Lou Ying : “We have an appointment for a two-hour shift change, and it’s not yet time for the shift change ……”
Chi Xiaochi : “Who’s next on night duty?”
Lou Ying looks over at Zhao Rou who is still dazed.
Chi Xiaochi, with one hand on the tent stand, says to Zhao Rou, “Your watch is half an hour early, is that OK?”
The words sounded consultative, but there was nothing consultative in their tone.
He didn’t care what Zhao Rou’s answer was, his sleepy peachy eyes glanced at Lou Ying, and then at the tent behind him, “Brother, come in.”
Lou Ying’s heart thudded and her breath stopped for a moment when he caught her eye.
When the air flowed again, the scene around him did not change, only he knew that there was a little more light between his heart.
He responded, “Hmm.”
Once inside the tent, Lou Ying pulls the curtain closed.
Noticing Zhao Rou outside, Lou Ying opened the internal communication channel with Chi Xiaochi and said, “Isn’t it a good idea to order her around like this? You lead a team, it’s best to be lenient and strict. If you’re too strict with her, she might rebel.”
Chi Xiaochi sets out Lou Ying’s sleeping bag and lays it out for herself.
”There are people who don’t take control, and with people like that, you have to be lenient and strict.” Chi Xiaochi says, “But there are people who need to be controlled in order to feel at ease.”
Lou Ying sniffed and lifted the tent, which had just been pulled shut, back up a crack and looked out.
Sure enough, Zhao Rou sat down by the fire with a much more relaxed look than he had earlier.
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She peeked into Chi Xiaochi’s tent and became convinced that with this man, she might actually survive and even have a chance of seeing the light of day again.
Meanwhile, Chi Xiaochi, inside the tent, lowered his eyes and said, “This kind of person does not have too strong an opinion, and in extreme circumstances, being ordered around by someone who is absolutely strong, not only does he not resent it, but he becomes ten times more dependent and trusting of him.”
Chi Xiaochi pulls out the matching pillow from her sleeping bag and pats it until it is fluffy, her long eyelashes casting a pleasing glow in the steamlight: “It’s all I can give her for peace of mind.”
Lou Ying’s heart is softened by Chi Xiaochi’s words. She rubs his hair and goes to his sleeping bag to rearrange his still-warm bedding.
Two people crouched back to back, their shadows blending together in perfect harmony.
”One more question?”
”Ask away.”
”Why do you want to provoke those watchers.” Lou Ying said, “The card’s effects last another eight hours ……”
Chi Xiaochi said indifferently, “Psychic powers can only be concealed from the human eye, not from machines.”
With just this one mention, Lou Ying was enlightened: “…… understands. Our collars are able to locate us, and the staff of those agencies already knew that we had left A8. But why didn’t they say anything?”
Chi Xiaochi lets out a snort of disdain.
Lou Ying laughed along with him as his mind raced, “Yeah. They have inside information, they should have also bought bets on us long ago. …… This way, even if there is an inside situation, they won’t reveal the situation to other players.”
”But when the fire started, it was a very different story.” Chi Xiaochi said, “Just now, all the other players probably thought they had a winner and bought into those two in bulk, probably losing a lot of money.”
Lou Ying nodded, “Their reaction to this anomaly must have been unusually violent. The agency’s staff cannot fail to deal with this agitation and will soon expose our coordinates through the locator on the collar.”
Once their coordinates were revealed, the gamblers who had lost so much money would have gone on a rampage, issuing “bounties” and calling on the psychics to kill them.
It would be too much trouble in case some individuals who are not afraid of death do come to B3.
So Chi Xiaochi not only took it upon himself to disarm the illusion card, but also made a blatant taunt, almost as if to say, I’m right here in B3, come on any of you who have the guts.
Two unwitting men had already been caught in a hallucination and burned on the spot, which would have made anyone wonder if Chi Xiaochi’s move to the B3 camp was another false decoy.
Even if the staff with inside information broke the news again that they were indeed in B3 and not bait, the punters would not dare to place their bets indiscriminately and could only watch them sleep peacefully and then piss themselves off alive.
Chi Xiaochi hides his mouth and gives a rather showy yawn.
He said, “True is true, false is true. I want them to know full well that I am using an empty city, but they can only stare in disbelief and dare not come.”
With that, he got under Lou Ying’s tiled comforter and said, “…… And, tomorrow morning, we’ll get up early and get ready to pick up our clients.”
Lou Ying : “…… eh?” What kind of clients are you taking?
”Thank them for spreading the word, I guess.” Chi Xiaochi closed his eyes, “By now probably all the shifter’s know we’re in B3, and we’ve shown goodwill to those who have sincerely defected, along with ample supplies to offer. So, guess how many will come to join us tomorrow?”
Lou Ying reminded him, “There may be ‘catfish’ mixed in with the people who come to us.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “I know.”
Lou Ying said, “There were four ‘catfish’ in total and it was a real headache.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “No need for a headache.”
Lou Ying recalled Chi Xiaochi’s earlier question about the number of ‘catfish’: “Do you think there are three ‘catfish’ mixed in with the Alter Ego, not four?”
Chi Xiaochi said, “Ah, that was just a doubt in my own mind. It’s not important.”
Lou Ying : “Doesn’t it matter?”
Chi Xiaochi : “Whether he has three or four, he’s going to die in the end.”
Lou Ying : “But it does make it difficult if they blend in.”
Chi Xiaochi, however, said, “It won’t blend in. They’ll all die and, besides, we won’t even have to do it ourselves.”
Now Lou Ying really didn’t get it: “What?”
Chi Xiaochi only returned an inaudible laugh, “Ha.”
Lou Ying asks, “Is this your plan again?”
Chi Xiaochi still doesn’t answer positively: “When you make a plan, of course you want to make the most out of it by making it all work, don’t you?”
Lou Ying lost his smile: “Go ahead, what else is there that you know that I don’t.”
”…… two women.” Chi Xiaochi said.
”Hmm?”
Chi Xiaochi coughed a little uncomfortably, “I just got into Bai Anyi’s …… one, the submerged ‘one’. Underwater, I could determine by the sound that the …… ones pushing Bai Anyi under were two women.”
Lou Ying saw him stammering and knew that he was vain about what he had just done.
…… knows it’s good to be afraid.
Lou Ying, half out of his sleeping bag, does the same trick again, putting his hand to his forehead and making a move to flick it.
Chi Xiaochi is busy holding her breath, closing her eyes and frowning as she waits for the pain to come.
The pain was long overdue, but a strange sensation came over me.
Lou Ying incorporated a card into Chi Xiaochi’s body, and after a flash of light, he leaned down and gently held Chi Xiaochi’s spirit body away from Bai Anyi’s body.
Lou Ying cupped his face and placed his index finger on the small mole at the end of his eyebrow, stroking it lovingly twice before dropping a feather-light kiss on the spot where he had just been flicked.
The lips of the man who was just now full of strategic plans moved, and the redness started from his cheeks and went down to his neck, to his ears, and it was a pleasure to look at.
Lou Ying touched her forehead to his and said warmly, “Good night.”
……
The two men slept peacefully, while outside the establishment was ablaze with lights over the mess they had made.
In the Emergency Department, all staff are gathered in the conference room.
The minister stood at the forefront and wrote down a keyword on the light screen with his touch screen pen, “With the information we have so far, we can tell that in this five-man squad, the seven psychic abilities of foreseeing the future, disarming weapons, random dice, distorting things, instantaneous movement, hallucination, and otherworldly storage have clearly appeared. This has been noted from above, and the nature of the problem has been highlighted as serious, and we are asked to meet immediately to discuss it.”
Someone commented, “Doesn’t that Wei Shiliu have a dice that can randomize powers, and ‘hallucinogenic’ might be a power he arranged?”
”Unlikely.” The minister frowned, “Wei Shiliu has been tested and his random powers are short-lived, usually lasting no more than five minutes. The hallucinogenic spell just now lasted at least a few hours. In addition, the special collar is able to record the amount of Class A globulin that grows in a psychic’s body when they use their powers ……”
He pointed to Wei Shiliu’s name on the screen, “According to the data, he showed no signs of a spike in Class A globulin during this time, which means he didn’t use his powers at all.”
The ministers at the bottom looked at each other, but no one dared to believe the answer that popped into everyone’s mind at the same time.
The minister continued, “…… You should not speculate. The rest of you, with the amount of globulin in your body, are also normal.”
A member of the ministry was astonished, “How is that possible? The data provided by the collar has always been more than accurate.”
The minister said, “So there are two possibilities at the moment -”
”First, the data recovered from our collar is wrong. It was indeed Wei Shiliu who mobilized the psychic powers, yes.”
Here, the Minister paused briefly, unable to hide the excitement in his voice: “…… Secondly, we have discovered the world’s first multi-alien.”
Even though they had guessed it, the ministry members still couldn’t help but get a tingle down their spines when they heard the guess from the minister’s mouth, “…… So …… which one of them is it?”
The Minister drew a circle around each of the names “Bai Anyi” and “Chi Jiangyu”.
”The former possesses the supernatural ability of instantaneous movement, but earlier, his supernatural ability was in the ‘undecided’ state for a long time, which is indeed suspicious, and, just a moment ago, he took the initiative to provoke us, as if he was clearly informing us that he was the one with multiple supernatural abilities.”
”But the more deliberately he behaves like this, the more I suspect that the multi-powered person is, in fact, the latter, Chi Jiangyu.” The Minister spoke eloquently, “…… did have a record of successfully distorting objects while he was held in the institution for ‘re-education’; and the things in the Otherworld were all taken by Chi Jiangyu’s hands. Therefore, I have a reasonable suspicion that hallucination is one of Chi Jiangyu’s abilities. But in front of the audience, he only explicitly demonstrates the ability to ‘take things from other dimensions’. Therefore, I would venture to guess that Chi Jiangyu did not want to reveal too much of his power in front of the audience, so he asked Bai Anyi to step in and deliberately provoke the audience instead, misleading them into thinking that ‘Illusion’ was the ability possessed by Bai Anyi, while ‘Teleportation ‘ is Wei Shiliu’s random dice ability. –The audience is very misleading, mind you, and there is always a limit to what they can see.”
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As he spoke, the minister lifted his fingertips and rubbed the name ” Chi Jiangyu” a few times over and over, unable to repress a little more greed in his eyes, as if he was looking at a fortune tree.
He had a good eye, and from the moment Chi Jiangyu appeared, he knew that this man was no ordinary product.
It was not in vain that he had staked his entire fortune on this man.
With the matter clear, the ministry member continued, “What are we going to do about it?”
The minister looked as if he took it for granted: “Of course we want Chi Jiangyu to be alive. Only if he comes out alive can we study him and call him to our use.”
”That’s right ……” another ministry member mused, “What about the need for us to end the game immediately and bring him out?”
”No.” The minister flatly refused, “It’s in the middle of a game, and there are a lot of players who have placed a lot of bets on him. If he disappears, or the game is suspended, there will be a lot of commotion and trouble, do you know that?”
”So let him get on with the game? In case he dies …… I mean, after all, it’s not like there hasn’t been a blowout before ……”
”Of course we have to do everything we can to protect his life!” The minister said, “Only a living alien is worthy of study.”
”So, what should we do about the ‘catfish’ that we planted there? The other psychics may not be as aggressive, but the ‘catfish’ are different. There are only three places left to live, and they will definitely try to kill Chi Jiangyu by all means. The ‘catfish’, will become a threat to Chi Jiangyu.”
The minister dropped his stylus on the conference table, “How many ‘catfish’ are there this time?”
The ministers replied, “It’s the same as before, all three.”
”I ask you, are ten or twenty ‘catfish’ with single psychic powers worth one Chi Jiangyu with multiple psychic powers?”
After the rhetorical question, the minister waved his hand, “My opinion is to report the situation and get an order from above to order the activation of contingency plan number two and get rid of all three of those ‘catfish’.”
The ministers were surprised, “Minister?”
”For now, we have to remove all the dangerous elements that can threaten Chi Jiangyu.” The minister said with justice, “…… is going to do everything possible to keep Chi Jiangyu.”
”Put together a report on what we found and what we think about dealing with it and send it to the top. Let the top make the decision.”
There was so much going on in the day that the report was just handed in and feedback was quickly received.
The approval is only two words long.
”Agreed”.
The Minister smiled with relief at the result.
A member of the ministry asked again, “What about the alliance that Chi Jiangyu and the others have entered into?”
The minister didn’t even look up: “Haven’t you ever seen all kinds of alliances made by the supernaturals before? How many times have they not ended up killing each other? No one has ever been able to confront us until the end, forcing us to inject poison to end the game.”
He said, “People are such cheap things that they never learn to trust each other.”
Within ten minutes, the approved Wen document was delivered to the head of another “catfish” institution.
”…… killed them all?”
The secretary who read the order was appalled, “Boss, just kill them when you say so, why? These ‘catfish’ are very good seeds-”
”No reason was given, only that it was a first class secret and the reason could not be revealed.” The head said with a hard look on his face, “Who knows what the headquarters side is for.”
This is the “game centre”, where all the participants are brought together after they have inhaled the anaesthetic.
This place is far away from the headquarters, and is only responsible for watching over the psychics and the “catfish” sent in from the various branch agencies, not knowing much about what is happening in the game.
The secretary said carefully, “But …… you’ve bet a lot of money on that ‘catfish’ ……”
The man in charge pursed up his lips, showing a hint of resignation, “Yeah, ‘that guy’ is clearly the most promising to win.”
The secretary, who knew the inside story, was equally bullish on the “catfish” and bet half his fortune on him.
How could he afford to blow his money now?
The matter was urgent, and the secretary’s mind was not slow to turn, and in a short while, his eyes lit up fiercely, “Boss, the higher-ups told us to use contingency plan number two, right?”
He took out a copy of the Wen document and spread it out sharply on the desk of the person in charge.
”Boss, we signed a contract with each of the three ‘catfish’, didn’t we?”
”Their collar construction looks exactly the same as any other shifter’s, and even a scan with the most sophisticated instruments wouldn’t reveal anything unusual, but there is one difference ……”
The secretary drew a striking circle on the cross-sectional construction of the collars marked on the Wen file: “In their collars, it is not poison that is stored, but glucose. This is the contract we have with them to ensure that they are not harmed by external forces during the game.”
”Let’s use an analogy. If a group of gamers form an alliance and refuse to follow the rules of the game, once they are judged by HQ to be ‘passive resisters’, they are collectively injected with poison from their collars, leaving only three people ‘at random’. These three, are our ‘catfish’.”
”But hidden on the back of their wristwatch is another poisoned, concealed retractable needle. This is contingency plan number two that we have secretly kept on hand in case they reveal the secret of ‘Catfish’ to others, or to deal with other contingencies. It was this plan that HQ wanted us to activate. But as you know, that ‘catfish’ is capable of ……”
The man in charge understood, walked over to a huge floor-to-ceiling window, raised his hand to hold it up and said to himself, “It’s …… that ‘catfish’ that’s not afraid of poison.”
Yet he was still a bit indecisive about this muddy proposal: “But headquarters requires that all the ‘catfish’ die. If one doesn’t die-”
”Aiya, boss!” The secretary was afraid that he would backtrack and actively persuaded, “‘Catfish’ is not dead, it’s his own ability, it’s none of our business. All we have to do is submit the ‘successful injection’ report, and you’ll be considered to have completed your mission. As for that ‘confidential’ thing, who knows if it’s important.”
The man in charge gazed out of the window and nodded slightly after a long time.
”Good.” He said, “Just do it.”
Inside the window, lying in the middle of the game, are 101 shifter
They lie in coffin-like transparent capsules, bathed in pale blue light, helmets on their heads, breathing quietly as if they were dead men immersed in formalin.
Some of the capsules have dimmed to a tiny dead star.
Some are still gleaming, not knowing when they will fade to dust.
The man in charge picked up a joypad and pressed it with an expressionless face.
Three capsules, darkened in unison.
But within a few moments, one of them was eerily illuminated again, the light shining brightly, like a giant one-eye blinking in the darkness.
……
Six hours later.
Chi Xiaochi wakes up from his sleeping bag after a good night’s sleep.
The first thing he did was to check the survivalist figures on his watch.
Last night, after he slept, a total of five people died.
A man and a woman were in an armed fight in M1, one was killed and the other seriously injured. The seriously injured woman struggled alone for half the night and still did not make it through.
In addition, two women died in Sections D9 and Q10, and a man died in Section E6, both in unknown circumstances, and were therefore deemed to have had their hopes dashed and chosen to commit suicide.
Three suicides in one breath in one night is not a normal number in itself.
However, there were few people who committed suicide in desperation during the game, and the stakes on these guys weren’t too high, not to mention the fact that the suicides happened in the middle of the night, and the number of people still watching the broadcast was so small that no one even noticed when they died.
Chi Xiaochi rested his hand on his forehead and was silent.
For Chi Xiaochi, plans are subject to change as circumstances change.
At first, he intended for the Catfish to come to them.
It was only when dealing with Zhao Rou that Chi Xiaochi became convinced that something was wrong.
It would take a lot of effort to subdue a young girl, and if the “catfish” was mixed in with the people who came to join him, it would take too much energy to count, and if one mistake was made, it could ruin the whole situation.
Not to mention his own failure to complete his mission, Bai Anyi’s easily recovered life would be played out.
As a result, he made adjustments to his plans.
He flaunts his powers in a high profile manner, he provokes, he pushes Lou Ying to the front of the curtain and induces everyone to believe that Lou Ying is a multi-powered person.
He wants Lou Ying to be the new ‘catfish’ that the institution will carefully protect.
Developments, institutional decisions, the death of the ‘catfish’ ……
Everything was moving steadily along the track he had envisaged.
After he demonstrated his multiple powers for Lou Ying with great fanfare, the men decided that his brother Lou was a unique multi-powered individual.
As the rule is that only three people can survive, the Catfish, who have the early advantage, will not be willing to be cannon fodder and will try to get rid of Lou.
But this brings their intentions into conflict with the needs of the institution.
What is killing a few “catfish” to the agency in order to protect this multi-powered man and keep him alive?
This way, at least for now, Lou is by far the safest in the whole game.
Chi Xiaochi has kidnapped the entire institution with his interests, making it stand behind Lou Ying and become his invisible umbrella.
With this in mind, Chi Xiaochi turned her face to Lou Ying, who was still sleeping peacefully.
He wore that mask, creating horrific scars, trying desperately to look menacing.
However, he still looks so peaceful as he sleeps that Chi Xiaochi can’t help but smile, and he can’t help but think what a nice person Lou Ying is.
And what kind of person is he, Chi Xiaochi?
It’s a …… monster who sleeps through Lou Ying’s kisses knowing full well that people will die because of his plans.
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