GRMFBS CH242

The person responsible for picking up The Chronicle of the World on behalf of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was Black Wolf.

There was no special reason for it; he just happened to have the highest combat power and the most experience among the people currently free.

Therefore, even though Black Wolf really didn’t want to deal with Deep Shadow, he had no choice but to show up in the end.

When he arrived, he also brought along a headache-inducing logistics team responsible for handling all the ordinary people who had been dragged into this.

The logistics squad leader grumbled incessantly to Black Wolf, who listened half-heartedly, also nursing a headache over his impending meeting with Deep Shadow.

The squad leader was very dissatisfied with his attitude: “You combat types are all the same, never caring whether us logistics folks live or die.” He had cleaned up his fair share of Black Wolf’s messes.

Black Wolf bristled, “Don’t lump us together, we are completely different!”

The squad leader, whose gossip wasn’t up to date, said, “Don’t you like the kind who can fight with you?”

Black Wolf rolled his eyes.

He was a battle maniac, not a masochist. Of course, he didn’t like dealing with someone like Deep Shadow, whose abilities completely countered his and who had a terrible personality on top of that. Ah… so annoying!

Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a figure under the tree’s shade. His hair stood on end instantly, and he almost instinctively prepared for battle, before he saw clearly that it was Deep Shadow.

…He knew there was something wrong with Deep Shadow. Standing in such a pitch-black corner late at night, concealing his aura as if he didn’t even exist—he wasn’t happy unless he gave someone a heart attack, right?

“You guys busy yourselves, I’m going to handle the other people.” The logistics squad leader slipped away with great agility.

Black Wolf: …

Half a moon cast its light on the treetops and the ground. Deep Shadow stood at the edge of the tree’s shadow, head bowed as if gazing at the moonlight on the pavement, looking inexplicably peaceful.

Just as Black Wolf was wondering how to start the conversation, he saw Deep Shadow reach out a hand and point toward the base of the tree.

He looked in the direction Deep Shadow was pointing and saw a pitch-black lump lying under the tree.

Black Wolf took a deep breath. “What is this?”

“The Chronicle of the World,” Deep Shadow said. His voice sounded relatively calm.

Black Wolf found it a bit bizarre. Deep Shadow had never had this attitude before. Usually, he would shoot a sideways glance, let out a disdainful scoff as if he had just heard a stupid question, and then impatiently toss out a few words.

Black Wolf: “I know, but is he still alive?”

Did Deep Shadow pop his ultimate move to catch The Chronicle of the World just because he got impatient, and then, in a bad mood, just straight-up kill him?

Was he this calm right now because he had already finished The Chronicle of the World off?

Deep Shadow: “Alive.”

Black Wolf couldn’t help but look at Deep Shadow again, because his answer was also very calm. It seemed like he was in a decent mood, but definitely not “happy.” And… there was a very strange, indescribable feeling about him.

This was way too weird. Forget it, forget it. Why was he trying to figure out Deep Shadow’s mood? It wasn’t his job to be Deep Shadow’s handler anyway.

As long as The Chronicle of the World was alive, it was fine. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau didn’t care about human rights for scumbags who colluded with anomalies anyway.

Black Wolf packaged The Chronicle of the World up and hoisted him away. Just as he turned around…

Deep Shadow said from behind him, “I handed a living Chronicle of the World over to you. Don’t make me regret it.”

Black Wolf’s footsteps paused. He suddenly felt like he understood Deep Shadow’s bizarre mood.

“Don’t worry,” Black Wolf licked his teeth, offering a promise thick with bloodlust. “He’s not walking out of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau alive. If anyone dares to play tricks, I’ll slaughter them right alongside The Chronicle of the World.”

Gu Jiancheng watched him take the person away. For a brief moment, he felt regret.

He felt he should have just killed The Chronicle of the World directly, snuffing out any tiny bit of potential danger in its crib.

He was used to walking alone and rarely relied on others; even when cooperating, he was always the one taking the lead—he was the only one he could trust.

But that wasn’t right. He couldn’t just push everything away from him like he used to.

Gu Jiancheng tilted his head up to look at the stars in the sky. The city’s light pollution blurred the starlight; only two or three lonely stars remained around the half-moon.

But his supernatural vision could capture much fainter light than a normal person’s naked eye. In his other field of vision, the sky was filled with brilliant, twinkling stars.

The stars were always there; it was just that some people couldn’t see them.

How could a brave person ever lose to a coward?

Gu Jiancheng stroked the steadily beating fitness band on his wrist and pressed it gently against his chest.

His chest felt a sour, swelling ache, as if it had been filled to the brim—so full it wanted to spill out from his eyes. It made him feel both fearful and utterly fearless.

Infinite was still out there, the Monster Doctor hadn’t been dealt with, and the people staring him down were numerous and twisted. He shouldn’t go see Yanyan just yet.

Next time they met, he would recite that line to Yanyan.

The night breeze blew past his burning ears.

Besides that line, there were many, many other lines…

Zhan Yan had been staring constantly at the melon feed.

He saw that Gu Jiancheng had caught The Chronicle of the World, saw The Chronicle of the World taking the opportunity to babble some nonsense, saw Xiao Gu… wait, he didn’t see it. Gu Jiancheng hid his thoughts regarding him so well that the Gossip System couldn’t refresh them.

But he didn’t need to see to know that Gu Jiancheng’s vigilance had sharply spiked in that moment, to know that his thoughts were inevitably sliding into the dangerous darkness.

The Chronicle of the World was guilty of the most heinous crimes!

When Zhan Yan scrolled to that melon entry, he was incredibly anxious, but he couldn’t go over there; the most he could do was call.

But how was he supposed to comfort Xiao Gu over the phone? He and Xiao Gu were both hiding behind aliases, so he had no reason to know what The Chronicle of the World had said to him. He had to think of something that would comfort Xiao Gu while still making logical sense. Ugh… why was it so hard? He couldn’t just feed Xiao Gu empty platitudes out of nowhere!

Zhan Yan was stressing out so much he was practically going bald. His memories were like heavy books lined up on different shelves, flipping through so fast they left afterimages.

He had to be quick; he couldn’t let that idiot Chronicle of the World keep spouting that bullshit!

His finger had already pressed the dial button, listening to the ringing sound from the other end.

Whether he thought of a good excuse or not, he couldn’t leave Gu Jiancheng there all alone. Even if… even if he just said something random, it would be better than nothing.

For the first time, Gu Jiancheng answered his phone but said absolutely nothing.

Zhan Yan called out his name, and Gu Jiancheng’s response was short and soft, as if he were at a loss for what to do.

Zhan Yan’s heart felt tender and ached; he blurted out a mention of the day Gu Jiancheng had happily roleplayed as a domineering CEO.

He could hear the awkwardly hidden embarrassment and reluctance in Gu Jiancheng’s answer, and couldn’t help but smile.

The summer night breeze blew into the room accompanied by the chirping of cicadas. He looked at the half-moon hanging on the treetops outside the window, his eyes and brows softening with an incredible gentleness.

He didn’t need to think; he knew exactly what to say. He looked up at the dark night sky, listening to the breathing on the other end of the phone, feeling as though he were watching a star gradually lighting up in the dim heavens.

“Okay,” he heard a deep, pleasant voice say from the other end.

“Besides that line, I want to hear others,” Zhan Yan smiled at the night sky. “I want to hear you say…”

He heard the disordered breathing on the other end and guessed whether Gu Jiancheng’s ears had turned red like before. His eyes must be like stars, burning with the brightest possible flame.

Zhan Yan hung up the phone. He closed the window and lay on his bed with his eyes open, smiling.

Luckily, after finding out that Xiao Gu had specially watched that melodramatic TV drama for him, he had also gone and skimmed through it on fast-forward—mostly because he was curious about what kind of cheesy lines Xiao Gu had memorized.

The only downside was that Xiao Gu now mistakenly believed he actually liked melodramatic soap operas.

But that wasn’t important.

Zhan Yan’s phone screen lit up again; this time, it was a message from his sister.

Zhan Suiru: “I’m coming back tomorrow.”
“Which day do you want to go to the gaming convention?”
“How about going the first two days? We can play around there for a few days while we’re at it.”

The gaming convention wasn’t in Yunjin City; it would start the day after tomorrow and last for a week.

Zhan Yan suddenly realized. Ahhhh! His sister had originally planned to give up going to the gaming convention with him!

Because they had suddenly discovered traces of The Chronicle of the World, his sister wasn’t sure when they’d catch him, plus she still had an order from the Linyuan Ghost King to complete, so she probably wouldn’t have made it in time.

But Xiao Gu’s efficiency had suddenly exploded, and he had caught The Chronicle of the World. The timing was absolutely perfect; his sister now had enough time to come back and go to the gaming convention with him!

What kind of butterfly effect was this…

Ah, wait, no. The reason he originally didn’t want to go to the convention with his sister was that he was afraid she would dig into Xiao Gu’s identity through him. He was worried that a detail he accidentally slipped would make his sister associate him with Deep Shadow.

But now Xiao Gu’s alias was already exposed anyway, so what was there to be afraid of? If they go, they go! If his sister asked about Xiao Gu again, he would just praise him to high heaven.

Zhan Yan: “The day after tomorrow or the day after that are both fine.”
“And my cookies~”

Zhan Suiru looked at the message and smiled.

Yanyan had been extremely resistant to going to the gaming convention with her before, dodging her with the mindset of delaying it for as long as possible. But now that he knew she was coming back in time to go with him, he still remembered to ask for his cookies. It seemed he really did like them.

She sent a message to Xiao Ran. Besides her brother’s share, she also needed to make her older brother’s share.

Who knew what her older brother was thinking, suddenly asking for cookies. Maybe she should make him a super double-sugar batch.

The people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau evacuated with The Chronicle of the World and the innocent, bewildered civilians.

Gu Jiancheng’s communicator received another message from Zhan Suiru.

Rong Sui: “First, thank you for catching The Chronicle of the World so quickly. It lightened my workload.”
“I’m guessing you weren’t in such a rush to catch The Chronicle of the World just because you were eager to go see my brother and proceed with some step-by-step ‘meeting the parents’ procedures?”

Gu Jiancheng’s expression didn’t change.

Deep Shadow: “Of course not.”
“Though I believe Yang Ran and I could reach some mutual assistance on this matter.”

Zhan Suiru: Hah!

Deep Shadow calls this “of course not”? If it was “of course not,” why did he immediately pop his ultimate and forcefully capture The Chronicle of the World the second she left? If it was “of course not,” why was he already thinking about mutually helping Xiao Ran with meeting the parents?

Rong Sui: “I won’t stop you from dating my brother.”
“But before you think about making further contact with my family, I expect you to guarantee your fake identity is absolutely foolproof.”

Deep Shadow’s situation was different from hers. Her soul had fallen into this world and reincarnated. Her true identity was impeccable, and after donning the alias of the “Artisan,” she had never exposed herself to anyone. No one knew that “Zhan Suiru” and “Rong Sui” were the same person.

But Deep Shadow was different. He had crossed over to this world with his physical body. His identity as the ordinary person “Gu Jiancheng” was fake.

As long as it was fake, there would be flaws. She didn’t want any dangerous figures following Deep Shadow’s trail to notice her family.

Gu Jiancheng’s lips pressed into a tight line. His fake identity was indeed not flawless.

He wasn’t good at this sort of thing. His fake identity was made by Mr. Wan Shitong, who had embedded his identity into this world at the informational level, while the Magician used her bizarre skills to apply a layer of magical obfuscation over it.

For example, if someone followed the high school information Mr. Wan Shitong fabricated and went to ask his “high school teacher,” the teacher—who had clearly never taught him—would feel as though they genuinely remembered teaching a student named “Gu Jiancheng.”

But even though the information and magical layers made his fake identity nearly perfect, there were still two massive flaws: Mr. Wan Shitong and the Magician both knew his fake identity.

Tch. He would go add a layer of protection to those two later.

Even that wasn’t totally secure. The safest method was to just slaughter every single bastard who wanted to threaten him! Like that idiot, The Chronicle of the World.

Gu Jiancheng felt that although catching The Chronicle of the World was practically a given, wasn’t this guy’s resistance a little too weak? Should The Chronicle of the World, ranked 21st on the leaderboard, be this weak? Zhuo Xun, who was around his level, didn’t seem this pathetic, right? Plus, The Chronicle of the World had still provoked him in that situation; it was obvious he had an ulterior motive.

Gu Jiancheng decided to go harass the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and make them step up their interrogation!

Meanwhile, at the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Black Wolf tossed the black lump into a specialized cell and removed the seal Deep Shadow had placed on him. Surrounding them was a circle of combat-type and sealing-type personnel, waiting in full battle readiness.

The shadows faded away, leaving The Chronicle of the World collapsed on the floor, a soft, squishy lump swollen beyond recognition.

Sealing squad leader: “Is he… still alive?”

Black Wolf: …

Sealing squad member: “Should we call the medical team over?”

Injured like this, he better not die before they even get to interrogate him…

This was exactly when Black Wolf received the message from Deep Shadow.

Black Wolf: “You beat him to a pulp like this, and you still want us to ‘step up the interrogation’?”

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