GRMFBS CH73

In the evening, Gu Jiancheng split off a portion of his shadow and quietly left the school. He had been searching for the Magician these past few days; tracing the black nest backwards from the mark on the anomaly was something the Magician was better at.

The Magician’s whereabouts were uncertain. The last time the two met was at the “Supernatural Gathering” in Yunjin City. Fortunately, she hadn’t gone too far away. After receiving the message, she hurried back and arranged to meet Gu Jiancheng here.

The Magician faced the mark with a solemn expression.

“A very lively mark, hmm… this means the black nest that left it is still alive.”

“What a terrifying thing!” she sighed.

Gu Jiancheng knocked on the table. That’s enough; stop copying those foreigners and breaking into a dramatic aria at every turn.

Receiving the urging, the Magician said, “Before we start searching, there’s something I have to tell you. The Wan Yao Alliance has already discovered the mark of the Mind-Link on that Corpse Flower Konjac Demon. They want to contact us players who have detached from Infinite.”

“The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau is too strict, but if it’s the Wan Yao Alliance, are you interested in making contact?” the Magician asked. “They are a very powerful and large organization after all. If we can cooperate, many things will become simpler.”

“Not interested,” Gu Jiancheng coldly refused. “I don’t care what connection you have with them.”

“OK.” The Magician understood. Deep Shadow himself wasn’t willing to contact them, but he didn’t object to her utilizing the power of the official organizations. Having stated her position, she said, “I will find out the location of the black nest as soon as possible.”

She gathered up the mark of the black nest. Just as she was about to put it into a small box, Gu Jiancheng’s arm turned into a shadow and wrapped around the mark.

“I’m going to watch,” Gu Jiancheng said.

“Alright, alright,” the Magician sighed. “But you can’t go into this box; it’s used for renaming.”

The Magician then took out two “L”-shaped dowsing rods. “Look, this thing is used to find water. And this can name any item ‘water’…” She put the mark into the box.

After she fastened the lid, a mouth full of sharp teeth suddenly grew out of the top of the box. It chomped at the air with a click-clack sound, and the box bounced around, trying to jump out of the Magician’s hand.

“See, this guy is just this greedy. Once it’s loaded with something and its appetite is activated, it starts wanting to eat everything.” The Magician deftly grabbed the box, walked to the sink, turned on the faucet, and poured water vigorously into that large mouth.

And it would name the things in its stomach as the things its mouth had eaten. Now, the mark of the black nest was “water.”

The greedy box couldn’t be filled. Once the naming was successful, the Magician forcefully opened the box and took out the mark of the black nest.

The box, its stomach now empty, continued to bite around with its large mouth. However, the faucet had already been turned off, and it could only bite the air. The empty-stomached large mouth soon lost its strength, biting slower and slower, opening smaller and smaller, until it finally closed and turned back into the pattern on the box.

The Magician spun the now-docile box in her hand and, using her magic techniques, stored the prop away somewhere unknown.

She picked up the dowsing rods and tapped the black nest mark that had been named “water.”

“Now, it will point toward the ‘water source’.” The Magician looked at Gu Jiancheng. “Are you still going to keep following?”

Gu Jiancheng didn’t speak. This avatar generated from shadow turned back into shadow and flowed into the shadows of the dowsing rods.

He was going to follow.

It wasn’t surprising. Those who only had strength but lacked caution couldn’t rank on Infinite’s leaderboard.

The Magician tapped the dowsing rods. “Then, I shall begin.”

……

After finishing his elective class, Zhan Yan went to find Gu Jiancheng to eat together. Arriving at the agreed spot, he saw the person standing with his back against a pillar, head bowed, thinking about who-knows-what, uniquely conspicuous amidst the dense flow of passing crowds.

Zhan Yan called out to him a few times. Seeing no reaction, he started calling him by his full name: “…Gu Jiancheng, Gu Jiancheng?”

Gu Jiancheng snapped back to reality. “What is it?”

Zhan Yan asked him, “What were you thinking about? I called you several times and you didn’t react.”

“Nothing, just spaced out,” Gu Jiancheng said.

He had consumed quite a bit of energy recently. Just now, they had separated for a while to attend different elective classes, and the familiar dizziness had caught up with him. A heaviness in the back of his head accompanied by a migraine—the precursor to a hallucination.

He should have been well acquainted with how to coexist with this bit of pain that had accompanied him for a long time, but after getting used to Zhan Yan’s company, even this slight pain had become difficult to adapt to.

Zhan Yan stared at him carefully. Gu Jiancheng tried his best to appear at ease.

“Are you feeling unwell?” Zhan Yan suddenly asked.

Gu Jiancheng had a flaw: normally, he would seize any opportunity to act spoiled and cute, but when he truly felt uncomfortable, he would insist on enduring it.

Who knew where he picked up this terrible habit of never being willing to show even a sliver of weakness to others.

“No…” Gu Jiancheng had barely let out half a syllable when Zhan Yan suddenly reached out and touched his face.

It wasn’t burning hot—it wasn’t burning hot when he touched it, but it was hot now. Gu Jiancheng’s face turned visibly red.

“Did you not sleep well?” Zhan Yan asked.

Zhan Yan was looking at him probingly, his gaze so clear it seemed it could penetrate straight to the bottom of one’s heart.

In the past, Zhan Yan could also tell when he had a headache, but since he wanted to cover it up, Zhan Yan would pretend not to know. Now, Zhan Yan couldn’t bear to let him suffer through it alone.

Gu Jiancheng pursed his lips, his fingers involuntarily clenching. He felt the heart in his chest beating more wildly than ever before.

“Yeah. Not feeling too well,” he said softly, speaking somewhat unnaturally, as if he were lying. “It’ll be fine after I go back and sleep a bit after lunch.”

Neither Duan Hong nor Bao Qingshan had returned to the dorm. Between the two of them—one a true top student, the other terrified of failing finals—both had been studying frantically lately and had gone straight to the classroom after lunch.

After lying in bed for a while, Zhan Yan felt that Gu Jiancheng hadn’t fallen asleep. He flipped over and sat up. Their beds were positioned head-to-head. He sat on his knees on his own bed, suspending his head perfectly above Gu Jiancheng’s.

Gu Jiancheng opened his eyes to look at him.

Sunlight filtered through the window, resting on the bridge of his nose. The light blurred the sharp lines of his lips, and the shadows hid the overly dark color of his pupils.

“Can’t sleep?” Zhan Yan stared at this face for a few seconds, unable to resist reaching out to touch it again.

Gu Jiancheng grabbed his wrist and pressed his cheek against his palm, not saying a word. A pair of pitch-black eyes looked at him quietly, yet deep within the pupils, it seemed as if small flames were burning.

“Does the essential oil not work?” Zhan Yan rubbed the corner of his eye with his thumb.

Temperature was exchanged through closely pressed skin, as if hearts could also press this close.

Gu Jiancheng paused and said, “I just forgot. The essential oil works quite well. Where did you buy it?”

Zhan Yan: “I didn’t buy it; my sister gave it to me. Have you run out? If you have, I’ll ask for some more.”

Gu Jiancheng was stunned for a moment.

He had constantly been worrying about how Zhan Yan acquired the essential oil, worrying about the unknown supernatural faction he was in contact with. He had used various methods to investigate, but he had never thought of simply asking Zhan Yan directly.

He also hadn’t expected it to be such an answer.

Gu Jiancheng felt it was time to put the “meet the parents” task on the agenda!

Zhan Yan’s face suddenly magnified in his vision. Gu Jiancheng instinctively closed his eyes. He felt a touch on his forehead—slightly cool, soft.

“Alright, go to sleep.” The bed shook a few times, and Zhan Yan lay back under the covers.

He had stayed up late for the past few days doing Deep Shadow’s healing-type supernatural being mission, and he was genuinely sleepy. Zhan Yan closed his eyes and fell asleep in no time.

Gu Jiancheng raised his hand and touched his own forehead. It was just a light touch, but the feeling of the kiss seemed to linger for a long time.

Gu Jiancheng closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep in the autumn breeze and sunlight. ……

Gu Jiancheng hadn’t slept long before he was awakened by a phone call from Wan Shitong.

Fortunately, he didn’t have bedhead temper.

Zhan Yan was still asleep, so Gu Jiancheng silently rolled out of bed and walked to an empty spot to answer the phone.

“Boss, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau just contacted me, asking if I could find out the whereabouts of other Infinite fragments,” Wan Shitong said.

Wan Shitong was a network-type. Combined with some abilities he obtained in the Infinite world, his information search scope was broader than ordinary network-types. But for a task like finding Infinite fragments, he was still practically helpless.

He had always kept his own information hidden very well. Aside from acquaintances, no one knew the true direction of his abilities, which was why the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau sought him out this time.

“I asked them what they wanted the Infinite fragments for, and the person I communicated with said it was to collect and destroy them. He’s lying.” Wan Shitong’s voice was very serious. “I didn’t say whether I agreed or not; I’m currently stalling.”

Gu Jiancheng’s eyes darkened: “No need to stall. If you don’t agree, they will find someone else.”

“What are they thinking?” Wan Shitong sighed in frustration. “The price they paid back then wasn’t small either, how do they still dare to have designs on the Infinite fragments now?”

The best way to deal with Infinite fragments was to not deal with them. This thing, no matter what, was still a fragment of a world. There were barely anyone in this world capable of destroying it—perhaps not even a single one.

His boss, Deep Shadow, could, but that was because of the special nature of Deep Shadow’s abilities. Destroying world fragments wasn’t about whether you could fight or not. But as long as the Infinite fragments were left where they were, this world itself would wear them down.

Furthermore, every Infinite fragment was equivalent to a source of pollution. Currently, this world itself had created a membrane for them, preventing the pollution from erupting. But if one misstep happened during the excavation process, it would trigger a massive pollution outbreak.

If the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau merely wanted to get the locations of the Infinite fragments in advance to prevent them from falling into the hands of the mastermind who created the nameless anomalies, then they shouldn’t have sought out someone outside the Bureau like Wan Shitong to investigate information on the Infinite fragments!

How much did the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau understand about “outsiders” like them? Weren’t they afraid that leaking the information would instead lead the mastermind to trail their results and obtain the Infinite fragments?

Gu Jiancheng let out a low scoff: “In this world, anything that forms an organization will inevitably have a few pieces of trash mixed in.”

Since this matter had found its way to Wan Shitong, then Approaching Science definitely wouldn’t be left out. He opened the chaofan forum, preparing to go on and give him a warning. And also to tell him that there was no need to do the healing-type supernatural being mission anymore.

Zhan Yan had already told him the origin of the essential oil; that mission had lost its meaning. ……

There were no classes for the first two periods in the afternoon. After Zhan Yan woke up, the sun made him feel lazy, and he didn’t want to get out of bed. He closed his eyes, opened the Gossip System, and organized the information on healing-type supernatural beings he had collected recently.

Deep Shadow seemed very busy these past two days. He hadn’t sought him out for hidden bounty missions, nor had he urged him about the healing-type mission.

He was really worried that this boundlessly arrogant guy would charge ahead recklessly and play himself to death. Zhan Yan logged onto the chaofan forum, intending to first send this information to Deep Shadow.

Just as he opened the private message box, while the files were transmitting, he received a private message from Deep Shadow.

I Just Saved the World!: [There’s no need to do that healing-type mission anymore.]

Zhan Yan: ??? He had just stayed up several nights for this!