Chapter 100: Clearance Operation
“District 44, Zone 444—Monster Elimination, Rank One: Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice.”
“District 44, Zone 444—Total Mileage, Rank One: Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice.”
“District 44, Zone 444—Total Supplies, Rank One: Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice.”
“The top three in the server-wide comprehensive combat power rankings are: Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice, Master Cloud Cliff, and Old Demon of Xiangxi.”
Right after the voice faded, two celebratory fireworks exploded in succession across the system screen.
“Congratulations to player Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice from District 44, Zone 444, for taking first place in the monthly server-wide combat power rankings! Reward: one Bone-Crushing Box.”
“For claiming rank one across three divisional categories, you receive three Green Ghost Boxes.”
Old Hei’s harsh voice cut in immediately: “Alright, that’s enough of the announcements. You can check the rest of the list yourselves. Those of you whose names are up there, don’t get cocky. When your time comes, you’ll still end up just as dead as anyone else.”
“As for you nameless losers who didn’t make the cut, if you can’t take the pressure, go jump in a river. You’re going to die sooner or later anyway.”
As soon as Old Hei finished speaking, players throughout the district opened their screens to check the leaderboards. Lin Huai scrolled through the local list; just as expected, the top ten spots were completely dominated by members of her Elite Squad.
On the server-wide leaderboard, however, there had been some interesting shifts. Following the death of Dragon Crossing the River, who had held the fourth spot, his position had been taken by a player named Eastern Divine Sword.
This player had originally sat at thirteenth place. Jumping straight to fourth after the joint instance proved that her overall strength was truly formidable.
Seventh place had also changed hands. The player who previously held it had dropped entirely out of the top twenty. The new seventh-ranked player was named Lan Mingyue.
Lin Huai had no memory of this name; the player hadn’t even been in the top thirty during the last cycle.
Things are getting lively, she thought with a faint smile.
The veteran drivers of Zone 444 were already completely numb to Old Hei’s insults. They simply took note of the important data and ignored his sharp tongue.
The newly merged players from Zone 398, however, had never experienced this kind of treatment. They had certainly never seen a system assistant behave like this.
Their previous assistant might have talked like a stiff, robotic program, but at least its tone had been polite and gentle.
Suddenly finding themselves ridiculed and insulted, several hotheaded newcomers lost their tempers and began cursing Old Hei directly in the public lobby:
[Flipping Face Artist]: Wait a minute! If you’re giving an official announcement, why the hell are you cursing at us?
[Rice Noodle Lover]: Exactly! Why is a system assistant talking down to players like that? What does it have to do with you when I die?!
[Flying Turtle]: No wonder the people in this district have no manners. Even their system assistant is like this! Birds of a feather really do flock together.
[Bathroom Songbird]: Are you Zone 444 survivors all masochists? How can you stand such a foul-mouthed assistant? You should have been merged into our zone instead—our original assistant spoke so softly.
[Mild Narcissist]: Right? And this zone number—444—sounds awful. In our culture, four means death! Waking up surrounded by fours every day is terrible luck.
[Auspicious Eight Treasures]: Yeah, and their top player is called Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice, which is even more unlucky. I heard she drives a hearse with a giant coffin on top. I guess it matches the death theme of Zone 444, but living next to that just feels creepy.
[Old Hei]: Heh heh. Can’t stand it? Then go crawl into a ditch and die! You bunch of soft, spoiled brats. Having the nerve to curse me out, are you? You few who just ran your mouths—your daily mileage quota today is eight thousand kilometers! If you don’t finish it before midnight, I’ll strangle you myself!
[Mild Narcissist]: What?! Why?! This is blatant retaliation and abuse of administrative power! I’m reporting you to headquarters!
[Flying Turtle]: How can a system assistant jump into the public player chat? You’re breaking the rules, aren’t you? Targeting specific players like this is totally unfair!
[Grass Don’t Float]: Pfft… You guys really love digging your own graves, don’t you? I’ll just sit here with my popcorn and watch you dig.
[Tchaikovsky Driver]: Tsk, tsk, tsk. Truly brave warriors! Let me light a candle for all of you in advance. Daring to curse Old Hei to his face… it seems you’re genuinely tired of breathing.
[Honey Blood Ice Orange]: Say whatever you want about his temper, but while our Old Hei might talk rough, he is ridiculously generous whenever he hands out rewards.
While the lobby argued, Lin Huai sat quietly in her hearse. She had been waiting for Old Hei to deliver her personal end-of-month bonus, but the assistant had gone silent for several minutes.
When she checked the chat log, she saw him locked in a petty shouting match with the new players.
Seeing those newcomers trash-talking Old Hei, insulting Zone 444, and even mocking her hearse and name, Lin Huai’s eyes narrowed into cold slits.
Why bother making Old Hei dirty his hands? A minor annoyance like this didn’t need the system assistant to step in at all.
Lin Huai tagged every single offender in the main lobby:
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: @Mild Narcissist @Flying Turtle @Auspicious Eight Treasures @Bathroom Songbird @Rice Noodle Lover, are any of you interested in becoming road safety ambassadors? I can arrange that for you right now.
The public chat exploded in an instant:
[Read and Reply Randomly]: Holy crap… they’re dead. They actually provoked Boss Bone Ashes.
[Sounds Good Is a Good Head]: Boss Bone Ashes is mad. It’s officially over for you guys.
[Red Apricot Over the Wall]: Opening loot boxes for you, me, and everyone else; safety on the road for all! Hahaha! The Boss’s comeback is pure gold!
Without missing a beat, Lin Huai opened the Elite Squad’s private channel.
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Regarding the players who just opened their mouths in the lobby—pick a target, track them down, and take them out. Remember to screen-record the hunt and post the footage directly into the public chat.
[Peace and Violence]: Boss, I’ve been keeping a detailed list of all the troublemakers from the merged sector over the past few days. I think the time is ripe for a clean sweep.
[Dragon Emerging from the Sea]: There are quite a few names on that list. How about we send the names to our Elite Guild squads and let everyone form hunting teams to clear them out?
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Good plan. Brother Long, Brother He Ping, distribute the general blacklist to the guild squads. As for the few who just insulted us in the lobby, leave them to me.
[Peace and Violence]: Understood!
[Dragon Emerging from the Sea]: Copy that!
Closing her screen, Lin Huai pulled out several Teleportation Talismans. Without another word, she activated the first one and vanished into thin air.
Before long, a steady stream of combat recordings began flooding the public chat lobby:
[Tchaikovsky Driver]: Sixth Squad has completed its clearance mission.
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[Honey Blood Ice Orange]: Fifth Squad has completed its clearance mission.
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[Red Apricot Over the Wall]: Ninth Squad has completed its clearance mission.
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[Barehanded Door Opener]: Tenth Squad has completed its clearance mission.
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Squad after squad posted their hunt recordings. Notification after notification chimed through the channel as the names of the troublemakers were crossed off one by one.
Moments later, Lin Huai personally appeared in the chat, uploading several short clips of her own.
Each video showed a clean, ruthless execution—the purple scythe flashing once, a vehicle shattered, and a bloodstained body collapsing into the snow.
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Since some of you find Zone 444 so unlucky, I decided to send you somewhere luckier.
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: I don’t expect everyone here to hold hands and sing songs. But if you refuse to live as part of our community, I suggest you make your peace early.
Inside his idling car, Flipping Face Artist sat huddled over his screen, his hands shaking so violently he dropped his phone.
Over a hundred execution clips were playing across the chat lobby.
The veteran Zone 444 drivers, who usually kept to themselves and rarely bothered arguing back, were all loyal followers of Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice. And when they went to war, every single one of them was more ruthless than the last.
