Chapter 12 The Infinite Boss Invites You to "Eat Melon" 12. He just...
For a fleeting moment, both Gao Gan and Bao Xiaoqi wanted to smash their phones on the "Evolver's" head and give him a good scolding. But the instinct for survival stopped them.
They stared at each other in silence for a long time, and finally decided to continue with their previously agreed-upon delaying tactics and slacking off plan. They would argue verbally for a long time, pretending to be unwilling to agree, but in reality, they would only provide manpower, not actual effort. Their response was always the same: they had tried their best, but they really couldn't get it; if you're so capable, you do it yourself.
Although they had already devised a strategy, both of them remained uneasy deep down.
Lu Yu observed all of this and deduced the direction of the S-level players behind them from their changes.
At 9:30 p.m., the music festival ended. At 10:30 p.m., Lu Yu finished packing up and prepared to take the last subway train home. Gao Gan and Bao Xiaoqi were driven back to the company by an old colleague.
They insisted on going back to the company first, supposedly because they had forgotten their house keys there. But Lu Yu, who had already unlocked the "copy" entry, knew that they didn't have a real place to live in Baixiang City; the only places they could stay were the company and the music festival venue.
Lu Yu ignored them.
The departure of Gao Gan and Bao Xiaoqi meant the arrival of the S-level players. From the moment Lu Yu stepped out of the music festival, he knew he was about to face a tough battle. His first real clash with these players who didn't belong to this world was about to begin. He was well aware of this.
A light rain began to fall in the dead of night. Lu Yu stuffed his phone into a waterproof bag, squeezing it together with his work badge.
Pretending his neck was sore and he found the phone too heavy, he took the waterproof bag off his neck, wrapped the strap around his arm a few times, and then took the contents of the bag into his hand.
Goodbye, Teacher Lu!
"Brother Lu, we're leaving!"
"Mr. Lu, Mr. Lu, please take an umbrella!"
Saying hello to everyone as he left, Lu Yu took a cheap, transparent umbrella that was often sold at the subway entrance, held it over his head, and stepped out of the music festival venue with his bag on his back.
From the moment he stepped out of the arena, Lu Yu was prepared to encounter all sorts of strange events. He didn't intend to confront the players head-on right now, but he wanted to understand their situation and test their strength.
He walked slowly and steadily toward the nearest subway station.
It was already late, and it was raining, so there weren't many pedestrians on the road.
Under the dim streetlights, Lu Yu walked alone. Occasionally, someone would pass by, but nothing seemed amiss. Everything was as calm as if all the strange occurrences—the story quests, the dungeon players—were merely his imagination, nonexistent. Anyone else in his shoes would probably have doubted themselves and gone to a psychiatrist.
But Lu Yu did not.
He remained calm and did not let his guard down.
Nothing happened along the way. After arriving at the subway station, Lu Yu put away his umbrella, took the escalator down, went to the security checkpoint, and scanned his face to pass through the turnstile.
But perhaps because he had been staying up late these past two days, he looked a bit haggard, and his face scan at the turnstile failed. He tried three different turnstiles in a row, and the result was the same.
The security guard next to me reminded me, "Scan the code. If you delay any longer, you'll miss the last bus."
Lu Yu nodded and swiped his phone to scan the code. However, because the waterproof bag was too thick and there were some dried water stains on the surface, the code could not be scanned.
Lu Yu paused, then reached out and opened the waterproof bag, took out his phone, and prepared to scan the code to pass through the gate.
Just then, six or seven college students suddenly appeared behind Lu Yu.
They seemed to have just finished attending a music festival and then had some late-night snacks nearby, which explained why they were only now getting on the subway. The three turnstiles were surrounded by six or seven people; although not crowded, it was a little chaotic.
Someone bumped into Lu Yu, and his phone fell to the ground. The waterproof bag also slipped from his hand, hanging down on the lanyard.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I'll do it, I'll do it!"
Upon seeing this, a girl immediately apologized while bending down to pick up her phone.
Meanwhile, while Lu Yu's attention was drawn to this little accident, an inconspicuous boy passed by and, with a flick of his finger, as if shooting out a spider web, easily cut the hanging rope of the waterproof bag.
The boy's eyes lit up with a hint of joy. He was about to pull the spider web and steal the waterproof bag when he saw Lu Yu suddenly take a step back and bump into his spider web.
The spider silk instantly lost all its strange abilities, becoming just like an ordinary spider silk, and stuck to the hem of Lu Yu's clothes.
With a thud, the waterproof bag fell to the ground.
Before the boy could even react in surprise and reach for the bag, Lu Yu had already stretched out his long arm and scooped it up.
The boy who brushed past the waterproof bag: "..."
The girl who had just picked up her phone: "..."
Lu Yu looked at the girl, took the phone from her hand, and said, "Thank you, be careful when you walk." After saying that, he turned his questioning gaze to the boy who was still standing there in the posture of picking up the things.
The boy immediately stood up straight and forced a smile: "I'm waiting for her. We're together."
"Yes, that's right." The girl nodded in agreement and took the boy's arm.
Lu Yu: "Then... I wish you happiness?"
The two: "..."
Ignoring their reactions, Lu Yu scanned the code and passed through the gate first.
The S-rank players who were secretly observing this place through various means: "..."
"Idiot!" Ji Chengchuan sneered from inside the dark car.
At the other end of the subway station, Jiang Yan, disguised, pressed down on the earpiece hidden in her hair and asked in a low voice, "A person from 'Knife Emperor'?"
Liu Xian's voice came through. He had timed it perfectly and boarded the last subway two stops early: "Yes, I've done some simple makeup and disguise."
As Jiang Yan walked towards the platform, she said, "Of the ten teams this time, six chose Lu Yu's side, and four chose Bai Shan's side. 'Knife King' Wu Dachuan is the most impatient of them all and knows the least about Lu Yu. He only managed to get to tenth place because he had a good intuition and directly chose Lu Yu during the exploration mission. Their overall strength is the lowest, so it's normal for them to be guided and make the first move."
"Hopefully, as foolish as they are, they won't ruin our plans," Old Bai chimed in. "During the day, 'Evolver' Ji Chengchuan's attempt to scam Gao Gan and Bao Xiaoqi was already reckless enough. Although he obtained important information and listed the new work badge as the primary suspect, it was still too risky. He's just used to things going smoothly..."
Jiang Yan said, "It's normal to cause trouble. While benefiting yourself and advancing the mission, digging pits for other teams is a very common tactic in story missions. Stay calm, the mission has only just begun."
"Yes, Captain."
Lao Bai and Liu Xian responded in hushed tones.
After the two members of the Blade King Squad tested the situation, the information that the strange objects had no effect on Lu Yu, and even malfunctioned upon contact with him, turning him into ordinary objects, became common knowledge among the six squads. Squads unaware of this information immediately began adjusting their strategies.
Wu Dachuan, known as the "Knife King," huddled in a corner of the subway, on the verge of tears.
These cunning fellows, no wonder they didn't make the first move, they were just waiting for him to spy on them!
Now things are really complicated. He doesn't dare gamble on whether Lu Yu is face-blind, so these two team members can't directly contact Lu Yu or hang around him in the short term. Their team only has four people in total, and they've already lost half of them at the start.
"Intelligence confirmed. Prepare to move in."
At the same time, an order was issued by "Dreamcatcher," ranked fifth on the player leaderboard, and transmitted through special means to a man with a mustache in the subway car.
The last subway train arrived at the station on time.
There were only a few people on the platform. Lu Yu glanced at them and stepped into the carriage.
There weren't many people in the carriage, so Lu Yu found an empty seat and sat down.
He didn't have the habit of using his phone on the subway. He glanced at the work messages, then closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. He stuffed the waterproof bag containing his work badge into the side mesh pocket of his backpack. The backpack was quite heavy, so he took it off and placed it on the empty space next to him.
Time passed quietly.
The subway started and stopped, stopped and started again, passing four or five stops with each announcement.
Finally, at a certain stop, a short man boarded. In the next carriage, a man with a mustache immediately walked towards him as if he had been waiting for someone, passing by Lu Yu.
"It's a 'sleepyhead'!"
The moment the man with the mustache moved, Liu Xian, who was hiding nearby using his special ability, recognized him. His pupils contracted slightly as he whispered, "Captain, 'Sleepy Bug,' one of 'Dreamcatcher's' men, has made his move. Monsters are useless against the Boss, but players' special abilities should still be effective."
"Don't act rashly, observe first." Jiang Yan observed from a distance of two carriages.
"Sleepyhead" walked past Lu Yu without stopping, but in the eyes of Jiang Yan, Liu Xian, and other players who were watching the situation inside the carriage, "Sleepyhead's" special ability had already been activated.
His ability to sleep seemed to really affect Lu Yu, causing his head to slump noticeably as he leaned against the carriage wall, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.
"The boss seems to be asleep, but 'Sleepyhead' didn't turn around, and he didn't touch the boss's things." Liu Xian became a little nervous, but without Jiang Yan's orders, he wouldn't do anything no matter how worried he was.
“The Dream Catcher is more cautious than the Blade King,” Jiang Yan said. “He won’t let his teammates take direct action. Those who control dreams often use dreams to achieve their goals.”
Before he could finish speaking, Liu Xian saw the two NPCs sitting not far from Lu Yu suddenly move.
It was a mother and son; the mother was holding the little boy, and both of them seemed quite tired, their eyes half-closed, half-asleep. It seemed that at some point, the little boy really fell asleep, his fingers loosened, and the toy he had been holding fell to the ground, rolling to Lu Yu's feet.
Lu Yu didn't open his eyes, while the little boy rubbed his eyes as if sleepwalking, crawled out of his mother's arms, and went to pick up his toys.
While picking up his toys, the little boy saw the waterproof bag that Lu Yu had placed on the seat. As if his mischievous tendencies had suddenly kicked in, he glanced at Lu Yu, then dazedly reached out, pulled out the waterproof bag, and fiddled with it, opening it.
Liu Xian almost stopped breathing.
But the next moment, a slender, strong hand landed and pressed down on the seal of the waterproof bag.
The little boy looked up sleepily and met Lu Yu's clear eyes.
"Want to play?" Lu Yu asked.
The "sleepyhead" was delighted, influencing the half-asleep little boy to nod.
Lu Yu smiled, removed the phone case, and neatly transferred the work badge from the waterproof bag into the phone case. Then he fixed the phone and handed the waterproof bag to the little boy: "Go play, sweetie."
"Sleepyhead": "..."
Liu Xian, who was so nervous that he was sweating profusely for some reason: "..."
Other S-rank players: "..."
No, this "Go have fun" sounds normal, but why does it feel like it's mocking them?
Even "Sleepyhead" couldn't keep a straight face: "I can sense that my special ability worked. He fell asleep, but I didn't deactivate the ability, yet he woke up first. This boss is really a bit strange."
“An SSS-level boss is certainly not simple,” the Dream Catcher said in a deep voice in a car whose driving trajectory overlapped with the subway line. He communicated remotely with the Sleeper. “The purpose of the first round of probing has been achieved. Let’s retreat.”
Liu Xian: "Captain, even 'Sleepyhead' lost. What do you think I should do if I go up..."
"No rush," Jiang Yan repeated.
Before they could even get going, Lu Yu had already arrived at his destination.
He scanned the QR code on his phone to exit the station, his work badge folded up and visible through the transparent phone case, remotely captivating the attention of the six player teams.
Although not all of them believed that the work badge was a fragment of divinity, they were determined to verify it, adhering to the principle of better to be safe than sorry.
"Captain, besides us, two other teams have already made their moves," a tanned man reported to Ji Chengchuan as he walked out of the subway station with Lu Yu, making no attempt to hide his actions. "'Knife Emperor' and 'Dream Catcher'—one made a foolish mistake, and the other only scratched the surface; neither of them accomplished anything substantial. The other three haven't shown any signs of making a move; it seems they don't intend to operate in the subway."
“They’re all a bunch of useless trash,” Ji Chengchuan sneered. “They’re just too cautious, only doing these petty tricks. Come on, let’s show them some real skills. Sometimes, the simpler and more ruthless the approach, the more effective it is when dealing with Lu Yu’s situation.”
As he spoke, he tapped on the keyboard and sent an encrypted message.
So, three minutes later, Lu Yu, who had just walked out of the subway station and not far from his home, was robbed by a motorcycle gang for the first time in his life.
Lu Yu: "..."
He knew that there must be outlaws among these players!
A note from the author:
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