Happy Superman was stunned.
What—what had just happened?
Before he could even unleash his cursed technique, Chen Lai had already teleported right in front of him, and the chair had smashed straight into his eye.
Was this man a monster?
Or was this guy’s loadout for entering the instance far more expensive than his own?
Had he brought six sets?
But wasn’t this a new instance? Normal players would only spend the minimum entry loadout to come in and test the waters first. What idiot would throw a fortune into an instance like this with no major event?
Thoughts surged wildly as Happy Superman was sent flying backward by the heavy impact.
Without cursed energy, cursed spirits truly were invisible.
However, a cursed spirit was an objective existence. It could suffer physical damage—as long as Chen Lai could locate it and strike accurately enough.
Chen Lai smiled. Who told players to have their IDs displayed by default? The head was right under the ID; it would be hard to miss even if he tried.
The frame was already marked out for you. Why wouldn’t you hit it?
“Wait, wait! I have inside information. If I tell you, can I trade it for my life?”
The one-eyed cursed spirit slumped in the crater smashed into the police headquarters, spitting purple blood. As he coughed blood, he waved at [Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon].
He was genuinely terrified. How good would it have been to just extract directly? His fifty-thousand-yuan equipment could still have been saved for next time. But now look—he’d run into someone camping the police headquarters!
“Camping X” was a Deep Sea gaming term. It meant some bastard was lying in ambush at a key area, or near an extraction point, committing the scumbag act of risking little for huge gains.
“You have inside information too?”
Chen Lai’s fist slowed slightly. He changed his punch into a grab and lifted Happy Superman up whole.
In the eyes of Toyokawa Yosuke and Kyoko, who were watching from the side, Chen Lai was fighting the air—and acting like it was real, even using that much force to grab at empty space.
But that bizarre crater in the wall—could that really have been smashed out with a punch?
After thirty years of living in Shibuya, Officer Kyoko felt her worldview collapsing.
Chen Lai didn’t care what the onlookers thought. Right now, he only wanted this [Happy Superman] in front of him to drop coins for him!
Before making big money off the plot, taking a few small coins from a player could count as a rehearsal.
“Yes! Yes! I’ve stayed in this instance for twenty-seven days. I was originally planning to extract today…”
Happy Superman looked like he was about to cry as he stared at the sandbag-sized fist before him, feeling deep regret.
“Tsk.” Chen Lai cut off his nonsense.
Seeing Chen Lai grow impatient, Happy Superman hurriedly got to the point. “Shibuya Security Building. It’s a building next to the Hanzomon Line. Today, a player saw unfamiliar jujutsu sorcerers entering and leaving!”
“Those two jujutsu sorcerers were acting all sneaky. One had graying hair, an old granny. The other was a young biker-gang type with yellow hair!”
Chen Lai narrowed his eyes. That much of a coincidence?
“How do you know this?”
“The forum! Are you really a newbie? Us old players from the first batch all use the Deep Sea forum. Everyone’s here to make money. Before there’s any big loot, we’re all friends.”
Chen Lai narrowed his eyes. He roughly understood what the other party meant. The relationships between Deep Sea players were very complicated. They were neither pure enemies nor pure friends, but constantly shifting.
In the early stage of an instance, in order to explore instance information, everyone would share some less crucial news. Once a major event appeared and the NPCs started dropping coins, their relationships would gradually become hostile—because you never knew whether the other person’s backpack was carrying something good.
As for that [Deep Sea Forum], the original owner had registered and had an account, but after Chen Lai had transmigrated over, he had received too much information and had overlooked it.
“Thanks for the information. You’ve saved me quite a bit of time.”
Chen Lai thanked him and put [Happy Superman] down.
“No need to—”
Before the final word “thank” could leave his mouth, the sandbag-sized fist blasted out, smashing the one-eyed cursed spirit to pieces.
They were all players. How could he not understand these twists and turns?
Friends? Enemies? Players came in for money. Now that this blue cursed spirit had been crushed by Chen Lai, how could he possibly not drop coins?
The cursed energy dissipated. The corpse of the blue cursed spirit turned into black ash and vanished between heaven and earth, leaving behind only a round cursed spirit orb.
[Cursed Spirit Orb: An aggregate of the equipment carried by player Happy Superman. Contains the cursed spirit power of Fear Insect (worn) and C-rank cursed energy (worn). Total value: 30,000 yuan.]
“There’s actually wear and tear. Does that mean there are factory-new ones too? As for this orb… it’s a little like something produced by Geto Suguru’s Cursed Spirit Manipulation, but the fact that it’s convenient to carry is pretty nice.”
Chen Lai gave an impartial evaluation, then put away the cursed spirit orb worth thirty thousand.
Now, the total value of the equipment on Chen Lai had reached one hundred eighty thousand. Aside from his own original gear, there was also the cursed spirit orb he had just obtained.
The first step toward breaking even.
“What was that light just now?”
Toyokawa Yosuke had sharp eyes. She had seen the moment Chen Lai stored away the cursed spirit orb.
Chen Lai ignored her and sat back down in front of the surveillance computer on his own. This time, his objective was much clearer.
“Hanzomon Line… from Shibuya Ward to Oshiage Station in Sumida Ward?”
Chen Lai narrowed his eyes at the surveillance footage on the computer. He truly knew nothing about Japan’s geography, so searching now was extremely troublesome.
A loose strand of hair was brushed up, bringing with it the scent of lilies.
“What are you looking for?” Toyokawa Yosuke sat down beside Chen Lai, tilting her head as she asked him.
“Shibuya Security Building. Is it on the surveillance feeds?” Chen Lai asked her directly.
“Yes. It’s right beside the Shibuya Crossing. This building—it has a glass observation elevator on it. Are you going there?”
“Thanks… Officer, come here for a moment.”
Chen Lai glanced at the somewhat shy Toyokawa Yosuke, then turned and beckoned to Kyoko, who was studying the deep crater in the wall.
“What is it? What do you want?”
Kyoko, her police uniform all wrinkled, sounded irritated. Even after realizing that the man before her was a monster, her attitude remained just as defiant.
The justice in her heart would not allow her to bow her head to lawless thugs like Chen Lai.
“I’ll leave this girl to you. Her mission is already complete.” Chen Lai ignored her attitude and spoke on his own.
“Huh!?” Toyokawa Yosuke’s beautiful eyes widened. What did that mean? Was this scumbag dumping her?
“My suggestion is that the two of you buy tickets right now and leave Shibuya. Don’t come back tomorrow or the day after either. You can watch the news—especially TV Tokyo.”
Chen Lai gave the instruction casually, his eyes flicking to the time in the lower-right corner of the computer screen.
October 30th, 9:00 p.m. There were still three hours until the next day, and twenty-three hours and thirty minutes until the opening of the Shibuya Incident.
“That’s that.”
Chen Lai’s tall figure stood up. He casually took a blue police officer’s jacket from the chair—who knew who had left it there—and put it on, then made as if to head out.
“Wait a second…” Toyokawa Yosuke raised her hand, wanting to stop him, but Kyoko grabbed her wrist.
“Men like that are always like this.” A wise light shone in Kyoko’s eyes, while her tone was cool and detached.
“In their eyes, there’s only their so-called great cause. There’s no place for women.”
“However, when men like them offer a suggestion, it’s actually an order. If you don’t do as they say, your fate will definitely be miserable.”
Toyokawa’s hand fell unwillingly.