Chapter 73: Because of Justice [4K]
Jingyi Apartment Complex, Luxianbei’s home.
Beside Luxianbei, Jumeng sat cross-legged on the sofa, pouting her lips, gripping the game controller, and staring intently at the television screen, her willow eyebrows furrowed in determination.
From her expression alone, it was clear that the game had reached a tense and anxious state.
“If you d*e, just hurry and revive to help me out! Why are you just lying there? Are you planning to fall and then con someone out of it?”
“I’m coming, I’m coming, quit nagging! Can’t I regain energy by lying down? Once I fill my energy, I’ll rush over and show you what it means to crush!”
As she spoke, perhaps due to the excessive tension or recalling familiar moves, Jumeng’s game character just left the camp when she immediately unleashed a big move on the spot, exhausting all her energy.
It looked cool, but it caused no damage.
“Let me confirm, you just said to crush, not to mess around, right?”
Hearing Luxianbei’s sarcastic tone, Jumeng rolled her eyes and focused seriously on controlling her character.
Finally, when she had her game character traverse mountains and cross over half the map to reach Luxianbei’s character, all she saw was the massive, terrifying BOSS crashing down.
Jumeng’s eyes widened, and she turned to Luxianbei, astonished, “It died just like that? Took only two minutes? How did you do it?” Luxianbei shot a sidelong glance at Jumeng and shrugged, “Nothing special, just familiar with the controls.”
She had always felt that the monsters in the game were still dead; every move had a pattern to follow. Even if the opponent wasn’t AI but another player, they were still confined within the game’s rules.
As long as you figured out their routines, winning would become much easier.
Of course, excluding players like Jumeng, who would just curse if they couldn’t win, and then follow the internet cable to give someone a buff, that was a different style of play altogether.
Upon hearing Luxianbei’s answer, Jumeng placed her hands on her hips, rolled her eyes, and said, “Then if you can solo, why are you always pushing me? Just k*ll it yourself, right?”
“Isn’t it because I want you to feel involved?” Luxianbei replied, “It’s precisely because I’m about to k*ll it quickly that I’m pushing you! Otherwise, if the BOSS is dead and you haven’t even hit it once, how boring would that be?”
“Hitting or missing doesn’t really matter,” Jumeng shrugged, controlling her game character toward the BOSS’s corpse, pulling out a small pick to collect materials, “Isn’t this contributing?”
“Okay, it’s decided!” She patted Luxianbei’s shoulder earnestly, “From now on, you handle the monsters, and I’ll loot the corpses, sound good?”
Luxianbei opened her mouth to say something, but Jumeng’s head suddenly leaned on her shoulder, followed by Jumeng’s voice whispering in her ear.
“Those monsters are so scary and strong, you will definitely protect me, right, brother?”
As she spoke, she picked up a jelly from the table, peeled off the packaging with her mouth and hands, and brought it to Luxianbei’s lips.
Her fingers slightly trembled, the jelly juice flowed from the packaging, tracing down her pale fingertips, causing an irresistible impulse to s*ck.
Luxianbei, “She really knows how to…”
This feeling was just like having a roommate who was more flirty and charming than one’s own girlfriend. It felt strange, truly hard to bear!
In the silence, Luxianbei dodged the jelly being offered to her, giving a disdainful glance at Jumeng, who called herself “sister” when looting corpses, and now pretending to be a good little sister here?
“What’s the problem?”
Jumeng sat up straight, suddenly stuffing the jelly into Luxianbei’s mouth, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. “Can’t we argue that when looting corpses I’m your sister, and fighting monsters you’re my brother? We each play our parts?”
Luxianbei, “Seems there’s no problem?”
After all, their father-son dynamic had been maintained for quite a while, trying a new identity wouldn’t be bad.
“Alright then! Let’s end it here for today. I still have to research the Great Serpent God’s memories, and when it gets dark, I need to head to Liao Zhai Tavern.”
As she spoke, Luxianbei looked at Jumeng, who held up a finger, looking pitifully at her. “Help me k*ll one more, just one last one.”
Luxianbei fell silent for two seconds before compromising, “Okay, just this last one!”
“Uh-huh!”
——
In the shadows, a group of little urban legends secretly observed Jumeng and Luxianbei, witnessing the entire process, feeling like they had eaten something sickeningly sweet.
The False Teeth were tilted 45 degrees to the sky in melancholy, lamenting, “What have I done to deserve this?”
“This woman is getting more outrageous, starting this in broad daylight at home?” The Eye jumped up and down indignantly, “I think she doesn’t take us seriously at all! We should find a time to teach her a lesson.”
Mafun wriggled a bit, and a tentacle seeped out from its messy black fur, patting the injured Eye with a serious tone, “Save it, it’ll get you killed.”
“Dead? That’s funny; I can’t d*e right now, okay?” The Eye retorted, “By the way, wasn’t it that woman who asked you to take me over to help me treat?”
“The more I think about it, the more it doesn’t seem right. Would she be that kind?”
“She’s not that bad, just tsundere,” Mafun remarked.
“Right, right, Brother Eye, heaven gives great responsibilities to such people, so they must first suffer hardships and toil their muscles. I believe you will surely reach new heights.” The False Teeth said.
“Keep it up!” said the Sleep Dress.
It was clear that they all held a highly unified opinion on the matter of amusing the Eye. In the entire Huacheng, who else could endure the torturous time that seemed like punishment? For the happiness of all urban legends, they could only sacrifice it—
——
Suddenly hit on the head and falling into a coma, Huaxie Yu experienced a long, boring, and bizarre dream.
In that dream, she seemed to have died the moment she was born, as if she were a flame that was just ignited only to be extinguished right away. The following decades were nothing more than wisps of smoke remaining after the flame went out.
In the drifting smoke, it seemed someone was whispering something, indistinct and intermittent.
“They are already dead, the remaining shells wander in the world; laughter doesn’t mean happiness, tears don’t represent sorrow.”
In a dazed state, an invisible force pulled at her consciousness, nudging her like a chess piece, constantly changing her identity.
She transformed into an elderly person living alone in a remote town; life seemed limited to a bustling morning market, a chessboard under the afternoon shade, a television that refused to turn off late at night, and a cat. Her children became merely fleeting interludes in her life, like many empty-nesters.
Then she became an ordinary student in a regular middle school, unremarkable in appearance and average in grades, with no specialties, and after each exam, her name would get lost among hundreds or thousands of others.
Lastly, she turned into a young office worker; the company wasn’t large, but it was also not easy to shut down. Work was a bit hectic, sometimes requiring late hours, but weekends were never missed, and the salary barely sufficed.
She became immersed in a life that felt like a continuous loop of copying and pasting; time seemed to pass slowly, yet also felt like an instant, until one day, as usual, she was walking home from work.
On the sunset-lit street, with lights just coming on, the intertwining of light and shadow made the surging crowd seem like props. Then, a man blocked her path.
The man wore a gray jacket and a fisherman’s hat, pulled low to conceal his face, but from the outline of his jaw, he looked quite handsome.
“Huazhuozhuang, do you remember me?” The man spoke to her.
She looked at him warily and questioningly, muttering, “Y-you must have mistaken me. My surname is Yu.”
“Really?” The man smiled, “Huazhuozhuang, think carefully again.”
His words seemed to hold a magical power, flooding into Huaxie Yu’s mind, making her consciousness tremble.
Fragmented memories crashed into her mind like shards of glass driven by an explosive shockwave, causing painful sensations to grow like vicious insects.
And then—
Everything before her collapsed.——
When Huaxie Yu woke up from her coma, it was already evening.
Breathing rapidly, she suddenly opened her eyes to see the sun setting in the west, a dilapidated swimming pool bathed in rosy afterglow, like an elderly person walking towards d*ath.
Her head felt heavy, with a throbbing pain in her neck like a stiffed pillow, and her limbs seemed injured, feeling as if she had just survived a terrible car accident.
Although Miss Rabbit had maximally restrained herself when ambushing Huaxie Yu, merely knocking her unconscious and not lethal, it still caused her considerable harm.
“Ouch! What happened to me? Oh right, I was ambushed. Was that the buyer that man brought back? Strange, why did I dream of him? It’s so inexplicable!” Upon thinking of this, Huaxie Yu’s expression darkened, her brows knitted tightly.
Years ago, before her sinister father went missing, he had considered selling her and even brought the buyer home.
She still vividly remembered that evening when she returned home, her father counting money while pointing at the man in the gray jacket and fisherman’s hat, announcing, “From now on, you’ll go with him!”
In fact, before seeing that scene, Huaxie Yu already suspected that her father was contemplating selling her.
She had heard that her father had recently been in frequent contact with local cult organizations, secretly plotting something, and that cult had harmed countless children like her.
Watching that strange man, recalling those rumors, she froze in place, trembling with fear. And then—
At the moment the man approached her, a surge of strength erupted within her, and she turned and fled into the intricate alleys of Fragrant Lady Cave without looking back.
She ran and ran, from dusk until dark, not daring to pause as if a vengeful ghost was chasing her.
She hid for a full two days, and when she finally returned home, her father had disappeared without a trace, never to come back.
Huaxie Yu felt that he must have taken someone else’s money but failed to deliver and was hiding out of fear of retaliation, or he had simply abandoned her.
However, what she never understood was why the cheated fool hadn’t come looking for her again.
In any case, on the third morning, sitting in front of her door, staring blankly at the dirty street all morning, she suddenly realized that if she wanted to survive from now on, she had to rely on herself.
And now, just as she was about to sink into that bizarre dream and lose herself, that man in the gray jacket, whom she had almost forgotten, reappeared and helped her awaken.
——
Lying on the cold ground, Huaxie Yu spent some time regaining full consciousness, slowly sitting up, her hands exploring and roughly checking her body.
Confirming that she only had some superficial injuries, she sighed in relief and reached for a railing not far away to help herself stand up.
Just as she steadied herself, she frowned.
A sense of something heavy in her pocket seemed to indicate something extra.
Feeling around, Huaxie Yu found a cellphone and a dark golden polyhedron in her hand.
It was the latest Cherry 13 PLUS PRO, seemingly without a SIM card, and upon turning it on, it received no signal – besides the system software, it had no downloaded apps.
The phone appeared brand new, with only the message bar showing a red dot. Opening the message bar, a message caught her eye.
[Dear Miss Huazhuozhuang, I regret that we must communicate this way.
You might wonder what my purpose is, but I believe I made it clear in the letter last night.
I only wish to help you and those children of yours; their current circumstances are not as pleasant as you might imagine and are extremely dangerous.
To demonstrate my sincerity, I am now handing you an item that can free you from that man’s control. If you trust me, you can infuse a bit of spirit energy into that item the next time your consciousness is affected. As for why I want to help you – believe it or not, I will say it is because of justice!
Perhaps, after watching the videos on the phone, you will understand my intentions a little better. Sincerely, MR. S.]
After reading that long message, Huaxie Yu frowned in contemplation, exited the text message screen, and opened the first video stored on her phone.
The video played for only a few seconds before her eyes widened in shock.
She saw a factory that looked as if it had been forged from steel, like a cage, where in the dim light, giant glass containers hung on either side of iron walkways, containing children with tubes embedded all over their bodies.
A dispirited man dressed like a corporate drone stood in front of a massive glass container, gazing up at it. Beside him, several individuals in black robes were pointing and discussing the children in the container as if introducing goods.
