The Little Lamb and the Hungry Wolf

The Secret Cultivator wore a grave expression, clearly startled by a situation slipping out of her control.

She pondered for a moment, copied the account name of the new member, Honey Pot, and dialed a number.

"Come in."

A woman soon entered the room. Dressed in professional attire and wearing glasses, she approached the Secret Cultivator with a respectful demeanor. "Miss, did you call for me?"

The Secret Cultivator nodded and handed over the note. "Go to the service provider. I want all his information within half an hour."

"Understood..."

As the assistant to the Miss, the woman was sharp and knew what to ask and what to leave unsaid. She took the note and retreated respectfully.

The room was vast, with the living room alone spanning over a hundred square meters. The balcony featured a floor-to-ceiling glass window. Situated at the top of the skyscraper, a hundred meters above the ground, it offered a panoramic view of the city's nightscape.

The Secret Cultivator looked down at the neon lights of the streets, her gaze suddenly sharpening.

"Even the Realm of Attilus cannot peer into the identity of Honey Pot. This is not something an ordinary player of the World of Weirdness could achieve, and there aren't many such people in the Bureau of Occult Investigation."

"What exactly is his purpose in joining the Secret Cultivator Society?"

"Is it just to obtain secret information from the World of Weirdness... No, it shouldn't be that simple."

"Could his target be..."

"Me?"

A mocking smile appeared on the Secret Cultivator's cold, beautiful face. "Interesting. What a pity, Honey Pot, you are still too naive. The power gained in the World of Weirdness is not everything, and we are not on the Ancient Earth. Even if you have obtained an item capable of defending against the Mirror of Attilus, I only need one phone call to dig you out of the massive database."

With some time still left before the half-hour mark, the Secret Cultivator left the window and reclined back into her rocking chair.

Keeping Honey Pot might actually be more valuable. The Secret Cultivator stared at the screen, lost in thought for a long time, before finally abandoning the idea of eliminating him.

The reason was simple.

Honey Pot did not know her true identity. Conversely, once his information was unearthed, she could place him under strict surveillance, which might prove useful later.

Honey Pot was merely a tool.

All members of the Secret Cultivator Society were tools.

That was the Secret Cultivator's philosophy.

Half an hour passed quickly. The Secret Cultivator frowned, feeling displeased. Although she had given her assistant thirty minutes, normally, results should have surfaced within ten.

Just then, the door was pushed open. The assistant hurried in, the shock on her face still lingering.

"Miss..."

"How did the investigation go?"

Seeing the assistant's state, the Secret Cultivator felt a bad premonition. The woman had followed her for years; she knew her capabilities, methods, and temperament well. If she wore such an expression, it meant the situation was far more serious than imagined.

The assistant took a deep breath. "Miss, it's too strange. I sent the account you provided to the software provider, the big data company, and all other investigative channels. They did indeed find this person, but the data could not be extracted from the database. When typed into a computer document, it would automatically delete itself after a second or two. When recorded by hand on paper, the words would inexplicably vanish. Furthermore, once away from the database, any information about that person in one's mind would rapidly blur and fade until it was completely forgotten, as if an invisible force were preventing us from finding this person."

"Miss,"

"This situation is too bizarre. I have never encountered anything like it."

The Secret Cultivator could no longer maintain her cold, rational composure; her graceful figure trembled slightly.

She had never expected that Honey Pot's methods were not merely about concealing his identity or preventing prying eyes, but about exerting influence across the entire country, and perhaps the world, to ensure the result that "no one can find him."

This was no longer a simple ability.

It was the power of a nascent "Authority."

The Secret Cultivator waved her hand to dismiss the assistant. Though she tried to remain calm, the hand holding her wine glass could not stop trembling.

She had thought the new member, Honey Pot, was just another sheep to be kept and easily manipulated, but she hadn't expected a hungry wolf to break in—terrifying, mysterious, unknown, and unpredictable...

The Secret Cultivator felt an urge to send a private message asking Honey Pot who he really was and what his purpose was in joining the Secret Cultivator Society.

But after hesitating repeatedly, reason prevailed.

To say such things now would be equivalent to telling Honey Pot that she had investigated his true identity, effectively tearing off the mask.

As for kicking him out of the group, the Secret Cultivator had considered it, but ultimately abandoned the idea. If this mysterious Honey Pot's target was truly her, keeping him in the group would at least allow her to track his movements and provide a medium for contact and communication.

If she kicked him out, she would be completely blind to the intentions of this mysterious predator.

"What exactly is your goal regarding me?"

The Secret Cultivator's slender, tall frame trembled, and her brows furrowed—a sign of the wariness and anxiety born from being targeted by the mysterious Honey Pot.

On the other side, at home.

Yang Qizhou had no idea that simply joining a group had cast such a shadow over the Secret Cultivator. If he knew, he would have laughed until his stomach ached and told her:

"Please, I've only been playing the World of Weirdness for three days. Even though I've obtained many items—more than one of which is quasi-legendary—I don't know much about the secret information on the Ancient Earth. Isn't it normal to find a channel to inquire about it?"

"The Earth will keep spinning without you, Secret Cultivator. Please don't add drama to your own life."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries with the group owner and ending the private chat, he saw that no one else was speaking in the group and closed the interface.

So that was it; frequently using items from the World of Weirdness in reality would cause them to come alive, potentially evolving into Old Day Items or leading to even more terrifying consequences.

How did the Secret Cultivator know about this, though?

There were too many things to process, overloading his brain. Yang Qizhou couldn't sort it all out for the moment, so he decided to stop thinking about it and focus on devouring his duck snacks and five liters of cola to fill his stomach first.

"Wait a minute, where are my duck snacks?"

Yang Qizhou stared wide-eyed at the coffee table. He clearly remembered placing both the giant cola and the duck snacks there, and he had even glanced at them a few times while chatting. How could they have vanished in the short time he had looked away?

Could it be a ghost?

"Hold on, a ghost seems to be right beside me..." A thought struck Yang Qizhou. He reached out his hand and pulled out a garment as thin as gossamer.

Garment of the Hidden World...

Side effect: Randomly "erases" objects around the holder, with the value of the erased items increasing over time. When there is nothing left around the holder worth "erasing," it will erase the holder themselves.

"So it was you playing tricks, my dinner..."