GRMFBS CH73

That night, Gu Jiancheng split off a shadow and quietly left the school.

He had been looking for the Magician for the past few days. Tracing a Black Nest from an anomaly’s mark was something the Magician was better at.

The Magician’s whereabouts were uncertain; the last time they had met was at the “Chaofan Assembly” in Yunjin City. Fortunately, she hadn’t gone too far. After receiving the message, she rushed back and agreed to meet Gu Jiancheng here.

The Magician faced the mark with a serious expression.

“A very lively mark, hmm… This means the Black Nest that left it is still alive.”

“What a terrifying thing!” she sighed.

Gu Jiancheng tapped the table.

Enough with the dramatics. Don’t learn from those foreigners who break into an aria at the drop of a hat.

Prompted, the Magician said, “Before I start searching, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“The Wan Yao Alliance has found the mark of his Heart’s Pull on that Corpse Flower Konjac Demon. They want to contact us players who have escaped from the Infinite.”

“The Bureau of Abnormal Affairs is too strict, but if it’s the Wan Yao Alliance, are you interested in making contact?” the Magician asked. “They are, after all, a very powerful organization. If we could cooperate, many things would become easier.”

“Not interested,” Gu Jiancheng refused coldly. “I don’t care what connection you have with them.”

“OK,” the Magician understood. Deep Shadow himself was unwilling to contact them, but he didn’t object to her using the power of an official organization. She stated her position, “I will find the location of the Black Nest as soon as possible.”

She enveloped the Black Nest’s mark, about to put it into a box, when Gu Jiancheng’s arm turned into a shadow and wrapped around the mark.

“I want to watch,” Gu Jiancheng said.

“Alright, alright,” the Magician sighed. “But you can’t enter this box. It’s for renaming.”

The Magician took out two “L”-shaped dowsing rods. “Look, this thing is used to find water.”

“And it can name any item ‘water’…” She put the mark into the box.

After closing the lid, a mouth full of sharp teeth suddenly grew on the top of the box, chomping at the air with a kachakacha sound. The box jumped, trying to leap out of the Magician’s hands.

“See, this guy is so greedy. Once you put something in it and activate its appetite, it starts wanting to eat anything.” The Magician deftly grabbed the box, walked to the sink, turned on the faucet, and poured water into the large mouth.

And it will name what’s in its stomach after what it eats with its mouth.

Now, the Black Nest mark was “water.”

The greedy box could not be filled. Once the naming was successful, the Magician forced open the box and took out the Black Nest mark.

The empty box continued to bite around with its large mouth, but the faucet had been turned off. All it could bite was air. The empty-bellied mouth soon lost its strength, biting slower and slower, its mouth opening smaller and smaller, until it finally closed, turning back into the pattern on the box.

The Magician twirled the now-obedient box in her hand and used her magic tricks to put the prop away somewhere unknown.

She picked up the dowsing rods and tapped the Black Nest mark that had been named “water.”

“Now, it will point towards the ‘water source,’” the Magician looked at Gu Jiancheng. “Are you still going to follow?”

Gu Jiancheng didn’t speak. The avatar generated by the shadow turned back into a shadow and flowed into the shadow of the dowsing rods.

He was going to follow.

Not surprising. People with only strength but not enough caution couldn’t make it onto the Infinite’s leaderboard.

The Magician tapped the dowsing rods. “Well then, I’ll begin.”

…

After the elective class, Zhan Yan went to find Gu Jiancheng for dinner. When he got to the agreed place, he saw the man leaning against a pillar, his head bowed, lost in thought. He stood out amidst the dense crowd.

Zhan Yan called him a few times, and when there was no response, he started calling his full name:

“…Gu Jiancheng, Gu Jiancheng?”

Gu Jiancheng came back to his senses. “What’s wrong?”

Zhan Yan asked him, “What were you thinking about? I called you several times and you didn’t respond.”

“Nothing, just spaced out,” Gu Jiancheng said.

He had been consuming a lot of energy recently. Just now, when they were separated for different elective classes, the familiar dizziness had returned.

A heavy feeling in the back of his head accompanied by a migraine was a precursor to hallucinations.

This long-standing pain was something he should have known how to live with, but after getting used to Zhan Yan’s company, even this slight pain had become difficult to adapt to.

Zhan Yan stared at him carefully. Gu Jiancheng tried his best to appear composed.

“Are you not feeling well?” Zhan Yan asked suddenly.

Gu Jiancheng had a flaw: he would usually act cute and spoiled at any opportunity, but when he was really feeling unwell, he would insist on enduring it.

No one knew where he had developed this bad habit, never willing to show a hint of weakness to others.

“No…” Gu Jiancheng had just let out half a syllable when Zhan Yan suddenly reached out and touched his face.

Not hot—it wasn’t hot when he touched it, but it was now.

Gu Jiancheng’s face turned visibly red.

“Didn’t sleep well?” Zhan Yan asked.

Zhan Yan was looking at him inquisitively, his gaze clear, as if it could see right into his heart.

In the past, Zhan Yan could also tell when he had a headache, but if he wanted to hide it, Zhan Yan would pretend not to know.

Now, Zhan Yan couldn’t bear to let him suffer alone.

Gu Jiancheng bit his lip, his fingers unconsciously tightening. He felt his heart beating more wildly than ever before.

“Yeah. Not feeling too good,” he said in a low voice, a bit unnaturally, as if he were lying.

“It’ll be fine after a nap after lunch.”

Duan Hong and Bao Qingshan hadn’t returned to the dorm. One was a true top student, the other was afraid of failing the finals. They had both been studying hard recently, going straight to the classroom after lunch.

After lying on the bed for a while, Zhan Yan felt that Gu Jiancheng wasn’t asleep. He turned over and sat up. Their beds were arranged head to head. He knelt on his own bed, his head hovering right above Gu Jiancheng’s.

Gu Jiancheng opened his eyes and looked at him.

Sunlight shone through the window, resting on the bridge of his nose. The light blurred his sharp lip line, and the shadows hid the overly dark color of his pupils.

“Can’t sleep?” Zhan Yan stared at his face for a few seconds, unable to resist reaching out to touch it again.

Gu Jiancheng held his wrist, his cheek pressed against his palm, without speaking. A pair of dark eyes quietly looked at him, yet deep within them, a small flame seemed to be burning.

“Did the essential oil not work?” Zhan Yan rubbed the corner of his eye with his thumb.

The warmth was exchanged through their close skin, as if their hearts could also be so close.

Gu Jiancheng paused, then said, “I forgot just now. The essential oil is quite good. Where did you buy it?”

Zhan Yan: “I didn’t buy it, my sister gave it to me. Did you use it all? If you did, I’ll ask for more.”

Gu Jiancheng was stunned for a moment.

He had been worried about how Zhan Yan had obtained the essential oil, worried about the unknown extraordinary forces he had contacted. He had used various methods to investigate, but he had never thought of asking Zhan Yan directly.

He had also never expected such an answer.

Gu Jiancheng felt it was time to put “meeting the parents” on the agenda!

Zhan Yan’s face suddenly magnified in his eyes. Gu Jiancheng subconsciously closed his eyes. He felt a touch on his forehead, cool and soft.

“Alright, go to sleep.” The bed shook a few times. Zhan Yan lay back in his quilt.

He had been staying up late these few days to do Deep Shadow’s mission for the healing-type super-powered individual. He was really sleepy. Zhan Yan closed his eyes and fell asleep in a short while.

Gu Jiancheng raised his hand and touched his own forehead.

A light touch, yet the feeling of the kiss seemed to last for a long time.

Gu Jiancheng closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep in the autumn breeze and sunlight.

…

Gu Jiancheng didn’t sleep for long before he was woken up by a call from Wan Shitong.

Fortunately, he wasn’t grumpy when woken up.

Zhan Yan was still asleep. Gu Jiancheng silently turned over and got out of bed, walking to an empty place to answer the phone.

“Boss, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau just contacted me, asking if I could find the whereabouts of other Infinite Fragments,” Wan Shitong said.

Wan Shitong was a network-type, and with some abilities gained in the Infinite World, his information search was broader than ordinary network-types, but he was still almost helpless with tasks like finding Infinite Fragments.

He had always hidden his information well. No one except his acquaintances knew his true ability direction, so the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had come to him this time.

“I asked them why they were looking for Infinite Fragments. The person I spoke with said they wanted to collect and destroy them. He was lying,” Wan Shitong’s voice was serious. “I haven’t said whether I’ll agree or not. I’m stalling.”

Gu Jiancheng’s eyes darkened. “No need to stall. If you don’t agree, they’ll find someone else.”

“What are they thinking?” Wan Shitong sighed in annoyance. “The price they paid back then wasn’t small. How dare they still have ideas about the Infinite Fragments now?”

The best way to deal with Infinite Fragments was not to deal with them at all. This thing was, after all, a fragment of a world. There were very few people in this world who had the ability to destroy it—perhaps not even one.

His boss, Deep Shadow, could, but that was because of the special nature of Deep Shadow’s ability. Destroying world fragments wasn’t about whether you could fight.

But as long as the Infinite Fragments were left where they were, this world itself would wear them down.

What’s more, each Infinite Fragment was equivalent to a source of pollution. Now, this world itself had created a membrane for them, preventing the pollution from breaking out. But a mistake during the process of digging them out could cause a major pollution outbreak.

If the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau just wanted to get the location of the Infinite Fragments in advance to prevent the mastermind behind the creation of the nameless anomaly from getting them, then they shouldn’t have asked someone outside the bureau like Wan Shitong to find news about the Infinite Fragments!

How much did the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau know about them, these “outsiders”? Weren’t they afraid that they would leak the news, and instead lead the mastermind to get the Infinite Fragments through their results?

Gu Jiancheng sneered. “In this world, once something becomes an organization, it’s inevitable that a few bad apples will get mixed in.”

Since this matter had come to Wan Shitong, it was inevitable that he would need to get involved. He opened the Chaofan Forum, preparing to remind him. And also to tell him that the mission for the healing-type super-powered individual was no longer necessary.

Zhan Yan had already told him the origin of the essential oil. That mission had lost its meaning.

…

There were no classes in the first two periods of the afternoon. After Zhan Yan woke up, the sun made him lazy and he didn’t want to get out of bed. He closed his eyes and opened the Gossip System, organizing the information he had collected about the healing-type super-powered individual during this time.

Deep Shadow seemed to be very busy these two days. He hadn’t asked him for the hidden wanted mission, nor had he urged him about the healing-type mission.

He was very worried that this arrogant guy would rush too far and get himself killed. Zhan Yan logged into the Chaofan Forum, preparing to send this information to Deep Shadow first.

Just as he opened the private message column, while the file was being transferred, he received a private message from Deep Shadow.

I Just Saved the World!: “That healing-type mission is no longer necessary.”

Zhan Yan: ???

He had just stayed up several nights for this!