Detective Bureau

"Ahhh! I'm so frustrated!"

After sorting through his gains, Su Li suddenly rolled around on his bed twice, venting the pent-up gloom in his heart.

No, to be precise, it was stifled resentment.

During his time on Primal Star, his harvest had indeed been substantial, but it had come at a cost.

Primal Star was no kind place. There were plenty of beings that could kill Su Li without effort, and countless beasts that could go toe-to-toe with him.

Relying on the information provided by the blue screen, Su Li moved cautiously. That night, he hadn't provoked anything he couldn't handle.

Of course, that was also the reason he'd managed to survive on Primal Star for so long.

But even so, Su Li's hunting journey had been full of setbacks.

Those beasts ranked above F- had some intelligence. They weren't fools waiting around for Su Li to kill them—they fought back.

In one night, Su Li had struck over twenty times, but ten of those attempts had failed. He could only watch helplessly as his prey slipped right under his nose.

Once, a big rabbit even bit him, tearing off a chunk of flesh.

Another time, Su Li tried to take down a creature called a "Tunneling Rat," only for its parents to show up—one ranked F, the other F+.

Facing three Tunneling Rats, Su Li nearly got beaten to death. He survived only by a stroke of luck and desperate running.

In short, his hunting path on Primal Star had been riddled with hardship, leaving Su Li with a shadow of fear in his heart.

"Forget it, I'll go to a couple of classes to calm down, then head back at night!" Sighing, Su Li closed his eyes. There was still some time before class, so he'd catch a nap first.

Two hours later—

Su Li and Zheng Hongyu walked along the path to the classroom. The whole way, Zheng Hongyu kept glancing at Su Li with a puzzled look.

"What's up, Old Zheng?" Su Li finally couldn't help asking. He wasn't gay, and being stared at like this by a man was unbearable.

"Su Li, you seem off today!"

"Off?"

"You've got this weird vibe, like..."

"Like a butcher, right?" Su Li suddenly asked.

Zheng Hongyu: "..."

After a moment of silence, Zheng Hongyu nodded quietly. It wasn't exactly the same, but it was close enough.

"Normal. I had a dream all night about slaughtering pigs. Now I can't even look at a person without thinking, 'Where's the best spot to chop?'" Su Li's lips curled into a grin that made Zheng Hongyu's heart skip a beat, as if Su Li might actually swing at him any second.

"You weren't thinking about chopping me, were you?" Zheng Hongyu asked.

"With your build, a clean decapitation would be best!" Su Li let out a sinister chuckle, then fixed his gaze on Zheng Hongyu's neck.

Zheng Hongyu said nothing, silently stepping a bit farther from Su Li.

What Su Li had said was no different from their usual jokes, but somehow, Zheng Hongyu felt like it was real.

"Hey, Old Zheng, after class, let's round up a few people and hit the internet café for some games. What do you say?" Su Li suddenly suggested.

"Sure! I'll call Yaoyao, and we'll all go!" Zheng Hongyu, hearing Su Li's suggestion, instantly forgot about what had just happened and agreed.

After all, that little oddity about Su Li was nothing compared to the importance of gaming—especially when he could bring his girlfriend along!

"Heh, give your girlfriend a heads-up. Tell her to brace herself for my skills!" Su Li said, brimming with confidence.

"Yaoyao's best friend is a pro too. Better watch out you don't crash and burn!" Zheng Hongyu warned.

"No problem!"

After attentively sitting through two specialized classes, Su Li's somewhat explosive mood gradually settled.

When class ended, Su Li called Zhang Yu, Zheng Hongyu contacted his girlfriend Chen Yiyao, and Chen Yiyao brought along her roommate and best friend Miao Yunxi. The five of them marched in a lively group toward the east gate of the school.

In truth, they'd gamed together before, so it was all familiar ground—no awkwardness at all.

"Su Li, Old Zheng says your skills have improved a ton?" Miao Yunxi asked on the way.

"Mm, not bad. Carrying you all is no problem!" Su Li said flatly.

"You're forgetting your rank, aren't you, Mr. Gold?"

"Oh yeah? Today I'll show you that rank doesn't mean a thing!" Su Li said dismissively, then dropped the topic.

Back when he was F-, his agility had already far exceeded a normal person's, let alone now!

To put it bluntly, Su Li could now play with one hand and make the enemy team wish they were dead.

"Su Li, I've got your back!" Zhang Yu quietly chimed in.

"Thanks!"

"Heh!" Miao Yunxi let out a cold laugh and said nothing more. As a Diamond-level pro who often used smurf accounts to carry these scrubs, she was completely immune to the boasts of people who talked like gods but played like ghosts.

The five of them walked for a while before arriving at their destination, the internet cafe "Starry Night."

However, standing across from the former "Starry Night," none of them took another step forward for a long time.

That's right, the former one.

"Where's Starry Night? Did we go to the wrong place?" Zheng Hongyu asked.

"..."

"It must have gone out of business!" Su Li gazed at the sign across the street bearing the three big characters "Detective Bureau," then added, "Actually, I knew about this a few days ago, I just happened to forget!"

"A few days ago, this 'Detective Bureau' was still under renovation. I didn't think it would be finished so soon—really fast!" Su Li sighed again.

"Bro, have you been sleeping too much lately that your brain's gone rusty? How could you forget something like this?" Zhang Yu said, looking speechless.

"Can't help it, busy with this and that all day, when would I have time to remember such trivial matters?" Su Li shrugged, then said, "Anyway, it's not like there aren't other internet cafes nearby. Let's go somewhere else!"

"Guess that's all we can do! Starry Night used to be pretty popular, who'd have thought it'd shut down just like that? Life's really unpredictable!" Zheng Hongyu sighed.

Su Li: "..."

Su Li remembered that when he passed by here that day, he'd probably made a similar remark.

"What does this Detective Bureau do? Sounds like some government department!" Miao Yunxi suddenly asked.

"No way, how could a government department be in a place like this? This is the university district!"

"Really? But what ordinary shop would dare use a name like 'So-and-so Bureau'?"

"But does the government even have such a department? Even if it does, what's its function?"

"From the name, it sounds like it catches drug dealers!"

"Then it's even less likely to be built in a place like this!"

"..."

Except for Su Li, Miao Yunxi and the other three stood there discussing just what this "Detective Bureau" was supposed to be.

As for Su Li, his attention had already been drawn to a woman across the street...