A Cruel Magician
Something's happened at the base.
As darkness fell, the silence in the city grew even more pronounced. Suddenly, a die slid to the ground, the bright red "two dots" facing up, and a few streaks of blood inexplicably splattered onto the carpet around it.
Then, the heavy Doc Martens boots stomped softly on the carpet.
The burly man in the all-black protective suit squinted as he picked up the dice, glancing sideways at the sky.
His eyes had a faint orange-red tinge, his brown hair was disheveled, and there were dark red bloodstains on the ends of his hair on his forehead.
"Someone has made a move, and the success rate isn't low..."
A chubby figure leaned against the floor-to-ceiling window of a high-rise building, holding a blood-stained black pair of binoculars. He chuckled, "Your reaction was a bit slow, Zeng Lai."
His chubby face bulged as he smiled, making it look exceptionally round.
"Fatty Lu, what are you smug about?" Zeng Lai was annoyed by his attitude. "Yan Ming isn't here, do you think you can react as quickly as me?"
Lu Xiaorong turned around and glared at him. "Even without Yan Ming, I'm more perceptive than you!"
"A nimble fatso, huh?" Zeng Lai curled his lip.
The two were on the top floor of the tallest building in the city.
This skyscraper was originally the office building of a giant corporation in the world. It has 132 floors and looks like a towering structure that exudes a sense of technology.
The vengeful spirit virus descended, and the tower was abandoned, becoming the most difficult building to conquer in the entire city. They started climbing the tower from the first floor, almost like playing Yugi called "If you're a man, climb a hundred floors and you still owe thirty-two floors."
This place was originally captured by Lu Xiaorong and Yan Ming. Zeng Lai was just a descendant who was enjoying the benefits. He had just slipped out of the base a few days ago and quickly reunited with the two members of the Widow Investigation Team.
That's right, Zeng Lai initially chose the base line because he was already allied with the Widow Investigation Team.
He had been infiltrating the base for so long, and like Yu Xing, he had stolen a lot of the base's secrets, which he then brought out for Yan Ming to analyze.
Yesterday, Yan Ming had basically determined the truth of the base's storyline, but their purpose in entering this instance was not to clear it quickly, but to obtain an item.
Yan Ming spent most of his time calculating the location of the items. Zeng Lai, also carrying out the task given by Ren Yi, used Yan Ming's deductions to gain the opportunity to compete for that item.
Although no one knows exactly what that item is.
Ironically, one day, all the divination practitioners above the Despair level who had some experience in divination, fate, and calculation simultaneously sensed a "must-have good thing" and determined its location within certain instances.
All the powerful factions sent people into these Yugi instances. Of course, some factions couldn't try every instance and could only choose one to gamble on.
Ren Yi himself entered another instance, while Zeng Lai entered the apocalypse instance.
Upon hearing Yan Ming mentioned in the system's announcement to the participants, he knew the correct answer was the apocalyptic scenario. Ren Yi was skilled in data analysis and might make mistakes in his calculations, but Yan Ming was infallible.
With Zhao Ruru from the Zhao family added to the mix, their chances of success are even greater.
The problem is that no one has been able to figure out exactly what the item looks like; it's basically all about opening blind boxes.
In the morning, Yan Ming suddenly said he had a new Spiritual Sense, and then left the high-rise building alone, leaving Lu Xiaorong and Zeng Lai behind.
I never expected such a huge incident to happen at the base before it even got dark.
After exchanging a few words with Lu Xiaorong, Zeng Lai frowned. "Who could have done this?"
Those two from the Luo family? Luo Qishan has always been very stable, this shouldn't be the case.
"Lingren, I suppose," Lu Xiaorong chuckled. "It's strange enough that he's been able to endure this long. According to my estimation, he should have dismantled the base two days ago, because his identity as a cleanup team member is almost useless to him."
"Oh, and two of Broken Mirror's people came too, Cold Wine and the Magician." He recalled, "The Magician also likes to cause trouble, and his abilities are convenient... hiss—it's possible Broken Mirror and the Lingren will fight!"
Zeng Lai: "..." I can't bear to watch. How could Yan Ming have such an unreliable teammate as Fatty Lu?
Does this mean that when a team has one exceptionally brilliant mind, the others gradually lose their intelligence?
The Lingren would never touch the person with the broken mirror at this time.
After a year of intense Yugi, some of the previously mysterious top players have become somewhat easier for others to understand, and are no longer as unanalyzable as before.
However, it's not entirely the fat man's fault. They came for "that item" and didn't pay much attention to the plot from the beginning, focusing most of their energy on the city.
As soon as he entered the Yugi, Yan Ming predicted that the item did not belong to the base.
Based on this, they didn't care what kind of bloodshed was taking place in the base.
Therefore, they were unaware of Yu Xing's return.
Zeng Lai left on the same day that Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu entered the base. He only knew that two officers from the Base One had arrived, but he didn't see them.
Later, Yan Ming didn't specifically mention anything about his superiors that needed attention... he just treated the two superiors as background figures.
After all, no one believed that anyone could escape the power of Yan Ming —except for the Lingren.
The Widow Investigation Team, knew that the Lingren was indeed a real-life figure.
Yan Ming's attempts to gather information about Lingren were consistently unsuccessful.
However, Yu Xing, who absorbed all the power of the Ghost Tree, in a way, just happened to restrain Yan Ming's abilities. Yu Xing himself hadn't thought of this, but it did indeed passively shield him from the prying eyes of many related strategists.
Even though Yu Xing acted in a high-profile manner and had no intention of hiding anything, the psychics in the city who were focused on finding that item could not get any information about him.
Yu Xing thought that as the story progressed, all the players would gather at the base. However, the opposite was true. From Yu Xing's perspective, he was unaware that there was a mysterious item in the Yugi that everyone coveted.
Zhao Yijiu hadn't thought about it that way. The broken mirror wasn't there to fight over items. From the beginning, he and Carlos were waiting for their "good thing" based on Zhao Mou's divination. With Yu Xing's return, good things had already come to them.
The fundamental difference in objectives led to strange differences in decision-making.
"When will Yan Ming come back?" Zeng Lai poked Lu Xiaorong in the back.
"What, worried that the situation at the base might cause other problems?" Lu Xiaorong waved his hand casually. "Yan Ming sensible. If he senses anything, he'll definitely come back on his own. Don't worry."
After saying that, he continued fiddling with his telescope.
However, Yan Ming, the man mentioned by the two people on the top floor of the high-rise building, had already sighed for the thirteenth time today.
Restaurant in the north corner of the city.
The special knot was difficult to break free from, Yan Ming was bound up like a cat-like insect, almost unable to move.
Across from him, a frivolous young man had just finished demonstrating a small magic trick, his emerald green eyes gleaming with an eerie light.
The young man then held out his fists to him. "Yan Ming, guess which hand has the ball?"
Yan Ming: "... Magician, how much longer do you intend to stall me?"
"I'll let you go once you figure out one of my magic tricks. Aren't you supposed to be the most brilliant strategist in the entire lab?" Carlos grinned maliciously. "A mere magic trick shouldn't be too difficult for you, right?"