GRMFBS CH78

Black Wolf was a robust, muscular man. With cargo pants tucked into his combat boots, a high nose bridge, and thick eyebrows, he exuded an aggressive, wild beauty.

At present, this big shot was squatting on top of a wall, resting one arm on his knee while pinching the “Killing Game” with the tips of his fingers on his other hand as if pinching a mouse’s tail.

“This is it?” He shook the little plaything in his hand, letting out a highly dissatisfied snort from his nose.

Deploying on this mission was like walking a dog.

His team members were all speechless.

By now, their investigators had already figured out the initial course of events.

“It truly was an A-Rank anomaly at first. Because the target of these people’s killing intent was all the same person, it transferred its bound target along with the person preparing to make a move. Each transfer dropped it one rank, and then it became like this.”

Black Wolf clicked his tongue in wonder. “Is there a hole in its brain?”

“If it gets subcontracted a few more times, can it drop itself to death?”

The “Killing Game” was in tears. Was this what it wanted?!

Are the people in this world sick in the head? Can a murder mission also be subcontracted?! Damn it, it got subcontracted so much that the final killer even gave up!

The investigator continued to remind Black Wolf: “Captain, its potential is very high. Although its rank has dropped now, fundamentally it is still an A-Rank. After accumulating enough energy, it can form a game field domain; it belongs to the high-risk anomaly category. You absolutely must not accidentally kill it.”

Black Wolf was battle-tested and highly sensitive to danger. Hearing the words “game field domain” and “high-risk anomaly,” he subconsciously exerted force with his hand pinching the “Killing Game,” nearly rubbing it to death directly.

“Next time, state the main point first.” Black Wolf was almost jolted by his words.

The investigator added: “The research institute said they’ve never encountered such a safe, high-risk anomaly. This is extremely rare material; they want to study it properly.”

“Fine.” Black Wolf tossed the barely breathing “Killing Game” to a team member and walked away with a look of displeasure.

Who was the person that provided the tip? They were fast enough! If they had provided the information just a bit later, this mission wouldn’t have fallen into his hands; dispatching a small squad would have solved it.

His team members muttered softly from behind, “The captain didn’t get to fight, so he’s definitely pissed off. Be careful not to provoke him lately.”

“Not only did we not get to fight, but we were also taken on a wild goose chase for several laps. How many places did we run to?”

…

Zhan Yan took less than an hour in total to consume this piece of gossip. The killers were very efficient at remote subcontracting. If big shot Black Wolf had reacted a bit slower or had lower efficiency, he wouldn’t have been sent on a wild goose chase four times.

The police side was also very efficient, having already sent people to apprehend the killers and Qin Jinwei, who had paid for the murder.

Qin Jinwei truly deserved his reputation as someone who had navigated the business world for decades and weathered storms. Although he felt extremely surreal about the process of his arrest, he adamantly insisted he knew nothing.

Saying I hired someone to commit murder? Do you have evidence?

Then he heard the recording of the killer calling Zhao Wen, wanting her to cooperate in scamming the money together.

Qin Jinwei was utterly shocked.

Zhao Wen was a police officer! Was the killer brain-dead?

He managed to hold on for a good while, still insisting on playing dumb.

Later, he found out how his 2 million had been subcontracted layer by layer, eventually falling into the hands of a petty killer for only 100,000, who didn’t even know Zhao Wen was a cop.

Qin Jinwei’s defenses broke.

Qin Jinwei started cursing loudly.

…

Eating the pastries Aunt Bai made, Zhan Yan appreciated the look of his broken defenses through the Gossip System.

Serves him right!

Zhan Yan brushed off the pastry crumbs.

Bao Qingshan took the initiative to grab the sweeping chore. Seeing Duan Hong left two pastries uneaten, he teased, “Who are these saved for?”

Duan Hong: “Wishing Cat.”

Bao Qingshan: ?

Duan Hong sighed. “Wishing Cat hasn’t been in a good mood lately. He’s gotten pickier about food and even more aloof.”

He pulled up Weibo. “Look, doesn’t he look unhappy at first glance?”

Zhan Yan leaned over to take a look. The blogger: Northern Agricultural University Wishing Cat.

Contemporary college students really had too much free time; they had actually created a dedicated account for Ghost King Wan Yan. It was filled with submissions about Wishing Cat.

The recent photos and videos didn’t have great angles; they were clearly secretly taken. The cat wasn’t as cooperative as before. In the few photos where its face was captured, one could clearly see it was unhappy. In the comment section, someone even photoshopped it into an emoji meme: [Pulled a little grumpy cat face.jpg]

Below, a group of people were guessing why Wishing Cat was in a bad mood recently.

“Did it lose a fight?”

“Impossible! I can testify that there isn’t a single stray cat in our school that dares to provoke Wishing Cat! Wishing Cat has such an imposing aura! And is very strong! Last time I saw a stray dog come to cause trouble with my own eyes, it ended up getting slapped silly by Wishing Cat’s rapid-fire slaps and yelped in pain.”

“Is it because he didn’t manage to woo a little female cat?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. Has anyone seen him chase after any cat? Hasn’t Wishing Cat always been a loner?”

“Is Wishing Cat a male cat? How is it confirmed?”

“Don’t know, I guessed. It could also be a female cat.”

“Does no one know? Has it not been caught to be neutered/spayed?”

“Neither of its ears are clipped, so it definitely hasn’t been neutered/spayed.”

“Oh my, I thought it was in a bad mood because it just had neutering/spaying surgery.”

Thanks to their Northern Agricultural University affiliated veterinary hospital, a batch of stray cats and dogs would be caught every spring and autumn to be neutered or spayed. Those that underwent the procedure would have a small notch clipped on their ear as a mark.

Unsurprisingly, the topic drifted off to neutering/spaying again. However, Zhan Yan knew why Ghost King Wan Yan was in a bad mood.

Ever since Ghost King Lin Yuan replied to him on the forum last time, he began to act recklessly and stopped hiding on the forum. If there was a topic he was interested in, he would reply, and he would also discuss issues and chat with other big shots. But he just wouldn’t acknowledge Ghost King Wan Yan.

Ghost King Wan Yan was already furious!

Zhan Yan opened the forum and took a look. The latest development: Ghost King Wan Yan had already started issuing tasks, offering a bounty for Ghost King Lin Yuan’s address!

Reward points… 20.

Not very high. But understandable. Ghost King Wan Yan’s forum account was newly registered; these 20 points were very likely all the points His Excellency the Ghost King had.

However, Ghost King Wan Yan added other rewards, including magical artifacts, a Ghost King Seal, and heavenly materials and earthly treasures.

Tsk tsk tsk, even Zhan Yan felt a bit envious looking at them. The others were fine; he couldn’t use the magical artifacts and heavenly materials and earthly treasures anyway. Primarily, it was that Ghost King Seal, which had protective effects.

If he hadn’t already stripped his dad’s Chongming Demon King identity, Zhan Yan really wouldn’t have been able to resist wanting to get a few Ghost King Seals to equip his family with.

There were many people who coveted the rewards, but not many who dared to investigate.

Completing this task for Ghost King Wan Yan was equivalent to offending Ghost King Lin Yuan to the death.

There were many people on the forum joining the fun, placing bets on when Ghost King Wan Yan would find Ghost King Lin Yuan.

There were even those who were more unafraid of death betting on when Ghost King Lin Yuan would finally pay attention to Ghost King Wan Yan.

Zhan Yan thought to himself: That depends on when Ghost King Lin Yuan can resolve that group of people using his curse power to cause trouble.

His private inbox started flashing.

Administrator Rather Die Than Own A Cat: [Will you take the task?]

[Congratulations on collecting the forum’s three major administrators.]

Zhan Yan thought to himself, how about you open an achievement system for me as well.

Ghost King Lin Yuan approached Approaching Science because of the group of people who used his curse power previously.

He had already caught a batch. These people were able to use his curse power because they were all parasitized by a flesh-and-blood anomaly.

That thing looked like a fish scale, with fleshy tentacles growing underneath, rooted into the parasitized person’s blood vessels, swimming slowly toward their heart like a fish.

The flesh-and-blood anomaly contained Ghost King Lin Yuan’s curse power. Once a person was parasitized by it, they could also use this curse power.

The people were all caught, but continuing the investigation downwards was difficult.

Zhan Jinli did have his own channels, but right now he had to hide from Wan Yan. So he sought out Luowang; this matter was originally something between him and Luowang anyway.

Luowang was also short-handed on her side. She began to gossip about Ghost King Lin Yuan: “What’s going on between you and Wan Yan?”

If the problem isn’t big, figure out a way to mediate! For Ghost King Lin Yuan to be hiding like this right now is such a waste of manpower!

Zhan Jinli was currently pinching a cat-shaped fondant in his hand; this was the assignment the instructor taught today. He would take a picture and send it to the family group chat after he finished pinching it later.

As soon as he heard Luowang mention Wan Yan, he grew annoyed, and looking at the fondant cat in his hand right now started to annoy him too.

Zhan Jinli originally didn’t have any issue with cats. Although he was a fish demon in his previous life, among the animals in this world that ate fish, cats really didn’t rank high. Those who lived year-round in the water and those who ran year-round on land didn’t have much interaction most of the time.

But Wan Yan was simply too annoying!

Over twenty years ago, Lin Yuan had been recuperating nicely at the bottom of the icy pool, while Wan Yan hung his tail down and swayed it back and forth.

Lin Yuan didn’t need to ask to know what was wrong with Wan Yan again. This was playing a game of little cat fishing.

Lin Yuan took human form, still lying lazily on his stone bed. Wan Yan’s big, fluffy tail dangled right before his eyes, the tip of the tail hooking and unhooking.

He reached out and grabbed the tip of that tail, a small, cold smile curling on his stern and icy face, and pulled down forcefully.

Fishing? Come down here!

Wan Yan, who similarly hadn’t recovered, couldn’t resist his strength at all, and the entire cat was dragged into the water by the tail. Fortunately, he was also dead right now and wasn’t afraid of choking on the water.

Wan Yan floated in the water, the fur on his body drifting with the current. Behind him stretched a long tail, resembling a kite Lin Yuan had let loose in the water.

The cat kite paddled his paws, wanting to swim towards Ghost King Lin Yuan, but his movements looked as if he were trying to tame his own limbs.

After paddling for a while, he realized he didn’t know how to swim at all. He then looked at his tail, which had become longer, and at Ghost King Lin Yuan, who was currently clutching his tail and sneering. Ghost King Wan Yan came up with an idea.

He shortened his tail again, and with a whoosh, the entire cat was yanked by the tail right in front of Lin Yuan.

Wan Yan’s newly reassembled soul was only the size of a palm. Lin Yuan let go, pinched him by the scruff of the neck, and pressed the cat flat onto the stone bed: “If you keep making a fuss, I’ll stew you into cat soup.”

There were other Ghost Kings on Mount Chaofu; Lin Yuan knew why Wan Yan only sought him out to play.

His demon core was inside Wan Yan’s soul. Wan Yan just felt his presence was extremely intimate, which was why he only wanted to get close to him.

But Wan Yan’s forcibly reassembled soul didn’t have a very normal brain; his closeness was something ordinary people couldn’t endure.

Wan Yan squirmed under Lin Yuan’s palm, flipped over, and took a bite out of his wrist, drawing out patches of scales, yet he remained very self-righteous: “Cats eat fish, as long as it’s a fish, it’s mine to eat!”

Lin Yuan: “… Let go! Let go of me right now!”

Later, it was with a cat dangling from his wrist that he went to seek help from Ghost King Minghe.

After prying the cat off, Lin Yuan found an opportunity to hide through reincarnation. Having finally gained twenty-odd years of peace, he absolutely did not want to be entangled by Wan Yan again.

Luowang couldn’t dig up any gossip from Ghost King Lin Yuan, but she enthusiastically recommended Approaching Science to him.

Zhan Jinli had quite a few misgivings about this, but with Luowang as a guarantor, he decided to give it a try, and thus he approached Approaching Science.

Zhan Yan accepted this task. He wasn’t lacking points right now, but he also wanted these matters to conclude sooner.

Zhan Yan originally thought this batch of anomalies would also have garbled text, but unexpectedly, what he searched up had a name: “Curse Scale”.

Twenty-six years ago, when Ghost King Lin Yuan was injured, many ghost scales fell off his body, and these ghost scales became the material for “Curse Scales”.

The curse power of the same origin as Ghost King Lin Yuan was derived from these ghost scales. They were consumables; once used up, they were gone.

But he had temporarily not yet searched out who used this batch of ghost scales to create the “Curse Scale” anomaly.

Zhan Yan was using fuzzy search when he then uncovered some explosive news for Ghost King Lin Yuan:

[Ghost King Wan Yan is extremely furious, deciding to temporarily give up the days of having food, drink, and offerings at Northern Agricultural University, and is vigorously searching for Ghost King Lin Yuan.]

[Ghost King Wan Yan caught the scent of Ghost King Lin Yuan’s curse power on the Curse Scale parasite hosts.]

[Ghost King Wan Yan is rushing towards the location of the curse power’s scent.]

Ghost King Lin Yuan still didn’t completely trust Approaching Science and asked him about the mission’s status.

Administrator Rather Die Than Own A Cat: [When will you be able to find out?]

Approaching Science: [Let me tell you some other news first.] Approaching Science: [Ghost King Wan Yan caught the scent of your power in the “Curse Scale” anomaly and has already started looking.]

Zhan Jinli: [!!!]

Administrator Rather Die Than Own A Cat: [Where is he now?!]