Chen Xiaolian and Roddy sent Toto, who was staying in their resort base to the company that Roddy’s father own.
Although he was young, Toto was far more sensible and quieter compared to his peers. It may have something to do with the fact that he had stayed in World’s End with Zhao Yun for some time. After Chen Xiaolian had informed him that they had to go out and will be entrusting him to Roddy’s father for caretaking, Toto accepted it without making a fuss.
After everything was finally prepared, they moved to board the Tidal Fighter in order to fly toward the instance dungeon area. As they were in the process of boarding the Tidal Fighter, however, Chen Xiaolian slapped his head. “Hold it! We… … we forgot about something!”
“What?” Roddy knitted his brows thoughtfully. “Matters that needed handling have all been handled. All the supplies have also been arranged. Even if we did forget something, we can just purchase from the Exchange System then.”
“Did you forget we have a prisoner?” Chen Xiaolian sighed. “The eighth-grade syndrome patient called Nightmare?”
“Oh damn! I totally forgot about him!”
Lun Tai slapped his head.
…
“I thought you were going to kill me!”
The moment they opened the door, the youngster known as Zhao Tiezhu aka Nightmare called out through tear-filled eyes as he knelt on the floor while hugging Chen Xiaolian’s thigh.
After getting captured by Chen Xiaolian, Nightmare had been brought back to the resort base and locked up.
With the exception of his slightly wondrous initial skill, Nightmare’s physical attributes was not enhanced much. After his incarceration, all his equipment was taken away. When compared to the average human, he was stronger, but not by much.
For the sake of detaining him, Lun Tai had ordered the robot Adam to modify one of the resort’s room, changing it into a cell. The four walls and the ceiling had been modified. They were made using a special type of alloy steel. Additionally, there were three layers of electronically controlled doors. He would be given only one meal a day.
After Chen Xiaolian’s successful return from World’s End, this unlucky prisoner with no aura of existence was forgotten by all of them.
By then, they had missed the time to feed him by nearly half a day. Not only was he about to faint from hunger, he was also terrified.
Like everyone else, he had also received the system prompt. Yet, knowing that he was a prisoner, he felt uneasy.
He had been detained for so long and had no clue as to what will happen to him. Feelings of anxiousness hounded him every day. After receiving the system prompt, he saw that no one came to meet him. Thus, he felt darkness claiming him.
If he had been left behind with no one to take care of him, forget starving to death, he will be exterminated for failing to show up at the instance dungeon area after the three-day period.
Seeing Nightmare sob while hugging Chen Xiaolian’s thigh. Lun Tai turned toward Chen Xiaolian with a questioning look. What should they do with him?
“Forget it, let him go.” After considering it for a moment, Chen Xiaolian sighed. “There is no way we can bring him along with us. However, leaving him here would be the equivalent of killing him. There are two more days, enough for him to get to the instance dungeon area by himself.”
“But…” Before Lun Tai could say his piece, Nightmare disrupted him with a tearful face, “Just let me go, fellow brothers! I promise you! I will never reveal any of your secrets!”
“Don’t worry. He won’t,” Chen Xiaolian said to Lun Tai with a smile as he shook his head. At the same time, he messaged Xia Xiaolei through their guild channel and transferred over some points.
Soon, a greasy-looking, circular marble-sized ball with a bluish-green colour appeared in Xia Xiaolei’s palm.
Accepting the ball, Chen Xiaolian pulled out a small knife and gently made a cut on his finger. Next, he squeezed out a few drops of his blood onto the ball.
The surface of the ball looked as smooth as a mirror. However, when the droplets of blood made contact with it, it seemed as though they were falling into the ocean. They were immediately sucked into the ball, not a trace of the blood remained. All that could be seen was a faint blood mark.
“Done. Eat it.” Chen Xiaolian picked up the ball with two fingers and placed it before Nightmare’s face.
“This… this is…” There was a miserable look on Nightmare’s face as he hesitated.
“Do you think you are in any position to object or ask anything?” There was an amiable looking smile on Chen Xiaolian’s face as he said, “I will give you 10 seconds.”
Before Chen Xiaolian could start counting down, Nightmare quickly picked up the ball and shoved it into his mouth before swallowing it down.
“Smart.” Chen Xiaolian nodded his head satisfactorily.
“Now… can you tell me what is it…” asked Nightmare with a miserable face.
Chen Xiaolian crouched down, revealing a harmless-looking smile on his face. “Have you ever heard of… … the Three Corpse Brain Pill?”
…
After dropping Nightmare off within a remote part in a suburban area, the Tidal Fighter lifted off before flying westward.
Nightmare stood there for a moment, staring blankly into space. After confirming that the Tidal Fighter had left, he abruptly fell to his knees as he extended out two fingers into his throat, attempting to make himself vomit.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he could only vomit out some gastric juices.
The prompt that had appeared after he swallowed the pill continued to echo within his mind.
[System prompt: You have taken the Blood Controller Pill, poison incubation countdown beginning. You must consume more than 1 ml of the controller’s blood once every 180 days. If you do not, the poison will break out. After consuming the blood, the poison incubation countdown will restart. Time remaining: 179 days 23 hours 59 minutes.]
While Nightmare had no intention of purchasing the antidote from the Exchange System, he tried to look for information regarding the Blood Controller Pill. After finding out the price for the pill, he gave up. Seeing that one pill alone was priced at 1,000 points, he could forget about finding the antidote for the pill.
In other words, he had become Chen Xiaolian’s slave. Unless he could find some way of curing himself of the poison, not only can he not disobey Chen Xiaolian’s orders, he would have to pray that Chen Xiaolian do not end up dying.
Should that happen, Nightmare would only be able to live on for another half year…
…
“Hey, Xiaolian. Why did you waste so much points on that kid?” After setting the Tidal Fighter to automatic cruise mode, Roddy pushed down one of the seats and lay down before turning to face Chen Xiaolian. He continued, “Even with Xia Xiaolei’s discount skill, that stuff is still at 800 points. Using something like that on a useless guy like him; isn’t that too wasteful?”
“That is true.” Bei Tai, who was seated at the back, turned his head and said, “Even if you are unwilling to kill him due to your kind-hearted nature, there are other ways we can use to control him. If it comes down to it, we can just tie him up and bring him together, no?”
“Is it a waste? We’ll know the answer to that in the future,” answered Chen Xiaolian with a faint smile. “After Shen’s disappearance, Thorned Flower Guild fell into a state of infighting. If we can stick a nail into their midst, will you still think of that 800 points as a waste?”
“That kid? Thorned Flower Guild?” Roddy stared with widened eyes. “You are thinking too much into it, Xiaolian!”
“If we don’t try, how will we know?” Chen Xiaolian pushed down his own seat and lay down. “All right, let me rest for a bit. I have not slept in a long while.”
Without waiting for Roddy to speak up again, Chen Xiaolian closed his eyes.
…
Chen Xiaolian was not able to sleep long as the Tidal Fighter quickly arrived at their destination.
The ancient battlefield of Changban Hillside was within the outskirts of a county city. However, the coordinate given for the instance dungeon was the centre of the county city.
Taking advantage of the night sky, Roddy landed the Tidal Fighter somewhere in the outskirts.
Retrieving two jeeps out from their storage equipment, they then drove toward the city.
It was already past 10 in the evening. Although it was not too late in the night, life in a small county was simpler. Almost all of the shops on the street had been closed. Only a small handful of midnight snack shops remained open here and there.
Their two jeeps cautiously drove around the city a few times before Chen Xiaolian finally settled on a small hotel.
The front part of the hotel faced the main road of the county city. As for its back area, it had a stretch of old houses that were in the process of being renovated and a small alley ran in between them. Should they encounter a dangerous situation, they could either charge out to escape through the main road or disperse through the small alley behind and hide.
Thankfully, Chen Xiaolian’s group had arrived relatively early. Not many Awakened ones had reached the county city yet and there were quite a number of rooms in the hotel.
Chen Xiaolian took three adjacent rooms on the second floor. One for Chen Xiaolian and Roddy, one for Qimu Xi and Soo Soo and the last for Xia Xiaolei, Lun Tai and Bei Tai.
After waking up the next day, they went down and had breakfast before returning to their rooms. After assigning both Lun Tai and Bei Tai to stay behind and stand guard, he had both Xia Xiaolei and Qimu Xi stay in their room as well, informing them not to leave the room recklessly. After that, he brought Roddy and Soo Soo with him as he left the hotel.
He had originally wanted to go alone. However, Soo Soo stubbornly insisted on following. Having no other choice, Chen Xiaolian had to bring Roddy along to help take care of Soo Soo.
Roddy had previously made contact with the Awakened they found online. The Awakened had only sent over an address and nothing else. As the county city was not a large place, they only had to drive for over 10 minutes before arriving at their destination, another hotel.
While it was only a three-star hotel, it was the best hotel within the centre part of the county city.
“Xiaolian, their guild is being so ostentatious. Is this a good thing?” After getting off the jeep, Roddy looked at the hotel with a frown and asked Chen Xiaolian. “Although everyone will be on the same faction for this instance dungeon, it is difficult to guarantee that there will not be any grudges between guilds. To have so many guilds gather together before the instance dungeon begins…”
“Isn’t that the same thing with Zero City?” said Chen Xiaolian with a smile. “The number of guild members entering Zero City is much higher than the ones that will be appearing here.”
“How can that be used as a comparison?” Roddy lowered his voice and said indignantly, “Zero City had the restraining powers of the resident guilds and the Angel Corps. What does this place have?”
“At the very least, I don’t think that everyone within that guild is a fool. If you can think of it, there is no way they haven’t.” Chen Xiaolian shook his head slowly. “We do not have any intense grudges with any Awakened guilds here. There should not be much danger. Let’s go in first and have a look.”
Roddy shrugged before following Chen Xiaolian. They then entered the hotel through the main doorway.
Beside the lobby was the lounge area. There, a man in suit, leather shoes and a pair of sunglasses sat within the lounge area. When Chen Xiaolian’s group of three entered, he raised his head slightly and turned to look at them.
When their gazes met, Chen Xiaolian watched as he raised his right hand, placing it before his face. Next, a flame erupted to light up the cigarette on his mouth only to be quickly extinguished.
The flame had not erupted from a lighter. Instead, it had come from his fingertip.
Clearly, he was an Awakened.
His movements were also very furtive. He had utilized the angle of his surroundings and his body to ensure that his actions could only be noticed through Chen Xiaolian’s viewpoint.
Chen Xiaolian gave a slight nod and walked over toward the man. Then, he saw down on the sofa placed opposite the man.
Soo Soo, who was holding Chen Xiaolian’s hand, sat down beside him. Roddy, on the other hand, did not sit down. Instead, he stood beside the sofa, his eyes darting about vigilantly.
“Are you feeling very anxious?” said the man, who turned to look at Roddy with a smile. “Don’t worry. This place is very safe. There are no ambushes here.”
“There won’t be just because you say so?” Roddy replied with a snort.
“I have been an Awakened for a long time now. Except when inside instance dungeons, I have never seen others start a fight under broad daylight within the city centre.” The man snuffed out his cigarette. “Just relax.”
“He is right, Roddy. No need to be so anxious.” Chen Xiaolian smiled and said, “Besides… … even if they have any ill intentions, there is nothing for us to fear, isn’t that right?”
“It seems you are the Guild Leader for this guild, right?” The man extended his hand out toward Chen Xiaolian. “Jiang Long, the manager for Starfall Guild in the China region.”
“Starfall Guild?” Chen Xiaolian repeated the name of the guild that the man had just mentioned.
Judging by his title, the Starfall Guild should be quite a big guild. Were it not for that, he would not have used the words China region in his title. Strangely, neither Nicole nor Bluesea had ever mentioned this guild to him.
“It is normal that you have not heard of the name before. It has only been less than five days since the establishment of our guild. More accurately, the name ‘Starfall Guild’ has only been established less than five days ago.” Jiang Long smiled. Seeing that Chen Xiaolian had no intentions of shaking his hand, he retracted his hand and continued, “We are a newly founded guild. However, the members of this guild have been fighting alongside each other for a long time now.”
“So, that’s what it is. No wonder.” Chen Xiaolian nodded his head. “You were able to group up so quickly. That is unexpected. You people truly do have the ability to assemble the participants before the instance dungeon begins.”
“What do you mean?” Roddy did not understand what was going on.
“You still don’t get it? They are members of Thorned Flower Guild! Or should I say…” Chen Xiaolian turned to face Jiang Long with a smile on his face. “If I use the word traitor, would you mind?”
“Of course not.” Jiang Long laughed out. “Since we had agreed to do this, we will not care how others view us. Besides…”
He suddenly straightened his body. Slowly, he pulled off his sunglasses to reveal a pair of shining pupils. “Even if the other guilds have something to say about us, do you think we would care?”
…