The same thing happened to other Bureau of Occult Investigation members. They all encountered Wang Chuang disguised as one of their teammates and were caught off guard by his attacks, suffering injuries of varying severity.
Only Zhou Xu, with his keen instincts and decisive action, had shot the fake "Zhao Keke" and escaped harm.
Was that the smell of blood?
Someone from the Bureau of Occult Investigation had been injured.
Yang Qizhou narrowed his eyes. He was perhaps the only person in the neighborhood who hadn't been attacked by "Wang Chuang."
Due to the effects of a mysterious force, Yang Qizhou couldn't observe the Bureau of Occult Investigation members' current situation. But with the power granted by Kanrui's Wizard Ring, he could still faintly smell blood.
"This Wang Chuang isn't an ordinary player. He must be an expert who obtained a powerful item from the World of Weirdness."
"The Bureau of Occult Investigation has run into a tough opponent."
"Even if they manage to arrest him, they'll probably suffer heavy casualties."
Moonlight mingled with lamplight across his body, leaving his figure half-lit and half-hidden and making him seem unusually mysterious.
The eerie cries of the Doom-Bringing Raven echoed in his mind. Yang Qizhou prepared to roll back time, erase all traces, and withdraw from his current fate.
He'd learned everything he needed to know, and many of the questions in his mind had been answered. Staying any longer risked having his save overwritten, and he might also get caught up in the trouble unfolding before him.
In truth, Yang Qizhou had a pretty favorable impression of the Bureau of Occult Investigation.
They moved through the darkness, fighting all manner of sinister horrors and protecting the ordinary world from harm. If circumstances allowed, Yang Qizhou wouldn't mind giving them a hand.
But he'd only just started playing the game. Even if he was stronger than an ordinary player, the difference was limited, and the risks of having his identity exposed were simply too great.
Yang Qizhou could never entrust his safety to the goodness or wickedness of others. Until he was strong enough to ignore every threat, he would do his best to stay hidden.
But the motion of Yang Qizhou's raised hand startled the eyes watching from the darkness. The man thought the mysterious figure who'd snuck in was about to attack.
"This is between me and them. I suggest you stay out of it, or I'll kill you too." A voice came from somewhere in the night, low, evil, vicious, and crazed, yet tinged with a hint of apprehension.
Was I... just threatened?
Yang Qizhou stopped his hand before he could snap his fingers. A murderous glint appeared in his eyes.
"Wang Chuang?"
"Yes."
"Were you just threatening me?"
"It's not a threat. It's a warning. But you can take it as a threat if you want."
The man hiding in the darkness was hunched over, clutching a strange, broken wooden figurine. The carving seemed alive, connected to countless gnarled, vein-like vines that pierced his arm. It radiated an evil, purplish-black aura, both horrifying and deranged.
Wang Chuang had actually noticed Yang Qizhou sneaking in long ago. The reason he hadn't attacked him as he had the Bureau of Occult Investigation members was that he sensed a threat from Yang Qizhou.
But Wang Chuang's mind had been corrupted by an Old Day Item, leaving him half-mad and with little reason left.
So when he saw Yang Qizhou move, he assumed the other man was going to meddle. He reacted like a cat with its fur standing on end, speaking in an extremely hostile manner.
Threaten me?
Yang Qizhou smiled too. With a murderous glint in his eyes and his fists clenched so tightly that his veins bulged, his smile looked particularly ferocious.
"Actually, I'm usually pretty rational. I know how to avoid danger, weigh the pros and cons, stay clear of danger, and bend when I need to. I can do all that."
"But I do have one weakness... I can't stand being disrespected."
"When I was in school, there was a bully who was always picking on my classmates. Back then, I didn't want to cause trouble, and I didn't think I was close enough to my classmates for sticking up for them to be worth it. So I always avoided the bully. Then one day, he picked on me. He said he was going to take my allowance and slap me in the face."
"Do you know what I did?"
"I grabbed a brick, refused to let that bully go, and just kept hammering him with it. At the time, a dozen of his lackeys punched and kicked me, but they still couldn't pull me away."
"I nearly beat that bully to death."
At some point, a copper lamp had appeared in Yang Qizhou's hand. Its flame lit up the deep darkness of the night.
Ancient God Fire Lamp (Fine): A tool used by the villagers of Fire-Stealing Village to steal fire. It requires Fire Kindling to light and activate. It contains a small amount of divine power from the Ancient Fire-Stealing God, and can dispel illusions in the mist to reveal the true scenery.
His voice held a hint of helplessness and menace.
"I just wanted to leave quietly. Why did you have to threaten me?"
Meanwhile,
The members of the Bureau of Occult Investigation were all in a dire situation. The power of the Old Day Item in Wang Chuang's hands was simply too strange. First, it separated them and hid them from one another. Then, sometimes he disguised himself as a teammate and struck when a member of the Bureau of Occult Investigation let their guard down. At other times, he brought two of them together, making them mistake each other for impostors and fight to the death.
And that wasn't all.
Wang Chuang also used psychological attacks, constantly telling the Bureau of Occult Investigation members what was happening to their teammates. Zhao Keke had been stabbed in the stomach, was bleeding heavily, and was on the brink of death. Chen was missing an arm. And then there was...
"Wang Chuang, you bastard! Come out if you've got the guts!"
Zhou Xu roared, though he felt pessimistic. He hadn't expected the information provided by headquarters to be inaccurate. The Old Day Item his target possessed might have been the lowest grade, but its degree of activation was clearly very high.
Zhao Keke was losing a lot of blood, and the other members had all been injured to varying degrees. If this continued, they would all die here.
Just then, something entirely unexpected happened.
A copper lamp appeared, lighting up the entire night. Zhou Xu couldn't understand how a lamp could shine more brightly than the sun.
The scenery around them twisted and shifted, as if the false world had been torn apart to reveal the complete truth.
The Bureau of Occult Investigation members who had vanished reappeared in their line of sight.
"Chief Zhou, I searched almost the entire neighborhood and couldn't find you. Y-you were so close to me this whole time!"
"Quit talking and heal me, quick! If I keep bleeding, I'm going to die!"
"That Wang Chuang is such a bastard. He even disguised himself as Chief Zhou and attacked me when I wasn't ready. If the 'Sixth Sense Frequency' I got from the Gift of Fate hadn't warned me of the danger, I'd have been done for."
"Everyone, look over there!"
At that moment, the illusion created by the Old Day Item in Wang Chuang's hand had completely shattered under the effect of the Ancient God Fire Lamp. The truest scene now lay before them all.
At the entrance to the neighborhood, they saw a mysterious figure hidden in the night and bathed in moonlight. The figure was too far away for them to make out his face. He held a copper lamp, its flickering flame making him seem especially mysterious.
He was backing away, his figure gradually swallowed by the darkness. He was about to disappear.
"Wait, brother..."
Zhou Xu anxiously tried to chase after the mysterious figure holding the lamp, but he was too late. The other man had already merged with the night.
The mysterious figure's uncanny methods had deeply shaken the members of the Bureau of Occult Investigation. They looked at one another, their eyes full of shock.
"Chief Zhou, look! It's Wang Chuang."
One of the Bureau of Occult Investigation members suddenly noticed something and cried out in shock.
Zhou Xu and the others looked over instinctively. A young man was curled up and trembling in the corner, his face covered in bruises. Clearly, he'd been beaten badly.
"Chief Zhou, t-that mysterious guy really went hard on him. Those injuries look like he was trying to beat him to death."
Zhao Keke said viciously, "I say he should've beaten him to death. He nearly stabbed me to death. I'd have gladly roasted his heart over a fire."
One member of the team happened to be skilled at healing. After treating her, the bleeding stopped and some of her strength returned. Her fiery temper came back too.
"Chief Zhou, that person just now doesn't seem to be a registered player. And he's incredibly strong. He resolved an illusion we couldn't do anything about with ease. Could he be a member of some secret organization like the Secret Cultivator Society or the Hermit Society?"
It was Old Chen who spoke, his voice trembling slightly.
Zhou Xu shook his head and looked toward their arrest target, Wang Chuang. "Let's take him back first. Be careful when securing the Old Day Item. Make sure nothing goes wrong."
"What about the mysterious person from before?" Old Chen asked. The others also looked at Zhou Xu.
"Report him. Add him to the list of unknown players. Give him a provisional rating of A+, and a code name... the Lamp Bearer."
A+?
Everyone present was a little shocked, because that rating was far too high. Among all the unknown player files on record at the Bureau of Occult Investigation, fewer than ten had an A+ rating. It was second only to the S rank, which existed only in legend and had never actually appeared.
But when they thought of the moonlight that had shone around the mysterious man, the copper lamp in his hand, and the way its flame had shattered the illusory realm,
they felt the rating wasn't an exaggeration after all.
The Lamp Bearer... was powerful.
Before you continue