Chapter 14
An Rou entered from the end of Wuyan Lane and did not pass by the bun shop.
It's called the end of the alley, but it's actually wider than the entrance. The three shops all have the same color scheme, tiled exteriors with vibrant red floral patterns, giving them a nouveau riche vibe.
This is Shuangmei's home. It's said that Mr. Lin, nostalgic for the past, couldn't bear to part with his ancestral home, so he simply bought the two rooms on the left and right and converted them into a small villa. The style is gaudy and tacky—probably for the two sisters in the family.
Of course, the only ones who thought it was tacky were An Rou and the players living in a technologically advanced society. In the eyes of local NPCs, tiles were a rare commodity and most people couldn't afford them.
The same goes for the old antique car parked downstairs.
The antique car, still emitting black exhaust smoke from a diesel engine, looked like it had just stopped. Boss Lin hurriedly got out of the car. He was short and a bit hunched, like a little old man.
With such honor, it’s no wonder that he dotes on a pair of beautiful daughters.
Before heading to the teahouse, An Rou visited several grain stores to scout the area. Finally, she found Boss Lin and went to the nearest teahouse to find help. However, when she returned with her men, Boss Lin was gone. There were a dozen grain stores in town, and searching every one was a stretch. She figured that since the two beautiful sisters had just been frightened, Boss Lin would surely get the news and come home.
Sure enough, I met someone here.
"Him? The owner of all the grain stores in Zhongsu Town?" An Oli player behind him asked in surprise.
Jian Qing didn't say anything, strode over, and was pulled by An Rou's sleeve.
“So many people…”
A number of passersby gathered in front of the black iron gate of the small villa. They were all NPCs who happened to be passing through. The reason they stopped was naturally to see the excitement.
From the half-open door, there were constant sounds of smashing things, accompanied by intermittent screams—
"Go away! Go away!"
It was Meiling's voice.
An Rou was surprised. Could it be that he was scared by herself?
It’s just a blood and tears makeup, not even “realistic”, is it really that scary?
How could she know that in Soul Society, there were souls and ghouls, but no real "ghosts." Her face at the time wasn't what people thought a ghoul looked like, breaking with the preconceived notions of NPCs.
The holographic technology simulates reality so realistically that the garbled NPC data is naturally interpreted as madness, which is most appropriate.
I don’t know if this kind of madness can be cured by life potion.
"Miss, don't be afraid, we are here." Jian Qing comforted An Rou and dragged her hand without giving her a chance to refuse, and walked towards the villa.
Over there, Boss Lin was blocked outside the door by the crowd and was so anxious that he was jumping up and down.
"What are you looking at? This is my home. Let's all go! Let's go!"
He was short and not very strong, so he didn't attract much attention. The two NPCs in front felt someone pulling them and glanced back, perhaps not recognizing him, with expressions of contempt and impatience.
Fortunately, the driver was tall and strong, and he used brute force to separate the crowd and push his boss in.
An Rou and her group were just a little slow, and their view was blocked by the crowd. Just as Jian Qing was about to make way, the crowd suddenly became chaotic.
"Ghoul, ghoul!"
They scattered like birds and beasts.
Jian Qing's heart trembled, and he and his two teammates drew their weapons at the same time.
However, someone was one step faster than them.
A figure flashed above, and it seemed that the man had been squatting on the roof opposite the villa, and swooped down like a hunting eagle.
The pale sunlight was reflected by the blade, illuminating the eyes brightly.
An Rou narrowed her eyes and saw only a pair of wide sleeves that were only half the length of a sleeve, fluttering in the wind, really like a pair of wings.
The sound of a knife.
All the noises were silent at this moment, and then broke out into sharper screams and shrill cries.
"Qianqian!"——Boss Lin's voice.
An Rou's vision, which had been disturbed by the white light, gradually returned to clarity.
The villa had no yard. Behind the gate was an open living room. A woman stood under the dazzling crystal chandelier, her face cold and pale, silent.
Meiqian.
She had clearly fallen and broken her head in front of the bun shop, and perhaps thanks to the life-giving potion, the wound had almost healed, leaving only a faint red mark on her forehead. Her hair was disheveled, her eyes were wide, and the corners of her pale lips were still drawn down, giving her a cold and unapproachable look.
An Rou suddenly understood - Mei Qian's appearance was exactly the same as that of the coal shop clerk who was parasitized by the ghoul, which is what the game calls the "living dead".
The body is not dead, but the soul has been eaten away.
No wonder he was mistaken for a ghoul by the melon-eating NPC.
She had a cold and reserved personality, and usually her eyes looked like knives stuck in her eyes when she looked at people. But now her eyes were wide open, and I was afraid that she was frightened just like Meiling, but she didn't go crazy like Meiling.
Now that the number of players in Zhongsu Town has increased dramatically, this kind of misunderstanding is fatal... It is indeed fatal.
Meiling screamed and ran towards the back door of the villa.
Boss Lin screamed in pain and pounced on his beloved daughter. The moment he touched her body, half of Meiqian's head slid down.
Red and white liquid gushed out, spraying all over his head and face.
Boss Lin was stunned for a moment, then suddenly jumped around and pointed at the stranger who rushed into his house: "You, you, you killed my daughter!"
Before he could finish his words, a bang was heard behind him.
However, it was not Meiqian's body that fell to the ground. Instead, the moment she died, her body exploded into a ball of powder and dissipated in the air, leaving only a pool of blood.
"Daughter!" Boss Lin rushed over, but naturally couldn't hold on to any of the dissipated data.
The stranger said nothing, sheathed his sword with a clang, and turned around.
[Chizen Ichimura Lv79 (God)]——An Rou saw the ID above his head clearly and subconsciously took two steps to the side to create distance between herself and the three Oli players.
Her heart almost stopped beating. She held onto the iron gate and squatted down.
Dead... Meiqian just died like that...
Not to mention a complete body, not even a hair was left.
Is this the fate of NPCs after death? Players still have a chance to revive, and even if they log off completely, they can just pat their butts and return to the real world, but NPCs... are just disposable?
That’s right, it’s virtual data. The old code disappears and the new code is generated in less than a millisecond - the lowest value consumable.
For the first time, An Rou felt real fear in this game.
A pair of wooden clogs appeared in the peripheral vision.
On top of the clogs are specially made shoes and socks with dark grey thin ropes, which tightly wrap the entire foot, just like the gloves worn by players to prevent being touched and parasitized by ghouls.
An Rou's body couldn't help but tremble. At this moment, she even forgot that she had a high-damage blue weapon hidden in her sleeve.
His confused mind was suddenly occupied by a sudden thought: I'm going to die. He is a great player. If I expose myself in front of him, I'll be dead!
Fortunately, Chizen Ichimura just glanced down at her.
Just a frightened NPC.
His indifferent gaze fell on the three Oli players, and his voice was as calm as white noise: "Are you here to stir up trouble too?"
Jianqing belonged to the Zhongsu branch of the Orli Guild. Although he didn't recognize his face, he recognized the sword. To be more precise, he saw the two words engraved on the hilt - Wuming.
The sword is dark, but the ruler is bright!
"Let's go now!"
He couldn't even care about the clues he had finally obtained. Besides, the fact that Chizen Ichiming was able to find this place first meant that he had more clues in his hands.
Competing with top players for quests, even if they are from the same guild...are you looking for death?
"Wait a minute." Chizen Ichiming stopped him, "Get rid of them."
Jian Qing was stunned for a few seconds before reacting: "Yes, before sunset, the Zhongsu branch will clear out all non-Oli players!"
There are also different levels among branches.
There are not even a few gold players in the Zhongxu branch, let alone the big players. Even if the minister comes, he has to listen to Chiqian Yiming's orders obediently.
When An Rou came to her senses from her shock, the four of them had disappeared.
A few more passers-by who had witnessed the tragedy came over cautiously and pointed at Boss Lin who was crying inside the gate.
An Rou wiped the tears that blurred her vision from her eyelashes, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.
She stood up with the help of the iron gate, slowed the blood flow in her legs, and walked in. The iron gate was double-layered, with a fence on the outside. After closing it, An Rou glanced at the growing crowd outside.
"Someone died. Does it look good?"
The voice was a little cold.
Some people were not expecting her to speak suddenly and were frightened, while more people curled their lips and walked away.
An Rou simply closed the inner door.
The driver was nowhere to be seen, Meiling was frantic upstairs, and the servants were cowering on the stairs, afraid to come down. In the huge living room, only Boss Lin was wailing hoarsely.
An Rou lowered her eyes. There was a cigarette with a filter at her feet, and the filter was stained with blood.
It might be Meiqian's, she thought.
She picked it up, then picked up the metal lighter on the other side, flicked it twice before lighting the cigarette, and took a deep drag.
The smoke is so irritating to the throat. Even the cigarettes are made so realistically, why don’t they make the dead bodies more realistic as well?
Her trembling heart gradually regained its rhythm. An Rou leaned on the round glass table beside her, thinking aimlessly.
Boss Lin finally noticed the woman smoking next to him. She stopped crying and looked at him in disbelief.
"An Rou?"
An Rou flicked the filter, and the ash fell onto the blood pool on the ground with a hissing sound.
"Boss Lin, my condolences." She had a sarcastic smile on her face.
Boss Lin could tell she wasn't sincere and asked, "What do you mean? Are you gloating over someone else's misfortune?"
"That's not the case. After all, we know each other, and I came here to see Sister Meiqian off."
An Rou said, crossing her arms over her chest and exhaling a column of smoke.
"Actually, I feel a little guilty, but only a little." She spread her index finger and thumb apart, revealing a few millimeters of space. "Boss Lin knows how eager the Chosen One is to help others. He saw injustice and insisted on helping me vent my anger. What can I do? I can't stop him."
After the shock, Boss Lin was trembling with anger: "You asked him to kill my daughter?!"
"Hey, Boss Lin has such a big business and is so good at accounting, he should know how to deal with things separately. It wasn't me who did it, and you don't have any evidence of my instigation. Besides--"
An Rou's tone changed. "One of the top 100 masters on the Destiny Ranking, how about I call him back and introduce him to you?"
"One hundred, one hundred masters?" A bucket of ice water was poured over Boss Lin's head.
"Of course not. It's clear from the ruler that he's ranked 99th on the Destiny List. Anyway, our Zhongsu Town is the territory of the Ouli Gang. If Boss Lin doesn't believe it, it's easy to find out."
In the eyes of the NPCs, the guild was a gang, something An Rou had long understood. As for Chizen Ichimura's ranking, she vaguely overheard Qing and the others mention it before they left.
I must have heard it right.
Boss Lin was scared. No matter how rich he was or how good his relationship with the mayor was, in the face of absolute force, nothing mattered.
Having reached his position, he naturally knew that since the person was instigated by An Rou, she would not pretend to be sympathetic and come to send Mei Qian away sincerely.
"You, what do you want?"
An Rou was pleased with his expression of being ready for a great enemy, but she was not satisfied with his tone. It sounded like he was threatening or blackmailing her.
"Boss Lin, don't look at me like that. I made it very clear to my two sisters this morning. The market price of grain is what it should be. My father is an honest businessman and doesn't mess with anyone. Why are you picking on him?"
"You really think that honest people can be bullied, don't you?"
An Rou suddenly threw away the cigarette, and the jade filter broke into two pieces on the ground.
Boss Lin flinched, his eyes filled with disbelief. "Just...that's it? Just because of that little price hike for flour?"
He thought it was just a series of little girls playing house and throwing tantrums. But because of this, his precious daughter lost her life?
"Why don't you come to me directly? Why don't you come to me directly?" He started wailing again.
To put it nicely, when has the reputation of the Lin sisters ever been better?
Just because he treated the two girls as his own eyes and asked for whatever he wanted, even if An Rou knelt down in front of him and kowtowed eight hundred times in advance, she would not be able to get a penny lower in price.
An Rou saw clearly the true faces of these capitalists.
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