GRMFBS CH151

Zhan Jinli put down the dish, took out his phone, and started typing: “This thing…”

His younger brother, in perfect sync with him, also took out his phone and started typing, sending a message back before he could finish.

Zhan Yan: “This is fish bait. It’s not for people to eat.”

Zhan Jinli: …

“I wasn’t thinking of eating it.”

He just smelled something not quite right in the fish bait.

Zhan Jinli had first transformed from a fish demon into a ghost king, and then from a ghost king into a human. This fish bait was long useless to him, but based on his past experience, he judged that something in it had a special effect on aquatic creatures.

Zhan Suiru also saw the thing.
“What is this?”

“Fish bait,” Zhan Yan said. “The person sitting next to me on the train gave it to me.”

Zhan Jinli and Zhan Suiru: … It couldn’t be that fisherman who caught the luo fish, could it?

The two started questioning their younger brother.

Zhan Yan, wanting to amuse his older brother and sister, vividly described how two mysterious people took the fisherman and his suitcase away.

Since his brother and sister were ordinary people anyway, Zhan Yan started talking nonsense.
“Those two people weren’t wearing police uniforms, and they didn’t look like plainclothes officers either. I didn’t get a clear look at the ID they showed, but it didn’t seem like the usual kind.”

“Do you think our country has some kind of secret organization that ordinary people don’t know about? Did I run into them?”

Zhan Jinli and Zhan Suiru: This brother of ours is so sharp…

Zhan Jinli, using his socially anxious persona, said nothing.

Zhan Suiru ruffled her brother’s curly hair: “Spend less time online reading those absurd rumors.”

Zhan Yan: “I know they’re all fake!”

Zhan Jinli watched his clueless younger brother and sister messing around, thinking to himself that he still had to be the one to protect this family.

Zhan Suiru felt that she was the only one in the family who knew the truth, what a lonely feeling.

Zhan Yan thought it was quite good for his brother and sister to be materialists; after all, their parents were big shots.

A black shadow suddenly darted towards the fish bait in Zhan Yan’s hand. Zhan Jinli was quick to react.

Xingxing was caught by the scruff of its neck in mid-air, meowing loudly in displeasure.

“You can’t eat this,” Zhan Yan said, putting down the bait and taking Xingxing. The little guy was growing fast, already a size bigger, its fur glossy and smooth.

Xingxing was still very attached to him, purring as Zhan Yan petted it, and soon forgot about the fish bait.

Zhan Jinli very naturally picked up the fish bait.

Xingxing immediately looked up, alert.

Can’t eat it? If you can’t eat it, why is he taking it? He’s the one who always skimps on my good food!

The fish bait was split half-and-half between the older brother and sister.

“Are you guys going fishing?” Zhan Yan asked.

He was only back for a few days and had to go to the company, so he definitely couldn’t go fishing.

“There’s a lake in Qixia Mountain, I hear it’s good for fishing.” He shared the lake’s location, which Yu Luo had told him, with his brother and sister. The lake was within their father’s territory, so it would be safe for them to fish there.

Zhan Jinli and Zhan Suiru indicated they had noted it down.

Both were fooling their younger brother; neither had any intention of going. They wanted the bait to study its ingredients. What kind of place was Qixia Mountain? The Chongming demon king circled there daily; going there could easily expose them.

After eating, Zhan Yan returned to his room holding Xingxing, opened “Gossip System”, and was relieved to see that both his brother and sister wanted to research the formula of this fish food.

He opened the supernatural forum to first appease the big shot “Deep Shadow”.

Last time, he had promised Deep Shadow to notify him immediately of any news and to continue helping him investigate anomalies. But Deep Shadow hadn’t contacted him since, and then suddenly sought him out today to check for anomalies in a certain place.

Zhan Yan hadn’t seen the message earlier, so now he hurried to smooth things over.

Gu Jiancheng had been waiting for a message from “Approaching Science”, but he wasn’t in a hurry; clearing anomalies wasn’t his main task recently.

The Sea of Shadows was a very powerful ability. When fully unleashed, the Sea of Shadows could contend with a Black Nest at its peak state.

A peak-state Black Nest was nothing like the incomplete thing he had swallowed before.

The thing that turned Rong Sui’s world into a post-apocalyptic one was just two Black Nests.

But Gu Jiancheng had almost never fully unleashed the Sea of Shadows. The ability’s negative mental impact was too great; in his state of suffering from severe side effects, he couldn’t fully deploy it at all. Using even a fraction more of its power could easily lead to a mental collapse.

But now things were different. A bright star hung above the Sea of Shadows, its light penetrating every shadow.

Every time Gu Jiancheng entered the Sea of Shadows, he would look up at this star.

The star’s light was very gentle.

The scorching sun never allowed shadows into its territory, but the starlight was willing to coexist with the shadows. It swept away the gloom of the shadows, leaving only a black-crystal-like transparency.

Gu Jiancheng’s shadow avatars traveled to every place where traces of “Infinite World” were suspected to have appeared, placing his mark within the shadows there.

Under the starlight, he was able to spread out the heavy shadows, which laid out lightly, connecting to every place that bore his mark.

The Sea of Shadows expanded its waves, patiently waiting to capture its prey.

Placing the marks required Gu Jiancheng to go from place to place. Previously, when Yan Yan was at school, he would leave right after placing a mark, not in the mood for anything else.

But these few days, Yan Yan was coming home. Gu Jiancheng, being very bored by himself, decided to go look for trouble with anomalies, clearing them out wherever he went.

While waiting for news from Approaching Science, he had already swept through all the anomaly-related tasks in the vicinity on the forum. Now was the perfect time to get Approaching Science to dig deeper for hidden anomalies.

After receiving the message from Approaching Science, Gu Jiancheng generously transferred a large sum of points and started beating up anomalies.

After receiving the points, Zhan Yan started counting his wallet.

The Wanyan Ghost King was entangled with the Artisen’s “Linyuan” puppet and probably wouldn’t remember the matter of searching for memories for a while. The plan to earn a Ghost King’s Seal from the Wanyan Ghost King for his boyfriend’s protection had temporarily failed, and he was back to needing to save up points for a protective talisman.

His little wallet was still too empty. Zhan Yan sighed.

It hadn’t been easy to fleece the Artisen lately, so he could only hope for the big shot Deep Shadow to be more generous.

87 minutes later, Deep Shadow sent another task request. This time it was a different location, asking him to continue investigating hidden anomalies there.

How is this big shot so efficient? Zhan Yan earned points while being astonished.

77 minutes later, the big shot Deep Shadow sent another address.

Laozi Just Saved the World!: “Anomalies in Nandi Dao.”

Another score.

84 minutes later.

Laozi Just Saved the World!: “Yuanping Port.”

Another, another score.

64 minutes later.

Laozi Just Saved the World!: “Shi Jiang.”

Another, another, another score.

Zhan Yan was shocked. He opened a map to look at the places Deep Shadow had asked him to check. The distance between each place was no less than a hundred kilometers, and Deep Shadow completed the tasks of clearing anomalies and traveling within one to one and a half hours each time.

Is he using Flash (teleporting)?

Laozi Just Saved the World!: “Yuanchuan.”

Approaching Science: “Stop!”

“Boss, I have things to do tomorrow, I can’t stay up all night with you.”

Gu Jiancheng clicked his tongue.

What kind of information specialist doesn’t pull all-nighters?

He glanced at the time. Fine. In another half hour, it would be time for Yan Yan to sleep. His original plan was to stop after dealing with two more anomalies and then make a goodnight call; any later would disturb Yan Yan’s sleep.

Gu Jiancheng had just logged out of the forum when a new message arrived.

This time, the one contacting him was Zhuo Xun, the leader of the Retirees’ Alliance.

The last time he visited the Retirees’ Alliance, Zhuo Xun had shamelessly pestered him for his contact information. Gu Jiancheng, thinking his condition was stable now, gave it to him.

Zhuo Xun was contacting him this time to report bad news.

After Infinite was destroyed, the people from the Retirees’ Alliance, after getting through the initial adjustment period, had completely given up and were just lying flat in this world. Later, even when they heard Infinite was trying to make a comeback, they didn’t get up.

This was a world capable of destroying Infinite, with numerous powerful figures. Top-tier big shots like BOSS Rong Sui were more than you could count on two hands. Why should this group of sick and disabled people get up and compete again? The people of this world might not necessarily trust them as outsiders anyway.

So, “Go, big shots!” while they peacefully retired.

But after learning that the apocalyptic world was approaching, Zhuo Xun couldn’t remain calm.

Based on what this group of old players knew about Infinite, it would definitely take this opportunity to stir up trouble!

In their own world, it was a home game, and fighting a barely surviving Infinite wasn’t a cause for concern. But the people of this world didn’t understand the apocalyptic world well enough, nor did they fully grasp the connection between Infinite and these instance worlds.

It was said that Infinite had previously tried to collect Infinite Fragments to revive itself, only to be blasted away by a Tianshi’s thunderstorm. However, even if the apocalyptic world was dead, it was still a complete world foundation. It had been controlled by Infinite for countless years; if Infinite could obtain it, it would have the confidence to revive.

Zhuo Xun immediately got up and screened all the players in the Retirees’ Alliance. Sure enough, a traitor was found.

“…He helped Infinite conduct a few experiments here. I’ve sent you the details. I have the person under control,” Zhuo Xun said.

Gu Jiancheng looked through the files.

He had always known that Infinite coveted this world. Unlike the other dispensable instance worlds, this world contained rules that Infinite desperately desired. It wanted to obtain something from this world that it lacked to complete itself.

This craving had not disappeared. The traces of Infinite’s actions in this world had already shown that besides wanting to revive, it was also targeting other objectives.

For example, Bai Ze, and for example, the target of this experiment.

This person was researching “Soul-Intoxicating Incense”.

Zuihun Xiang was a plant-based item from Infinite. Its characteristic was that if you cultivated it with the flesh and blood of a certain creature, once mature, the fragrance emitted by the plant would have an irresistible attraction to that creature.

The rules of Infinite were different from the rules of this world; not every item could exert its full effect here. Zuihun Xiang was one of those that were suppressed.

What this person was researching was how to make Zuihun Xiang fully effective on aquatic creatures in this world.

According to the information Zhuo Xun interrogated out of him, this person was supposed to go to a certain place a few months ago to conduct further experimental research with new materials. However, halfway through the operation, Infinite suddenly cancelled their mission, and there had been no movement on this front since.

Gu Jiancheng found the time and place they confessed to be somewhat familiar—wasn’t that when he was previously investigating the flesh-and-blood anomaly? The location was also more or less the same.

But at the time, Approaching Science had told him that the Linyuan Ghost King was investigating the same thing, and continuing might lead to a confrontation with him, so he didn’t proceed.

Was the thing Infinite had these people research related to the flesh-and-blood anomaly he was investigating back then? It was a pity he had switched targets and didn’t continue the investigation.

But it wasn’t a big problem; he could continue the investigation based on what these people confessed.

“Do you have any other questions?” Zhuo Xun asked.

Gu Jiancheng heard a faint noise on the other end of the line: “No. You handle it.”

“Okay.” He hung up the phone and looked down at the person tied up at his feet.

The person struggled frantically, their eyes bulging, their expression ferocious and terrifying, whimpering as if trying to say something.

Zhuo Xun bent down, grabbed his hair, and pulled his head up: “The side effects are acting up, huh? Feel like you’re about to die? Is it painful? Are you scared?”

“If it’s painful, then you bear it yourself—”

“If you can bear it, you live. If you can’t, you die.”

“You went to Infinite, were you trying to drag us old folks who finally endured it all back to hell?”

Zong Xiaoping, worried, pulled at him from the side: “Brother Zhuo.”

Zhuo Xun let go and started to take deep breaths. He glanced at the person on the ground with disgust.

This person was about to break.

He couldn’t be bothered to dirty his own hands again.

Zong Xiaoping whispered in his ear: “Brother Zhuo, don’t get angry over this kind of trash. With his level of strength, we could easily deal with him even with our powers sealed.”

Zhuo Xun sneered: “He couldn’t even bear to give up this little bit of power.”

This person’s side effects wouldn’t have been so severe. If discovered early, they could have been sealed; if discovered later, they could have been crippled. He dragged it out until it became unsolvable, and finally thought to ask Infinite for help, dragging everyone else down with him.

If you can’t bear to part with your abilities, you should learn from Deep Shadow.

What Zhuo Xun admired most about Deep Shadow wasn’t his ability to solve his own side effects, but that even when he was on the verge of suicide, he directed his madness toward Infinite and the anomalies.

Zhuo Xun had always been in contact with “Wan Shitong”. Four years ago, Wan Shitong sent over a large pile of flesh from anomalies, entrusting Zhuo Xun to cultivate a Zuihun Xiang plant with it. Anomalies were also products of Infinite, so the effect of Zuihun Xiang on them would not be diminished.

The remnants of Deep Shadow’s aura lingered on the remains of those anomalies. Deep Shadow had killed these anomalies and had Wan Shitong deliver them to request such a Zuihun Xiang plant.

That was when Deep Shadow was at his limit. He wanted to take as many anomalies as possible down with him in his final moments.

In the end, that Zuihun Xiang plant wasn’t used.

Zhuo Xun was very happy that a steady and resilient player like Deep Shadow could survive.

The steady and resilient big shot Deep Shadow was on the phone, acting cute with his boyfriend.

“Yan Yan, when are you coming back? I’m already starting to miss you.”

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