GRMFBS CH174

The match started. Zhan Suiru casually showed off a wave of “nothing special” operations, chaining her skills together with exquisite timing to wipe out three monsters in one go.

The chat stayed silent.

Why was her little brother so quiet today?
Used up all his social energy already?

No matter—she could just quietly carry him through a few rounds to relax.

On the other side, Gu Jiancheng’s fingers flew as he controlled his character, pulling off a dazzling combo to take down two enemies with flawless timing.

Zhan Suiru: ??? Since when did Yan Yan get this good at the game?

After one round, both of them fell silent.

Zhan Suiru started to suspect that her brother’s account had been hacked.
Gu Jiancheng was gritting his teeth—why is this person who’s been power‑leveling Yan Yan so strong?!

They silently queued up again. One match, then two, then three. As they played, both of their fighting spirits ignited.

At the pig‑farm dorm, Gu Jiancheng sat cross‑legged on the bed, fingers flying over the screen.
In her room, Zhan Suiru perked up, and the puppet butler brought her more juice and snacks.

After a few ranked games, they ran into players who recognized both accounts.

Thanks to Qi Ye’s streams, the accounts “Big Hammer Eighty” and “King Badger” had a bit of name recognition.

Their teammates, who had just finished marveling at their luck in getting matched with big shots, then watched in mounting disbelief as the two “big shots” openly competed to steal kills from each other.

The rest of the team was basically carried to victory and had enough free time to chat in the text box.

Hero Please Stay: “What’s going on here?”
Chip Killer: “I know Big Hammer Eighty—she’s that silent god‑tier.”
Mom Said Long Names Will Have Idiots Who Read Them Out Loud: “I know King Badger—he’s that noob little brother carried up the ladder by Big Coconut.”
Chip Killer: “Seven Coconuts?”
Hero Please Stay: “Who’s that?”
Chip Killer: “A game streamer.”

Just as Gu Jiancheng was about to snipe another kill, his hand paused. Someone else had been carrying Yan Yan?

Mom Said Long Names Will Have Idiots Who Read Them Out Loud: “Yeah. Big Hammer Eighty, Big Coconut, Handsome White‑Hair—those guys all carry King Badger a lot.”
“But when did King Badger’s skills get this good?”

Gu Jiancheng: ?? And who the hell is Handsome White‑Hair?!

Because he got distracted by gossip, he ended that game ranked second in points.

When the match ended, the others sent team‑up invites.

Chip Killer: “Queue again together?”
King Badger: “No party.”

He was going to go search up “Seven Coconuts”’s videos right now.

Big Hammer Eighty: “I’m done.”

She needed to ask her brother what was going on.

Zhan Suiru opened WeChat and began circling her way toward the point.

“Do you still play games with Qi Ye?”

Zhan Yan: “Haven’t played in a long time, I even lent my account to a friend.”

Zhan Suiru: Got it—not hacked.

But who on earth was this person who could keep up with her hand speed?!

She decided it was very necessary to look into her little brother’s social circle.

“The Broker has sent you new information,” the puppet butler reminded her.

“Ignore him, I’m busy,” she said.

“The Broker has sent you new information via urgent communications.”

“He never has anything I need to worry about.”

“The Broker has sent a super‑urgent video request.”

Zhan Suiru: …

The Broker really did have issues. In the past, he’d bug her about everything, big and small, until she got so annoyed she started ignoring him. So he invented “urgent communications,” insisting they be used only for pressing matters.

She’d agreed.

Then he discovered that the Artisan rarely replied to normal messages. So he started using “urgent” for everything again.

So she stopped answering the urgent ones, too—hence the birth of super‑urgent communications.

To be fair, he was the master of the black market, and things did happen there.

To avoid the farce of sorting messages into VIP, VVIP, and VVVVIP, they’d compromised: he’d stop funneling every minor issue into “super‑urgent,” and she’d respond to him more often.

Pulling on a coat and a wide‑brimmed hat, Zhan Suiru accepted the call. “What is it?”

“What is it?” The Broker leaned toward the camera, bracing his hands on the table. “Ancestor, have you seen what the black market looks like now? And you’re still asking what it is?!”

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau couldn’t reach the Artisan and worried something might have happened on his end, so they started with the black market instead. They were worried about triggering the Artisan, so they didn’t go overboard, but they’d increased how often—and how many—agents they sent inside. They infiltrated openly and secretly, gathered intel, logged suspicious individuals, mapped the layout…

You couldn’t exactly blame the Bureau. The Artisan was still holding a shard of the apocalypse world. That shard had originally been useless—but with the apocalypse world now brushing up against theirs, all bets were off.

The world barrier was a world’s crucial defense. Normally, a world would pour everything into keeping it intact. If a barrier broke, the world itself was on the verge of collapse and would soon shatter into drifting fragments and dissolve into energy.

Those fragments usually posed no threat to intact worlds.

But the apocalypse world was an exception—a world whose barrier had been destroyed yet hadn’t collapsed. No one could have predicted that, of all directions, it would start drifting toward this world. And without a barrier, there was no repelling force to nudge it away.

A string of improbabilities had lined up to give Ning Xi a massive headache: the apocalypse shard had originally been in their hands, and they had personally sent it away—on paperwork he’d signed.

And the person they’d given it to refused to talk to them now. If not for the fact that the Artisan was still honoring their Chaofan contract, Ning Xi’s stress bar would have burst, and the Control Freak would have come out in full force.

He had restrained himself. The black market was still open, business was still running—but the Broker couldn’t stand it anymore. His control over his own turf had been eroded.

“Their people are everywhere,” the Broker fumed, pacing in front of the camera. “Now they want to ‘log suspicious individuals’! Who in the black market isn’t suspicious? Why don’t they just hand everyone ID cards while they’re at it?”

Zhan Suiru: “…Ah. I hadn’t realized it had gotten that bad.”

The Broker choked.

Of course she hadn’t noticed—it didn’t affect her. The Bureau’s tactics caused the most trouble for him, then for the more problematic regulars of the black market.

Some of the big‑time criminals were sharp enough to sense something wrong. Once they did, they slipped away fast.

The Bureau’s people were meticulous. When they spotted those nervous, shifty types, they didn’t move, and they didn’t tail anyone inside the market. They respected the rules the Broker had set.

They simply pulled out small radios and reported the suspects’ info to the task forces covering the entire city outside.

And then those suspects were quietly arrested.

The atmosphere in the black market cleared right up… but what kind of “black market” still deserved the name after a purge that clean?

Zhan Suiru: “So that’s how it is… A few quiet days aren’t so bad.”

He’d just have to tough it out. Once the apocalypse situation was resolved, the Bureau would stop.

…

Zhan Yan had no idea why his sister suddenly wanted to ask about games, then vanished halfway through the chat.

But that conversation did remind him of something else.

He’d just found out his brother was the Lin Yuan Ghost King.

The news was still shocking, but he was getting numb—he’d already found out that his dad was the Chongming Demon King and his mom was a Tianshi.

There were five people in their family, and three of them were big shots. Naturally, this led him to another question: didn’t that mean it was suspicious for his sister not to have a mysterious hidden identity?

He’d had that thought yesterday, but at the time he’d been too busy stressing about his brother and Ten‑Thousand‑Manifestations. Today he’d finally soothed Lord Deep Shadow, so he had the brainspace to revisit it.

Maybe his sister didn’t have a hidden identity. After all, the three great factions—humans, demons, ghosts—had already been fully represented. She couldn’t very well be an anomaly…

Then again, it might be some other kind of secret.

With complicated feelings, Zhan Yan opened his gossip system and pulled up the “Zhan Suiru” entry.

Even if his sister did have an alter ego, he might not be able to tell. Before their “reveal,” he hadn’t noticed anything off in his parents’ or brother’s entries either.

[Using the game account “Big Hammer Eighty,” Zhan Suiru plays with her brother. Hearing him shower her with rainbow‑colored praise, she feels very content.]

Zhan Yan: ???

What?

Stunned for a few seconds, he ran a combined search on the keywords “Zhan Suiru” and “Big Hammer Eighty,” then on “Zhan Suiru” and “game.”

[Zhan Suiru discovers that her brother is very bad at games.]
…
[Zhan Suiru decides to hide her true gaming skill, pretend to be a newbie, and play with him just to tease him.
Little brother is so fun.]
…
[Zhan Suiru discovers that her brother is so bad he can’t find anyone to queue with, so she decides to permanently pretend to be a noob and play with him.]
…
[While gaming with Qi Ye, Zhan Suiru dusts off her real skills for the first time in a while and finds it exhilarating.]
…
[With pure skill, Zhan Suiru crushes Qi Ye so badly in game that he nearly cries.]
…
[Using the account “Big Hammer Eighty,” Zhan Suiru plays a match with her brother and is surprised to find he’s very good at rainbow‑colored praise.]
…
[In a bad mood, Zhan Suiru decides to log onto “Big Hammer Eighty,” carry her brother for a few rounds, and trick him into showering her with rainbow‑colored praise.
Zhan Suiru’s mood improves greatly.]

Zhan Yan: …

Sis…

How could you… find your little brother this fun to tease?

Forget it. You’re my sister.

He felt very conflicted.

So his sister did have an alter ego—but it was a hidden gaming‑god persona.

“My supposedly bronze‑rank sister is actually a secret esports god.”
“Urban Legends: My Entire Family Has Hidden IDs.”
“Esports: My Big‑Shot Sister Smurfs to Carry Me.”

The feed continued to scroll.

[In a bad mood, Zhan Suiru decides to log into “Big Hammer Eighty” and carry her brother for some games, tricking him into showering her with rainbow‑colored praise—but she doesn’t know the account is currently being used by Gu Jiancheng.]
…
[In game, Zhan Suiru and Gu Jiancheng evenly split wins and losses, both deeply shocked.]
…
[In game, Zhan Suiru is edged out by Gu Jiancheng and vows to take back the win rate.]
…
[In game, Gu Jiancheng is edged out by Zhan Suiru and is extremely unwilling to accept it.]

Zhan Yan: …??!

So that’s why his sister just asked about his game account?

He changed search terms and continued.

[Using clues from other players in the match, Gu Jiancheng searches for Qi Ye’s streamer account “Seven Coconuts” and its highlight reels.]
[Gu Jiancheng discovers that every viewer already knows “Big Hammer Eighty” is Qi Ye’s boss and a monster at games, “King Badger” is “Big Hammer Eighty’s” little brother and a helpless noob, and that “King Badger” has no idea “Big Hammer Eighty” is his sister, so he keeps going off on stream with wild rainbow‑colored praise about her.]

Zhan Yan: …

AAAAAA!!!

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