The Dagger Is Revealed

(Fine, I'll tough it out for a few more days. Once everyone's worn down enough, it'll be time for me to take the underlings assigned to me back to the Dark Dragon Nest.)

Sitting in the gloomy, dark conference hall and listening to the Black Dragon Lords argue and roar at one another, Mo Fei couldn't help thinking to himself.

He had no interest in their argument, which was doomed to lead nowhere. Bored out of his mind, he began reading the chat.

[Dragon Bro, what are you waiting for? Shouldn't you be volunteering for the job right now?]

[Yeah, yeah! Hurry up and take the position! Start a dragon calamity, launch a monster siege—just like you promised.]

[Exactly! How many times has it been now? Damn it, you still haven't started the monster siege. Get the dragon calamity going already! Stop talking and start doing.]

[I strongly suspect Dragon Bro has been stringing us along from the start.]

[I've noticed these Black Dragon Lords don't have much guts. They're all talk.]

[Dragon Bro, don't tell me you're scared? You always choke at the crucial moment. You Black Dragon Lords are such trash.]

Mo Fei was speechless as he looked at the rows of mocking comments. You people really love stirring up trouble when it has nothing to do with you. My account is worth over ten million. How could I just recklessly throw it away? You'd be happy if I lost it, but I'm not that stupid.

Still, he couldn't exactly say that. After all, he had been the one making all those boasts.

Hmph, pitiful mortals, you simply do not understand the art of power. An improvised line flashed through his mind, but he didn't dare say it aloud. Since he was in the wrong, he had better not invite more abuse.

Once the meeting finally ended, Mo Fei returned to his dragon lair, put his account on autopilot, and logged off.

Taking off his helmet, Mo Fei thought that those people were becoming harder and harder to fool. He needed to get out of there tomorrow.

It was already midnight. Just as Mo Fei was about to head home, he opened the door and found his supervisor waiting in the hallway outside.

"Mo Fei, come with me," the supervisor said expressionlessly.

Mo Fei's heart sank. He vaguely sensed that something was wrong, but there was no avoiding disaster if it was coming. He followed the supervisor into an office. The moment he entered, he saw Wang Ziheng sitting on the sofa. A file lay on the table, and one of the company's lawyers was seated nearby.

His heart dropped. Instinctively, he knew this was no good.

Sure enough, when they came in, Wang Ziheng looked at him with a grave expression.

"Have a seat." He pointed to the chair across from him.

At this point, Mo Fei relaxed instead. He plopped down into the chair and asked calmly, "What is it, Young Master Wang?"

Wang Ziheng said nothing. The lawyer spoke first instead.

"Mr. Mo Fei, I regret to inform you that during your livestreams, you openly displayed bloody and violent game footage and committed horrifying acts of terror, causing severe psychological discomfort among a large number of viewers and seriously damaging the company's image and reputation.

"Because your actions severely violated company regulations as well as the relevant clauses of the contract you signed, the company's management has unanimously decided, after discussion, to file a lawsuit against you. You will be required to pay twenty-seven and a half million in damages and penalties to compensate the company for the harm done to its reputation."

After hearing the lawyer out, Mo Fei's first reaction wasn't anger, but absurdity. What kind of joke was this? Twenty-seven and a half million? Bloody, violent footage? Horrifying acts of terror? He was just a gaming streamer. What terrifying act could he possibly have committed?

"What did I do?" he asked with a cold laugh.

"You ate people," the lawyer answered solemnly.

Ate people? Mo Fei was utterly speechless. What the hell did that even mean?

"To be precise, during your game livestreams, you openly displayed acts of eating people."

Wang Ziheng gestured, and the supervisor immediately placed a laptop on the desk and played a video. It showed Black Dragon Lord Mephisto fighting adventurers.

The black dragon dove down from the sky. A human warrior leaped into the air, intending to strike the dragon head-on with a jumping slash, but the black dragon opened its jaws and swallowed the warrior whole.

"See? We didn't falsely accuse you—eating people, and more than once."

The supervisor continued switching videos as he spoke. "And this one was from your livestream last month. This one was from the month before that. On the ninth of this month, you ate three people in a single day."

As close-up shots of the black dragon eating people flashed across the screen, some even enhanced with bloody effects, the scenes looked shocking. Mo Fei was too exhausted to even mock them.

He had imagined the trouble he might run into, but he had never expected such an absurd reason.

This was truly a case of finding any excuse when they wanted to frame someone.

Mo Fei sneered. "That's an in-game skill called Devour. A lot of gigantic bosses have that skill, and I'm not the only streamer who has used it. This is something that happened in a game—how can it count as eating people? Besides, the footage isn't even bloody."

"Then is this also an in-game skill?"

As he spoke, the supervisor placed the laptop in front of Mo Fei and played another video. It was the scene where Black Dragon Lord Mephisto tore apart the Dawn Divine Sword.

That had been one of his proudest battles, yet now it had become evidence against him.

To be fair, that scene did look somewhat brutal. But Mo Fei absolutely refused to believe it had caused any serious impact. Skyworld itself was an extremely realistic game, and bloody, violent scenes appeared in livestreams every day. Yet whether it was because the game's developer had an overwhelmingly powerful background or for some other reason, he had never heard of any streamer being banned for violent game footage.

Even the authorities seemed to have chosen to turn a blind eye.

Besides, even if there really had been an issue, it would have happened days ago. There had been no response for so many days, and then suddenly there was a problem today? Who the hell were they trying to fool?

"Wasn't it censored?"

"That's right, but it can still create extremely negative associations for viewers. And someone has already reported it, which has caused the company considerable trouble. The company's image has also suffered intangible damage, so someone must take responsibility."

Wang Ziheng spoke with an infuriatingly smug expression.

"Sorry, Mo Fei. I actually admire you quite a bit, but business is business. As the manager of Starlight Live, I have to be responsible to the company, so I must handle this according to procedure."

The anger in Mo Fei's heart flared instantly. "According to procedure, my ass. You just want to screw me over!"

Wang Ziheng's expression changed. He was clearly angered as well.

The supervisor hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over. He picked up the file from the table and handed it to Mo Fei.

"Don't be so angry, Mo Fei. We don't want things to come to this either, but rules are rules. If you make a mistake, you have to admit it. Of course, Mr. Wang isn't unreasonable. Since we're all old friends, we certainly won't leave you without a way out. So I drafted an internal punishment agreement. As punishment for violating company rules and your contract, your game account and game character will be reclaimed by the company to offset the damages you caused.

"That way, all your fines can be waived. This is the best choice for both you and the company. Didn't you want to take a break? Starting tomorrow, you won't have to come to work anymore. You can rest at home for a while.

"Of course, if you still want to work for the company in the future, we can continue cooperating."

Mo Fei sneered. So this was what they had been waiting for. They had really put a lot of thought into it.

It was all for his game account. He had originally considered feeling them out. If the company truly wanted the account, then as long as the price was right, it wasn't impossible to negotiate.

He hadn't expected them to make a move directly.

The lawyer beside him said smugly, "What do you say, Mr. Mo? You should sign it. As long as you sign this agreement, all your breach-of-contract compensation will be written off. Otherwise, once this goes to court, with Starlight's legal team, you won't have even the slightest chance of winning.

"When that happens, your little savings won't be enough to cover the damages. Not only will you lose your game account, but all the money you've earned these past few years will be gone too. You might even end up buried in debt. Why put yourself through that?"

Mo Fei ignored the lawyer and stared fixedly at Wang Ziheng. "Are you really going to take this that far?"

Wang Ziheng forced a smile. "What do you mean by that? I'm simply handling matters according to the rules. That's what the law says, and that's what the contract says. Mr. Mo Fei signed the contract voluntarily. Everything is reasonable and legal. It seems Mr. Mo Fei doesn't know enough about the law. You should spend more time studying the relevant legal knowledge."

Looking at Wang Ziheng's solemn expression, Mo Fei felt a blaze burning inside him. That dazed feeling from the game surfaced again, even stronger than before...

A bloodthirsty impulse battered against his rationality, and the desire to kill made his fingers tremble slightly.

Yet his face remained unnaturally calm. "Fine. I'll sign. Got a pen?"

That completely caught everyone off guard. The supervisor let out a sigh of relief. The lawyer wore an expression that said he had expected this all along. Wang Ziheng also relaxed slightly. It was his first time doing something like this, and he had been somewhat nervous, but the plan seemed to have succeeded.

Then he put on a confident expression, as though he had anticipated this outcome from the beginning.

He took out a fountain pen and handed it over. "Use this."

Mo Fei accepted the pen and examined it. It was actually a gold pen. Its gold-plated nib gleamed coldly under the lights, like the edge of the Dragon-Slaying Sword in the game. Mo Fei stared at the nib for several seconds.

The supervisor seemed to sense something and was just about to say something when Mo Fei suddenly vaulted over the desk with a sideways roll, arriving before Wang Ziheng in an instant. Before Wang Ziheng could react, one of Mo Fei's hands had already clamped around his throat.

Wang Ziheng tried to resist, but Mo Fei's strength was astonishing. He lifted him with one hand and drove the pen's nib straight toward his neck.