HLnovel Chapter 362 Might as well die
Chapter 362 Might as well die
Yan Xun was speechless. "Don't tell me the young master actually believed it."
"If he's a deity, why bother meeting him? Why fall in love with him at first sight?"
"Young Master said that he and his partner were originally a couple in heaven, but they were framed and he fell to the mortal world first... Who would have thought that a day in heaven is a year on earth? That person was in seclusion in his cave for some time. After leaving the cave, he discovered that his partner was missing. He calculated with his fingers and found out that his partner had fallen to the mortal world and had gone through countless reincarnations."
"That's why I came down to earth to find him."
Yan Xun felt there were so many flaws that he was speechless. "So?"
"Is the young master hesitating about whether to go and meet his celestial Daoist partner?"
"This person wouldn't have promised the young master that he would take him back to heaven to enjoy a life of luxury, would he?"
Lou Yanchuan clapped his hands, "You guessed right."
"Young Master is already so deeply in love, and he can go back to heaven to live a good life, why is he still hesitating until the page noticed something was wrong?" Yan Xun asked.
"The page said that the young master is also reluctant to leave his family in the mortal world," Lou Yanchuan said. "According to what that person said in the dream, his mortal body cannot last long. If the young master does not want to see him, he can only return to heaven first. He also understands that the young master cares about his parents in the mortal world, so he will not force him."
"Originally, after Grain Rain, the page thought that the young master would behave himself, but unexpectedly, he suddenly disappeared from the room."
"The page was terrified, so he hurriedly went to report to the master."
"That's why they asked me to help them find that person later," Lou Yanchuan said.
Yan Xun was somewhat puzzled, "Since you know that the person in the portrait is Gao Ruiyun, did you not try to go to his door to look for him?"
"Of course we tried," Lou Yanchuan said. "But the Gao family is not a small or insignificant family, so they didn't dare to openly say they were looking for someone."
"They only sent someone to the Gao residence to deliver a visiting card, and only later came to tell me about this strange incident."
“Back then, Gao Ruiyun’s health was even worse than it is now,” Lou Yanchuan said. “He needed help even to go out and meet people; he could hardly walk on his own.”
"Upon hearing the master's words, he simply said it was nonsense. He's still alive and well, how could he become a dream of Yin Peach Blossom?"
"Does the other person know he's in poor health and wish him dead by saying that?"
“Gao Ruiyun has some influence in Wutong City, and this is Gao family territory, so they didn’t dare to confront him head-on. They could only leave reluctantly and then send people to gather intelligence in the city and find out if anyone had secretly gone to the Gao family during that time.”
"After making inquiries, they did indeed obtain some clues."
"It is said that people often hear mournful cries coming from the Gao family's old house in the middle of the night."
"And the people who deliver vegetables to the Gao family always have to carry an umbrella when they enter the Gao family."
"Using an umbrella?" Yan Xun asked curiously, "You need an umbrella even on a sunny day?"
“Yes,” Lou Yanchuan said. “Even on sunny days, there are servants to hold umbrellas for him… Once, when he went to deliver vegetables, the servant who greeted him at the door seemed to be a newcomer. I don’t know if it was an oversight or if the person who assigned him the task did not mention this to him.”
"He forgot to hold an umbrella for the person who delivered the vegetables."
"The deliveryman said he had only taken a few steps when he felt cold all over, as if he had caught a cold. The servant who had led him earlier changed his expression when he saw that the newcomer had not held an umbrella for him. He immediately paid him and told him to leave quickly."
"The deliveryman had some doubts, but thinking it was better to avoid trouble, he took the money and left the Gao family."
"When he delivered the vegetables again, it was the same acquaintance waiting for him with an umbrella."
"He asked how the person from last time was doing, worried that the person might have been punished."
"The servant who had been holding the umbrella for him said that the man had made a mistake and had been expelled from the Gao family."
"But the deliveryman knew that no one should have left the Gao family during that time," Lou Yanchuan said. "He was puzzled, but he didn't dare to ask too much. It was only when someone inquired that he, under the influence of alcohol, accepted a bribe from the person and told them about it."
"It was during the inquiry that the missing young master's family learned something."
Lou Yanchuan paused deliberately at this point, waiting for Yan Xun to ask a question.
Yan Xun thought to himself that this person was quite boring, but still played along and asked, "What happened?"
“Gao Ruiyun is now the head of the Gao family, and his father was the previous head of the Gao family,” Lou Yanchuan said. “But according to those people’s investigation, the one who originally inherited the Gao family should not have been Gao Ruiyun’s father, but his uncle.”
"The old folks in Wutong City still remember Gao Ruiyun's uncle. They say he had the air of a chivalrous knight-errant, loved to fight for justice, and was more like a knight-errant than a businessman."
"He should have been the head of the Gao family at the beginning."
"But perhaps this person has no talent for business, and his father is worried about him."
"Or perhaps he only wanted to be a chivalrous knight-errant who traveled the world... so in the end, the one who inherited the Gao family became Gao Ruiyun's father."
Upon hearing this description, Yan Xun immediately thought of the man she had met before.
He looked at Lou Yanchuan and said, "It seems they still haven't found anything useful." Yan Xun said, "That's why they asked you to infiltrate the Gao family."
"Yes," Lou Yanchuan readily admitted.
"After investigating for a long time, they discovered that the Gao family had many secrets, and even found a master to help them calculate where the missing young master was born."
"Unexpectedly, shortly after the master predicted that the missing young master might be from the Gao family in Wutong City, he was found dead on the street."
"After that, no matter how many people they found or how much money they offered, no one was willing to get involved in this mess," Lou Yanchuan said.
"But if he disappeared two years ago, is this young master still alive?" Yan Xun asked.
“So much time has passed, it’s impossible for him to be alive, but we need to see him alive or dead,” Lou Yanchuan said. “They not only want to find their son’s body, but also want to take revenge on Gao Ruiyun.”
"They were convinced that there was something strange about Gao Ruiyun. Since consulting a master wouldn't work, they had to find another way." Lou Yanchuan pointed to himself, "That's why they sent me to infiltrate the Gao family, hoping to find something wrong with Gao Ruiyun."
According to the information Lou Yanchuan obtained from the copy, he infiltrated the Gao family very smoothly, but Gao Ruiyun was lukewarm towards him.
He tried walking around the house but didn't notice anything strange.
He asked a few people who had entered the house before him, but the First Madam rarely came out of the Buddhist hall, and the rest of the people knew nothing about her either.
Because they couldn't find any clues, the family that hired him became impatient. They said that if Lou Yanchuan couldn't find their son's remains by the time the banquet started, he wouldn't get a single penny of the remaining money and would have to return all the money he had received.
“You saw it too,” Lou Yanchuan said. “Gao Ruiyun has always treated us that way.”
"I think the only way to find out where that young master is is through you."
Yan Xun was baffled. "This is your mission, what does it have to do with me?"
Thinking of this, he asked Lou Yanchuan, "What mission did you take on?"
Lou Yanchuan openly showed Yan Xun his task panel.
Yan Xun indeed discovered a side quest to find the missing young master. He wanted to take a closer look, but Lou Yanchuan had already retracted his panel.
"And you?" Lou Yanchuan said, "Let me see yours too."
Yan Xun shared his quest panel with Lou Yanchuan, who stared at the side quests on Yan Xun's panel for a while: "Increase your favorability with Master Gao" and "Decrease other players' favorability with Master Gao." "These quests are quite simple for you," Lou Yanchuan said.
"Your goodwill with Master Gao is naturally quite high."
Yan Xun also sensed that Gao Ruiyun was somewhat hypocritical—he seemed to be extremely indulgent towards him.
But he didn't understand why.
Logically speaking, since they all entered the instance together, the NPCs shouldn't have treated them differently, unless there was some undiscovered connection between him and Gao Ruiyun.
"The most interesting part of this instance for the audience should be watching players kill each other in order to please the inhuman Master Gao," Lou Yanchuan said unhurriedly. "The instance doesn't say that players can't hurt each other."
“But at the banquet, that lord also needs offerings,” Yan Xun said.
"How did you know that sacrifices were needed?" Lou Yanchuan narrowed his eyes. "Did Gao Ruiyun tell you?"
"Is it still the one who ate the offerings?"
"The mission instructions we received didn't mention that we would need to be sacrificed at the banquet."
Yan Xun knew, of course, that the mission instructions they received did not mention that they would need to be sacrificed at the banquet.
He revealed this to Lou Yanchuan only to see his reaction.
Seeing that he seemed genuinely unaware of this additional setting, I inwardly marveled at the treacherous nature of the dungeon.
If the mysterious person living in the backyard is not found and the player does not learn from him that several of them are needed as sacrifices at the banquet, the player may try to kill other players, thinking that he can have the last laugh and inherit the estate. However, he does not know that if there are not enough people, he will also have to make up for the lack of sacrifices.
He told Lou Yanchuan about his discovery, and Lou Yanchuan thought for a moment and said, "The dungeon shouldn't be designed with levels that have no hints at all."
"If a player kills someone, the system, in order to make you realize that there is this hidden setting, will probably let Master Gao take another wife... Unless this player is a bit simple-minded, they should understand the meaning of the dungeon deliberately maintaining a fixed number of players."
Lou Yanchuan then changed the subject, "Who was the person who stole the offerings?"
"It couldn't be our missing young master, could it?"
“He’s a man who looks like a black bear,” Yan Xun said. “The young master you’re looking for shouldn’t look like this, right?”
“He said he had attended the last banquet and was already 30 years old this year.” Yan Xun didn’t forget this key information.
"They also said that as long as we don't have Master Gao's permission, even if we escape, we will still return to the Gao family the next day."
Yan Xun felt that the most difficult part of this scenario was that out of the seven of them, only one person could choose not to attend the banquet.
It would be fine if this instance was full of unfamiliar players, but the problem is, they are all acquaintances.
It would be difficult for Yan Xun to accept that he would stand idly by and watch Gao Wen and Chi Yuan, the two players he had recruited, become sacrifices.
The reason he talked so much with Lou Yanchuan was to see if the other party had any solutions.
Lou Yanchuan also saw through Yan Xun's thoughts.
“But that’s how dungeons are,” Lou Yanchuan said. “Not every dungeon can accommodate a group of people to clear it.”
"Some instances can only have one winner."
He looked at Yan Xun and said, "There is only one way for everyone to clear this dungeon."
Yan Xun felt he should have guessed the method Lou Yanchuan mentioned, but he still asked, "What?"
“Kill that god.”
He looked at Yan Xun and said, "If we want all of us to pass the level, we have no choice but to kill the lord whom the Gao family worships."
Lou Yanchuan's answer was exactly what Yan Xun had expected.
"You seem very confident?" Yan Xun asked.
They still didn't know whether the Gao family worshipped wandering ghosts or a true deity like the sun god.
"I have a plan," Lou Yanchuan said to Yan Xun.
"It all depends on whether you can be ruthless enough."
He stood up, walked to Yan Xun's side, whispered his plan in his ear, and then handed a prop to Yan Xun.
“Yan Xun,” he said to Yan Xun, “you must remember this.”
"No matter how human-like they are, NPCs are just NPCs."
He patted Yan Xun on the shoulder, "Only the players are the most important."
"When we enter the instance, there's only one thing we can't confuse," Lou Yanchuan said, grabbing Yan Xun's hand and making him grip the item tightly. "Otherwise, we'll get lost in the instance."
“There was a member who went back in time.” Lou Yanchuan handed the props to Yan Xun and then sat back down in his original seat. “His fiancée disappeared in a certain instance.”
"As long as you have the key, you can enter that instance repeatedly."
“His fiancée has been transformed into a piece of data in that instance,” Lou Yanchuan said. “It’s a bizarre instance of a family, where they have to take care of the ghost doll in the family.”
"His fiancée accidentally failed her mission and became a permanent data entry in that house."
"No matter how many times he enters that instance, his fiancée will greet him with a similar smile, and then mutate into a ghost mother seven days later."
"His teammates also said that he shouldn't go to that instance anymore. His fiancée is gone. What's left there is just data that read part of his fiancée's memories, not his fiancée herself."
Lou Yanchuan looked at Yan Xun, "If it were you, what would you do?"
Yan Xun had never encountered such a problem before, and he never imagined that he would become so engrossed in false data.
So he just shook his head. "I don't know."
"I haven't thought about that, but I probably wouldn't use an NPC to replace someone I know." He then asked Lou Yanchuan curiously, "What about you?"
"Me?" Lou Yanchuan propped his chin on his hand, looking at Yan Xun. "I will destroy this instance and then commit suicide."
Yan Xun was shocked: "You're planning to commit suicide for love?"
“No,” Lou Yanchuan said, “No matter how real the fiancée in that instance is, the fact that the other party is obsessed with spending time with her has already betrayed the deceased fiancée.”
“Using virtual, tampered data as a substitute is ridiculous in itself,” Lou Yanchuan said, laughing. “If I became that kind of person, I’d rather be dead.”