had secretly touched Du Ruo’s shattered corpse while everyone else was gathering the funeral attendees.
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Yet no matter how she activated her superpower, she could not reunite the fragments and refine them into a puppet.
And Du Ruo had been torn apart by Cao Yu…
Cao Yu’s superpower was definitely no ordinary ability!
“Let’s move.” Cao Yu looked at Chen Ran. “Annie will use her item to suppress the target. I’ll deliver the killing blow. You provide support. We’ll finish this quickly.”
With that, he gave An Li a meaningful glance and smiled.
“Don’t worry. You won’t ‘forget’ these corpses.”
“…”
An Li understood his implication: he was telling her not to worry about whether the corpses could be used.
Clearly, based on her puppet-refinement ability, Cao Yu had deduced that she must have noticed something unusual about Du Ruo’s remains.
What a frightening man!
An Li fell silent.
…
The three of them sprang into action.
There was no place near Senbei Park where corpses were stored. The ghosts rampaging through the park had all come from elsewhere.
Each ghost killed independently, with no sign of fighting among them. They were probably all accumulating strength, waiting for nightfall so they could kill and devour their own kind, then revive.
That made things much easier for Cao Yu and the others.
Blending into the screaming crowd, they approached an evil ghost without a sound and launched a surprise attack. Annie used the Dust-Severing Golden Ring to restrain it, Cao Yu activated the Immortal-Slaying Mantra, and Chen Ran stood guard nearby, ready to hurl her staff like a javelin at any moment.
The ghost fought back fiercely.
It was obvious that the ghosts would retaliate whenever they were attacked.
Fortunately, the three worked together flawlessly. They killed the ghost without suffering any injuries and successfully obtained a scattered corpse ghost.
Cao Yu learned something from this: the Immortal-Slaying Mantra was powerful enough to kill a ghost. When he had killed Du Ruo earlier, using the Eternal Wound Mantra had evidently been excessive caution.
Using the same method, they killed a second ghost, then a third. After that, they stopped while things were still going well, returned to the parking area, gathered the heap of fragmented ghost corpses, and drove away from Senbei Park, choosing a parking lot where they could hide temporarily.
The entire process had gone unbelievably smoothly.
“Thank goodness they don’t have any sense of solidarity,” Chen Ran said with a sigh. “We didn’t fight fair at all—we tricked them and ambushed them, and we actually managed to get three ghost corpses.”
“Little Chen, are you saying you approach everything with a gambler’s mindset?”
An Li already knew that Chen Ran’s real name was Chen Ran, so Cao Yu no longer needed to conceal it when addressing her. He merely shook his head.
“Those ghosts clearly prioritize accumulating strength and preparing for nightfall. They’re competitors. If they see one of their own reduced in number, they’ll only be pleased. Why would they interfere? We planned carefully before acting. That isn’t gambling.”
After speaking, he drank a bottle of mental-recovery potion, then said to An Li, “Fortunately, you only needed three ghost corpses. We’re almost out of potions.”
An Li was expressionlessly piecing together the corpses, which had been hacked into fragments.
At present, she could control only three puppets, though there was no need to mention that.
She simply turned around and invited Cao Yu, “Would you like to help me put the corpses back together?”
“…” Cao Yu declined. “No, thank you. I used my superpower too much just now. I need to rest.”
Inviting him to piece together corpses—and inviting only him, not Chen Ran. What exactly was she implying?
Did he look like some kind of psychopath?