Chapter Thirty-Nine: A True Veteran of the Scene

In Huangjiang District, inside a bedroom on the fifth floor of an ordinary residential building, a family of three was sleeping peacefully.

The window stood wide open, letting in the sultry warm breeze from outside. The clothes hanging on the balcony swayed gently in the wind.

Downstairs, in a gloomy alley, an old man nearing seventy, bare-bottomed and with the shifty eyes of a thief, glanced cautiously around before raising his arm and curling his fingers.

"Whoosh, whoosh...!"

A set of men's clothing drifted eerily from the balcony, floating all the way down and landing squarely in the old man's hands.

He then bolted deep into the alley and eagerly began to dress himself.

This person was none other than the Little War Wolf, who had once again borrowed a corpse to resurrect his soul. His last two days had been utterly miserable. Having already stolen a corpse in Suzhou, the difficulty of committing the crime a second time had increased exponentially. After all, no hospital was willing to get entangled in such a bizarre and gruesome lawsuit.

When a relative passed away, the family's emotions were already extremely fragile. If the body mysteriously vanished right before cremation, who could possibly endure that? Tearing the hospital apart brick by brick would be getting off lightly.

The incident had made the news, prompting numerous hospitals in neighboring cities to heighten their vigilance. The security in their morgues now rivaled that of high-security bank vaults.

Furthermore, the Little War Wolf could only utilize corpses of individuals who had died of natural causes or severe illnesses. Bodies severely mutilated or bearing heavy trauma from car accidents or violent brawls were completely unusable to him.

Consequently, the pool of viable corpses was exceedingly small. It had taken him a very long time to target the morgue of this small district hospital, where he ultimately selected an extremely elderly remains.

The Little War Wolf was profoundly dissatisfied with this "old corpse." Since a fierce battle was undoubtedly approaching, his fragile, aged bones might snap if a kindergarten toddler merely kicked him. Moreover... such a body was poorly suited for wielding supernatural powers and simply couldn't withstand the strain.

Yet, he truly had no time left to be picky and could only make do with it. His soul body had already grown exceedingly weak.

Without a physical vessel to inhabit, a soul could not adapt to the realm of the living. Wandering for too long would ultimately result in the complete dispersion of the soul.

The Little War Wolf was a player trapped within the Star Gate of the Cool Breeze Mansion, and his current personal state was exceptionally bizarre. His physical body was lost, leaving only his soul capable of action, and he had to successfully clear the game in order to retrieve his original body.

This was precisely why he had to return to the real world.

To win, he needed meticulous planning, whether within the Cool Breeze Mansion or in the real world...

Everything was for the sake of victory—he would just have to endure it!

Looking down at "his" loose, wrinkled skin and withered, bony torso, the Little War Wolf silently pumped himself up.

However, when he prepared to put on his pants and lowered his gaze to inspect that particular area, instant fury ignited within him.

Severely shriveled, reduced to an almost imperceptible state.

"Lift your head up to be a man! Lift your head up to be a man!!" the Little War Wolf hissed viciously as he stared downward.

Not a single reaction...

Fine, he gave up. He pulled down the bright green and generously oversized CLOT T-shirt, stepped into a pair of STAGE cargo pants, slipped his feet into the latest model of Nike high-top sneakers, and wore his baseball cap backward.

Five minutes later, a scrawny, blank-faced old man clad in explosively trendy attire walked out of the alley with utter confidence.

"Snap!"

Beneath the streetlamp, the Little War Wolf snapped his fingers with a flourish.

"To the east... I am to the east..."

A faint voice sounded, whispering like a female ghost lurking right beside his ear.

He paused, then strode toward the east.

At the hideout of the Bell Society members, the clever female player sat on the bed, waving her hands as she shouted, "I really feel quite uncomfortable, take your tongue out of here first, take it out...!"

...

As the sun and moon rotated, in the blink of an eye, the time arrived at the dusk of the second day.

Ren Ye squatted beneath the rain canopy of a rooftop, calmly eating snacks while maintaining a composed and steady expression.

Lurking and staking out places was something he had done countless times during his former career, which had cultivated his exceptional patience. The more urgent the situation, the steadier one had to remain. From yesterday until now, he had changed his surveillance location three times and even squeezed in a quick trip downstairs to buy some food.

He did this primarily to evade the players from the Bell Society. According to the Bull Terrier's confession, Mr. He had dispatched two players to watch Li Feng, and they should be lurking somewhere nearby.

"Crack!"

A startling peal of thunder rang out, and the torrential downpour that had been brewing for nearly two days finally descended upon Shanghai.

In an instant, the entire city was enveloped in a white mist, the sky grew overcast with heavy clouds, and pedestrians on the streets gradually vanished.

Crouching beneath the rain canopy, Ren Ye glanced down at the street along the exterior wall, his pupils instantly contracting.

Li Feng was wearing an old tracksuit, carrying a small backpack, and standing inside the entrance of a supermarket, looking anxiously around. He seemed to have called a ride-hailing car and was waiting.

"Swish!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Ren Ye stood up, hurriedly tidied away his trash, and dashed downstairs.

Beneath the rooftop where he had just been stationed was a small shopping mall, and many people were currently gathered at the entrance to take shelter from the rain.

"Move aside...!"

As Ren Ye pushed through the crowd, preparing to head out and find a shared electric scooter, he suddenly felt his palm grow wet and sticky.

Lifting his gaze, he saw a delivery worker standing outside in a raincoat, smoking a cigarette.

His eyes lit up. He grabbed the delivery worker's arm and called out, "Brother, come here for a second."

"What do you want?" the delivery worker raised an eyebrow.

"Are you selling your motorcycle and raincoat?" Ren Ye asked with a smile.

"Are you out of your mind? If I sell them, what will I use to make a living?" The delivery worker rolled his eyes.

"Four thousand."

"Damn it, I quit! Come on, hand over the money!" After a momentary stun, seeing that Ren Ye had genuinely pulled out the cash, the delivery worker immediately surrendered the keys.

Ten minutes later.

Li Feng boarded an ordinary ride-hailing car, while Ren Ye rode a battered little motorcycle, wearing a raincoat as he tailed closely behind.

...

At the Bell Society hideout.

The cripple from Tongren Road sat on the sofa, smoking a cigar and assuming an imposing posture as he spoke, "Old Yin is dead, but that female lunatic from the Fraud Chamber seems determined not to let me off either. Fortunately, I went into hiding; otherwise, she would have made her move last night."

Mr. He frowned slightly. "That is rather strange. Based on my previous deduction, it was because we targeted her prey—Ren Ye—that she grew so furious. But looking at it now... since the woman wants to kill even you, this can no longer be explained purely from the perspective of interests."

"It is indeed quite strange," the cripple slowly nodded. "It feels as though a simple matter has grown immensely complicated."

At this point, the two men fell silent.

"Jingle ring!"

A phone bell pierced the air. Mr. He leisurely answered it, "Hello, Tiny?"

"Sir, that shut-in writer has made a move," Tiny replied over the phone. "Before leaving, he made a phone call to Ren Daguo. I heard it."

"Did he mention a location?"

"No, he just had Ren Daguo send him a location pin."

"Any anomalies?" Mr. He asked again.

"None. We haven't spotted any other players nearby so far," Tiny answered with certainty.

"All right, I understand." Mr. He hung up the phone, raised his captivating phoenix eyes, and said to the cripple, "...A good show is about to begin."

The cripple stood up, leaning on his cane, and extended a palm as he asked, "Do you need our help? I can summon a few players to go with you."

"No, sometimes having too many people only causes trouble, and information leaks much more easily." Mr. He shook hands with him. "The two out-of-towners Old Yin was investigating earlier are also crucial."

"I'll handle them."

"My thanks again," Mr. He replied solemnly.

The cripple looked at him, his eyes gleaming with a double meaning as he responded, "No one knows if that day will ever come, but we are all waiting..."

"Of course!"

Their conversation concluded, and Mr. He departed accompanied by four Bronze Bell members.

Just as they were getting into the vehicle, Mr. He turned his head and instructed the four of them, "You go ahead and rendezvous with Tiny first. I'll take a separate route; I have some business to attend to."

"Understood," the four nodded.

Five minutes later, Mr. He sat alone in the back of a ride-hailing car and softly asked the driver, "Are we heading to the theater on Minhuang Road?"

"Yes," the driver nodded, stepping on the accelerator and driving away.

Seated in the back seat, Mr. He with great elegance drew an envelope from the inner pocket of his suit jacket and glanced down at it.

Contained within this envelope was the information regarding the "Tomb of the Imperial Princess of Japan" that he had previously purchased from the Little War Wolf. This clue was of paramount importance and constituted one of his primary gains in Shanghai. Although the contents of this information had already been transmitted online to Guo Cairi and Xing Tao, he still needed to keep it closely guarded on his person and hand it over to the higher-ups later.

...

The rain poured in torrents, yet the roads remained congested.

Riding his motorcycle, Ren Ye tailed Li Feng for nearly half an hour before suddenly feeling that the surrounding environment was somewhat familiar.

Hadn't he been here before?!

A flicker of doubt arose in Ren Ye's heart. After passing through two more green lights, the sense of familiarity grew even stronger.

Until... he saw Li Feng's car halt near an alleyway, at which point clarity struck him.

Damn it, wasn't this the very suburb he had followed his old man to that night? If you walked a few hundred meters straight ahead from the alley Li Feng had just entered, you would hit the open-air food stalls.

Back then, editor Lao Xu and his old man had eaten dinner right there.

This... this was bizarre. Why on earth would Li Feng come back here?

His old man had clearly vanished right in this very place.

A cold sweat broke out all over Ren Ye's body. He immediately found a spot to park his motorcycle and then, relying on his memory, darted into a parallel alley.

Braving the torrential rain, Ren Ye sprinted fiercely for two or three minutes before finally arriving beneath an apartment building.

Not long after, Li Feng approached from the opposite direction, holding an umbrella.

Huh?

Hiding in the shadows, Ren Ye watched with his own eyes as Li Feng walked straight into the very apartment building where his old man had disappeared.

Why would he come here? Why did he enter this apartment building?

Ren Ye was completely numb, his mind devoid of a single clue.

"Crack!"

A thunderclap sounded, pulling Ren Ye back to reality. Lifting his gaze once more, he saw a dwarf with an infant-style ponytail standing not far away, staring blankly at the apartment building as well.

"Swish!"

Ren Ye spun around and vanished.

...

Inside that same apartment building.

Inside a room with the exact same layout.

Ren Daguo was still slumped over the dining table, hammering away at the keyboard like a galley slave. "Almost there, I can finally see the end in sight, I'll finish writing and submit it soon!"

In the chair opposite him, Lao Xu was picking his toes. "You never introduce your fellow writers to me. Why did you invite someone over this time?"

Ren Daguo flicked the ash from his cigarette. "I gave Li Feng an opening for free earlier, but I forgot the specific plot. He spent ages digging through his notes yesterday to find the manuscript, so he just dropped it off and went right back."

Lao Xu took a sip of his cola and nodded.

"Oh, right, neither of you is allowed to exchange contact information, got it? Show me some respect," Ren Daguo added with blunt earnestness.