GRMFBS CH142

Deep Shadow?

Heilang hunched his back slightly, looking Gu Jiancheng up and down, then his hair stood on end.

It really was Deep Shadow!

How could Deep Shadow be here?!

Weren’t the Retiree Alliance just bluffing?!

“What are you doing here?” Heilang started to bristle.

“If I weren’t here, would you be looking for me?” Gu Jiancheng said coldly.

Zong Xiaoping looked back and forth between them in a daze, his eyes suddenly widening as he opened his mouth, “You…”

Leader Zhuo immediately covered his mouth and dragged him away. “You guys carry on, you guys carry on! If there’s nothing else, we’ll be leaving now.”

Heilang: “Wait.”
Gu Jiancheng: “You stay.”

The two spoke at the same time. Heilang looked annoyed, and Gu Jiancheng clicked his tongue in impatience.

They hadn’t achieved their purpose for coming here yet, how could they let Leader Zhuo run off?

Leader Zhuo was very troubled. He had the others take Zong Xiaoping away. The others covered his mouth and dragged him out of the room by his arms, even thoughtfully closing the door behind them.

Leader Zhuo watched wistfully as the last sliver of the doorway closed.

No, what does it have to do with me if you two want to fight?

Gu Jiancheng and Heilang locked eyes, sparks flying.

Seeing the eagerness for battle still in his eyes, Gu Jiancheng began to sneer. “Continue.”

Heilang saw the restless shadows at Gu Jiancheng’s feet and barely managed to calm down. He liked to fight, but he didn’t like to be crushed.

The thought of it was heartbreaking. Heilang was very strong; otherwise, he wouldn’t be leading a major division in the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. But the problem was, his innate ability was Shadow Stealth, allowing him to hide in shadows and travel freely through them. It was a very practical ability that combined stealth, defense, and speed. Heilang’s combat skills were almost all integrated with his innate ability.

However, his ability was completely countered by Deep Shadow.

Nearly twenty years ago, when people didn’t know much about Deep Shadow’s abilities, Heilang had accidentally run into Gu Jiancheng, who was clearing out abnormalities. Confident in his own ability, he decided to stealthily approach Deep Shadow to observe. Then he was chased over three mountains by a very irritable Gu Jiancheng. He traveled through the shadows, but Deep Shadow traveled through the shadows faster than him; he hid in the shadows, and Deep Shadow forced him out with his strange, devouring shadows; he tried to fight Deep Shadow head-on without using shadows, and Deep Shadow hid in the shadows and fought him with shadows.

Heilang had never fought such a frustrating fight!

The thought of it made Heilang lose all his energy. He relaxed from his combat stance, stood up straight, and with a curl of his lip said, “If you want me to continue, I’ll continue. You poked Jing Zhang in the nostril.”

Gu Jiancheng: ???
Leader Zhuo looked like he’d seen a ghost.

Was this real? Would Deep Shadow do something like poking someone’s nostril? Was this something I should be hearing? Would I be silenced by Deep Shadow afterwards?

Gu Jiancheng was very annoyed by the look in Leader Zhuo’s eyes.

“Explain clearly. Who is Jing Zhang? When did I ever do such a thing?”

Heilang felt Deep Shadow’s gaze turn murderous. He cautiously took two steps back. “Jing Zhang is the whale demon whose nostril you poked.”

Previously, when the Wan Yao Alliance and the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau were discussing a cooperation plan to find Deep Shadow, there was an agitated, two-meter-tall man in the Wan Yao Alliance. That was Jing Zhang.

It happened twenty-six years ago. At that time, everyone was fighting a chaotic war with Infinity. Jing Zhang was fighting in his original form in the sea. He took a deep breath, about to use his whale spout ability. Unfortunately, Deep Shadow happened to be knocked down and fell right into the large whale’s blowhole. If it had been anyone else, they would have been blown out along with Jing Zhang’s ability. But it was Deep Shadow who fell. He subconsciously grabbed the surroundings with his shadows and controlled his body. Jing Zhang’s ability was forcibly blocked inside his body. He almost suffocated and was left with a deep psychological scar.

Gu Jiancheng remembered. Gu Jiancheng’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

That’s called poking someone’s nostril? Who the hell would want to get half their body stuck in a whale’s blowhole? Heilang was asking for a beating!

Heilang successfully fulfilled his wish to find a fight.

Leader Zhuo shouted helplessly in the room, “Sirs! Sirs, don’t fight! Ah! My fine sofa! This is the reception room, not a training ground! If you two must fight, please change locations… my century-old vase! Thank you, sir…”

Halfway through beating up the wolf, Deep Shadow, his ears full of Leader Zhuo’s miserable howls, extended a shadow to catch the teetering porcelain vase and threw it to him.

Leader Zhuo hugged his old vase and began to move furniture out of the reception room. He managed to move all the valuable items out during the lulls in Deep Shadow and Heilang’s fight.

Deep Shadow and Heilang fought with some restraint. The commotion was limited to the reception room.

Outside the reception room, a group of people hid around the corner, listening to the commotion. They were called over irritably by Zhuo Xun. “What are you hiding there for? Come help me move things!”

Zong Xiaoping, holding a large coffee table, glanced at the door. “Brother Zhuo, is that really Deep Shadow?”

Zhuo Xun: “No. You go in and ask him who he is yourself.”

Zong Xiaoping shrank his head. “How could Deep Shadow come to our alliance?”

Zhuo Xun didn’t speak, his brows furrowed slightly. He casually found an excuse to fool the silly boy. “We probably have a tacit understanding with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau s.”

The sound of fighting in the reception room suddenly stopped.

Zhuo Xun shivered in fright.

Damn it. I forgot the two fighting inside could hear.

“Go, go, go.” Zhuo Xun quickly shooed the others away and slipped into the reception room through the crack in the door.

He saw Deep Shadow and Heilang standing on opposite sides of the room. Deep Shadow looked no different, but Heilang’s wolf ears had popped out, twitching at the slightest sound. Now both of them were glaring at him.

Gu Jiancheng and Heilang were both disgusted by Zhuo Xun’s words.

Zhuo Xun coughed awkwardly, pretending nothing had happened. “You two are here for the same purpose, right?”

Heilang retorted unhappily, “What purpose? Isn’t he the backer of your Retiree Alliance?”

Gu Jiancheng shot him a sideways glance.

Heilang bristled again.

What kind of look was that?!

Of course he knew that Deep Shadow had just happened to run into him, and his previous sentence was just a jab at Zhuo Xun. But being looked at by Deep Shadow like that made it seem like he was a fool who couldn’t tell.

Zhuo Xun struggled to appease the two ill-tempered powerhouses and moved them to another reception room to sit down again. Gu Jiancheng and Heilang were accommodating and didn’t continue fighting. It wasn’t as if the seals on Zhuo Xun’s group couldn’t be undone. This group of currently useless retirees could still turn into a group of fierce fighters with soaring combat power if pushed too far.

But after the two sat down, they didn’t speak.

Gu Jiancheng was dividing his attention to accompany his boyfriend at school. He hadn’t practiced the shadow clone skill for a long time, and his mental state hadn’t been good before, so he was now not very proficient at multitasking. When he was fighting Heilang earlier, the shadow clone at school started to lose focus.

Heilang was contacting the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, telling Ning Xi about his sudden encounter with Deep Shadow. So what if his ability was countered by Deep Shadow? He had an organization behind him! In a moment, he would let the lone wolf experience the shock of summoning a busload of people with a single message!

Ning Xi still valued him highly. After receiving the message, he immediately gave him a new task: pull Deep Shadow in for cooperation.

Heilang: … Oh right, how could he forget? The Bureau had wanted to cooperate with Deep Shadow before. But he had just finished a fight with Deep Shadow.

Heilang looked up with a conflicted heart.

Gu Jiancheng was on the other end, engrossed in teaching his boyfriend how to spin a pen. Over here, he saw Heilang’s hesitant and awkward gaze, and his good mood instantly vanished. Gu Jiancheng gave him a cold and disdainful look.

Heilang: … Gritted his teeth! A mission is a mission!

Zhuo Xun, squeezed between the two silent people, was extremely awkward. He was racking his brain on how to restart the topic when he unexpectedly heard Heilang speak first.

“Hey, you’re here for that Gravity Tide too, right?” Heilang asked.

Gu Jiancheng really wanted to give him another look, to let him understand that he should talk less nonsense. But thinking that this bunch of useless retirees from the Retiree Alliance hadn’t felt anything, and he would still have to dig some information out of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau s, he reluctantly gave him a reply: “Mm.”

Heilang forced a twisted smile. “How much do you know about the world that caused the Gravity Tide?”

Gu Jiancheng remained impassive. “It’s just an instance world. What? You guys can’t handle it?” His tone was cold, looking very impatient with being held back by others.

Heilang was choked with anger. “We have done thorough research on the fragments of the post-apocalyptic world. We just don’t want to disperse forces that could be united.”

Oh, so the approaching world was the post-apocalyptic instance world. Gu Jiancheng understood now. The post-apocalyptic world was a very famous instance, with all sorts of complete information. The only thing Gu Jiancheng and the players of the Retiree Alliance didn’t know was which world was approaching.

Zhuo Xun watched from the side in amazement. Did Deep Shadow just successfully provoke Heilang like that?

Heilang was still staring at Deep Shadow, trying to figure out how to persuade him. In fact, if it had been anyone else, they might not have been able to provoke Heilang. But this was Deep Shadow. His mere presence was oppressive. Heilang had never even considered that Deep Shadow wouldn’t even know which world was approaching.

After knowing that the approaching world was the post-apocalyptic world, Gu Jiancheng frowned inwardly.

Seeing that neither of them was speaking, Zhuo Xun picked up the topic. “The post-apocalyptic instance was once called the ‘Death Zone’ by us. No matter how many people went in, or how high their strength, they never returned.”

Heilang began to take notes frantically. “Why would there be such an instance?” According to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s research, Infinity wouldn’t meaninglessly send players to their deaths. It would design death zones, but it would also design a chance of survival within them. What it wanted were the players’ desires and negative emotions in life-and-death situations. Meaningless slaughter would only waste resources.

Zhuo Xun glanced at Gu Jiancheng. Seeing that he had no objection, he continued, “Because this instance went out of control. But Senior Deep Shadow entered the post-apocalyptic instance once, and after that, the instance returned to normal. Only Senior Deep Shadow knows what happened in the post-apocalyptic instance.”

Heilang had to turn to Gu Jiancheng. “Um… can you tell us what you know?”

Gu Jiancheng: “Information exchange. I want your understanding of the current state of the post-apocalyptic world.”

Heilang: “Let me ask.”

Ning Xi agreed to the information exchange, telling Heilang to give information as he saw fit, and to try to get all the information Deep Shadow knew using what they had on hand. Heilang rubbed his fists together, vowing to get revenge in the information war. Deep Shadow definitely didn’t know that the post-apocalyptic world was already a dead world. Their instance guides, abnormality data, and everything else were useless! He had to pull out some real substance before he could reveal this information to Deep Shadow!

Just as Heilang was about to make a demand, he suddenly heard Deep Shadow ask, “The post-apocalyptic world has already been destroyed, right?”

Heilang: ? How did you know?

Gu Jiancheng confirmed the answer from his instantly constricted pupils.

Gu Jiancheng: “Stop with the useless talk. How did you determine that the approaching world is the post-apocalyptic world?” These players couldn’t confirm which world was approaching from the Gravity Tide. He needed to know how the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau confirmed it and whether their judgment was accurate.

Heilang was slightly defeated. “The largest Infinity fragment that the Infinity Research Institute was studying before was from the post-apocalyptic world.” They had recorded the unique frequency of the post-apocalyptic world, and it overlapped with the frequency that caused the Gravity Tide.

Zhuo Xun had a sudden realization. The result determined by the world frequency was reliable enough. He and Heilang looked at Deep Shadow together. He was also very curious about how Deep Shadow had dealt with the post-apocalyptic instance back then.

Deep Shadow sat steadily on the sofa. He didn’t hide his figure or face, but the light seemed to be swallowed as it approached him, creating a unique gloom around him that made him impossible to see clearly, no matter what. A deep shadow. Or perhaps an abyss.

The out-of-control post-apocalyptic instance had once devoured countless players and was a death zone that everyone avoided.

Zhuo Xun had done Deep Shadow a favor when communicating with Heilang. He had been vague about the situation of the post-apocalyptic instance. There were live streams of instances in Infinity, and these live streams would become sellable clearance experiences and guides. After the post-apocalyptic instance went out of control, every player was afraid they would be forcibly assigned to this instance mission. Many guilds and famous players on the leaderboards had issued bounties for clues about the post-apocalyptic instance. Some were out of fear, some out of curiosity, and some for points. Under the circumstances at the time, almost any player who wasn’t too tight on cash had watched the recordings of those dead players in the post-apocalyptic instance.

They didn’t know how the post-apocalyptic instance returned to normal, but they knew how it went out of control.

The loss of control of the post-apocalyptic instance manifested in the strongest NPC of the instance, “Lord” Rong Sui, suddenly going mad. Before going out of control, this NPC was supposed to be an optional faction for the players. If they chose the human base faction, Lord Rong Sui would become a friendly NPC and could even provide very powerful help if used well. But after the instance went out of control, Rong Sui became the most terrifying BOSS in the entire instance. She would find all the players who entered the instance and finish them off one by one.

Everyone knew that Lord Rong Sui had gone mad, but no one knew why.

Deep Shadow, sitting on the sofa, was silent for a few seconds. It was a solemn posture that neither Heilang nor Zhuo Xun had ever seen before. They couldn’t help but become solemn along with Deep Shadow.

“Because Rong Sui discovered that the post-apocalyptic world was an instance world that was constantly being rebooted.”
“The home she desperately tried to save was a game that could never end.”

Heilang shuddered.

“Your turn,” Gu Jiancheng said. “How do you know the post-apocalyptic world has been destroyed?” He would know this because he had seen Infinity capture other small worlds time and time again. This world shouldn’t have had such experience.

Heilang: “Oh, that. Approaching Science provided the information.”

Gu Jiancheng: ?

Heilang thought Deep Shadow didn’t go on the forums and didn’t know who Approaching Science was. “He’s an information-type we cooperate with. We have a good relationship. He proactively gave us the information.”

Gu Jiancheng: … Did he pay Approaching Science fewer points than the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau or something? Why did he remember to proactively tell the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau but not him?

He thought Approaching Science was biased.

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