GRMFBS CH236

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“What’s the difference between a divine ability that can’t be used and having no divine ability at all?”

“Letting Infinite continue hiding is no different from aiding the enemy.”

“While you stand still, your enemy is growing.”

“Your one-of-a-kind ability is the very embodiment of your unique self-worth.”

…

Zhan Yan was staring in complete shock.

There was really no need to work this hard!!!

[Linyuan Ghost King, Zhan Jinli, thinks Deep Shadow, Gu Jiancheng, has something wrong with his head.]

Zhan Yan: desperately sucking in air.

He logged onto the forum and opened the private message window withI Just Saved the World! No matter what, he had to make Xiao Gu stop first!

Zhan Yan was still typing when the other side sent a message first.

[I Just Saved the World!]: “Do you know what exactly went wrong with Linyuan Ghost King’s divine ability?”

“How do you fix it?”

To be fair, Student Xiao Gu wasn’t doing this purely to vent on behalf of his future sister-in-law. He seriously believed that the period when he had used Linyuan Ghost King as a wish machine had been the most satisfying time he had ever had fighting anomalies. If the ability was simply left unused out of fear of “misfortune,” then that was way too much of a waste.

They had to hurry up and heal it. And if he was the one who helped heal it, then afterward he could leverage that favor for repayment—wouldn’t that mean he could make Linyuan Ghost King keep grinding until Infinite was completely wiped out?

Zhan Yan looked at the chat interface with mixed feelings.

He had been worrying earlier about what excuse he could use to get Deep Shadow involved in helping Wanyan, and now the excuse had delivered itself to his doorstep.

But why did you have to offend the guy first before doing that?!

Approaching Science: “Don’t go push Linyuan Ghost King anymore.”

“That divine ability of his really can’t—”

Zhan Yan had only typed halfway when he suddenly remembered: back then, when Deep Shadow had used his brother like a wish machine to frantically pursue Monster Doctor, the “misfortune” had ended up causing his and Xiao Gu’s internships to be separated and assigned to two different places.

Well… if the “misfortune” was only that, then maybe it wasn’t impossible to use after all. Dragging Infinite, that gloomy thing hiding in the dark, out sooner would also be a good thing.

But there was no guarantee that every “misfortune” would always be this sort of harmless little inconvenience. If it shifted to another direction, that would be bad…

Zhan Yan was still thinking this over when his brother came back.

Zhan Jinli silently took out two bags of freshly baked sweet bread for him.

[Linyuan Ghost King, Zhan Jinli, brought you the 3/7 sugar bread he developed.]

Zhan Yan suddenly felt guilty. Wu… his brother was already in this kind of state and was still thinking about making him a reduced-sugar version of sweet bread. How could he still be thinking about grinding his brother?

“Bro, you’re so good. Thanks, bro!”

Zhan Yan threw his arms around his brother in a big hug.

Zhan Jinli froze for a moment, and then his expression suddenly softened. He lifted a hand and hugged his younger brother back.

After enduring a whole day of upsetting things—mainly because Deep Shadow seemed to have gone mad for some reason—the irritation in his heart unknowingly dissipated under the genuine joy of his family.

Zhan Yan really wanted to chatter around his brother, but after opening and closing his mouth twice, he lowered his head and typed instead: “Bro, they left food downstairs for you. Did you see it? There’s chilled sweet fermented rice in the fridge too, and Men Tong County’s grape juice trial production batch came out—they just sent over a whole box of samples. Want to try some?”

Looking at the way his younger brother clearly wanted to speak to him but held himself back and had to lower his head to type instead, Zhan Jinli’s heart softened again.

Sigh. Because of the issues with his divine ability, from childhood to now, he had hardly ever spoken much with his family. And all this time, his family had always taken care of him and tolerated him.

Looking at his younger brother like this—he really must have wanted to talk to him, right? But typing had no tone, no inflection, only cold black text on a white background.

Zhan Jinli thought that he really needed to heal Wanyan’s soul as soon as possible—not only for Wanyan’s sake, but also so he could get his demon core back. Once his divine ability was complete, he’d finally be able to talk normally with his family.

As for Deep Shadow, who had suddenly gone crazy… heh. He simply wouldn’t reply. What could Deep Shadow do about it?

Gu Jiancheng felt that there was absolutely nothing wrong with what he was doing.

Wasn’t he trying to save the world here? As a native of this world, shouldn’t Linyuan Ghost King have a bit of a public spirit?

So after receiving Approaching Science’s reply, he was very dissatisfied.

Whose side was Approaching Science even on? It had been like this last time too, when he and Linyuan Ghost King had cooperated—he had complained about Linyuan Ghost King to Approaching Science, and Approaching Science had actually spoken up for Linyuan Ghost King!

[I Just Saved the World!]: “Push him?”

“With a great enemy in front of us, shouldn’t he be working hard?”

Approaching Science still didn’t reply to him.

Very well!

[I Just Saved the World!]: “If you have a specialty, you should use it. Otherwise are you waiting to be eliminated?”

“If you have flaws, you should fix them as soon as possible. By the time it’s too late, regret will be pointless.”

…

Zhan Yan didn’t see this at first, because his sister had come back again.

Zhan Jinli was eating, and Zhan Yan was taking grape juice out of the fridge. Caught off guard, he noticed his sister had come home, and immediately froze.

Oh no. Dad and Mom had gone to the flower market to think over how to remodel the courtyard, so they weren’t home right now. Even though he had agreed to go to the game expo with his sister, that didn’t mean she would stop trying to ask him about Xiao Gu before then. She just wasn’t hounding and probing him as aggressively as before. For the past few days, Zhan Yan had still been trying to avoid her whenever possible—would it even help now if he used his brother as a temporary shield?

The moment Zhan Suiru came in, she saw her younger brother standing there with one hand holding the fridge door and the other holding a bottle of grape juice, turning to stare at her with his eyes wide open.

In a single glance she understood everything and smiled at him. “What are you taking out?”

Zhan Yan immediately handed her the grape juice. “Grape juice, just took it out of the fridge. Here, sis, do you want some?”

Zhan Jinli glanced over. The grape juice his younger brother had fetched for him had now ended up in his younger sister’s hands.

He nodded at Zhan Suiru and gestured toward the serving dish on the counter that held her meal, then lowered his head and continued eating. His younger sister was under a lot of psychological pressure, so he should be nice to her. As a mature Ghost King, he certainly wasn’t childish enough to fight with his little sister over something like this.

Zhan Suiru carried her meal over and sat at the table.

Zhan Yan immediately sat down on the other side of his brother. Then he took out two more bottles of grape juice—one for his brother, and another for himself, which he opened and started drinking. Mainly, he needed an excuse to keep his mouth occupied. His brother, used as a temporary shield, definitely wasn’t as effective as Dad and Mom.

Zhan Jinli felt that the atmosphere was strangely off. He first turned to the left and looked at his younger brother. His younger brother tilted his head back and drank grape juice without looking at him. Then he turned to the right and looked at his younger sister, who smiled back at him with an expression that seemed full of mischief.

Had he missed something? Why did it feel like his brother and sister had developed their own little secret behind his back?

Zhan Jinli finished eating first. He glanced at the bottle of grape juice in his younger brother’s hand—it had gone down by less than a third even now.

He typed: “I still have things to do. I’ll be leaving again shortly.”

He still had to keep researching the magical artifact to be used for the Ghost Festival together with Artisan. He had only come back at noon to eat.

Zhan Yan panicked. “Ah?”

If his brother left, then wouldn’t the house be left with only him and his sister?

Zhan Suiru watched Zhan Yan’s little expression for a while with a smile. “I also have things to do in my studio. I’ll leave after eating too.”

The Ghost Festival came after the game expo. She wanted to finish the magical artifact Linyuan Ghost King wanted before the game expo, so that things could be handled one by one rather than all piling up together.

She had only come home at noon to eat the delicious food Dad made.

But really, teasing her younger brother was just so fun.

Zhan Yan: …Hmph!

Go ahead, tease away. You deserved to get worked into overtime by Brother.

If Brother hadn’t pushed Sis into overtime, then Sis wouldn’t have gone back to the studio and would have kept looking for chances to ask him about Xiao Gu… but wait, why did this feel a little off?

Zhan Yan sorted it out again in his head.

If Brother hadn’t pushed Sis into overtime, then Xiao Gu wouldn’t have targeted Brother. If Xiao Gu hadn’t targeted Brother, then he himself wouldn’t need to keep grinding himself even harder…

Wu… so in the end, this really was all Infinite’s fault!

After both his brother and sister left, Zhan Yan went upstairs and continued grinding himself. In just that short while, Gu Jiancheng had already sent him a whole string of messages.

…Seriously, not necessary, not necessary. Back when he wore the Deep Shadow cover, he wasn’t even this much of a chatterbox!

Approaching Science: “I had something to do just now, so I didn’t have time to reply.”

The messages from the other side stopped abruptly.

Approaching Science: “Linyuan Ghost King’s divine ability can’t be restored for now. I’m currently organizing the relevant clues.”

“Although I don’t know what form the ‘misfortune’ would take, things described as ‘misfortune’ usually develop in directions people don’t want.”

“Once I find clues, I’ll tell you.”

The other side fell silent. Probably he had remembered the pain of being sent to intern at a pig farm.

Zhan Yan went back and reread the message history. Looking at the whole string of overachiever-style remarks Xiao Gu had sent, he silently read through them once more.

His hand hovered for a long time before typing out a line: this world had no eliminations; your own flaws could be made up for by friends.

Approaching Science: “Work and rest in balance, big boss. You don’t have to grind yourself so hard either.”

[Deep Shadow, Gu Jiancheng, thought seriously about your suggestion. He felt it made a lot of sense, and decided to call you half an hour earlier at night.]

Zhan Yan: …

Can’t persuade him, can’t persuade him. How was talking on the phone for an extra half hour supposed to count as balancing work and rest?!

He worried. And also felt a little sweetness.

What else could he do? Sigh. Better just keep grinding himself first. Once Infinite was dealt with, there wouldn’t be anything left that needed grinding.

First he should go investigate the clues the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had found.

So Zhan Yan began checking through the materials Nie Yu had given him one by one, syncing progress with Nie Yu’s side to avoid duplicating work.

That night, as usual, Zhan Yan reviewed everyone’s gossip feed.

Student Xiao Gu was grinding himself through clearing anomalies.

His brother was grinding himself through researching how to use the Ghost Festival to heal souls.

His sister was grinding herself through working with Yang Ran to produce Linyuan Ghost King’s magical artifact as soon as possible.

And he himself was grinding himself through leveling up the gossip system, looking for Wanyan Cat’s missing horn, maintaining fake clues to protect Xiao Gu’s cover, and checking the clues from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau…

Three days later, Zhan Yan had eaten all the stress-relief blobs in the Dawn World.

Approaching Science: “I’ve already investigated backward through 18 pages and found 12 anomalies. How far has your side gotten?”

Administrator Ling Yu: “Page 28. I checked—there are only 8 pages left. Keep going, almost there.”

Approaching Science: “You said that two days ago too.”

“[Pain]”

“Why does work keep increasing the more I do it?”

At the start there had only been a little over ten pages total. Now there were over fifty. Eight, eighteen, twenty-eight—they were really waging war with the number eight.

Administrator Ling Yu: “[Patting shoulder]”

“Finding problems is always faster than investigating them.”

[After learning that you were helping, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau reassigned some personnel from investigation work to positions focused on discovering new anomalies.]

Zhan Yan: …

Pain. But he also couldn’t really blame the Bureau for grinding him. Problems with anomalies existed whether they had been discovered or not. The more they found, the more they could resolve.

Approaching Science: “Do you think we’ll dig up something big?”

The reason the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau kept clinging to these scattered clues was because they had noticed something unusual hidden among them. During his own pursuit, Zhan Yan had sensed it too. These traces were hard to use to prove anything, but anyone who had dealt with Infinite for a long time would develop this sort of intuition—he just kept feeling that a big fish was hidden beneath all these scattered signs.

But when you dug through them one by one and none of them turned out to be it, it was hard not to get impatient. Especially when he already had a mountain of other things to do.

Administrator Ling Yu: “It’s not like we’ve gained nothing. Haven’t we already found a bunch of anomalies?”

Approaching Science: “These are all small anomalies.”

Seeing him complain, Nie Yu couldn’t help feeling that Approaching Science’s particular kind of impatience resembled their team leader’s quite a bit—both disliked the opponents they found for being too weak. Truly worthy of being a fan.

Nie Yu smoothly and skillfully stroked his fur.

Administrator Ling Yu: “Don’t be impatient. Maybe the next one will be it.”

Zhan Yan sighed. Even after being soothed, he still had to continue working.

He reorganized all the people and locations from the list where problems had been found. In that list, a lot of entries were useless—for example, all the aunties wearing facekinis for sun protection.

He had just been preparing to continue when his phone rang.

Oh right. Student Xiao Gu had taken Approaching Science’s “balance work and rest” advice very seriously, and these past few days had been calling him earlier and earlier.

Zhan Yan had already eaten all the stress-relief blobs. In the core zone, only a few he had deliberately left behind for kneading remained. But since he could only knead them and not make the satisfying “riiii” sound of blending and eating them up, the stress-relief effect felt limited.

So while talking with Gu Jiancheng, his thoughts drifted a little uncontrollably, wandering back toward how to sort through anomaly clues.

Gu Jiancheng noticed. Hesitantly, he asked, “Yan Yan, do you like the kind of… um… relatively cool-looking adult toys?”

“What?” Zhan Yan snapped back to attention instantly.

What Gu Jiancheng was referring to was Aurora Glory’s toys.

After coming back, he had looked them up. Aurora Glory even had an online store now and had already registered as a brand. It was actually fairly famous in niche circles.

In the online shop he had seen a newly released toy: a product combining LED lights and a fan. When the fan was turned on in the dark, the LEDs lit up according to a pre-programmed design, and in the high-speed spinning of the fan blades formed patterns like magic circles, whirlpools, and so on. Extremely cool.

Even cooler, this big fan could be used together with a matching magic wand toy they had designed. The head of the wand also had visual effects built in, but it was actually a remote control. Hidden buttons on the wand allowed the user to remotely command the fan to shift between patterns.

This was a newly released product that combined the function of a fan, making it very suitable for summer, and Aurora Glory’s physical stores hadn’t stocked it yet—which meant Zhan Suiru hadn’t seen it yet.

Gu Jiancheng had originally planned to give it as a surprise gift, but then he couldn’t help remembering the disaster that had happened the last time he tried to create a surprise… anxiety. Somehow he felt as though he no longer understood Yan Yan anymore.

So it was better to ask in advance first.

Zhan Yan was frantically flipping through the gossip feed. He had zoned out just now and hadn’t caught all of what Gu Jiancheng said. He had only heard the last few words.

[Gu Jiancheng thinks your condition doesn’t seem very good. He thinks you might like Aurora Glory’s toys.]

Zhan Yan let out a sigh of relief. But not a full one.

He knew Xiao Gu’s personality wasn’t actually that wild. He was very interested in all the cool oversized toys from Aurora Glory, but…

Did you really have to spread your wings and soar right at the edge of being exposed?

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