CH 44

The young boy raised his head. His scarlet eyes were dark and deep, and his pupils reflected the young man’s cold and frosty face. It was as if the person before him was his entire world.

He obediently placed his neck against the scythe’s blade with his lips carrying a gentle smile.

It was as if he was completely willing to give the other person control over his life and death, and allow him to do as he pleased.

The two faced each other like this silently. The atmosphere in the air was heavy, making it difficult for one to breathe.

Ye Jia narrowed his eyes coldly.

“You think by doing that I would become soft-hearted?”

The blade moved closer.

The blade was extremely sharp. It lightly cut into the young boy’s thin neck.

A thin, scarlet wound appeared on the pale skin, looking even more shocking under the dim corridor lights. A trace of blood oozed out like a scarlet-coloured snake. It slowly trickled down the boy’s neck, reaching his neckline.

The other party didn’t avoid it.

The young boy’s tender voice was slightly mute and aggrieved, “How could I……”

He raised his hand and unbuttoned his shirt one by one. He then proceeded to spread open the top of his shirt, revealing his thin clavicle and chest.

The blade subconsciously cut more deeply. More blood flowed out.

Ye Jia was stunned.

His cold and distant voice carried some wavering.

“…….What are you doing?”

He saw a deep scar across the young boy’s thin chest. It looked particular hideous on that otherwise smooth and pale skin —- The location was accurately over his vitals. It could be seen that the person who did it didn’t hold back.

Blood flowed down, reaching that already healed wound. It resembled tears of blood.

Ji Xuan raised his hand to caress his chest. He leaned a little closer, the smile on his lips becoming brighter:

“Look, I have carefully kept the gift gege gave me.”

“If you become soft-hearted, then you’re no longer the gege I know.” The young boy tilted his head, his expression naïve and cruel.

The next moment, he hit Ye Jia’s blade with his neck without any hesitation.

Ye Jia was caught off guard.

He only had the time to materialise the weapon, but he didn’t have enough time to retract it.

Ji Xuan smiled and pressed his cheek against the other person’s palm, rubbing against it slowly and affectionately. His cold and thin lips lingered on the other person’s warm skin for a few short seconds.

Ye Jia immediately pushed the other person away, as if he was being scalded.

Fortunately, the current Ji Xuan wasn’t an adult. He staggered back a few steps from the push.

Ye Jia stared at him, seemingly in disbelief. It took a while before he could squeeze out the next word:

“Psychopath.”

After saying that, he entered his apartment without looking back.

Ji Xuan hurriedly followed after him, but what greeted him was the door mercilessly slamming in his face.

He touched the tip of his nose that was almost hit by the door thoughtfully.

…..Perhaps he had taken it too far?

But before he could think of a solution, the door before him suddenly opened again.

The boy raised his head, a glimmer of joy appearing in his scarlet eyes.

But before he could speak, he saw a dark object thrown out the door.

Ye Jia’s icy cold voice sounded:

“Take your fish.”

The next second, there was another ‘bang’ and the door closed mercilessly.

Ji Xuan lowered his head and looked at the blood gu fish in his palm.

“…..How did you become so small?”

Ji Xuan frowned as he looked at the blood gu fish that could easily fit in his hand.

Although the blood gu fish was usually well-behaved, it was a noble and arrogant species after all. It was almost impossible for it to abandon its original appearance and become smaller.

The blood gu fish flicked its tail and glanced at its master who had taken on a young boy’s appearance. It’s dark, empty eye sockets seemed to say:

Aren’t you the same?

Ji Xuan: “…….”

The blood gu fish pitifully turned back and glanced at the firmly shut door.

As if convinced that the other party would never open the door again, it waved its tail a few times in disappointment, returned to its original size and then passed through the wall of this building and swam away.

Only a thin boy was left standing alone in the deserted corridor.

Ji Xuan reached out and gently touched the wound on his neck.

The bleeding there had stopped but the hideous cut was still there.

There was a faint throbbing pain coming from that wound. It was as addictive as a stimulant, causing all his nerves to tremble with excitement.

His tongue gently licked the blood from his fingertips.

The smile on the boy’s lips deepened. His dark red eyes were slightly narrowed, and a trace of madness loomed in its depths.

Goodnight, gege.

Inside the apartment.

Water from the faucet loudly flowed into the basin. Ye Jia lowered his eyes expressionlessly and furrowed his brows in annoyance. The back of his originally pale hand was now rubbed red.

The small black hand who had shrunk into the corner in fear cautiously stuck its head out.

It didn’t know what had happened just now.

As soon as Ye Jia stopped, it had noticed the presence of an extremely powerful fierce ghost.

Mindful of Ji Xuan’s threat last time, the small black hand immediately slipped through the wall —- It should let the two big bosses sort out their problems themselves. In order not the be dragged in, it should hurry and escape.

Although the small black hand didn’t know what had happened, it was its first time seeing Ye Jia so emotional.

It cautiously asked, “W-what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Ye Jia twisted shut the faucet and dried his hands with a towel.

He lowered his eyes when he heard those words and directed his murderous gaze towards the small black hand.

The small black hand shuddered. It subconsciously pressed itself against the wall.

Ye Jia sneered, “I’m doing very well.”

The small black hand: “………”

But why did it think that it wasn’t the case at all?

The small black hand sat on the table which had one of its legs broken and thought seriously for a few seconds.

Based on the current situation, King must still have lingering feelings for Ace. Although the small black hand didn’t know what happened, it should still try and fix up their relationship somewhat —– After all, when the gods start fighting, it’s the mortals that suffer!

It racked its brains and finally decided to try and resolve the situation.

It said, “Actually…..King isn’t all that bad……”

Ye Jia raised a brow and his eyes flashed a cold light, “Not that bad?!”

Small black hand: “…….”

It silently shrank smaller.

I seemed to have said something wrong. Ying. (KKnotes: Crying sound)

Ye Jia took in a deep breath, as if supressing his anger, and then said through gritted teeth:

“He’s a psychopath.”

He was one in the past and is still one now.

And having not seen him for so many years, his condition seemed to have become more serious.

The small black hand was determined to avoid this dangerous topic, “Then…..what do you plan on doing now?”

Ye Jia, “Stay away from the psychopath.”

Small black hand: “……….”

It didn’t know what to say in response to this!

Ye Jia left the bathroom and looked around at the apartment that was almost destroyed by the blood gu fish.

Most of the furniture in there was almost completely destroyed but fortunately the bathroom was a separate room and the things in there were mostly able to escape the same fate. In any case, it was at least still enough for one to use.

Ye Jia pinched the bridge of his nose.

The fingers that had just been washed with cold water pressed against his eyebrows, gradually cooling down his heated emotions.

—-It had to be said that Ji Xuan’s interruption had pulled him back from the trance he was left in after his visit to the morgue.

It also made Ye Jia clearly realise that although he wanted to figure out the truth behind what happened to his parents, it was after all something that had happened more than a decade ago and most of the clues from back then would have already been erased. The only connection between that case and the recent murder case was that skinning fierce ghost, but it had been in hiding for a long time. Ye Jia knew that there was no other option for him besides waiting it out.

Moreover, there were more urgent matters waiting for him to attend to.

According to the information from Ji Xuan—If he hadn’t lied to them—-Mother was still plotting something big and she clearly had no intentions to stop.

And humans at present were completely unprepared for this.

Whether it was intel or combative abilities, they were at an absolute disadvantage.

If Mother decided to do that rampage again in the other cities, they would be unable to put up a fight.

His top priority now was to raise mankind’s ability to fight back.

Suddenly, Ye Jia seemed to have thought of something.

He quickly went over to his bedside table and opened the drawer which had a corner missing, revealing the paper he had used to communicate with Wu Su with.

The above information was from two hours ago.

It was probably sent to him when he went to the morgue. It was a message requesting a meeting.

Ye Jia sighed silently.

.

At the dock.

Wu Su hurriedly came here alone.

There were sounds of waves crashing coming from the dark sea ahead. With the exception of a few stars scattered around, the sky above was pitch black.

From a distance, he saw a slender young man standing at the end of the road, waiting quietly. His tall figure was like a silhouette in the light, quiet and peaceful. It was completely unlike his sharp image last night, but it still similarly made people feel at ease.

Wu Su took in a deep breath, the salty and damp air pouring into his chest cavities, but he still couldn’t calm his racing heart.

Please read this from kk translates

He quickly hurried over.

After a short conversation, Wu Su told Ye Jia about the matter of a high-level fierce ghost wanting to seek cooperation with them: “The superiors have agreed to his request and have also found someone to take care of him, but I still want to hear from you your opinion on this.”

Ye Jia was silent for a moment before he nodded, “Best to be careful.”

Although he really didn’t want to cooperate with Ji Xuan and didn’t want to have anything to do with that psychopath, he had to admit that the other party’s proposal was something that had come at a good time.

The people in the Bureau didn’t know of Ji Xuan’s identity, but Ye Jia did.

As the King, he was closer to the core of the puzzle than any other ghost.

Therefore, it would be very rash of them to refuse the olive branch extended their way.

Ye Jia asked, “What do you plan on doing about the incident with the ghosts and monsters rampaging last night?”

Wu Su: “Hiding the existence of them is impossible now. After last night, it seems that the ghosts and monsters all over the country have become more active and there have been endless reports of paranormal incidents from all across the country. The superiors have decided to disclose the existence of the Bureau and set up more branch offices to more efficiently deal with these cases.”

“What about the game?” Ye Jia narrowed his eyes.

Wu Su shook his head and sighed, “The superiors are not going to make that public.”

—–Paranormal creatures didn’t only exist in fictional work.

The incident last night had completely overturned most people’s understanding of the world. Everyone was panicking and everyone was in danger. Society in its entirety was in the verge of breaking down.

That’s why the government couldn’t disclose to the public the existence of a mysterious game which had been dragging people into its world over the past decade or so, let alone the fact that it had crashed and that the ghosts and monsters inside of it had been released to the human world.

“However,” Wu Su continued, “at least we can recruit people publicly now.”

He sighed, “All our departments have been working under strained conditions for more than two months now and with that incident last night, we can no longer overlook the shortage in manpower. Our current recruitment methods aren’t enough to meet our current needs.”

So while revealing the existence of the Paranormal Investigation and Management Bureau, the superiors would also start a recruitment drive.

Although it was only posted earlier this afternoon, the Bureau had already received many applications.

Wu Su added:

“Although so far a large part of the applicants are paranormal enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists, there are also many who truly want to join the Bureau. We have reviewed some of the resumes this afternoon and the interviews will start tomorrow. Once the first batch of recruits are trained up, it should help with the current workload.”

Ye Jia nodded thoughtfully.

He gave Wu Su a piece of paper, “When the official announcement is made, you can print this onto the corner of the recruitment brochure.”

Wu Su received it and checked the contents.

That piece of paper appeared extremely white under the starlight, making the lines on it look extraordinarily clear even in the dark.

It looked complicated and weird, as if it was some kind of strange text and also as if there were rose branches entangling around each other.

Wu Su recognised a few characters in the corner of the drawing. It formed three letters:

Ace.

He was shocked. He immediately looked up at Ye Jia, “T-this is….?”

In the game, only players in the top 100 had a code name.

Once there were sufficient points, the game would randomly assign corresponding code names to the players based on their previous performance and this code name would then appear on the leaderboard, visible for all the other players to see. Accompanying the code name would often be a decorative pattern that symbolised their identity.

It was equivalent to their unique, personal signature, and generally no one dared to imitate or misappropriate them.

There was a reward system in the game.

Both points and yin energy could be exchanged into currency in the game on a one-to-one ratio.

Fierce ghosts would use their yin energy to exchange for currency and use it to as a reward for a player’s life or their limb on the hatred leaderboard, and the game would dynamically settle the rewards offered and rearrange the rankings on the said leaderboard.

Players could also exchange their points into currency and use it to post tasks, request for trade or find teammates.

All of them were public. This meant that if a player’s signature was used to post something, the fierce ghosts after the bounty offered on the hatred leaderboard would surely go after the clues left by it.

After all, most players with signatures weren’t low on the hatred leaderboard.

No one would be willing to help bear the burden.

The higher the player’s ranking, the less likely it was for them to use their signature to post anything. It was after all equivalent to exposing their location.

Despite so many years in the game, Wu Su had never seen Ace’s signature.

He was a well-known solo player. He never actively sought out for teammates and also never posted anything.

Furthermore, in the game it was also possible to gain a player’s points by killing them.

Therefore, as Ace’s position on the leaderboard moved higher and higher, more and more players started to set their eyes on him. It was even more so compared to the number fierce ghosts after his life. As a result, no one dared to imitate his signature.

—–This was Wu Su’s first time having the honour of seeing Ace’s exclusive signature.

As a player, he knew very well the meaning behind the other party’s actions.

One should know that the higher one’s ranking was in the game and the longer period of time the player spent in the game, the more unique their temperament.

Although many players had joined the Bureau together with Wu Su, they didn’t rank high on the leaderboard.

All the real bosses had basically gone incognito and disappeared.

Therefore, although the Bureau was running a recruitment drive, Wu Su didn’t hold any expectations over them making an appearance. At most, he only hoped that the new recruits would be able to help with the mountain of work that had piled up and help deal with some low difficulty paranormal events —— If they were required to deal with a high-levelled fierce ghost, they were still too weak.

But now, with Ace’s signature, everything was different.

As the only player who had cleared the game, the effect of his signature was terrifying.

—-In other words, they may really be able to recruit an experienced team to help deal with the ghosts and monsters from the game.

Wu Su felt a little dizzy at the thought of this.

He carefully held that piece of paper in his hand, his heart pounding loudly and his throat a little dry, “You………”

Please read this from kk translates

Ye Jia interrupted him:

“But, you have to think over this carefully.”

—- After all, this signature won’t just attract players over.

Those words were like a basin of cold water, instantly waking Wu Su up.

Ace had been in the game for many years and has many enemies. Moreover, before the game crashed, the Ghost King Ji Xuan had also offered a reward, successfully pushing his name to the top of the hatred leaderboard.

He started to feel conflicted.

Now that the game had crashed, the competitive relationship between the players was gone, so it shouldn’t matter much for the players.

But it was different for the fierce ghosts.

Wu Su wasn’t a ghost after all, so he didn’t know whether the ghosts who had left the game still recognised this hatred leaderboard of theirs.

Ye Jia thought for a while, “You don’t need to worry about the hatred leaderboard.”

Wu Su breathed a sigh of relief.

But he then heard the other party say, “You only need to worry about whether the fierce ghosts who have a grudge against me will come.”

Wu Su: “…….”

A trembling heart and trembling hands.

Seeing Wu Su’s troubled expression, Ye Jia expressed his understanding.

“You don’t need to give me an answer now. Go back and think about it. It’s fine to just let me know after you have made a decision.”

After Wu Su left, Ye Jia turned and went to the warehouse he had visited before to carefully inspect it.

Everything in there had been taken away, including the water tank holding the monster and the rack of human skins.

Even the traces left from the fight against that fake blood gu fish had been cleaned up.

Very clearly, the other party had taken advantage of the chaos in the city to do this. They had dealt with it very thoroughly, leaving almost no traces behind. Ye Jia noted down the warehouse number and got ready to return to the Bureau tomorrow and look into it.

But seeing how careful the other party appeared to be, he felt that he probably wouldn’t be able to find any useful information.

After leaving the dock, Ye Jia returned to his apartment.

He had already been working non-stop for the past few days.

Although his entire room was a mess, he didn’t have the energy to deal with it.

Ye Jia took a quick shower and then walked over to his still somewhat intact bed.

But as soon as he sat down, the small black hand shuffled over, “That human has replied.”

Ye Jia raised a brow in surprise.

It had only been two hours, but the other party had already made his decision?

The small black hand passed the paper over.

“I reported to my superiors your suggestion and they think it is feasible.” Wu Su’s voice travelled out from that piece of paper, “After all, if you don’t enter the tiger’s lair, you won’t be able to capture the tiger. If we don’t mobilise all forces, humans will not be able to take on the monsters from the game and that Mother who is watching over everything……Although it is very risky, we have no other choice.”

Ye Jia asked, “Then am I now considered as a non-contracted employee?”

Wu Su was surprised, “……I guess so?”

Ye Jia smiled and continued, “Then let’s talk about the remuneration.”

The extra income from Ji Xuan’s end was probably no longer possible, and he really didn’t want to go through those days of working two jobs and only getting one source of income again.

Wu Su: “……..”

???

How did the topic change so suddenly?

.

After finishing his discussion with Wu Su, the paper automatically started to burn in his palm. The bright red flame reflected in the young man’s eyes, like a golden-red butterfly flapping its wings.

The fire gradually went out.

The room dimmed down again. The edges of the inky dark sky outside the window were turning a dark blue, signalling the arrival of dawn.

A grey-blue light filtered in through the window, rendering the small bedroom a little hazy.

Ye Jia lowered his eyes, patted off the ashes from his palm and slowly sighed.

Now that Wu Su had agreed to his proposal, he must deal with that hatred leaderboard.

He had a lot of enemies. If more fierce ghosts are drawn to M City because of him, it would make the situation even more difficult to deal with.

—-He had only just said that he would stay away from that psychopath, but after less than half a night, he had to go against his words.

The scene from their earlier confrontation outside in the corridor surfaced to his mind. Ye Jia felt a headache forming.

How about…….Leaving this matter until later?

In any case, Wu Su wouldn’t immediately issue an announcement anyway.

Moreover, he was too sleepy.

Ye Jia yawned. He blinked his eyes that had turned hazy from sleepiness and then fell back into his bed.

The next second, there was a ‘crack’ and all four legs of the bed broke from the weight.

Ye Jia laid in the ruins, calmly looking up at the ceiling.

That sleepiness from earlier had long disappeared without a trace.

—-He now had a second reason to look for Ji Xuan.