Chapter 75: How is Chang Xu Alive?

Liu Pu, this person, was just as ordinary as his name.

In his childhood, he experienced the transition from a sovereign state to the Earth Federation; his parents both died in the war, and his family savings evaporated overnight following currency reform.

In his youth, he obtained a loan from the Foundation, allowing him to finish compulsory education, and he ended up with a debt that seemed astronomical to him at the time.

As a young man, he went to work in a factory with a few close brothers, experienced wage arrears and forced overtime—events every worker encounters—and finally paid off his debt.

By middle age, he thought he could live the second half of his life peacefully, but he was laid off by the factory owner. He had no choice but to take out a loan to buy a car under the Foundation’s advice and arrangement, and he had been driving a taxi in Jin City ever since.

Today was no different from any other day; he stuffed a pancake into his mouth in a few bites to finish breakfast, then sat in the driver’s seat fiddling with the ride-hailing app, waiting for orders to refresh.

At 5:30 in the morning, a long-distance order to Jin City appeared, starting from Riverside Estate in the lower district.

Riverside Estate belonged to the old city, an area famous for chaotic public security. Missing person cases occurred frequently, unidentified corpses often floated in the river, and the place name frequently appeared in the news due to vicious serial cases. A brick falling from anywhere would definitely crush several serial killers.

Liu Pu didn’t want to go, but… the other party was paying way too much.

Upon arriving at the agreed location, he saw from afar a young man in a white shirt and black trousers, carrying a black hiking backpack, standing crookedly on the desolate street. He was half-closing his eyes, looking like he hadn’t slept, appearing like a worker rushing for an early shift.

The taxi pulled over to the roadside, the sound of the tires rubbing against the road deafening in the silence.

Startled, the young man raised his eyes and curved his brows, a tacit and polite smile—the kind shared between workers—hanging on his lips. He looked normal, aside from being a bit pale.

Liu Pu’s heart settled a bit.

After the young man sat in the passenger seat and reported the last four digits of his phone number, he started chatting as usual: “Morning, brother. Have you eaten?”

“Yes.”

“You’re so young, why do you live here? It’s far from the city center and transportation isn’t convenient…”

“My parents are here.”

“Oh, so you’re keeping your parents company. If my son were as filial as you, I’d be so happy!”

“Well, my parents are already dead.”

Not everyone could understand the dark humor behind such jokes. Liu Pu was stunned for a full three seconds before remembering to change the subject: “My condolences… Brother, is that gear for hiking? I see you even brought a shovel…”

The young man laughed: “Something like that. I’m going to dig a grave in the mountains this afternoon.”

Liu Pu:???

An eerie silence spread inside the taxi. The young man turned his head at some point, red light flashing in his eyes: “My existence, and the things I’ve said to you—you won’t tell anyone else about them, right?”

“…”

Qi Si watched the driver beside him, a thread-like crimson color welling up in the depths of his eyes.

In the pitch-black Hall of Thought, blood mist steamed and condensed into bright red pages, while the phantom of golden vines flickered in and out of existence.

【Use the skill “Soul Contract” on Liu Pu, stipulating that he keep the above events confidential.】

A quill wrote golden, hot-stamped words on the paper. The driver named “Liu Pu” had his eyes blur like mist in an instant, the luster fading into abyss-like black pupils, just like a Puppet.

Two golden ten-sided dice spun rapidly in the darkness and stopped at a certain moment. The numbers facing up were “9” and “1”.

91 points, greater than 80.

【Contract signed. This Contract is guaranteed by World Rules; no existence may defy it.】

The cold record condensed in the upper left corner of his vision. In the ocean of consciousness, the golden quill dissipated into dust, scattering across the sky along with the blood mist.

Everything happened within a second. Liu Pu’s eyes were dazed for a moment before regaining clarity.

Qi Si asked casually: “Driver, where were we talking before?”

Liu Pu didn’t suspect anything. He opened his mouth, but found he had completely forgotten what he was about to say.

He blinked twice and muttered: “Look at my memory, it’s hit or miss…”

Qi Si saw the confusion in the former’s eyes and let out a soft laugh in his throat.

Testing the effect of the “Soul Contract” skill in reality was just a side task, but the result exceeded his expectations.

The Contract authority belonging to the gods of the Eerie Game could actually influence people in reality, which left a lot of room for maneuvering.

Using rhetoric and manipulating probability to make specific people have to agree to some excessive terms; if used properly, he could get everything he wanted, and even—

Become a “god” in reality.

Regardless of whether the Evil God’s transaction had any traps, the “Soul Contract” skill was sincere enough.

Qi Si was happy to seize more benefits before the transaction backfired.

And to clarify the function of the Soul Contract through more experiments, squeezing out greater value.

At this moment, Qi Si, like the most ordinary passenger, pulled out his phone from his pocket and started scrolling, as if he hadn’t been the one saying those ambiguous remarks earlier.

He calmly played happy match. Just as he was about to clear the level, a QQ message popped up untimely.

【Jin Yusheng: That Su Clan Village you mentioned is very deep. It was surrounded by an official force of unknown affiliation a long time ago. Fortunately, I was alert and discovered something was wrong in time to retreat, otherwise, I would have been caught like a turtle in a jar!】

【Jin Yusheng: It’s been strictly managed recently. Several cities are checking for outsiders. If I hadn’t made a temporary residence permit in advance, I would have been detained. You should be careful too. Don’t leave Jin City before the end of the year. I cast a hex for you; your horoscope conflicts with everywhere except Jin City!】

Qi Si watched the countdown for happy match hit zero, and the “Game Over” prompt popped up. He replied with an unpleasant “Mm,” emphasizing his incorrigibility.

The Federation ordering strict checks on population movement wasn’t the first or second time. How it was specifically implemented depended on whether the Security Bureau was short on performance metrics.

What Qi Si cared about more was the news about Su Clan Village.

Although he rationally knew that mass events like the Eerie Game would inevitably be noticed by official forces, actually running into it was another matter.

After the “Dialectical Game” instance ended, Qi Si was almost certain that he would stand on the opposite side of humanity. The intervention of official forces was definitely a troublesome matter for him.

Not to mention that he had once started a fire in the mountains that burned for a long time, just his wanton behavior in the game and his disregard for others’ lives meant he was destined to be seen as a thorn in the side of the stability-seeking authorities.

Furthermore, he needed to use the Soul Contract to control the souls of some players through deception and inducement. If the authorities found out and launched an anti-fraud campaign, that would be too tragic and pathetic.

Qi Si pondered for a moment, entered the game Forum, and searched for the six characters “Game Invades Reality.”

A blank interface refreshed, with no records.

This was unusual. Normal Forum search logic splits keywords and matches them in the database separately. As long as they contain similar words, they can appear as search results.

And “game,” “invasion,” and “reality” were all common words; it was impossible to find no matches.

—Unless the entire phrase was blocked.

Qi Si was not surprised by this. He wouldn’t fully trust information provided by any platform, not even the game Forum, which was deeply connected to the Eerie Game.

No one would believe that players could maintain a large-scale Forum for thirty-six years just out of love. A massive force was very likely hiding behind the game Forum, controlling public opinion and manipulating thoughts.

The information presented to the general public must have been filtered, or even distorted. What the general public could see was nothing more than what “they” wanted the public to see.

It was just that Qi Si didn’t expect to hit an information barrier so quickly and catch a glimpse of certain taboo matters that some existences did not allow him to know.

Things were intertwined and getting more chaotic.

Qi Si had many things he couldn’t figure out, so he simply stopped thinking about them.

He cast aside his messy thoughts, subconsciously wanting to find some fun, so he casually searched for the two characters “Chang Xu.”

He hadn’t paid attention to Zhao Feng’s post for a while; naturally, there would be many more comments. He didn’t know how the argument about values was going.

The situation of the post was somewhat beyond Qi Si’s expectations; the topic had inexplicably gone off track.

【Floor 57: I feel the person the OP mentioned isn’t Chang Xu, it should be an impostor. I just matched into the same instance with Chang Xu. Although he doesn’t talk much, he’s quite upright. If it weren’t for him, I might not have come out alive.】

【Floor 58: Chang Xu is really something. Tearing apart Eerie beings is like using cheats, and he looks like he has no ulterior motives. Is his combat power strong? He traded his IQ for it.】

【Floor 59: Speaking of which, Chang Xu gives me a feeling very similar to Fu Jue back in the day. He should be the strongest newcomer this year, right? He’s really both calm and powerful!】

【Floor 60: I’m laughing at the ones above. What kind of person dares to compare him to God Fu? Does he have half of God Fu’s IQ?】

Looking at the topic that had veered off into who knows where, Qi Si’s eyelids twitched.

Very good. Chang Xu was indeed alive, the scapegoat on his head had fallen off, and the dirty water splashed on him had been successfully washed away.

The most important thing was… the fun was gone!

…

Somewhere in Jin City, in a small room.

Chang Xu sat straight on a chair, listening expressionlessly to the weather-beaten Mu Dongxu rambling in front of him: “Little Chang, you know you’ve been impersonated, right? We unanimously agree that this is a good opportunity to build momentum. Don’t speak or respond yet…”

“Sister Ning Xu has already told me.” Chang Xu’s voice was very calm, even appearing distant and indifferent. “After I cleared the ‘Rose Manor’ instance, I uploaded Qi Si’s appearance information to the database and requested that he be included under supervision, but for some reason, it was rejected. I think…”

“No, you don’t think.” Mu Dongxu interrupted him. “Fu Jue from headquarters personally rejected it. Whatever thoughts you have, keep them to yourself!”

Seeing Chang Xu lower his eyes and stay silent, he scolded him, disappointed that he wouldn’t improve: “I’m just curious. You’ve encountered thirty-six players in your first two instances, so why do you suspect him?”

“Including him on the supervision list requires assigning at least two Investigators to watch him according to the rules. The Sera Guild was just suppressed, and the Balance Church has popped up again. With things piling up, where would we find the manpower to spare?”

“Besides, judging by your description, he is clearly a logic-type player that we are lacking. Monitoring him indiscriminately, isn’t that pushing him to our opposing side?”

Mu Dongxu spoke excitedly, saliva flying. Chang Xu silently moved his chair back one step to get out of range.

He waited for the man to finish, raised his head to stare at him, and said coldly: “There are many suspicious points about Qi Si. First, he was clearly entering an instance for the first time, yet he lied to everyone saying it was his second.”

“Second, he actively triggered a time reversal once, but was tight-lipped about the principle, and Lin Chen, who had deep contact with him, suddenly attacked me for no reason.”

He paused for a moment and said the last point softly: “Third, I am very wary of him in my subconscious. Just thinking about him makes the back of my neck cold… My intuition is very accurate most of the time.”

Mu Dongxu sighed: “So in the end, these are just your suspicions, without substantive evidence, right?”

Chang Xu stared ahead with deep eyes, saying nothing.

Mu Dongxu shook his head helplessly: “Chang Xu, what do you want me to say about you? There is no such thing as black and white in this world. You have outstanding natural strength and can easily deal with Eerie beings, but you have to know that not everyone is as fearless as you.”

“Let me put it this way: I’ve had someone investigate this person privately. He’s an old acquaintance that the Security Bureau has been watching for a long time. His background is cleaner than most Investigators. They watched him for six years and didn’t find any evidence of him breaking the law.”

The man took a cigarette case from his chest, pulled one out, and lit it: “I think you just hate all smart people equally. When Fu Jue came to inspect before and spoke to you a few times, didn’t you also feel like he had bad intentions?”

Chang Xu saw Mu Dongxu put the cigarette in his mouth and knew the latter didn’t intend to continue chatting with him.

He stood up: “The bureau doesn’t need to send anyone; I can do it myself…”

“No private investigations, you hear me?” Mu Dongxu’s eyes sharpened. “If you really suspect him, find a way to poach him. You can watch him every day, how about that?”

Chang Xu was silent, silently analyzing the meaning behind the words and the feasibility of the implied plan.

A few seconds later, he nodded seriously and turned to leave.