Chapter 62: A Conversation from the Past
After breakfast, Zhang Yuanqing went to the bathroom to wash up, then returned to his room, booted up his computer, and began writing the dungeon guide.
From a purely financial standpoint, selling the guide privately would have been the most profitable move. The official reward for a guide wouldn't amount to much, ranging anywhere from a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand yuan. But many things in life couldn't be measured by money alone, and merit was one of them.
Merit could help move official resources, grant him access to restricted files, improve prospects for promotion, and open the door to official assistance. None of that could be bought by money alone. Besides, the official organization had provided him with guides for both of his S-rank Spirit Realms. Returning the favor now was only right.
His fingers danced across the keyboard.
【Jinshui Amusement Park Guide, No. 6203, Difficulty: S-rank, Type: Multiplayer Spirit Realm (Death Type)】
【Jinshui Amusement Park Main Quest: Complete two or more park attractions.】
【The first attraction I played was the Roller Coaster. The means of clearing it hasn't changed. Closing your eyes during the ride lets you survive it without harm, but the reality is far less simple than it sounds. I'll set that aside for now and explain in detail later.】
【Unlike the old version of the dungeon, the new version of the amusement park introduced a "series" system. The roller coaster belongs to a series called the "Heart Pounding Series," which includes the following attractions: Roller Coaster, Underground Parking Garage, Haunted House (Ghost Marriage), and Detective Mystery Hall.】
【The main quest for the Underground Parking Garage stage is...
【Remember, when evading the car robots, the entire team should hide in the same vehicle to minimize time lost. When drawing cards, find someone with good luck. If your luck is terrible, don't try to be a hero. There's a risk of a total party wipe...】
【The Haunted House is the most terrifying scenario in the amusement park. There are two additional stages: filling in your wedding invitation and finding the betrothal gifts. Female Spirit Realm Walkers, take note: when filling out the wedding invitation, do NOT write your gender as female. Anyone who does so will be killed without exception.
【The betrothal gifts are: medicinal wine, wedding quilt, golden hairpin, and steelyard beam. Each gift corresponds to a vengeful spirit, and the method to overcome them is...】
【Warning: the betrothal gifts stage forces party reduction. Watch out for teammates turning on each other.】
【Warning: during the Ghost Bride's groom selection stage, Nocturnal Specters will be targeted and die! I personally escaped the Ghost Bride's clutches only because I was born devastatingly handsome, with an extraordinary bearing that left the vengeful spirit smitten. This is a heaven sent gift, beyond mortal effort. The rest of you simply cannot pull it off, so do not attempt to imitate me. 】
【But do not panic. I have a method to avoid the death trap. The solution lies in the second stage, the Underground Parking Garage...】
【The guide for the Detective Mystery Hall is...】
【Jinshui Amusement Park Hidden Mission: After reading the Detective Mystery Hall walkthrough, you should have some understanding of the hidden mission...】
【At this point in time, the mechanism by which the dungeon assigns roles cannot be confirmed. However, in this party, one Evil-class Walker had the identity of a neutral player. I suspect the assignment of Evildoer and Mole is not based on class, but on the human heart.】
After finishing the guide and reviewing it carefully, Zhang Yuanqing sent it to Li Dongze's email.
As he stared at the confirmation screen, another thought immediately crossed his mind.
That overgrown loli Xie Lingxi managed to get her hands on the old version of the guide. She's either part of one of the official organizations, or deeply connected to them. All she needs is to do a little digging and she could figure out my identity—no, my ID.
The whole purpose of Spirit Realm Walkers using IDs was to have a public-facing alias, a convenient persona for establishing themselves in the Spirit Realm world. At that level, secrecy was typically unnecessary.
Take Yuanshi Tianzun clearing the Sheling Tunnel, for example. Word of that achievement had spread through the Five Elements Alliance and the Taiyi Sect, and everyone agreed Yuanshi Tianzun had great potential. But what did that have to do with Zhang Yuanqing?
Now that this S-rank dungeon had been cleared, the Five Elements Alliance would almost certainly publicize his accomplishment rather than suppress it. They might even put his name front and center to showcase the depth of talent within the organization.
Of course, that publicity would be limited to his ID. Any information connected to his real identity would be classified at a higher security level.
All Xie Lingxi had to do was ask around, and she'd discover that her dear Brother Wang Tai was actually a fraud called "Yuanshi Tianzun."
If she has some sort of official background, then so be it, he concluded. It doesn't really matter. I deal with official Walkers all the time, but only as Yuanshi Tianzun.
Zhang Yuanqing closed his email, pulled out his phone, and opened the official forum.
A post with a shocking headline immediately caught his eye.
【#BREAKING: Jinshui Amusement Park Has Been Cleared, and You Won't Believe Who Did It#】
He nearly jumped out of his skin. He'd only been back for a few hours. How had someone already dug up the story?
But when he opened the post, it turned out to be about River Lord. Before entering the Spirit Realm, River Lord had notified his superiors per protocol. After an agonizing night of waiting, his superiors and colleagues were thrilled to discover he had returned alive.
The local official community had erupted. News spread instantly among the Spirit Realm Walkers in the city, generating the kind of excitement usually reserved for a village producing a student who'd been accepted to a top university in the capital.
⤷ Days Gone By: Where's the guide? Is it done yet? I already submitted a request using my points, but the steward told me there's no new version in the database.
⤷ Long Road Ahead: Can confirm there's no new guide. Just finished searching the database @River Lord.
The official Spirit Realm Walkers had initially been overjoyed, showering Yancheng's River Lord with lavish praise and generous compliments. However, as the praise continued to flow while neither a guide nor any response from River Lord materialized, confusion set in, and people began questioning the post's authenticity.
⤷ King With a Condition: Spreading rumors? Are you looking for a beating? Don't make me round up the boys and take the high speed rail to Yancheng to flatten your branch @River Lord.
After a round of bickering and demands, with relentless tagging, River Lord finally appeared.
⤷ River Lord: I did clear Jinshui Amusement Park. The reward was 18% experience, which is pretty generous.
⤷ Days Gone By: The guide! Where's the guide?!
River Lord fell silent for several minutes, seemingly unable to bring himself to tell the truth. His reply arrived painfully late.
⤷ River Lord: There is none.
What!?
Just as the official Walkers on the forum felt they'd been played, River Lord posted again.
⤷ River Lord: I just took a hit for someone, then died, then cleared the dungeon. So I don't have a guide for you. Maybe you think that sounds absurd. How could an S-rank Spirit Realm be that simple? All I can say is, that's one of the ways Jinshui Amusement Park works. I can't go into specifics on the forum. The expert who carried me through should be able to write out the complete guide, but he doesn't seem to be one of ours. I can tell you his name.
River Lord had cleared it without having to lift a finger? Who on earth was this saintly, all powerful figure who had helped him?
Days Gone By and several other official Walkers who were slated to enter the Spirit Realm soon were the most desperate.
⤷ Days Gone By: Who was it? Spit it out!!
⤷ River Lord: All I know is he goes by Wang Tai. We didn't interact much, so I'm not sure about the details.
⤷ Li Dongze: ???
⤷ Guan Ya: ???
⤷ Green Vine: ???
⤷ White Dragon: ???
Others began debating who this mysterious Wang Tai might be, astonished that they'd never heard of the name. Someone tried tagging Wang Tai and, to everyone's surprise, the ID actually existed.
⤷ Call Me Queen: Oh? Looks like he's one of ours. Great!
Under the relentless summoning of the crowd, Wang Tai finally appeared.
⤷ Wang Tai: I didn't do anything. It wasn't me. Stop making things up. But I know who it was. His ID is Yuanshi Tianzun.
⤷ Days Gone By: Yuanshi Tianzun? What a domineering name. No wonder he's so incredible. Who is this guy?
⤷ King With a Condition: Why does that sound familiar?
⤷ White Dragon: I know him. He's the Nocturnal Specter who cleared Sheling Tunnel. That scoundrel @Li Dongze up there kidnapped him to be his subordinate. I've already decided to rescue him from that sea of suffering.
Her comment jogged the collective memory of the forum. That was the ID of the rookie who'd cleared Sheling Tunnel, an ID that had caused quite a stir just over half a month ago.
⤷ Days Gone By: It's him? Great. All that matters is that he's one of ours. The worst case would be if a freelance Spirit Realm Walker had completed the guide, followed by someone from the Taiyi Sect.
Only when one of their own produced the guide could they obtain it at the lowest cost. Guides from their own people and guides from rival factions were two very different things.
⤷ Call Me Queen: Oh, it's him! Come to think of it, he's also a Nocturnal Specter. Good thing we recruited him into the Five Elements Alliance. Hmm, that suddenly reminds me of a saying that's been trending on the Taiyi Sect forums lately: Elder Sun, what were you thinking!
⤷ River Lord: So his ID is Yuanshi Tianzun...
⤷ King With a Condition: So you're saying this kid, no, this great man has cleared two S-rank Spirit Realms?
A figure like that might well become a rising star in the Five Elements Alliance before long.
Give Elder Sun a break, Zhang Yuanqing thought as he read the posts. No, give Captain Yuan a break. Elder Sun is going to beat him to death...
Thoroughly satisfied, he exited the forum, put away his phone, pushed himself away from the desk, and walked over to lock his room door.
Then, he opened a drawer and took out the Cat King Speaker.
This scammy item couldn't be stored in his Inventory, and could only be carried on his person. After returning to the real world, he'd tossed it into a drawer and left it there.
Zhang Yuanqing cradled the black metal speaker in his palm, lost in thought.
Bro Bing said he left everything inside the Cat King Speaker, and the item does have a recording function. That was already verified back in the Haunted House. So if I want to know what he left behind, I need to make it talk...
The Cat King Speaker only had two buttons, one to play war drums and one to play the suona. Both sounds were deeply supernatural and couldn't be tested in an apartment building without risking collateral damage to innocent bystanders.
Besides, even pressing the buttons probably wouldn't yield any useful information.
Back in the Haunted House, it had revealed the information automatically, without me pressing any buttons. Does that mean getting information out of the Cat King Speaker is completely up to chance?
He frowned in thought for a moment, then suddenly recalled how this scammy item had displayed an almost lifelike survival instinct when faced with the Ghost Bride.
That's right. The soul of the Cat King is sealed inside this item. It's like the Red Dancing Shoes. It's an item with a mind of its own. And if it has a mind, it can be reasoned with.
Having figured that out, Zhang Yuanqing cleared his throat.
"Hey, Cat King. From now on you're with me. Your best days are ahead, with plenty of good food and drink. But I need a favor right now. Do you have any recordings? Anything about the Demon Lord?"
He'd originally intended to ask about Bro Bing, but the Cat King definitely wouldn't know who "Bro Bing" referred to, and he didn't know Bro Bing's Spirit Realm ID either.
The black metal speaker gave no response.
"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," he threatened.
There was still no response.
After several fruitless attempts at persuasion, Zhang Yuanqing flew into a rage. He hurled the speaker into the trash can and undid his belt.
"Fine. If you want to play dirty, I'll play dirty. Time for you to sample some premium boy broth."
Just as he was preparing to unsheathe his Divine Needle and drain the ocean, the imprisoned Cat King Speaker emitted a crackling hiss of static.
Zhang Yuanqing's heart leaped with joy. It was working! The next moment, a strange audio clip started to play.
"Ahh... Ahh, ahh... Mmm... Mmm... Ahh... Be gentle..."
A woman's breathy moans and a man's heavy panting filled the room in glorious stereo surround sound.
Zhang Yuanqing's expression went blank, a row of question marks flashing through his brain. What was happening?
Just then, someone pounded heavily on his bedroom door, and his grandmother's furious roar came from outside.
"Zhang Yuanqing, what are you doing in there?! That noise carried all the way downstairs! Have you no shame?! Open this door right now. I'm going to kill you today!!"
Grandma, let me explain!! he thought desperately.
All hope drained from his body as he stretched his hand toward the door, grasping uselessly at the air as if trying to salvage what remained of his familial bonds.
Wait. My Night Wandering skill can eliminate all sound!
He scrambled to pick up the Cat King Speaker from the trash can and activated Night Wandering.
The ethereal Power of the Dark Moon burst outward and enveloped him, forcibly erasing his form from existence.
In an instant, the sultry sounds vanished from the room, echoing only in his ears alone.
His grandmother stubbornly knocked at his door for a long while. When the noise stopped, and with her grandson playing dead, she dropped a threat—"Just wait until you come out!"—and left.
Zhang Yuanqing exhaled with relief. At that moment, the speaker played the final sound of a man's low growl, and all sounds finally ceased.
A few seconds later, he heard a young but raspy voice speak.
"I've slept with more women than I can count, but the ladies from your Aphrodite Society are the most satisfying by far. As expected of someone from a class that commands love and desire."
A soft, sweet voice tinged with a hint of huskiness answered him.
"Lord Demon Lord, serving you is Betty's honor. When are you leaving this country? Come with Betty to meet the President. Our President has wanted to meet you for a very long time."
The woman's pronunciation was somewhat clumsy, as though she were a foreigner.
Zhang Yuanqing froze when he heard that exchange. The sounds from before hadn't been the Cat King Speaker pranking him. It was the lead up to a conversation that had actually taken place.
The protagonists were the Demon Lord and a foreign woman.
His spirits surged, and he pricked up his ears and waited for the conversation to continue.
