GRMFBS CH80

“Do you want to research the wish‑cat? Wild cats aren’t suitable observation subjects,” Zhan Yan tried earnestly to dissuade him.

“No.” Gu Jiancheng didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but couldn’t explain. “I’ll stop looking.”

He let out a long breath in his mind.

In Infinite, paranoia wasn’t a problem. But he wasn’t in Infinite anymore—he wanted a peaceful life.

He’d left Infinite long ago, but the shadow still seemed to loom over him.

“Want to hit the library the next few days?” Zhan Yan figured Gu Jiancheng might be considering post‑graduation directions. “During break we could visit breeding farms, vet stations, pet hospitals too.”

Seeing Zhan Yan’s clear eyes focused on him, his unsettled hair still sticking up on one side, earnestly planning out his future—Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help but pull him into a hug.

Suddenly embraced, Zhan Yan found a big head resting on his shoulder.

“Yan Yan,” Gu Jiancheng nuzzled his neck, “let’s meet the parents over break.”

Zhan Yan: How did the topic suddenly jump here!

After barely deflecting that, Zhan Yan suddenly remembered—wait, wasn’t he supposed to be angry earlier?

…

Gu Jiancheng didn’t get a clear answer from Zhan Yan, but he wasn’t too anxious. He’d wear him down slowly—success was inevitable!

Better to handle another matter first: the Craftsman’s investigation into Black Nest hadn’t pinpointed its location yet, but had uncovered many traces—flesh anomaly traces.

“Flesh anomalies” were how players who’d emerged from Infinite classified anomalies. Generally, one Black Nest only produced one type of anomaly.

The anomaly Gu Jiancheng had gotten from this Black Nest mark wasn’t flesh‑type.

Either this Black Nest could generate two types of anomalies, or two different Black Nests were bound together.

But what Gu Jiancheng was thinking about was something else—Monster Doctor was best at manipulating flesh.

Infinite had all kinds of people, especially perverts. Monster Doctor left the deepest impression on Gu Jiancheng.

When Gu Jiancheng entered Infinite, he was at his most chuuni age—active mind, good stamina, had studied martial arts, harbored chuuni dreams of saving the world. When his eyes sparkled, he was especially likeable—and attracted perverts.

Later, Gu Jiancheng killed all those perverts.

If perverts had rankings, the lowest grade were those driven purely by desire; high‑level perverts all had self‑consistent logic and seemingly lofty ideals.

Monster Doctor was such a high‑level pervert.

His ideal was solving all unknown mysteries and exploring the world’s truth. So he started researching monsters, treating them as materials for his scientific studies, and discovering many monster weaknesses.

At first he was quite popular. Though wielding a scalpel to dissect monsters on operating tables looked perverse, it was acceptable within Infinite’s standards—even somewhat satisfying.

Later he began researching humans.

Why could humans learn abilities? What differences existed between ability‑users and ordinary people? Monsters also had abilities—what similarities and differences existed between ability‑users and monsters?…

Whether low or high‑level, he couldn’t change his essential pervert nature. So Gu Jiancheng kicked him into a Black Nest.

No player could survive inside a Black Nest—that was Infinite common knowledge.

Monster Doctor died; the Craftsman had confirmed this via Ouija board.

But Gu Jiancheng didn’t trust common knowledge much. Now with these new clues appearing, regardless of what variables were involved, the Craftsman’s methods weren’t working—they needed someone else to investigate.

Gu Jiancheng thought of Approaching_Science.

The forum had been peaceful lately; the biggest entertainment remained eating melon about the Wan Yan Ghost King and Lin Yuan Ghost King.

Wan Yan hadn’t continued his forum tantrums @ing Admin_Will_Never_Keep_Cats for a while. Everyone speculated whether he’d gotten a lead—otherwise, given his persistence, it was unlikely he’d give up.

Gu Jiancheng glanced once and closed the thread. Chaofu Mountain’s ghost kings were as salty as non‑existent; he had no interest in either ghost king or their grudges.

So he opened a PM to Approaching_Science.

This was Zhan Yan’s first time hearing the codename “Monster Doctor.” He searched the gossip system:

[Loading…]

He’d last encountered “loading” when searching old stories about the Wan Yan and Lin Yuan Ghost Kings. It had loaded then because he had Zhu Long’s power and encountered Wan Yan‑kitty.

This loading didn’t know what conditions were needed to complete.

But the appearance of [Loading…] was itself a clue.

Zhan Yan searched “Monster Doctor” combined with “flesh anomaly,” “Deep Shadow,” and other terms. Some returned [Loading…], others found nothing.

What loaded versus what didn’t was another clue.

Searching this way, he found an additional message: the “Curse Scales” anomaly came from the batch of flesh anomalies Deep Shadow had been investigating recently.

Oh no… Lin Yuan Ghost King was tracing upward from the Curse Scales anomaly, Deep Shadow was tracing downward from flesh anomalies—if they kept investigating like this, wouldn’t they collide!

Approaching_Science: “The flesh anomaly is connected to Monster Doctor, who’s been active in recent years. I can’t find more details right now.”

Gu Jiancheng felt some regret, but confirming the troublemaker’s identity was progress.

Then Approaching_Science dropped another bomb:

“One more thing.”
“Lin Yuan Ghost King is also investigating flesh anomalies.”

Gu Jiancheng’s old habits kicked in.

I_Just_Saved_The_World: “Heh, what could he possibly find?”

This world’s people were half‑ignorant about Infinite matters anyway. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had piles of unsolved cases—let alone somewhere as salty as Chaofu Mountain.

Approaching_Science: “You’re still wanted, you know.”

Gu Jiancheng: …

I_Just_Saved_The_World: “He can’t beat me.”

Zhan Yan: heh.

One shout from him brings a whole crowd to surround you!

Deep Shadow, keep being stubborn.

Anyway, he’d given fair warning.

Zhan Yan dragged “Monster Doctor” into his info dashboard—it didn’t go into the “Spirit” category, but into “Anomaly.”

Among melon entries related to Monster Doctor, there were abnormally many [Loading…] items. This batch of loading probably couldn’t be solved with Zhu Long’s power alone. He needed to find ways to investigate. Mm… but gathering more Zhu Long power when possible was still wise—who knew when it might be useful.

There was still a Zhu Long Remnant mission in the forum’s hidden sections.

Zhan Yan had previously used the gossip system to search Zhu Long Remnant‑related news; it wasn’t easy to find, so he’d set it aside. Now he needed to pick it up again. After this semester ended, he could go look. As for now… school first. Finals were coming soon!

Pre‑exam coursework intensified; Zhan Yan stole time between busy schedules to eat melon and romance.

After being dragged to Chaofu Mountain, Wan Yan‑kitty was thoroughly displeased, making a fuss about not wanting to work.

But the Minghe Ghost King had encircled Chaofu Mountain with the Minghe; Wan Yan couldn’t escape and sulked daily.

The Chongming Demon King had ways to handle him.

“Know why Lin Yuan won’t acknowledge you?” the Chongming Demon King asked.

Wan Yan Ghost King huffed and puffed, ignoring Chongming in a snit, but his ears perked up.

“Do you remember what happened between you two before?” Zhan Yunkai asked again.

Wan Yan continued huffing. Whatever you say, I’m not listening!

“You don’t even remember him—of course he’s angry and won’t acknowledge you. If a friend forgot you, wouldn’t you be upset?”

Wan Yan Ghost King grew dejected, little cat ears drooping.

If someone else forgot him, he’d definitely be unhappy.

So… Lin Yuan not acknowledging him actually made sense.

The Chongming Demon King, experienced with cubs, guided patiently: “So you need to find a way to recover your past memories first.”

Wan Yan Ghost King began fretting—he really couldn’t remember the old days!

“You don’t just forget him—you forgot me too, and all your other friends,” Zhan Yunkai said. “But we all knew each other before. If you interact more, remembering a bit here and there, maybe one day it’ll all come back?”

Wan Yan‑kitty thought the big red bird made sense. So he started pestering Zhan Yunkai about their past.

The golden‑eyed little white cat pulled over a section of the Minghe Ghost King’s skirt that hadn’t transformed into river water, bunching it into a wrinkled, messy soft nest.

The Minghe Ghost King leaned carelessly against the roots of the Jade Tree, listening to the Chongming Demon King’s stories together.

The four‑eyed divine bird perched in the Jade Tree, long tail feathers trailing to the ground.

Zhan Yunkai began telling them, subtly steering toward Di Ting and Bai Ze’s relationship.

Di Ting and Bai Ze’s abilities weren’t the same, but had some similarities—they both knew a great deal.

But between the two, Di Ting’s ability was less welcome. Bai Ze knew much, but Di Ting could listen to hearts. Nobody wanted their thoughts overheard.

Still, their relationship was quite good.

Though Bai Ze knew much, he never spoke of it. If others didn’t ask, he didn’t tell; even if asked, he might not answer. The more you know, the better you must keep it.

But keeping secrets didn’t mean not feeling stifled.

When Bai Ze felt too stifled, he loved eating melon and watching drama. Whenever there was excitement, he’d run to watch, but he had no one to share with, no one to eat melon together.

Di Ting was perfect! Di Ting understood everything without explanation!

The two great demons mixed together for a long time; their interaction pattern was roughly:

Bai Ze: “You get what I mean, right?”
Di Ting: nods!

Nobody else could understand.

But after playing with Bai Ze for a while, Di Ting ran to Chaofu Mountain.

Di Ting said: “That guy thinks about too much stuff—dense and endless, like ten thousand ducks!”

Too noisy to bear, so he came to Chaofu Mountain to hide in peace.

Actually, that wasn’t it.

Bai Ze knew too many things; Di Ting got scared off after hearing some of them.

But he didn’t completely abandon him. After getting bored staying at Chaofu Mountain, he’d go find Bai Ze to chat and play together. Then when he was suddenly frightened by what Bai Ze was thinking about, he’d run back to Chaofu Mountain to recover, then run out to play again once better.

Wan Yan‑kitty blinked: “Our relationship was that good?”

Zhan Yunkai nodded: “Yes, you were very familiar with each other.”

“Then where did he go? If he knows everything, he should know I didn’t forget them on purpose. Why doesn’t he come find me?” Wan Yan‑kitty pawed at the Chongming bird’s trailing tail feathers, a bit aggrieved.

The four‑eyed divine bird lowered his head, his voice like glazed jade beads falling gently in the secluded Chaofu Mountain: “He’s dead.”