Chapter 4 The Infinite Boss Invites You to "Eat Melon" 4. Provoking the Sub-Boss...

"Pei Yanzhi!"

Liu Xian was so frightened that he almost jumped out of the van.

"Nice to meet you." Pei Yanzhi glanced at him, then nodded with an elegant air.

Liu Xian was timid, and when Pei Yanzhi looked at him, he almost used his special ability to hide everyone in the car. But when he thought of Pei Yanzhi's methods, he felt that hiding them would be useless, so he froze in his seat.

Jiang Yan was also taken aback, but her expression remained unchanged. She calmly retorted, "As long as Captain Pei doesn't do anything wrong, then others won't have anything to say about him, right?"

Pei Yanzhi's smile remained unchanged, but as if he had little patience to argue with Jiang Yan, his gaze turned cold, and he said in a low voice, "Vice President Jiang, don't misunderstand. I came here not to show off or put you in a bad position, nor to coerce you into withdrawing from the exploration mission targeting Lu Yu."

"I just wanted to let you know that Dr. Zheng from the Department of Psychiatry at the First Municipal Hospital is indeed very skilled. You can go and see him if you have time."

Jiang Yan was surprised.

Pei Yanzhi dragged them out just to say this?

Old Bai had dealt with Pei Yanzhi before and wasn't too afraid of him. Hearing this, he muttered under his breath, "Instead of using the pollution-removing potion from the points shop, we're going to go and treat the pollution from the dungeon bosses who are the source of the pollution. Are we crazy...?"

That's right, most of the hospitals in "Fool's Kingdom" are instances, and most of the doctors within them are instance bosses. Dr. Zheng from the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the First Municipal Hospital is no exception.

"Just this?" Jiang Yan asked suspiciously.

“Yes,” Pei Yanzhi said.

After saying that, he smiled and turned to leave. Seeing this, Jiang Yan frowned slightly, but still spoke up: "Pei Yanzhi, do you know what you're doing?"

Pei Yanzhi turned his head: "You mean?"

"Provoking a dungeon boss only leads to death," Jiang Yan said coldly. "You should remember how many players tried to befriend dungeon bosses and NPCs, and what their fate was. Severely corrupted by the dungeon boss and reduced to a pile of mud, or wiped out by Smile Game and blown into a bloody firework of a golden planet—which do you want to be?"

Pei Yanzhi frowned in distress: "Do we really have to choose one?"

Jiang Yan asked, "You've never put yourself in such danger before. Why this time?"

"This is what you really want to ask, isn't it?" Pei Yanzhi curled his lips, his half-raised eyes gleaming with a deep, dark light. "I can answer you. Because this is the only SSS-level dungeon in Smile Game. Clearing it will end the game and return you to normal. I risked everything for it. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Don't you all know? I'm going crazy. A madman can do anything, right?"

Jiang Yan didn't believe it.

But as she looked at him, a strange sadness welled up in her heart for some reason, as if she were feeling the sorrow of a rabbit mourning the death of a fox.

She stopped talking.

But Pei Yanzhi spoke up again: "Speaking of which, Vice President Jiang, have you heard of a scandal? It's about the public restroom downstairs from the Smiling Media Company..."

Jiang Yan's face instantly turned green.

How did he know it was his own? Has his spatial domain become stronger again?

Seeing Jiang Yan's expression change, Pei Yanzhi was satisfied and waved goodbye.

The car window rolled up, and the van became closed again. The strange barrier that Pei Yanzhi had casually smashed slowly returned to normal.

Only then did Liu Xian, who had been carefully hiding behind Jiang Yan, finally breathe a sigh of relief. Jiang Yan glanced at him: "Afraid of the dungeon boss, but afraid of the players?"

Liu Xian wiped his sweat: "Pei Yanzhi is a much scarier player than a dungeon boss..."

Old Bai was speechless: "He's not the King of Hell, is it really necessary?"

"As for it!" Liu Xian said, "Have you forgotten? I witnessed Pei Yanzhi and the Slaughter Guild's incident! Just a year and a half ago, when I first entered the game. I had just finished my first dungeon and was at the game's transfer station, not even having a chance to settle down, when Pei Yanzhi stormed into the Slaughter Guild and started a massacre."

"He didn't even raise his hand, just walked in, smiling and greeting people as he went. Every greeting he gave killed someone, all of them strangled by the spatial energy. The scene was absolutely terrifying! Pei Yanzhi was practically a human meat grinder..."

"The King of Hell? Ha, even the King of Hell isn't as scary as him!"

Liu Xian still gets chills when he recalls that scene.

...

evening.

Lu Yu stood at the entrance of the Little Fruit Tree Milk Tea Shop, waiting for his fruit tea while sighing in melancholy, which attracted the attention of the shop's employees who suspected he was involved in something scandalous.

He does indeed have some scandalous dealings.

The gossip-eating system: [Hmph, what do you say now?]

Lu Yu remained silent, offering no reply.

But he knew that since this gossip-eating system was neither a scam nor a figment of imagination, there was only one answer left: this world is truly unscientific.

Even if he doesn't believe the information about himself displayed in the gossip system's entries, the very existence of the gossip system itself has already shattered his existing understanding.

Lu Yu tried hard to accept the new worldview and convinced himself that although this gossip system seemed useless, it was still a cheat code. It was already quite extraordinary that he had something that others didn't.

Moreover, it can display text directly in front of your eyes without having to look down at your phone, which is excellent. He won't have to worry about being bored during meetings anymore; at least he can eat some gossip.

Thinking of this, Lu Yu finally became interested and said to the system, "Come on, let's have some juicy gossip to try."

The gossip system noticed Lu Yu's acceptance and became smug. It swiped to expand the entries, and on the large screen, two entries were displayed alone: ​​"The Self You Don't Know" and "The Untold Story of Pei Yanzhi".

You know what, they actually look kind of good together.

Lu Yu: "...Isn't there anything else?"

Pei Yanzhi's adorable story has only been unlocked for that part, and his own delusional deeds are even less, only up to the two lines about the King of Natural Disasters. What's the point of watching this?

The "Gossip System": [This system is limited by the host's cognitive abilities and...]

Lu Yu took the packaged fruit tea and decisively severed his mental connection with the system.

Perhaps it was because of the arrival of love, but after taking a sip of the fruit tea today, Lu Yu clearly felt a bit sweeter.

As he walked toward the subway station, he took out his phone and looked at his chat with Pei Yanzhi.

It's 5 PM now, an hour since our last chat, and Lu Yu really wants to send something more.

But he considers himself a boring adult whose life has been mostly consumed by work. Apart from reading novels and sleeping, he has no other hobbies and doesn't even know where to start a conversation.

I can't exactly say, "I've been watching 'The Overbearing Prince and the Poisonous Consort' and 'The Return of the Rebellious Young Soldier King' lately, and they're quite stress-relieving. I recommend you put your brain in my hands and go check them out."

Pei Yanzhi would definitely find him very boring.

Perhaps Pei Yanzhi would be interested in cat videos?

There was a black and white cat near his neighborhood that was very friendly to him, but he didn't like taking pictures, so he didn't have any photos of it on his phone.

As Lu Yu stared at the chat window, the sweetness in his heart gradually turned into bitterness.

He pondered for a moment, then turned his attention back to the gossip-eating system: "I want to start an interesting yet ambiguous chat with Pei Yanzhi. Do you have any good suggestions?"

[Important disclaimer: This system is for observing and enjoying life's ups and downs, not for romance. Please resolve any relationship issues yourself.]

The number of times the gossip-eating system was speechless today was probably more than in its entire past life.

Lu Yu felt a slight disdain for the gossip system again, and was about to say something when his phone suddenly rang.

His heart skipped a beat. He looked closely, but what popped up wasn't a message from Pei Yanzhi, but a work coordination group.

Da Mei, Head of External Publicity for the Huanhua Lake Music Festival: [Lu Yu, Operations Director of Xiaoxi Media.]

Da Mei, Head of External Publicity for the Huanhua Lake Music Festival: [Mr. Lu, I heard you're on vacation this afternoon? Would it be convenient to have a meeting? Video conference is fine too.]

Our music festival starts in less than three days, but there's been a problem with the original on-site team; not everyone can make it. Can your company send someone over? Also, our boss isn't satisfied with the post-festival marketing plan. He says it doesn't meet our requirements for building a loyal fanbase and establishing brand IP value in one go, and we need a new version. Can you release it tonight?

The smile on Lu Yu's face vanished completely, and the sweet fruit tea in his mouth turned into a bitter iced Americano.

He resigned himself to his fate and changed his route to the company.

At 10:30 p.m. that night, Lu Yu drifted out of the company in a daze.

Shortly after he left, the lights in the company went out one by one. The five remaining players took the opportunity to gather in the company restroom and exchange information.

"How was it?" the short, chubby man who had received special attention from Lu Yu that morning asked in a low voice.

The high-ranking official shook his head: "There are no clues."

The short-haired girl assigned to the planning department said, "We've just arrived, and it's still early, so let's investigate further. Just be careful, though; I have a feeling this instance isn't as simple as it seems."

The short, stout man scoffed, "What's there to worry about in a dungeon run? It's a month-long dungeon run, you can just do some work and it'll be over. What could possibly happen? Nothing happened today, did it?"

The short-haired girl said, "There are plenty of instances where things start calmly but end up terrifying. You can do whatever you want, just don't drag us down."

Bao Xiaoqi, who looked quite refined, also said, "This is an A-level dungeon after all, and it shouldn't be underestimated."

The short, fat man rolled his eyes when he saw that they were on the same side.

"So when are we going to complete the story mission? Do you have any clues?" The high-ranking official changed the subject, getting to the crucial point.

All four of them frowned.

“‘Find the hidden secrets of Laughing Media Co., Ltd.’” Bao Xiaoqi said, “This task description is too general. We have no direction, and a company like this must have a lot of secrets.”

Another girl with braided hair said, "A company has many secrets, but not many hidden secrets that Smile Games will pay attention to. For a company, there are only a few things that are really important. My suggestion is that we focus on the company boss first."

“We were hired by the boss. When the receptionist brought us in, she also mentioned some of the boss’s likes and dislikes, which sounded a bit like a strange tale. I originally planned to test the waters, but to my surprise, the boss didn’t come to work all day, and his office was locked.”

Gao Gan said, "I asked around, and everyone said the boss is busy, but nobody knows what he's busy with."

"Then let's investigate the boss first."

The short-haired girl said, "Hey, right, do you guys think there's a problem with that Director Lu who's leading you?"

She asked Bao Xiaoqi and the high-ranking official.

"Is there anything wrong with him?" Gao Gan stroked his chin. "He looks like an ordinary NPC with average pollution levels, not even a small dungeon boss. You didn't see how he worked overtime with us today, a complete beast of burden, not a single thing."

The short-haired girl nodded and didn't say anything more.

The group quickly devised a plan to test the boss, and not wanting to linger in the restroom, they dispersed.

They walked out of the company, entered the elevator, and without pressing any buttons, the elevator automatically rose and fell, taking them to five different floors without any display.

Apart from a simple room, there was nothing else on the floor. This was a temporary rest stop arranged by Smile Games for players below S rank, requiring points to redeem rest time.

Of course, players can choose not to redeem. However, players below S rank cannot leave the instance, which means that if the five high-ranking officials do not enter the temporary rest area, they can only rest inside the company.

Putting aside the fact that there are surveillance cameras inside the company, and if they were found sleeping here instead of going home at night, what kind of suspicion would that arouse the NPCs' suspicions? Even if the NPCs didn't suspect anything, and they were allowed to sleep here, they wouldn't dare to do so for even a moment. This is a dungeon where danger and pollution could occur at any moment; who would dare to rest peacefully here?

Temporary rest stops may be expensive, but at least they are safe.

However, there are no temporary rest points in survival dungeons, so they were lucky to have entered a daily dungeon where they could catch their breath.

As for the strategy of hiding in temporary rest points to survive a dungeon, some players have tried it before, but without exception, they were all eliminated by the game.

Inside the office building, the Laughing Media Company lay deserted in darkness, utterly silent. Meanwhile, nearby surveillance cameras seemed to be malfunctioning, briefly losing footage of the five interns leaving work.

After an unknown amount of time, the two surveillance cameras inside and outside the company suddenly flashed and lost power.

Immediately afterwards, a figure stepped out of the elevator, slipped into the company, and groped his way to Lu Yu's workstation in the dark.

A note from the author:

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