GRMFBS CH165

Ghost King Tie Lao was stunned dumb by this news.

How could Ghost King Wan Yan escape Mount Chaofu? Was he no longer interested in that puppet?

What should he do now? Since Ghost King Wan Yan had escaped Mount Chaofu, Ghost King Lin Yuan would definitely hide. Even though Ghost King Lin Yuan temporarily couldn’t come to help him rush work due to the matter with Infinite, it was at least a glimmer of hope.

But with Ghost King Wan Yan out, this hope was also gone.

Ghost King Tie Lao felt a surge of sorrow. Ah, in this cold and ruthless world, couldn’t a sad corporate slave be given a little hope?

Seeing how truly pitiful Ghost King Tie Lao was, Ghost King Minghe felt somewhat guilty. She had also forgotten there was an exit leading to the mortal realm above the Wenyu Tree.

Ghost King Minghe thought for a moment and lifted the “Lin Yuan” puppet out: “Can this help you rush work?”

This puppet was made quite well, being able to withstand Wan Yan’s torment, and its intelligence was also very high. Now that Wan Yan had lost interest in it, perhaps it could be reused?

Ghost King Tie Lao tested it with a nonchalant attitude.

He took a simple document and handed it to the “Lin Yuan” puppet: “Do you know how to process this?”

The “Lin Yuan” puppet glanced at it: “Heh, you’re asking me about such trivial matters? Just kill the guy causing trouble and it’ll be solved.”

Ghost King Tie Lao: …

Ghost King Minghe: …

Ghost King Minghe switched the “Lin Yuan” puppet to a different mode.

The “Lin Yuan” puppet in cat-lover mode looked around and was extremely disappointed: “Are there no little kitties?”

Ghost King Tie Lao: “…Do you know how to process this?”

The “Lin Yuan” puppet processed it in a few swishes: “It’s not hard.”

Ghost King Tie Lao’s eyes lit up, and he pulled out a stack of documents: “Here! Process these too!”

The “Lin Yuan” puppet refused: “I won’t do it without a little kitty.”

Ghost King Tie Lao found a cat ghost and gave it to him.

Experiments proved that the “Lin Yuan” puppet’s default mode was suited for work requiring martial prowess, while the cat-lover mode made for a great assistant as long as you provided it with a cat—later, Ghost King Tie Lao swapped it for a cat demon ghost to prevent him from getting too addicted to petting cats and refusing to work.

Zhan Yan saw their daily lives in the Gossip System.

[The “Lin Yuan” puppet’s break time ended, and the cat demon ghost transformed into human form.]

[The “Lin Yuan” puppet said angrily: “Quickly change back for me!”]

[The cat demon ghost sprawled lazily on the sofa, playing on an underworld mobile phone: “Break time is over, wait until you finish processing this batch of documents.”]

Ghost King Tie Lao had truly ruthlessly mastered the cat-lover mode puppet.

Ghost King Lin Yuan still didn’t know that Ghost King Wan Yan had already escaped Mount Chaofu. Previously, he had hidden too thoroughly and had always been the one unilaterally contacting Ghost King Tie Lao; now, Ghost King Tie Lao couldn’t contact him even if he wanted to tell him.

Therefore, Ghost King Lin Yuan was still unaware that his leisurely days were coming to an end.

Zhan Yan gloated a little bit. He just didn’t know why Deep Shadow suddenly became so decadent, but seeing that he was still investigating Infinite normally, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

Zhan Yan felt relieved and continued researching network-types with Nie Yu. They had discussed this; among the people currently confirmed to be intending to help Infinite revive, the strongest and hardest to deal with were the Monster Doctor and the Book of Secrets.

Between them, the Monster Doctor’s abilities and concealment were stronger than the Book of Secrets’—this was something Zhan Yan confirmed through the Gossip System. To this day, searching for the Monster Doctor only yielded a string of [Loading…], but searching for the Book of Secrets would yield some gossip threads.

It was only because Deep Shadow harbored suspicions about the Monster Doctor that his existence was investigated first. The Book of Secrets, who was formerly ranked twenty-first, temporarily escaped disaster because the big shot Deep Shadow hadn’t set his sights on him.

Among the current clues, both of these guys were secretly stirring up trouble, one on the network and the other continuing to target Ghost King Lin Yuan.

Based on their past abilities, the Monster Doctor didn’t have network-type abilities; he was more adept in the area of flesh and blood, which matched the “Cursed Scales” researched specifically against Ghost King Lin Yuan previously, as well as the newly discovered “Drunken Soul Incense”. The Book of Secrets, on the other hand, had previously conducted research targeting network-type anomalies.

Following normal logical deduction, the clues Ghost King Lin Yuan and Deep Shadow were currently tracing should ultimately point to the Monster Doctor, while the growth-type anomalies Zhan Yan and Nie Yu were tracing on the network should be the handiwork of the Book of Secrets.

Yet what the Book of Mysteries and the Pure White Puzzle investigated was that the Monster Doctor’s traces appeared on the network.

There were some strange aspects in this, but unfortunately, there were too few clues. They needed to continue investigating to reach reliable conclusions.

For Zhan Yan, using network-type abilities consumed more energy than searching with the Gossip System—it had been a long time since he experienced the feeling of being unable to flip through gossip threads, but after several intense practical sessions with Nie Yu, he started showing similar symptoms again.

This was because the information streams on the network were too numerous and complex, whereas the Gossip System’s retrieval function was very clean. Coupled with the adjusted fuzzy search function, Zhan Yan found it extremely smooth to use now.

Nie Yu comforted him: “Don’t be greedy, being able to train for this long is already super strong. You feel the consumption because you are still unskilled with the techniques. Once you’re proficient, the time you can stay on the network will definitely be longer than mine.”

When they, network-types, logged onto the network, their actions were all about shuttling through information streams; what kind of fool would be able to forcefully part a path through information streams like opening a curtain, as Approaching Science did? It was totally normal for his consumption to be high.

During their break time, the two began to gossip.

They stayed in a “rest room” built on the network.

This rest room was a secret base built by Nie Yu. For network-type superpowered individuals, this specially constructed space was equivalent to a room in reality. A rest room in reality provided physical rest, while a rest room on the network provided mental rest.

Zhan Yan looked at this rest room with novelty. It was like a room in reality, decorated warmly and comfortably, except all the walls and furniture were translucent, revealing the constantly flowing data inside.

After entering this space, Nie Yu’s consciousness also manifested into a humanoid shape composed of translucent light.

She threw herself onto the data-composed sofa, the wide and soft sofa sinking down quite a bit before bouncing back up slightly. Zhan Yan noticed that as the sofa underwent these changes, the speed and direction of the flowing data within it also altered.

“Come, don’t be polite, sit wherever.” Nie Yu hugged a throw pillow with a rather smug expression and rolled over. “Not every network-type superpowered individual can build a rest room. Only network-types whose abilities reach B-rank can establish a secret space. But network-types with insufficient abilities can at most build an empty room.”

Zhan Yan chose another sofa to sit down. He tried moving around, and his physical sensation wasn’t any different from a real sofa.

Nie Yu hooked her finger: “Do you like it firmer or softer?”

The tactile sensation of the sofa changed along with her adjustments, and the internal data transformed accordingly.

“It’s fine like this.” Zhan Yan felt it was novel. “Are they all built with data?”

“Yes. You can do it too,” Nie Yu explained. “We usually build spaces on the network numbering more than single digits as our own rest rooms and secret bases. These private rest rooms and secret bases will also be equipped with all possible protections. Therefore, if you discover a certain space in the network world, it’s best not to casually intrude. It might be a secret base hidden by some network-type, and uninvited individuals will suffer the most ferocious attacks.”

“Are there public rest rooms?” Zhan Yan asked.

“There are. I built some public spaces together with network-types I’m familiar with; those are places where we communicate. Actually, you also know of one public space…” Nie Yu blinked slyly.

“I know one…” Zhan Yan thought for a moment and suddenly realized, “The chaofan forum?”

“Right,” Nie Yu said. “But for these past two days, Vajra Ming Wang is checking the forum’s ‘Immovable as a Mountain’ protection, so the forum’s public space is temporarily inaccessible. If you want to see, I can take you to look at other public rest rooms first.”

Zhan Yan sprawled like a salted fish on the data sofa: “No thanks, I’ll rest for a bit first.”

Nie Yu gossiped with him, bringing up how two network-types recently built a massive space together.

Zhan Yan: “Wan Shitong?”

Nie Yu: “You knew?”

Zhan Yan thought to himself that not only did he know, he also knew that Wan Shitong used Deep Shadow as a prototype to create an NPC, accidentally let the NPC run away, and was now chasing him all over the game world.

Zhan Yan: “Who is the other one?”

Nie Yu: “The other one is ‘Play Games With Me’.”

When these two first started making the game space, no one noticed. Later, when someone noticed this massive space, they thought it was a new public space the two network-type big shots were opening up. But then, seeing that this space was never finished, while the visible data became denser and more complex, they realized something was wrong.

Nie Yu patted the sofa, causing a series of data changes: “These are visible data, used to form the ‘sofa’. If you build according to this, you can create an identical sofa.”

Her hand glowed with fluorescence and phased into the sofa, churning up the superficial 0s and 1s to reveal the massive information streams hidden underneath: “These are hidden data. They contain the foundation of this space, hidden defense systems, attack systems, transfer channels, and whatever else you want to pile inside.”

“Generally speaking, visible data won’t be too complex. They are bubbles floating on the sea of data. If even the visible data reaches a level of complexity that makes people find it complicated, then the hidden data supporting it from underneath will only be vastly more expansive.”

Zhan Yan: “So you discovered they were building a virtual game world?”

“Right!” Nie Yu said indignantly. “They actually didn’t invite me for something this fun!”

Zhan Yan found it very interesting. Previously, he wasn’t very interested in this virtual game world because only network-types could enter it in a “holographic” state. But now he was a network-type too! Once Wan Shitong and Play Games With Me opened up this space, he could also go in and experience it.

He wondered what their progress was like now. Zhan Yan used the Gossip System to search.

Wan Shitong had yet to catch the Deep Shadow prototype NPC he personally designed.

There was nothing he could do; the world construction was too massive, and an NPC with maxed-out attributes could hide anywhere at will. Trying to find him was no different from finding a needle in a haystack.

If he couldn’t catch the NPC, he couldn’t proceed to the next debugging step; without the next debugging step, the game couldn’t progress.

Zhan Yan: …So why did you use your boss as a prototype to create an NPC with maxed-out data?

The Gossip System began to flip through with difficulty; today’s consumption was nearly bottoming out.

“Let’s end it here for today.”

Zhan Yan and Nie Yu parted ways; he also had to log off the network to attend class.

Recently, Gu Jiancheng was extremely depressed because of the internship arrangements, so Zhan Yan had to comfort his boyfriend.

After class, the two strolled around the lake; the big geese raised by the school were swimming in the water. The little goslings had already hatched and were swimming in the lake following their mother.

The big geese would occasionally arch their necks and dive into the water to snatch a bite of aquatic plants; sometimes they would submerge entirely, swim a distance underwater, and pop up again.

The little goslings floated on the surface of the water, and upon seeing mother goose pop up not far away, they would swim over one by one to snuggle close to her.

The geese at school were fed by designated staff; Zhan Yan became familiar with them, and sometimes he would snatch the job of feeding the geese.

After walking around the lake until they were tired, Zhan Yan and Gu Jiancheng found some stone steps to sit on, with Gu Jiancheng sitting closely next to him.

Zhan Yan: “…Pfft.”

Gu Jiancheng: “What are you laughing at?”

Zhan Yan held the goose feed to tease the geese: “Come, come, come.”

The big goose led a flock of little goslings ashore. Zhan Yan had successfully familiarized himself with them, and the little goslings weren’t afraid of him either, stepping on his shoes to peer into the feed bucket.

Gu Jiancheng looked at the little goslings clinging closely to the big goose and suddenly realized.

He leaned close to Zhan Yan’s ear, just about to say something.

Zhan Yan saw a familiar feline silhouette not far away; he turned his head, leaving the back of his head facing Gu Jiancheng.

Gu Jiancheng: …

He followed Zhan Yan’s gaze and looked over.

Ghost King Wan Yan?

Why had this psycho come out?

Gu Jiancheng instantly became on guard.

He still remembered Wan Yan pretending to be an ordinary stray cat to scam food and drinks from Yan Yan!