An old-school trendsetter

In a fifth-floor bedroom of an ordinary apartment building in Huangjiang District, a family of three slept peacefully together.

The window stood open. Hot air blew in from outside, gently stirring the clothes hanging on the balcony...

Downstairs, in a dark alley, a bare-assed old man nearing seventy glanced furtively around before raising an arm and curling his fingers.

Whoosh, whoosh...!

A set of men's clothes floated eerily off the balcony and landed in the old man's hands.

He hurried deeper into the alley and frantically pulled them on.

This was Little War Wolf, who had once again "returned to life in a borrowed corpse." The past two days had been miserable for him, too. Having already stolen a corpse in Suhang City, he had found committing the same crime again much harder. After all, no hospital wanted that kind of legal trouble...

When a loved one died, the family was already emotionally unstable. If the body disappeared just before cremation, who could take that? They would be doing the hospital a favor by not tearing it down.

The incident had made the news, putting plenty of hospitals in neighboring cities on alert. Security in their morgues now rivaled that of bank vaults.

On top of that, Little War Wolf could currently only use bodies that had died of natural causes or illnesses of varying severity. Bodies from car accidents or fights, with extensive damage and severe external injuries, were unusable.

That left very few suitable corpses. He had searched for ages before settling on the morgue of this small district hospital and finally choosing a very elderly body.

Little War Wolf was deeply dissatisfied with this "old corpse." A fight was bound to break out later, and with these brittle old bones, even a kick from a kindergartner might snap his leg. Besides... a body like this was unsuitable for using supernatural powers. It simply couldn't withstand them.

But he really had no time left to be picky. He had to make do, because his "Soul Body" was already extremely weak.

Without possessing a corpse, a Soul Body could not adapt to the world of the living. Wandering around for too long would ultimately cause it to dissipate entirely.

Little War Wolf was a player trapped inside the Qingliang Prefecture Star Gate, and his current condition was highly unusual. His "body" was missing. Only his Soul Body could move around now, and he had to successfully clear the stage before he could recover his body.

That was also why he had returned to the real world.

To win, he had to plan meticulously, both in Qingliang Prefecture and in the real world...

It's all for victory. Suck it up!

Looking at "his" loose, wrinkled skin and scrawny torso, Little War Wolf silently gave himself a pep talk.

But when he was about to put on his pants, he glanced down there and immediately grew furious.

It was utterly limp, practically imperceptible.

"Hold your head high! Hold your head high!!" Little War Wolf snarled down at it.

No response...

Fine. He gave up. Lowering his head, he pulled on a bright green, oversized CLOT T-shirt, followed by STAGE cargo pants. He slipped his feet into the latest Nike high-top sneakers and put on a baseball cap backward...

Five minutes later, a scrawny old man with a vacant expression strode confidently out of the alley in outrageously trendy clothes.

Snap!

Under the streetlight, Little War Wolf snapped his fingers with a stylish flourish.

"East... I'm to the east..."

A faint voice rang out, as though a female ghost were leaning against his ear and whispering.

He paused, then headed east.

At the Bell Society members' hideout, the clever female player sat on the bed and waved her hand. "This really feels uncomfortable. Take your tongue away first, take it away...!"

Day turned to night, and in the blink of an eye, it was the following evening.

Ren Ye crouched beneath a rooftop rain shelter, calmly eating snacks. His expression remained composed and steady.

He had spent plenty of time on stakeouts back when he was on the job, and it had taught him patience. The more urgent things became, the steadier he had to be. Since yesterday, he had changed surveillance positions three times and found time to go downstairs for something to eat.

His main reason for doing so was to avoid the Bell Society players. According to Bull Terrier, Mr. He had assigned two players to watch Li Feng. They were probably hiding somewhere nearby, too.

Crack!

Thunder boomed. The torrential rain that had been building for nearly two days finally hit Shanghai.

In an instant, white mist enveloped the entire city. Dark clouds covered the sky, and pedestrians gradually vanished from the streets.

Huddled beneath the shelter, Ren Ye glanced down along the wall, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

Wearing an old tracksuit and carrying a small backpack, Li Feng stood just inside the supermarket entrance, looking around. He seemed to have ordered a ride and was waiting for it.

Whoosh!

Ren Ye rose without hesitation, hurriedly gathered his trash, and headed downstairs.

Below the rooftop he had been watching from was a small shopping center. Quite a few people were sheltering from the rain at its entrance.

"Coming through...!"

Ren Ye pushed through the crowd. He was about to go outside and find a shared electric scooter when he suddenly felt his palm grow wet.

He looked up and saw a delivery rider in a raincoat standing outside, smoking.

His eyes lit up. Grabbing the rider's arm, he said, "Hey, man, come here a second."

"What do you want?" The delivery rider raised an eyebrow.

"Want to sell your motorcycle and raincoat?" Ren Ye asked with a smile.

"Are you nuts? How would I make a living if I sold them?" The rider rolled his eyes.

"Four thousand."

"Fuck it, I quit. Come on, hand over the money!" The rider froze for a moment, then immediately handed over his keys when he saw Ren Ye actually taking out the cash.

Ten minutes later.

Li Feng got into an ordinary ride-hailing car, while Ren Ye followed behind on a battered little motorcycle, wearing the raincoat.

At the Bell Society's hideout.

The cripple from Tongren Road sat on a couch, smoking a cigar and putting on airs. "Old Yin is dead, but that crazy bitch from the Fraud Merchants' Association doesn't seem willing to spare me, either. Good thing I hid, or she would've made her move last night."

Mr. He frowned. "That's strange. I previously assumed she was so furious because we'd gone after her prey-Ren Ye. But now... if this woman wants to kill you, too, then self-interest alone can't explain it."

"It is strange." The cripple nodded slowly. "It feels like something simple has become incredibly complicated."

At that, both men fell silent.

Ring, ring!

A phone rang, and Mr. He leisurely answered it. "Hello, Little One?"

"Sir, that shut-in writer is on the move," Little One replied over the phone. "Before leaving, he called Ren Daguo. I heard him."

"Did he mention a location?"

"No. He just asked Ren Daguo to send him a location pin."

"Anything unusual?" Mr. He asked again.

"No. So far, we haven't detected any players nearby," Little One replied confidently.

"All right, understood." Mr. He hung up, lifted his alluring phoenix eyes, and said to the cripple, "...The show is beginning."

The cripple rose with his cane and extended a hand. "Need our help? I can get a few players to go with you."

"No. Sometimes more people only mean more trouble, and information leaks more easily." Mr. He shook his hand. "Those two out-of-towners I asked Old Yin to investigate are also crucial."

"I'll handle them."

"Thank you again," Mr. He replied earnestly.

The cripple looked at him, his eyes shining, and answered with a double meaning, "None of us knows whether that day will come, but we're all waiting..."

"Of course!"

Their conversation ended, and Mr. He left with four Copper Bell members.

Just before getting into the car, Mr. He turned to the four and instructed them, "Go meet up with Little One first. I'll travel separately. I have something to take care of."

"Understood." The four nodded.

Five minutes later, Mr. He sat alone in a ride-hailing car and quietly asked the driver, "We're going to the theater on Minhuang Road, right?"

"Right." The driver nodded, pressed the accelerator, and drove away.

Sitting in the back seat, Mr. He elegantly took an envelope from the breast pocket of his suit and glanced down at it.

The envelope contained the information on the "Tomb of the Eldest Princess of Jing" that he had previously bought from Little War Wolf. This clue was important, and one of his main gains in Shanghai. Although he had already sent its contents to Guo Caier and Xing Tao online, he still had to keep it on him and later hand it over to the higher-level organization.

The rain poured down, but traffic remained congested.

After following Li Feng on his motorcycle for nearly half an hour, Ren Ye suddenly felt that his surroundings looked familiar.

Haven't I been here before?!

A flicker of doubt rose within Ren Ye. After passing through two more green lights, that sense of familiarity grew even stronger.

It wasn't until... he saw Li Feng's car stop at an alley that everything clicked.

Holy shit, isn't this the suburb where I followed Dad that night? A few hundred meters down the alley Li Feng entered, there's an outdoor food stall.

Editor Old Xu and Dad even ate there that night.

This... this is too strange. Why would Li Feng come back here?

Dad disappeared here.

An inexplicable cold sweat broke out all over Ren Ye. He immediately found somewhere to park the motorcycle, then slipped into another alley entrance from memory.

Running through the downpour for two or three minutes, Ren Ye finally reached an apartment building.

Not long afterward, Li Feng approached from the other end, holding an umbrella.

Huh?

Hidden in the shadows, Ren Ye watched with his own eyes as Li Feng entered the apartment building where his father had disappeared.

Why had he come here? Why had he gone into this apartment building?

Ren Ye was utterly bewildered. He couldn't make sense of any of it.

Crack!

A thunderclap snapped Ren Ye out of his thoughts. Looking up again, he saw a Dwarf man with his hair tied in a baby's little topknot, also staring blankly at the apartment building not far away.

Whoosh!

Ren Ye turned and vanished.

Inside that same apartment building.

Inside a room with the same layout.

Ren Daguo was still hunched over the dining table, hammering away at the keyboard like a Black slave. "Almost there. Finally, the end is in sight. I'll finish and submit it any minute now!"

In the chair opposite him, Old Xu picked at his toes. "You never bring other writers to meet me. Why did you invite someone this time?"

Ren Daguo flicked the ash from his cigarette. "I gave Li Feng an opening for free before, but I've forgotten the actual plot. He spent ages digging up the manuscript yesterday. He'll just drop it off and go."

Old Xu drank his Coke and nodded.

"Oh, right, you two aren't allowed to exchange contact details. Show me some respect." Ren Daguo gave them a blunt reminder.