Chapter 272: Checking Information
Liu Yuchen’s expression turned solemn as well.
After pondering for a moment, he said, “It goes like this: I have a childhood friend; the two of us grew up together.”
“About three years ago, when we graduated during summer break, we originally agreed to go out and have fun together, but I noticed he was always distracted and seemed weighed down by heavy thoughts.”
When Liu Yuchen spoke up to this point, his expression was quite complex.
“I asked him what it was, but he wouldn’t tell me. Not until that night when he suddenly called me out of the blue to say he had a dream.”
“Then he asked me, ‘If I ran into a ghost, would you be willing to face it together with me?’ I didn’t think much of it at the time, so I said of course I would.”
Liu Yuchen let out a sigh.
“After hanging up the phone, I had that exact same dream, and then I entered the game, landing in the same instance as him. Only then did I realize that the ghosts he spoke of were real.”
Bai Cha knitted her brows slightly.
The other party’s situation was clearly somewhat different from her own, yet she refrained from interrupting, continuing to listen.
“Naturally, I felt… but the situation was special back then, so I said nothing. Only after the two of us cleared the game together did I ask him: when he asked me over the phone back then, if I hadn’t agreed, would I have avoided entering this game?”
“He said yes. I was furious at the time, so I asked him why on earth he asked me then.”
Exhaling a breath, Liu Yuchen stole a glance at the table. At a moment like this, he really wanted to drink a mouthful of water to suppress the gloom in his heart.
Regrettably, however, there was none.
Bai Cha’s place was indeed rather dilapidated.
In fact, a water dispenser was present, but there was no electricity; these things all required redeeming with the system.
Cold water was available to drink, but there were no cups.
Thus, Bai Cha hadn’t prepared a single thing.
Liu Yuchen merely stole a casual glance, continuing his words nonetheless.
“He stayed silent back then, merely apologizing to me continuously. I was furious and got into a brawl with him, because inside that instance back then, I came within a hair’s breadth of dying.”
Afterward, he never paid any mind to this childhood friend again.
After roughly a semester passed, he had cleared several levels on his end as well. Furthermore, owing to his decent talent, he joined the Realm Guild, with people starting to guide him along.
Generally speaking, his life had returned to a normal track without significant disruption.
“When I returned home for winter break, he suddenly came to my house to find me, telling me he was going to die.”
Liu Yuchen’s gaze turned complex.
“I asked him what was going on. He said he definitely wouldn’t survive his next game, so he came over to apologize to me once more, informing me that back then, the reason he dragged me into the water was because he had previously come into contact with a player inside the game. That player claimed that if he wanted to escape the game, he could drag someone beside him in to replace himself.”
“However, the target wasn’t chosen by him directly; instead, he would be granted a dream hint, and the person he dreamed of would be the chosen individual. The person inside his dream was me.”
Bai Cha narrowed her brows.
“Yet the medium he used to find you was simply asking you a single sentence directly?”
“Yes. He said he used a sheet of talisman paper back then, with my birth time and eight characters written upon it.”
Liu Yuchen let out a sigh.
“Furious, I beat him up once more back then, while he kept crying and apologizing to me continuously. I asked him who that player was, but he said he didn’t know either, nor did he know why he had been so obsessed back then as to believe dragging a scapegoat in would allow him to sit back without a care.”
“In truth, I can understand it too—who entering this game wouldn’t be terrified, wanting to leave as quickly as possible? Plagued by nightmares at the drop of a hat, facing constant life-threatening danger upon entering, and having one’s family forget all about oneself after dying.”
“So in the end, I asked him which game he was due to enter, intending to go together with him.”
After all, only if this childhood friend of his stayed alive would it be possible to uncover who had given him that talisman paper.
“However, it was too late by then. When he came to find me, merely a final hour remained. He entered the game directly, so I entered the game to track down his live stream room.”
“Yet his live stream room displayed: ‘Special Instance, display unavailable.’ Afterward, he truly died. I inquired with the senior members in the guild, and they mentioned that special instances generally refer to challenge instances.”
Bai Cha raised her eyes.
“That challenge instance that can be initiated only by S-tier players?”
“Yes. Sister Shen told you? It’s that exact instance. I didn’t know back then; I looked into it later, but he hadn’t joined a guild either, rendering many clues impossible to uncover.”
Liu Yuchen gritted his teeth.
“I suspect it’s connected to the person who gave him that talisman paper. Just wait until I find out who it is!”
Bai Cha looked thoughtful.
“Yet you enter the game only once a month as well.”
“Precisely… so you aren’t, no wonder everyone on the forum says you clear instances every single day,” Liu Yuchen reacted.
“Mm. I am forced into it.”
If she entered merely once a month, how could it possibly affect her life?
Liu Yuchen looked at her with a touch of sympathy instantly.
“That’s far too exhausting—there are four weeks in a month after all!”
Once every seven days, paired with missing or entering other instances midway through—clearing four or five instances a month was simply far too tragic.
“Have you uncovered any clues regarding a specific direction? Who do you suspect? The Voodoo Guild?” Bai Cha pressed further.
“Mm… I indeed suspected them. The people inside that place are full of shady, wicked methods, one and all. However, it doesn’t feel like it. You know that across the entire game right now, S-tier players number merely 53 people in total.”
“I’ve observed them one by one, and I had people in the guild help me investigate this matter as well. Everyone pays fairly close attention to this issue, but there are no major leads—it feels almost as if every single person holds suspicion.”
Having been inside instances for so long, whether they possessed unknown, hidden props was uncertain as well.
Furthermore, examples like Liu Yuchen were relatively rare, making it all the more difficult to investigate.
“Why do you suspect the Voodoo Guild?” Liu Yuchen asked with a touch of curiosity.
“Xu Ming-wang told me that the people inside their guild are particularly adept at creating scapegoats. He said my clearance frequency is so high because I’ve been made into a scapegoat for someone else, clearing instances in their stead.”
“Xu Ming-wang?” Liu Yuchen paused in surprise.
Pondering for a brief moment, he said, “If he was the one who said it, then it might indeed be possible. His strength is quite formidable—he could actually rank among the top three—yet starting several years ago, he did nothing but destroy instances, so he possesses zero points to rank up.”
“Regrettably, he ended up trapped inside an instance. Still, persisting for so long without vanishing from the leaderboard is no easy feat either.”
Expressing a brief moment of emotion, Liu Yuchen said, “The Voodoo Guild is indeed exceptionally skilled at making scapegoat dolls, which ties into their intrinsic abilities. They are among the rare few who can use their own abilities inside the Game Town to craft items for sale as props—such as talisman paper, which they indeed possess, alongside things like venomous bugs.”
“Then do you know Chen Mi?”
“Chen Mi? Oh… that vice chairman of the Voodoo Guild. His skill is related to venomous bugs. You’ve met him? Is your situation connected to him?”
Bai Cha shook her head.
“I don’t know, but he indeed brought up clues to me, asking me to go find him.”
Liu Yuchen stroked his chin.
“In that case… that man is quite hypocritical. If you meet him, ask him out to a public location—don’t go to his place.”
