hotmtlnovel Chapter 233 Him
Chapter 233 Him
Chen Wenyu was in a good mood throughout the rest of the journey.
"Brother, thank goodness you're here. I thought I was doomed," he said, his face showing the most relaxed smile since their reunion. "But you're really amazing. You've reached A-rank in such a short time."
Song Guicheng was surprised: "How did you know?"
"It's on the list." Chen Wenyu freed his hand and clicked on the car screen. Song Guicheng's name was prominently listed at the end of the rising list.
However, rankings like this fluctuate very quickly. The moment Chen Wenyu opened the screen, Song Guicheng saw that the 22nd place on the list had dropped, and his own ranking soared to 15th. He didn't know how the system behind it was calculated.
Seeing Song Guicheng wasn't interested, Chen Wenyu turned off the screen and switched to soothing music. "But I still don't quite understand the point of this kind of ranking. There are definitely benefits, but they're pitifully small, and they increase the risk of exposure for players. I don't understand why they're set up in the first place."
Song Guicheng now believed his brain had truly burned out from the dungeon, and patiently explained, "The Soul Tracing Game is designed to put players at risk. The dungeon challenges are already reducing the pressure on players on the leaderboard, so we need to introduce more risks from the outside world. After all, the Soul Tracing Game has never been just a simple cooperative game; it's also a battleground for fighting, confrontation, and scheming. If it wants to attract attention and earn points, it must create more hot spots."
Chen Wenyu nodded thoughtfully.
Song Guicheng continued, "This will also divide the internal power of the players. Look, the players at the top of the Peak Rankings all have their own guilds. I imagine these players must have received varying degrees of preferential treatment and privileges. How many of them, having tasted the power of life and death, would be willing to let go? And for the guild to grow and develop, it needs to absorb more fresh blood. The most convenient and safest way is to recruit people from these newly promoted lists."
"I understand now. In fact, the Soul Tracking Game is a huge black-hearted company. It does high-risk work but does not provide safety guarantees for employees. The salary is meager and the punishment is harsh. This kind of capitalist deserves to be hanged!" Chen Wenyu was indignant and hated it so much that his teeth were itching.
Song Guicheng remained silent, stating calmly, "The most important thing is that we are all on the verge of death in the real world. We have no way out and can only move forward according to the will of the Soul Tracking Game. The capitalists only control our wages, while the Soul Tracking Game controls our lives."
Chen Wenyu smiled. "Indeed, I used to be a world-weary young man who cried out for the world to explode. But when I first came close to death, when the shadow of the ghost was about to cover my entire body, I found that I really wanted to live. I desperately wanted to live, even if it meant lingering on for dear life."
Song Guicheng said: "You said the world exploded. The world won't really explode, but you will really die in the Soul Tracing Game."
"That's right," Chen Wenyu said with a bitter face, "This game will make everyone who says they are not afraid of death pay the price they deserve."
Song Guicheng was amused by him. He leaned over and reached out to change the music. His long white hair fell like silk.
"Brother, your hair is so beautiful." Chen Wenyu was attracted by the hair for a moment and admired it in a low voice.
He felt that white suited Song Guicheng perfectly: pure, quiet, and gentle, yet by no means weak. His muscles were well-proportioned, tough, and powerful, his wisdom outstanding, yet calm and humble. He possessed not only the will but also the power to protect others, like a god standing on earth.
Song Guicheng tucked his hair behind his ears and said, "This is a dream come true. I've never gone out with such eye-catching hair before."
The two talked along the way, sharing with each other the dungeons they had entered recently, and soon arrived at the traveler's door.
Looking up at the black-framed, gold-trimmed sign of the pedestrian mall once again, Song Guicheng felt as if he were in another world. All passersby are pedestrians, and those who come and go are guests. Only then did he finally grasp the meaning of these two words.
The proprietress was not sitting behind the counter. The clerk was receiving customers. It was a stranger that Song Guicheng had never seen before. He had a confused look on his face and was being questioned by the smiling clerk.
When the clerk saw Song Guicheng coming back, he greeted him: "Mr. Song, it's been a long time since we last met. I thought you..."
Song Guicheng waved his hand at him: "Thank you for your concern, he is not dead yet, I will go upstairs first."
"Wait, wait, Mr. Song," the clerk apologized to the customer and hurried out, "A guest came to see you the day before yesterday. I told him you weren't in, so he stayed here. I gave him the room to your right."
After expressing his gratitude, Song Guicheng went upstairs. He thought it was Xie Siyou who came to see him, but then he thought that Xie Siyou probably couldn't afford the room fee.
Xie Siyou, who was in a meeting with Chen Xinke, sneezed twice. Chen Xinke handed him a tissue. Xie Siyou muttered to himself, "Who is talking about him?"
Song Guicheng quickly took a shower and changed his clothes, then knocked on the door of the next room. After knocking several times, he heard sounds from inside, mixed with yawning and the sound of someone getting dressed.
Song Guicheng seemed to have guessed who it was.
"Little Orange!"
Sure enough, as soon as he opened the door, Shi Sui's slightly cute face appeared before him.
His eyes lit up when he saw Song Guicheng. He grabbed Song Guicheng's hair like a curious baby, looked at it carefully, and squinted his eyes at Song Guicheng: "Your hair..."
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the excited Xiaohua: "Brother Shi Sui!"
"Hey! Xiaohua!" Shi Sui immediately stopped caring about Song Guicheng's hair. He picked up Xiaohua and rubbed her again and again. "You've grown up. Are you going to become a human?"
Xiaohua put her hands on her hips and raised her head proudly: "Yes!"
Song Guicheng was somewhat helpless: "Are you two really going to stage a scene of brother and sister recognizing each other in the corridor?"
"You're taking advantage of me by saying that," Shi Sui held Xiao Hua in his hand and let Song Guicheng in. He lowered his head and quietly discussed with Xiao Hua, "Hua'er, how about you call me grandpa from now on?"
Xiaohua was puzzled: "Why?"
Shi Sui put her on the table, propped up his chin and explained to her: "Because your mother is not my mother, you call me grandpa, so I am your mother's... Ouch!"
Before he could finish his words, he received a critical hit of love from Song Guicheng.
Song Guicheng poured himself a glass of water, looked around, and didn't see Xu Chongchuan, so he asked, "Where is Xu Chongchuan?"
"He is dead."
Shi Sui said lightly that he was dead, without even taking his eyes off Xiaohua.
Song Guicheng's hand holding the cup trembled slightly, and he confirmed again: "Really?"
"Really," Shi Sui smiled at him, his dark, grape-shaped eyes turning into crescents. "Just die right in front of me. It's the most dead thing you can do."
Song Guicheng said hesitantly: "You..."
Shi Sui answered first: "I'm fine, really!"
"No, can you please take your hands off my daughter's skirt? You're going to make a hole in the hem of her skirt." Song Guicheng continued with the second half of his sentence.
Shi Sui rarely showed an embarrassed expression and pulled his hand back awkwardly.
"I heard you've been doing something big recently," Shi Sui put his chin in his hand and looked at Song Guicheng with a smile, "Take me with you."
Song Guicheng didn't agree immediately, but took a sip of water slowly: "How do you know I'm doing something big?"
Shi Sui took out his phone and showed it to him. On it was the chat history between him and Chang Wenqi: "I joined your guild and wanted to play with you, but I couldn't find you. I pestered the boss lady for a long time before she finally told me that you went to the main city."
Song Guicheng put down his teacup and asked, "Can you really make Sister Qian suffer?"
Sister Qian is very good at networking, is very versatile, and is good at fooling and deceiving, otherwise she would not be doing the job of collecting intelligence.
Shi Sui said, "I sang funeral songs at her door, and all the guests walked away after hearing them."
Song Guicheng: ...Cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. How cruel and ruthless.
He pulled Xiaohua over and tidied her clothes. "Then why are you joining me? Is there not enough dungeon for you to play?"
"Not enough~~" Shi Sui stretched out his voice. Song Guicheng read a dangerous look in his smiling eyes. "I was tricked by the copy. I want to kill this copy."
He winked at Song Guicheng: "Don't you want to go together?"
Shi Sui's tone was like an angel from heaven, inviting Song Guicheng to enter paradise together. It was sweet and full of temptation, as if if he agreed, he would immediately fall into the Garden of Eden and live happily ever after.
The scene of the collapse of the "Jiesiluo" copy is still vivid in my mind, with mountains collapsing and the earth cracking, and a bottomless abyss.
"I can't ignore the lives of innocent people in this dungeon," Song Guicheng looked straight at him, a rare absence of a smile in his eyes, "I can't do something like destroying the dungeon."
Shi Sui's smile remained unchanged: "That's why you have ended up like this, Song Guicheng. The world will not pity you just because you are kind. It will only take away everything from you just because you are kind."
Song Guicheng was silent for a moment: "Yes, I know."
Shi Sui lay on the table and said listlessly, "I won't hurt innocent people. I just want to kill the dungeon boss..."
"sure."
Shi Sui wanted to say something else, but Song Guicheng had already agreed.
Shi Sui got up in surprise: "I thought you thought the dungeon bosses were all innocent."
Song Guicheng shrugged: "That depends on the circumstances. Besides, when the victim becomes the perpetrator, he is no longer innocent."
……
Shi Sui was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "I would have died that day, but a very faint force protected me. It was very faint, but that force was very similar to the power I felt in Menghe Villa and Yongding Building."
Song Guicheng's breathing was slightly stagnant.
Shi Sui looked up at him and said, "You also have the smell of that power."