GRMFBS CH141

Zhan Yan watched helplessly in the Gossip System as Ning Xi’s thought process went off the rails. He puffed up like a pufferfish in anger! But being angry was useless. If he dared to drop clearer hints and Ning Xi realized his true intentions, a bunch of new troublesome matters would definitely arise.

Zhan Yan closed the forum, worrying while listening to the lecture. As he worried, he suddenly realized something wasn’t quite right.

Gu Jiancheng was so quiet today.

Zhan Yan turned his head to look at his boyfriend.

Gu Jiancheng’s profile was illuminated by the sunlight, his sharp features softened by a gentle edge. A pair of dark eyes stared at the projection screen, his eyelashes casting a small patch of shadow on his lower eyelids.

His notebook lay open on the desk, yet Gu Jiancheng’s right hand was performing fancy pen spinning.

The pen seemed magnetically attached to his hand, spinning dazzlingly between different fingers without ever dropping.

Zhan Yan initially just wanted to see what he was doing, but ended up captivated as he watched.

Good heavens, how did these hands grow!

I want to learn too!

After being stared at by Zhan Yan’s burning gaze for a long while, Gu Jiancheng finally snapped back to reality. As his right hand paused its movement, the pen, which had just flipped to the peak, suddenly lost its adjusting force and popped out of his palm. Gu Jiancheng flipped his right hand, the falling tail of the pen landing between his fingers. He caught it with two slender fingers, gave it a flick, and after it spun another circle, it perfectly landed in the crook of his thumb and index finger, resuming a normal pen-holding posture.

Gu Jiancheng followed the gaze, turning his head to look at Zhan Yan, and discovered he was staring at his right hand, only then remembering what he had just been doing.

“When did you learn this trick?” Zhan Yan asked in a low voice.

“During my chunibyo phase in middle school. I thought spinning a pen like this was very cool, so I practiced it specially,” Gu Jiancheng also replied in a low voice.

Zhan Yan felt that he was still in his chunibyo phase right now.

“What were you thinking about just now?”

Gu Jiancheng had just been thinking that the Retirees’ Alliance’s retirement was probably going to last a lifetime. They were way too useless right now! After sensing the gravitational tide of the doomsday world approaching last night, Gu Jiancheng hurriedly left school to investigate the situation. Right now, what remained on campus was a shadow clone he split off.

He went to the Retirees’ Alliance to confirm which world was approaching. Under normal circumstances, repulsive forces would be generated between the barriers of different worlds, preventing them from colliding. Only when the distance between two worlds broke past a certain boundary would the repulsive force turn into an attractive force, generating a gravitational tide. Therefore, without external forces acting upon them, normally speaking, it was impossible for two worlds to break through the gravitational boundary on their own.

This world hadn’t actively captured other worlds, nor had it encountered a second Infinite crisis. Yet, without external forces, it resulted in the distance between the two worlds breaking the gravitational boundary. This reminded Gu Jiancheng of an experience he had in Infinite a long time ago.

Repulsive forces exist between world barriers, but what if one of the worlds had no barrier?

Without repulsive forces, the barrier-less world would gradually approach during its random drifting, ultimately breaking the gravitational boundary. Gu Jiancheng had encountered this situation before.

If a world lost its barrier, even if it wasn’t dead yet, it wasn’t far from complete death. Twenty-six years ago, Infinite was shattered, and countless small dungeon worlds it controlled regained their freedom. Gu Jiancheng suspected that the approaching world this time was one of them.

He went to the Retirees’ Alliance to see if any of these players could identify which approaching world this was.

After he went there, these retired players, who often used his name as a tiger skin to drape over themselves, were initially panic-stricken. After discovering he wasn’t there to make trouble, they treated him with extreme caution, their words and actions screaming for him to leave quickly, presenting an attitude of “Although we often claim to be related to you to use you as a shield and talisman, it’s best if you aren’t actually related to us.”

Gu Jiancheng couldn’t be bothered to argue with them and directly asked their Alliance Leader if he had any clues about the world causing the gravitational tide.

The Retirees’ Alliance Leader turned pale with shock: “What?! A gravitational tide happened yesterday?!!”

Gu Jiancheng: …

The gaze of the big shot Deep Shadow was highly oppressive.

The retired Alliance Leader immediately took action: “Please wait a moment, I’ll contact the others, maybe they know.”

Then Gu Jiancheng received a string of pale shocks.

Gu Jiancheng: …

These people were at least somewhat renowned in Infinite, could they be playing him?

Sensing danger from the big shot Deep Shadow’s gaze, they began to explain one after another.

Most of the abilities they brought back from Infinite were sealed, and some troublesome abilities were even scrapped.

Infinite wasn’t a charity; it wasn’t even a fair trader. Players risked their lives to complete tasks, and the abilities they exchanged for with points often came at a cost. The more powerful the ability, the more severe the side effects usually were.

After breaking away from Infinite, although they gained freedom, they also lost the ability to use points to exchange for side effect mitigation from Infinite.

Life in this world was too peaceful. After passing the initial period of unease, they began sealing these abilities. Some overly dangerous abilities were simply scrapped, only retaining some abilities they could control.

This resulted in their overall strength dropping by nearly an entire tier.

“Big shot, we aren’t like you, possessing the willpower to endure it,” the retired Alliance Leader said in a low voice.

The gaze they directed at Deep Shadow was full of respect and admiration.

No one wanted to give up their abilities; they were all losers in this torturous tug-of-war.

But Deep Shadow had endured it.

Gu Jiancheng zoned out slightly under their gaze. Did he not seal or scrap his abilities because he didn’t want to? It was because he couldn’t! The Sea of Shadows had intertwined too deeply with him; scrapping it would be equivalent to suicide. And the Sea of Shadows was too powerful to be sealed away.

However, this didn’t stop the big shot Deep Shadow from accepting their admiration completely.

Being able to find a boyfriend was his own skill!

Gu Jiancheng’s gaze became disdainful once again.

While the group was chatting in the retired Alliance Leader’s office, a person suddenly pushed the door open in a panic: “Brother Zhuo, this is bad! The Abnormal Affairs Management… Who is this?”

The retired Alliance Leader Zhuo Xun saw deep disgust in the big shot Deep Shadow’s eyes.

…It wasn’t like he wanted to be an Alliance Leader with zero presence where anyone could burst into his office at any time! But everyone had retired, what was the point of class divisions? The Alliance Leader was just the one who did the work.

Seeing that the big shot Deep Shadow had no intention of introducing himself, Alliance Leader Zhuo coughed lightly: “What’s the matter?”

Zong Xiaoping sneaked several glances at Gu Jiancheng. He couldn’t see the face clearly and didn’t know what ability was being used to obscure it, but there definitely wasn’t a person like this in the Alliance. He felt too embarrassed to speak of shameful matters in front of an outsider.

Gu Jiancheng cast a cold glance back. Zong Xiaoping shuddered and immediately started reporting: “People from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau came here looking for Deep Shadow.”

A chorus of coughing filled the room.

Alliance Leader Zhuo turned pale with shock: “Why would they come to us looking for Senior Deep Shadow? Haven’t they always known we have nothing to do with Senior Deep Shadow?”

Please don’t misunderstand, Big Shot Deep Shadow! Please don’t misunderstand! We didn’t call the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau here! We really, truly didn’t sell out your whereabouts!

Zong Xiaoping looked at his Alliance Leader with a bizarre expression.

When did they start calling him “Senior Deep Shadow”? Didn’t they always just call him “Deep Shadow” before?

Also, although the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau pretty much knew that the Retirees’ Alliance claiming a relationship with Deep Shadow was just pulling a tiger skin to raise a big flag, they only needed to know that in their hearts; why say it out loud?

The others also grew anxious: “Tell us, tell us what happened.”

Zong Xiaoping confusedly began to recount.

The person who came to the Retirees’ Alliance was Black Wolf.

Normally, a task like this wouldn’t require someone of Black Wolf’s caliber, but he volunteered to come.

He heard that the last time Tianshi came here to discuss cooperation, she had caught a wanted criminal along the way. What was that wanted criminal’s name again? Black Wolf couldn’t remember clearly, it seemed to be a guy researching cold-resistant mosquitoes and cockroaches. But that wasn’t important; what was important was that they had fought with Tianshi.

As a joint self-preservation organization, the Retirees’ Alliance was actually quite reliable at critical moments. To protect their member, they had truly attempted to block Tianshi.

Black Wolf got excited knowing this!

He had repeatedly fought against Tianshi and lost every time, yet he kept fighting. He was very interested in any opponent who could measure Tianshi’s strength!

Black Wolf had wanted to test these people’s weight for a long time, but the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Retirees’ Alliance needed to maintain a relatively friendly relationship. Catching a wanted criminal was one thing, but picking a fight for no reason was another.

Black Wolf could only endure it for now.

After the gravitational tide occurred, because the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had previously researched the doomsday fragment, they were able to confirm that the approaching world was the doomsday world.

They believed they needed to understand as much information as possible about the doomsday world, so they had to conduct multi-party information gathering. Naturally, they couldn’t let go of this group of players who might have visited the doomsday dungeon.

But the people in the Retirees’ Alliance were truly retired, and they all carried some mental issues left over from Infinite. Communicating with them was always quite strenuous for the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

It just so happened that the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau also wanted to find Deep Shadow, so they simply used “looking for Deep Shadow” as an excuse.

They didn’t actually expect to find Deep Shadow; their main goal was to use this as leverage to force a few more truthful statements out of the Retirees’ Alliance members.

Black Wolf endured for several months and finally encountered this task. He immediately snatched it.

Wasn’t it just communication? He was best at communicating.

There was nothing that couldn’t be solved by a good fight!

So, Black Wolf, who came looking for a fight, started causing trouble.

I hear you guys are harboring a wanted criminal here.

No? What do you mean no? Didn’t you say Deep Shadow has a close relationship with you? That’s a three-party wanted criminal who has been wanted for over twenty years!

Being interrogated, Zong Xiaoping wanted to cry but had no tears.

Wait, didn’t we have a great tacit understanding before?

You know it’s highly likely we have nothing to do with Deep Shadow, but there’s a sliver of possibility we might, so you always maintained proper boundaries when dealing with us.

We know that you know we have nothing to do with Deep Shadow, but we still have to pull this tiger skin to secure a guarantee for ourselves; besides, it’s not like you’d actually come here to arrest Deep Shadow.

What a beautiful tacit understanding it was!

“What exactly do you want?” Zong Xiaoping put on a highly accommodating attitude.

Whatever you want, if we can do it, we’ll do it. Just please don’t come investigate Deep Shadow, okay?

If it had been any other clerk from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, they could have then entered a friendly exchange process.

However, the person who came was Black Wolf.

He just wanted to fight first.

Communication and all that, wouldn’t it be easier to communicate after a refreshing fight?

So he stubbornly leaned back on the sofa, crossing his legs, an arm draped over the back of the chair, lips curled up in a fierce and wild smirk: “I want to catch Deep Shadow. If you don’t hand him over, how about we trade blows?”

In Alliance Leader Zhuo’s office, Gu Jiancheng finished listening to the whole story and pretty much figured out what was going on.

Black Wolf, huh. He had run into him before when clearing anomalies and had almost been beaten by him.

Gu Jiancheng looked at this group of “retirees” who kept stealing glances at him and sneered: “Lead the way.”

Zong Xiaoping: “Ah?”

Who was this guy? Why was he giving orders in the Alliance Leader’s office?

Seeing that this dimwit still hadn’t moved, Alliance Leader Zhuo lightly kicked him: “Hurry up and go!”

Zong Xiaoping confusedly began to lead the way.

In the reception room, Black Wolf, who had been left to be entertained by others, was still picking fights: “Why shouldn’t Deep Shadow be wanted? Are you unaware of what he has done? Previously, he…”

Gu Jiancheng pushed the door open: “Keep going, what did I do?”

Black Wolf leaped up high from the sofa.