GRMFBS CH189

Zhan Yan left carrying the bread and cake his brother made, the baby-face enthusiastically waving behind him.

A bit weird, but since it was an employee his brother found, it shouldn’t be a big problem, right?

Zhan Yan went to a small supermarket to buy a case of water. He opened the packaging bag, tore off a small piece of bread, and carefully took a lick.

Ah… this feeling of his tongue about to be glued together by sweetness, it was indeed his brother’s handiwork!

Zhan Yan pinched the bread into small pieces, rolled them into cherry-pit-sized balls, opened a bottle of mineral water, took a deep breath, tossed the balls into his mouth, drank water, and swallowed!

Fantastic! The explosive sweetness only had time to leave a shallow aftertaste on his tongue before sliding into his stomach along with the mineral water.

No cloying sweetness! No pain! He really was a genius!

Zhan Yan opened the gossip threads, searching for that baby-faced employee first.

Found it! Very good, the bread his brother made was indeed effective!

[The Five Little Ghosts fought over who got to entertain Lord Ghost King Lin Yuan’s little brother.]

Zhan Yan: …Oh, so his feeling that the baby-face had a split personality was right after all!

Knowing the truth, there was nothing to be afraid of. It was a pity the bread couldn’t be kept for long, otherwise he could have hoarded a bit more.

Zhan Yan continuously swallowed a handful of bread balls and began to continue checking on the flesh and blood server, World Record, and the situation on his sister’s end.

He delayed some time driving back to buy bread. By now, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had already found the Monster Doctor’s flesh and blood server, and they had already started fighting.

The fight was going relatively easily. The flesh and blood server’s abilities were all utilized within the network world; its main body in reality didn’t have much combat power. Its only ability related to reality was forcibly pulling a person’s consciousness into the network world, regardless of whether the other party had network-type abilities.

Non-network-type people pulled in would be surrounded by network anomalies. If unprepared, their consciousness would die in the network world.

But the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was prepared here. They used some kind of protective talisman, and the people the flesh and blood server tried to forcibly pull into the network only felt dizzy for a moment before returning to normal.

Nie Yu was also prepared in the network world, conducting a pincer attack with her teammates operating in the real world.

Hmm… Mom was also alarmed by this incident and rushed back to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. Although she didn’t need to make a move, it seemed some arrangements needed to be adjusted.

Soon, this anomaly server was destroyed.

The “flesh and blood server” item was added to the “Anomalies” column of Zhan Yan’s information drive.

This thing was half Black Nest, half anomaly. It couldn’t compare to the power of a true Black Nest, but it possessed a Black Nest’s ability to produce anomalies.

Zhan Yan sorted through all the collected Black Nest information in the anomalies column.

The earliest was the cloakroom Black Nest that the big shot Deep Shadow devoured.

The cloakroom Black Nest belonged to a type of flesh and blood Black Nest. It was an abandoned Black Nest that had already been depleted. It wasn’t considered difficult when the big shot Deep Shadow fought it; the trouble was the massive amount of pollution it carried, and the big shot Deep Shadow still had aftereffects at that time.

The Black Nests that appeared later were the ones encountered when the big shot Deep Shadow and his brother, Ghost King Lin Yuan, were investigating the Drunken Fish Grass together.

Those Black Nests were all small Black Nests; Deep Shadow and his brother eliminated two in total. According to the information provided by Deep Shadow, these two Black Nests were both small. With Deep Shadow’s aftereffects gone, his combat power was fully unleashed, and with his brother’s super strong support, the fight wasn’t considered difficult. The most important thing was that Deep Shadow never attempted to devour a Black Nest again, avoiding the Black Nest’s most terrifying pollution.

Then came that split Black Nest the Monster Doctor formed by attaching to the Candle Dragon Remnant. Deep Shadow resolved it through the rule weaknesses he obtained in advance, preventing the Monster Doctor’s abilities from being unleashed.

Next was this flesh and blood server.

None of these Black Nests were considered difficult to fight—of course, maybe it was because he was a rear-echelon personnel who hadn’t gone to the battlefield. After all, the adjective given in his brother’s gossip threads was “slightly strenuous”.

Moreover, they all had reasonable justifications—one was depleted; for the latter two, Deep Shadow’s aftereffects were resolved; the most troublesome one had its rule weaknesses found in advance; and this flesh and blood server couldn’t even fully count as a Black Nest, plus it had the fatal weakness of partitioned network and reality abilities.

But could it be a bit too smooth? Could Infinite, which once forced this world to rely solely on the Candle Dragon’s loop to salvage losses, caused many big shots to fall, and controlled many players like Deep Shadow, be this simple?

Zhan Yan really wanted to convince himself.

Infinite was already destroyed. Right now, it was just a tiny spark struggling out of the residual dead ashes. How strong could it still be? Weakness was its normal state.

But there was still something stimulating his nerves. Infinite’s most terrifying aspect wasn’t its power. It was deeply versed in human nature, adept at achieving big gains with small stakes, stirring up the weaknesses in people’s hearts, and utilizing others to achieve its own goals.

Being in such a weakened state before their eyes, what it should do most wasn’t to fight them head-on, but to silently implement division, bewitchment, and utilization. Just like how it had once silently infiltrated the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s Twenty-Four Person Council.

Who was it bewitching now?

The black market.

In the Artisan’s reception room.

Zhan Suiru was still in that attire, the shadow of her wide-brimmed hat obscuring more than half her face as she sat on the sofa draped with a magnificent woven blanket.

At this moment, Tequila, sitting opposite her, lacked the reserved appearance he had during their first meeting.

He leaned against the back of the sofa in a relaxed manner, his eyes curiously surveying his surroundings.

“Where is that butler from last time?” he asked.

Zhan Suiru hadn’t allowed Xiao Ran to leave her secret studio.

She stared straight at Tequila, her gaze cold and hard: “Who are you?”

This person was absolutely not the Tequila she had cooperated with a few times—or rather, the one currently controlling this body was absolutely not the original Tequila.

“Worthy of being the Lord of the apocalypse, truly sharp.” “Tequila” praised sincerely, as if he couldn’t sense that the various weapons hidden within this reception room were already aimed at him, “Don’t be like this, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, I just used a tiny trick to control him. If you kill him, I think it will be very troublesome to find another suitable person to communicate with you.”

“A rat hiding behind the scenes.” Zhan Suiru sneered, “You have already submitted to Infinite?”

She didn’t believe anyone could strip off her persona so easily, except Infinite.

“Tequila” didn’t answer directly: “Your vigilance is normal, but, don’t be so hostile, okay? I am just myself. I came here because we both share the same goal—you want a certain person resurrected, don’t you? That is also what I seek.”

Zhan Suiru didn’t answer, merely narrowing her eyes at him. She saw at a glance that this was a player—a former player. She understood them too well. She had cooperated with them countless times and opposed them countless times in the endless reincarnations, and after she later recovered the memories of the reincarnations, she had also killed countless players. She didn’t remember encountering the player before her—his psychic power traits were different from those of the players she had encountered before.

Her gaze was as sharp as a knife. Even separated by “Tequila”, the manipulator behind the scenes felt a slight discomfort.

“You are just yourself? Just relying on you, where did these pieces of news come from?”

“Alright, alright. I should be a bit more honest.” “Tequila” spread his hands, “I indeed obtained some news from Infinite.”

“You using the identity of Red Crystal to operate in the network world, this is not a good idea. It is currently keeping an eye on the network world. Moreover, as soon as you appeared, you snatched away the meat it had its eyes on. The moment your psychic power appeared, it realized you were still alive. Previously it thought you were dead. This active ‘Artisan’ was just some lucky kid who obtained the Artisan’s ability.

“Your psychic power is different from before, right? Your psychic power is stained with blood, because you killed your own worl…”

“Tequila” abruptly shut his mouth. He was pinned in place by a terrifying murderous intent.

It took him a while to barely catch his breath, and he said cautiously: “Hey, I won’t say it, okay? But there are some things I must make clear. Only when I make them clear can we achieve our goals.”

He felt the stagnant air gradually loosen, and hastily controlled this stressed body to take a few deep breaths.

“Infinite is very sharp. It also confirmed who you are from your… um, psychic power. It understands you very well.

“It knows what you want, and it can provide it. It can also tell you why there is pollution within the Artisan’s soul—I mean the original Artisan.”

“Tequila” looked at his watch: “Ah, ah, if you have channels to understand the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s current operations… they are currently fighting that flesh and blood server made by the Monster Doctor. That thing has a special ability; it can pull other people’s minds into the network world intact, regardless of whether they have network-type supernatural powers. This should be exactly what you need, right?

“I helped the Monster Doctor build that thing, and I can build another one.”

While chattering away, World Record was also constantly observing the person opposite him.

He had never been to the apocalyptic instance, but he had heard of the illustrious reputation of this instance BOSS.

Rong Sui was once hailed as the most terrifying BOSS in the entirety of Infinite.

At first, this title puzzled many people. There were plenty of terrifying monsters in Infinite; there were mental pollution monsters that made people go mad with a single glance, monsters so sadistic and twisted that people had nightmares every night even after leaving the instance, and monsters that silently controlled players.

Rong Sui, an NPC with a normal human appearance, neither played bloody and perverted tricks nor possessed the terror of twisted pollution. Why was she considered the most terrifying?

Until later, a table showing the survival rates of entering different instances circulated.

The apocalyptic instance, after encountering a problem, was the only instance with a 0 survival rate.

In Infinite, going mad, sustaining severe injuries, disabilities, and so on weren’t considered despair. As long as you had points, had teammates willing to spend points on you, or had purchased automatically activating items in advance, Infinite could fish a person back, and bottomed-out Sanity could be added back. As long as you didn’t die, there was a future.

There were also monsters in Infinite instances that meant certain death upon encounter, but they could all be avoided. Experienced players could avoid confronting these monsters directly throughout the process of completing the entire instance.

But Rong Sui was different. She would proactively chase down every single player who entered the instance, and wouldn’t stop until death. This forged the terrifying reputation of the apocalyptic instance’s 0 survival rate.

Therefore, World Record cautiously chose to control someone else to contact Rong Sui.

But now, he felt Rong Sui’s terrifying reputation could come to an end. Rong Sui’s terror lay in her past inability to be communicated with and her refusal to let a single player go. But now, all of this was in the past. Rong Sui was a person who could be communicated with, and furthermore, she had things she cared about.

Even if Rong Sui just sat there, it generated a massive sense of oppression.

But once a person has desires, they have weaknesses.

As long as Rong Sui didn’t go crazy, she was much easier to deal with than those irrational pollution monsters.

Zhan Suiru’s gaze was unfathomably deep.

She looked at Tequila, as if simultaneously seeing World Record manipulating him from behind, and seeing Infinite guiding all this to happen behind World Record.

Who she was, her abilities, what she wanted… only Infinite understood her this well. Only Infinite could piece everything together from the existing fragmented information.

“Don’t look at me like that.” “Tequila” took a breath, then slowly let it out, “The thing we want, this world is destined not to give us. Resurrection is something that breaks the rules of this world. But Infinite is different; in Infinite, anything is possible.”

“In the past, there was a ‘Resurrection’ item in Infinite’s point exchange mall, but the point asking price was too high, almost matching the points to break away from Infinite. Not many people could afford it. I estimate only the top five people on the leaderboard would have enough points.

“I saved up for many years in Infinite and still couldn’t save enough.” World Record sighed, “It is currently weak. We won’t have a better opportunity than now.

“Wouldn’t it be good for us to cooperate? We can totally utilize Infinite. Pressed by the will of this world, it doesn’t dare to show its head right now, making it much easier to negotiate terms with it than before. The two of us will have a much higher success rate than one person. You see, I am here to request cooperation, I am not a lobbyist for Infinite. I just want to achieve my goal to the best of my ability.

“You understand, right? Since you also have someone you want to resurrect regardless of the cost.”

Zhan Suiru didn’t speak for a long time. Her eyes were also hidden in the shadow, making it impossible for anyone to judge anything.

“Tell me first, where did the pollution in the Artisan’s soul come from?”