Chapter 17: Six Suns (17)
“What… what is he trying to do?!”
In the stunned eyes of the viewers, Jian Yuntai smashed straight from the seventh floor down to the first in just thirty seconds. Everywhere he hit looked like a massive meteor had fallen, leaving a series of deep vertical craters behind.
Fatty and Young Master Xue poked their heads into the hole, their expressions so astonished it was as if they could swallow a brick.
【Your red-green colorblind skill effect has expired.】
The electronic voice sounded.
Jian Yuntai casually flicked his wrist and looked up, shouting, “Fatty, Young Master Xue, come down!”
Only then did the two carefully climb down through the hole.
“Cough, cough… ugh—” Fatty sneezed violently, dust filling his nose, and exclaimed, “What the hell are you doing?”
Jian Yuntai pointed to the floor below. “There’s a built-in ventilation duct under the cement floor. Two hundred meters to the right is directly beneath the dome.”
“???!?” Everyone was shocked.
The viewers almost thought they had missed some part of the livestream—how else could Jian Yuntai casually drop such a miraculous line?
Young Master Xue blinked dumbly. “How do you know that?”
Jian Yuntai shrugged, speaking casually: “A dome this big can’t be airtight without ventilation. With so many suns shining directly inside, the temperature is probably high enough to boil an egg. Even if humans could survive, those precision instruments used for launching suns wouldn’t last.”
Fatty immediately understood. “So there has to be a ventilation shaft!”
Jian Yuntai nodded, wiping the blood from his left hand on his pants. “If the top of the dome is airtight, the ventilation must be at the bottom, hidden within the floors.”
“How do you know exactly where it’s hidden?”
“……”
Of course, it was because of the skill.
Earlier, Jian Yuntai had looked down from the seventh floor, observing the building’s structure in three dimensions. He then activated his red-green colorblind skill, with green indicating the live route.
One look, and wow.
The floor was all red, while the ventilation ducts glowed green in varying shades. The path to the dome twisted and turned in ways no human brain could memorize. The skill only lasted thirty seconds, so Jian Yuntai took a hardcore approach—he memorized only the largest green area.
No matter how convoluted the route, he could just go straight, following that green patch.
Of course, all this he only thought in his mind—he didn’t say a word out loud.
He smiled and winked. “Guess.”
“!!!” The livestream chat instantly erupted:
“Ahhh! Wifey hardly ever speaks with tone—this ‘guess’ line, I need to record it and listen a hundred times!”
“I can’t guess! I’m such a dumb pig qaq. Wifey, just tell us~ I want to enjoy being carried~”
“Whenever I think Jian Dadan is already awesome, he can be even more awesome. Whenever I think he’s hurt enough, he keeps adding more injuries… take care of yourself a bit!”
“Looks cool, but a reminder: don’t imitate! In real life, we’d be a total buyer-show qaq.”
Little Li Knife’s mouse hovered over the dislike button. His mind was blown. Damn… that actually worked?!
He remembered calling Jian Yuntai a loser before. Suddenly, he felt like digging a hole in the ground to disappear.
If this was a “loser,” then what were the rest?
Loser-squared?!
Little Li Knife realized Jian Yuntai was solid this time. The person he least expected at first might actually complete the mission and claim the ten days of survival-time reward.
Better give a like, then.
He moved his mouse over the “Like” button and clicked gently. Jian Yuntai’s livestream gained a like.
It was barely noticeable. Little Li Knife glanced at the few coins in his account.
—Ahhh, no! I have to resist spending them. These coins are for my favorite girl streamers! Jian Yuntai is a guy, so giving him coins would be… ridiculous.
He quickly discarded the thought of donating coins.
※※
The next stretch went smoothly.
Once again, they crawled into the ventilation duct, all three bent low, moving cautiously and trying not to make a sound.
At first, the duct was pitch-dark, the temperature tolerable. But the deeper they went, the hotter it became. Every five meters or so, the heat rose a degree or two.
“What do we do when we meet Song Yulu?” Fatty whispered, sweat pouring down his forehead.
Jian Yuntai stated bluntly: “Kill him.”
“Ah?” Fatty froze. “Just… kill him?”
Jian Yuntai pursed his lips. “What, you planning to chat and build rapport first?”
“Shut up, shut up.” Fatty laughed, punching him lightly with his iron fist. “I was just curious. I wondered if he’s… split-personality or something. Otherwise, how could he be one way yesterday, saying he’d stop the sun, and today… the boss turns out to be him?”
“I don’t know, don’t care,” Jian Yuntai said, eyes focused on the instance. “First thing I do when I go in: kill him.”
By the time they reached the end, the temperature was already unbearable for normal humans. Even a short pause left puddles of sweat forming under them.
Jinjin panted, tongue out. If a desert cat couldn’t handle this heat, the three humans certainly couldn’t. Jian Yuntai couldn’t even keep his palm on the duct for more than five seconds without risking a burn.
Fatty tiptoed, pressing his ear to the giant ventilation window, listening. After a moment, he shook his head. “No sound inside.”
Young Master Xue’s eyes were glazed from heat. “Song Yulu hasn’t already died from the heat in there, has he?”
“……”
The three exchanged uneasy looks. Livestream viewers were curious too. So far, in terms of main quest progress, Jian Yuntai’s team was the fastest, attracting many new viewers.
There was no point in stalling.
Jian Yuntai signaled with a hand. Fatty and Young Master Xue immediately understood. They worked on the ventilation window screws, one on each side.
About ten minutes later, a “click” sounded.
The ventilation window came off.
The launch site was pitch-dark, not a single light in sight. Jian Yuntai pushed open a ventilation window just enough to slip through the gap.
He raised his eyes and scanned the surroundings.
As Young Master Xue had said, the place was enormous—easily the size of several football fields. It was also very empty, with several computer monitors mounted on stands in neat rows, each emitting a soft blue glow.
Farther away, there was a staircase.
The staircase was strange. Normally, stairs lead upward to the next floor, but this one ended at a steel sphere suspended in midair. Its purpose was unclear.
Of course, none of that was the point.
The point was on the left side of the stairs. A man in a wheelchair sat sideways toward them, eyes closed, completely still.
Asleep?
Jian Yuntai raised an eyebrow. Perfect—being asleep was just what he needed.
Ssshhh…
Ssshhh…
In the vast, quiet launch site, the only sound was the mechanical hum of the equipment. Jian Yuntai moved forward like a ghost marching in a parade, his presence hidden in the shadows.
He drew closer.
When he was only two meters away, Jian Yuntai lowered his eyes and looked coldly at Song Yulu.
The man leaned lightly against the back of the wheelchair, a thick gray blanket draped over his legs. Even in such scorching heat, not a drop of sweat appeared on him.
The scent of perfume was still strong in the air.
Jian Yuntai slowly approached the wheelchair, his fingertips reaching toward Song Yulu’s neck.
With just a light twist, he could snap the man’s neck.
He rotated his wrist slightly—click—
“…!!!” Jian Yuntai froze abruptly.
Fatty, thinking he had succeeded, mouthed from nearby, “Is he dead?”
Jian Yuntai didn’t look at Fatty. His gaze slowly traveled downward. A gun pressed against his right chest. When he lifted his eyes again, they met Song Yulu’s smiling eyes.
“Do you want to bet my gun isn’t loaded?”
“….” Jian Yuntai stared at him steadily.
After a long pause, he curved his lips slightly. “Maybe I can snap your head off before you pull the trigger.”
Song Yulu’s face was pale, yet his smile didn’t waver. “Or maybe I can shoot you dead before you get a chance to twist my head off.”
“….”
“….”
Their eyes locked. Both were smiling, but the words they spoke terrified the viewers.
“Whoa… is this what it’s like in the world of a true master? How can they say something so horrifying without changing expression?!”
“These two are insane colliding with insane. I’ve never seen anyone like Jian Dadan—being pointed at with a gun and still smiling.”
“Song Yulu’s neck already has red marks from being held. If it were me, I’d have been on my knees begging for my life.”
“Sis, wake up… we probably won’t even make it to the final stage, so we don’t deserve to face off against him (dog head emoji).”
At that moment, Fatty and Young Master Xue finally realized something was wrong. They abandoned tiptoeing and ran quickly over, stunned at the scene.
They wanted to help, but feared that any sudden movement would ruin the tense standoff.
While everyone else panicked, the two men in the center of attention remained the calmest.
Perhaps noticing the blood on Jian Yuntai’s knuckles, a trace of helplessness appeared in Song Yulu’s smiling eyes. “You’re hurt again.”
“Enough to kill you,” Jian Yuntai replied.
“The last time you fell onto my wheelchair, you said almost the same thing,” Song Yulu teased. “Little hedgehog.”
Jian Yuntai shot back: “Little stammerer.”
They stared at each other for a long while, neither letting go first.
The air seemed charged with sparks, as if the situation could explode at any moment.
At that time, someone on the staircase suddenly rubbed his sleepy eyes and sat up, noticing the scene below. Shock hit him, and he scrambled down, collapsing onto the floor and clinging tightly to Jian Yuntai’s leg.
“Brother Jian, please stay calm ahhh!”
Li Wei had never imagined that in over thirty years of life, he would one day call an eighteen-year-old boy “Brother.” But the words came naturally—because Jian Yuntai’s personality was overwhelmingly commanding!
Who else could be an eighteen-year-old, pointed at by a gun, and still smile so defiantly?
Only Jian Yuntai could.
Heart aching, Li Wei hugged Jian Yuntai’s leg, saying, “Brother Jian, let’s talk this through.”
“….” Jian Yuntai withdrew his leg, a flicker of surprise crossing his mind. “You’re not dead?”
In his view, Li Wei should have been completely gone by now.
Now… things seemed a bit unexpected.
Li Wei frantically nodded, pleading with Fatty and Young Master Xue. “Quick, try to reason with Brother Jian! There must be some misunderstanding!”
Before they could respond, the electronic voice sounded:
【Player triggered hidden mission】
【Reward for this mission: thirty days of survival time】
A hidden mission?!
Jian Yuntai trembled slightly, his knee slipping as he half-kneeling on the wheelchair, almost crashing into Song Yulu.
Song Yulu paused, subtly tilting the gun to avoid accidental discharge.
“Cough cough cough, ugh!” Fatty was shocked, spinning to confirm with Young Master Xue what he had just heard. Young Master Xue, as if he had won the lottery, jumped up with excitement, covering his mouth to suppress his thrill.
“!!!”
The livestream exploded instantly—the atmosphere more intense than ever before.
“Holy crap?! Hidden mission?! Is this the legendary hidden mission? I’ve been running instances for three years and never saw one, and Jian Dadan gets it in his first run… humans really do make me angry.”
“I’m shocked. Excluding those on break, over 400 streamers went live this time. Jian Dadan is the first to trigger a hidden mission! The top ten pros didn’t get one, and he just stumbled into it… I’m honestly stunned.”
“Haha, some people even placed bets before streaming, predicting who among the top thirty would trigger a hidden mission first. A bunch of gamblers made huge spreadsheets analyzing the odds, arguing non-stop. And in the end, a streamer ranked over 450 triggered it first.”
“Is Jian Dadan really a rookie? This is only his first instance run, right? Too insane.”
Little Li Knife was dumbstruck in front of the screen.
If Jian Yuntai smashing through the building into the launch site had made him exclaim “awesome,” the hidden mission made him completely surrender.
Hidden missions were incredibly enticing!
All hidden missions granted triple the survival-time rewards of normal missions—that was one reason.
The second reason—the one that drove everyone crazy—was that hidden missions could drop weapons.
“My coins, my coins?!” Little Li Knife excitedly shouted.
This time he had placed a bet, wagering that a streamer outside the top thirty would trigger a hidden mission first. Initially, he hadn’t expected to win, but now… luck had struck!
The odds were massive; he was about to get rich!
Little Li Knife poured all his coins into Jian Yuntai’s livestream, almost rushing to bookmark the streamer’s homepage. After that, he shared the livestream link in a media group of twenty thousand members.
“!!! Friends, worried about having no content this month? Here’s ready-made material. I even came up with the headline: 99% of people don’t know this—watch after meals, it could save your life!”
The group’s older members reacted with shocked emoji faces.
“?? What’s this? A new streamer in the team?”
“Thanks, Brother Little Knife, but rookies usually have very little content, nothing much to write about.”
“My article’s already done, hahaha…”
Little Li Knife dropped four big bombs in a row: “He was the first to get a hidden mission! He’s eighteen! He transferred from Xiang’an Team! And that’s not all—he’s also handsome!”
“?! Holy crap? This is definitely going to go viral!”
“I’m shocked… is this guy stacking buffs or something?”
“My article’s wasted… boss wants me to rewrite it about him qaq.”
※※
【Do you want to explore the hidden side quest in depth?】
【Yes / No】
This choice wasn’t difficult.
Jian Yuntai almost didn’t hesitate. He immediately withdrew his hand, smiling warmly. “Looks like I really misunderstood.”
Then he even nudged Song Yulu’s gun slightly to the side, smiling as if he had seen an old brother.
“I trust that you must have your reasons.”
Song Yulu: “…”
The livestream chat erupted with laughter:
“Wow, wife is so flexible hahaha…”
“Lol, Song Yulu’s expression is hilarious, looks like he’s about to unleash his ultimate skill but got blocked hhhhh”
“Ahhh hurry up and coax him! Only after completing the mission can you get the weapon—I need to know what weapon wife will have!”
With this small interlude, the previously tense atmosphere gradually relaxed.
Relaxed? Not really—it became… weird.
Li Wei watched the scene, utterly confused.
Originally, Jian Yuntai and his two companions were extremely hostile toward Song Yulu, their murderous intent palpable even to him. Yet somehow, during the process, something had changed. Now the three of them were sitting on small stools, crowded around Song Yulu’s wheelchair, their faces full of anticipation.
“Speak,” Jian Yuntai said, his eyes bright, urging him on.
“…Speak about what?” Song Yulu lifted his eyelids to glance at him, then turned his head and coughed twice.
The cough made his face look even paler.
Li Wei carefully stepped forward, playing the sycophant. “Gentlemen, Academician Song isn’t feeling well and shouldn’t talk too much. If you want to know something, you can ask me.”
Fatty scoffed. “You know nothing.” Then he turned his eyes back to Song Yulu, filled with expectation. In Fatty’s mind, Song Yulu had become like a golden box with a question mark on it—inside lay the weapons he would acquire in the future.
Song Yulu furrowed his brows slightly, lowering his eyelashes.
He had clearly been through a lot that day. He looked far weaker than before.
Jian Yuntai studied him for a long moment, thinking he looked almost pitiful.
“Forget it, rest for now.”
“….” Song Yulu’s eyes flickered faintly. He turned his wheelchair toward the control console, his back to Jian Yuntai.
Soon, the three of them carried their small stools and gathered around Li Wei, eyes blazing with intensity.
Li Wei: “…..” It’s suffocating ahhh!
“Cough cough.” Li Wei cleared his throat, grimacing. “What is it that you really want to ask?”
Fatty’s mouth twitched toward Song Yulu, and he whispered, “Does he have a split personality?”
“What?” Li Wei was shocked. “Of course not!”
Now it was Jian Yuntai and his two companions’ turn to be astonished.
If it wasn’t a split personality, how could Song Yulu’s behavior and words be so inconsistent?
And then there was that diary…
“The diary was written ten years ago,” Li Wei explained. “At that time, Academician Song wasn’t even an adult yet, just doing small projects under the guidance of the senior researchers.”
“!!!” The viewers were stunned by the twist. “No wonder the Song Yulu in the background audio of the instance sounded so impulsive and immature… so that was him ten years ago?”
Jian Yuntai’s eyes lit up. He clicked his tongue softly.
He had thought Song Yulu was putting on an act—perfume in public, shabby private diary—but now he understood.
If the diary was from ten years ago, Jian Yuntai could already guess part of the story. Yet he stayed silent, quietly listening.
“….” Li Wei sighed. “I know you don’t understand. Just a day ago, I didn’t understand either. But… after hearing this, you’ll understand.”
Through Li Wei’s explanation, Jian Yuntai and his two companions finally grasped what this instance was really about.
Since they were the first to uncover the truth, more and more viewers from other streamers tuned in.
Likes, coins, and bookmarks surged, but the three of them didn’t care about any of that. They were fully absorbed in the old story Li Wei told.
Ten years ago, when Song Yulu first discovered the artificial sun project, he strongly opposed it and even considered reporting it. But as he rose to higher positions and learned more, his opinion completely changed.
The cause of all this lay in global warming.
When humanity was unaware, a solar crisis had quietly been brewing. Icebergs melted, species went extinct—all due to solar radiation. It wasn’t the artificial sun causing mutations in animals, plants, and humans—it was the original sun.
Even ten years ago, the senior researchers at the institute had discovered this shocking fact: the sun was destroying the world.
At first, everyone thought it was a sign of the apocalypse and had no hope. But soon, they discovered that a rare few people had natural antibodies in their blood, capable of counteracting radiation. Song Yulu was one of them. If serums could be developed from these antibodies and widely distributed, humanity could withstand solar radiation.
The seniors also realized that the sun, like a dying ember, would soon burn out completely.
So they began developing artificial suns, hoping to replace the basic energy supply of sunlight. They invested enormous manpower and resources, but were secretly eliminated one by one by the law enforcement agents, their bodies never found.
Because the agents didn’t believe the sun could die, they maliciously speculated about the institute’s intentions.
“Until Academician Song took over the project,” Li Wei said, eyes complex as he looked at Song Yulu’s back, shaking his head. “There was no one behind him to carry on the work.”
【Congratulations, player unlocked hidden mission】
【The sun will extinguish in 24 hours. Only five artificial suns can maintain basic human survival needs. Song Yulu is the institute’s last hope. He must launch the artificial sun before the sun dies; only then will the law enforcement agents realize their assumptions were completely wrong.】
【Please assist Song Yulu in launching the final artificial sun.】
【Reward for this mission: 30 days of survival time】
【Reward for this mission: unknown weapon】
“But why does every mutation occur after the artificial sun is launched?” Jian Yuntai still didn’t quite understand.
“The artificial sun’s launch accelerates solar radiation, so these past few days were extremely harsh. But once the sun dies, everything can return to normal.” Li Wei sighed. “The gases from the last artificial sun carried solar-radiation pathogens, making residents appear pseudo-infected. This let them avoid attacks from mutated plants and animals. But this also proved the institute had ‘gone mad.’ Academician Song wasn’t happy to take this step.”
This time, Jian Yuntai stayed silent for a long while. Then a thought suddenly came to him:
Someone is always carrying the burden for us.
Fatty, who was usually so careless, realized his mistake and hurriedly scampered over to Song Yulu to apologize. As he spoke, he even patted Song Yulu’s leg in a friendly gesture. Unexpectedly, thump thump—he had hit a prosthetic.
Fatty froze.
“Why is your leg like that?”
Song Yulu pursed his lips and frowned, lifting the blanket slightly from his leg. He pushed the wheelchair a little away from Fatty, and after a long pause, his hoarse voice finally came:
“Chasing the sun.”
Fatty let out a small, impressed “Eh-heh,” and leaned toward Jian Yuntai, whispering: “Academician Yulu talks so differently—I didn’t understand a word. No wonder I’m just a PhD.”
Pfft—Jian Yuntai laughed aloud.
He shook his head, smiling. When he turned, he happened to notice Song Yulu watching him from the side.
Jian Yuntai glared and mouthed, “What are you looking at?”
The corners of Song Yulu’s lips curved slightly, revealing the first genuine smile he had shown in days.
It was a faint, subtle smile, carrying relief, wonder… and a tangle of more complex emotions. It was like trudging across hundreds of miles with a huge boulder on your back and finally reaching the destination, the boulder finally lifted off your shoulders.
Jian Yuntai froze, feeling something inexplicably stir in his chest.
※※
The hidden mission said they were supposed to help, but in reality, the group could barely contribute anything.
That pile of electronic equipment—they recognized nothing beyond the computers, let alone how to operate them.
So Fatty and Young Master Xue sat on either side of Song Yulu’s wheelchair, expertly fanning him.
“Academician Song, are you feeling hot?”
“Can I get you a glass of water?”
Song Yulu held one hand in a fist to his lips, coughing continuously.
The harder he coughed, the faster Fatty and Young Master Xue fanned. Eventually, Song Yulu’s face grew nearly deathly pale, with just a faint flush at the corners of his eyes, like a winter plum blossom.
“Go, go, to the side.” Jian Yuntai shooed them away, muttering, “You’re trying to fan him to death.”
Fatty and Young Master Xue looked innocently offended as they retreated, turning instead to torment Li Wei in the corner.
Once they were gone, Song Yulu lowered his eyes, glancing at the gash on Jian Yuntai’s hand, and parted his lips slightly.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For getting me out of that situation just now.”
“???” Jian Yuntai looked confused. Did he?
The livestream chat exploded with laughter:
“Hahaha, Jian Dadan wasn’t helping him, he just didn’t want the hidden mission to fail if you died.”
“Such a strange display of gratitude hhhhh.”
Before Jian Yuntai could reply, Song Yulu wheeled himself over to a cabinet and took out some gauze.
He looked at Jian Yuntai’s hand and said, “Bandage it.”
“Minor scratch, no need.”
“Bandage it.”
“No need.”
“Bandage it.”
“I said no need!”
“Bandage it.”
“…………” Damn it.
Jian Yuntai held out his hand.
As he approached, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose. Song Yulu smelled even stronger of perfume. Being near him for a while, Jian Yuntai felt he might catch the scent too. It smelled nice, but it was intense, like it was masking something.
Jian Yuntai turned his head to avoid the perfume, glancing at the screens at the bottom of the staircase. He asked, “What does this progress bar mean?”
“Accumulating thermal energy. Once the progress bar reaches 100%, the artificial sun meets one of the launch conditions.”
The progress bar had reached 79.
The speed was slow, but it was finally moving.
“What other conditions are there?”
“Blood extraction, to create a serum mist. When the final artificial sun is launched, the serum mist will help people recover from the pseudo-infected state.”
Jian Yuntai glanced at the blood storage at the bottom of the stairs—it contained at least six or seven large containers of blood.
He seemed to suddenly understand why Song Yulu was so weak—it was probably from the blood extraction.
Yet in front of the artificial sun, this blood seemed minuscule. Jian Yuntai muttered, “Is that enough?” Then he added, “If not, just take some from Li Wei.”
Song Yulu let out a soft laugh. “Alright, I’ll consider it.”
“???” Li Wei shuddered, turning to look from a short distance away.
His lips twitched, and his expression said it all: You two are really saints.
When the progress bar reached 90, a mutation occurred.
Red lights flashed along the edge of the launch site, and alarms blared.
Beep beep beep—
Beep beep beep—
“What’s happening?!” Young Master Xue, being timid, immediately darted over to Fatty. Fatty pushed him away with a look of disdain and asked, “What happened?”
Song Yulu adjusted the machine, and the computer screen immediately displayed surveillance footage.
Jian Yuntai raised an eyebrow.
He had known the final stage wouldn’t be calm, but he hadn’t expected it to be this chaotic.
On the monitors, it looked like the players and the enforcers had reached some kind of unspoken agreement. The enforcers were preparing to drill through the dome, while the players stood in small groups nearby, pretending to be on standby.
Fatty called out to Jinjin, and the two of them—man and beast—rushed to the spot where the enforcers were about to drill, bracing themselves for action.
Jian Yuntai got to his feet, intending to run over, when a low male voice came from behind: “Wait.”
Jian Yuntai turned. “Hm?”
“Don’t get injured again.” Perhaps realizing their relationship didn’t justify saying such things, Song Yulu pursed his lips, rotated his wheelchair, and spoke coolly, back turned, “The gauze isn’t enough.”
“…Alright.” Jian Yuntai paused for a moment, then nodded cheerfully. “I’ll make sure to save your gauze.”
※※
Outside the dome, the players were spread out, but from above their positions were very obvious.
On the left, Jiang Jiu led a group; on the right, He Qingzhou led another, forming two distinct factions.
“Mr. Jiang, he said he doesn’t want to cooperate with you.” A player said awkwardly to Jiang Jiu. “He Qingzhou isn’t injured and doesn’t need treatment. He’s part of the livestream team—afterwards, he can get the best treatment unconditionally. You can’t sway him.”
Jiang Jiu frowned. “Did he really say that?”
The player glanced at Jiang Jiu’s disfigured face and grew even more embarrassed. “No.”
“Then what did he say?” Jiang Jiu asked.
“He said… cough… he said,” the player’s eyebrows shot up as he acted it out vividly, “‘Where did you get this stupid idiot? The farther he goes, the better. Don’t come at me with this nonsense again.’”
“…” Jiang Jiu glared toward He Qingzhou, then angrily swung his sleeve. “Forget it. I won’t waste time on this fool.”
The player asked again, “Then what about Jian Yuntai and the other two?”
“What can they do? A bunch of cowards hiding somewhere. Once we break open the dome, they’ll show up, trying to get a piece of the action.” Jiang Jiu pressed his brows together, his eyes darkening. “If we see them, kill them. Don’t leave a single one alive.”
“….” The player felt reluctant, but nodded anyway.
Ten minutes later, the dome emitted a tremendous rumble.
The enforcers returned to the helicopter. In the corner of the dome, a roughly two-meter-wide hole appeared. Reinforced steel and concrete flew everywhere, and at a glance, it looked like the aftermath of a collapsed building—nowhere to safely step.
A player ran forward, shouting urgently, “Mr. Jiang, Jian Yuntai is out!”
“Finally, not hiding anymore.” Jiang Jiu sneered. “As expected, he comes out as soon as the dome opens. He thinks he can snag my leftovers—he’s dreaming.”
“Uh… what are you talking about?” The player’s face twisted in confusion, staring at him as if he’d gone insane. Then he pointed to the dome’s opening: “Jian Yuntai was inside the dome the whole time!”
“?!” Jiang Jiu was completely stunned.
—How did Jian Yuntai get out from there? Wait… when did he even get in?!
On the other side, He Qingzhou saw someone emerge from the opening. Without thinking, he bent down and hoisted a huge boulder in front of him—five times his size, yet he lifted it steadily.
Raising it above his head, He Qingzhou gathered his chi and roared, hurling the boulder forward.
Whoosh whoosh—
The boulder sliced through the air, even distant players hearing the wind tear past.
The raw force in that rock was unimaginable.
The boulder fell like a meteor toward Jian Yuntai—
Dust exploded instantly, blinding everyone’s eyes.
Some of the more softhearted people couldn’t bear to watch.
Logically, a strike from He Qingzhou would flatten even many thick-skinned Sinister Monster Types. Jian Yuntai’s physique was clearly human, and the others hadn’t evolved much. If the boulder hit, disaster was inevitable. Even being smashed into a pulp wouldn’t have surprised anyone.
Yet when the dust settled, Jian Yuntai’s figure gradually became visible.
Everyone was shocked.
Jian Yuntai had stopped the boulder!
Though it pushed him back a few steps, just resisting it was enough to astound everyone.
The boy straightened up, his pale hand gently pushing the boulder, which rolled along the rubble. The shadow of the boulder disappeared, and the artificial sun’s light fell on his defiant, cold smile—strikingly beautiful.
“Impressive! Impressive!” He Qingzhou’s interest piqued, a mixture of admiration and disbelief on his face. “A non-Sinister Monster Type with such strength? No wonder the inspection team had so many escorting you before.”
He was a self-centered man, rarely praising others. His words caused many players to glance at Jian Yuntai, curious.
Is this boy the new livestreamer?
Every new streamer normally drew some attention, but this time, everyone was already in the instance, so information lagged.
Seeing Jian Yuntai’s cold expression and imposing aura, people couldn’t help speculating about his Sinister Type.
He Qingzhou laughed loudly. “I am He Qingzhou, titled God of Strength Jufu*. Who goes there? State your title!”
Note: Jufu (举父) appears in the classic text Classic of Mountains and Seas. In those descriptions, Jufu is a large ape-like beast known for its immense strength and for hurling stones at people. It’s basically a powerful, stone-throwing mythical primate.
Ah—titles could indicate Sinister Type to some extent!
A newcomer’s title would certainly be impressive.
The next moment:
Swish swish—
Swish swish—
Everyone’s gaze snapped to Jian Yuntai, a mix of expectation and curiosity.
Jian Yuntai: emmmmmmmm
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