Chapter 81 - Deceiving Heaven and Changing Fate (2)

Chapter 81: Chapter 83 Deceiving Heaven and Changing Fate (2)Li Cheng and the other two followed the young Feng family, driving an SUV towards the town.

Earning 240 Game Coins in two days, Li Cheng regarded this as a business trip, enjoying the views of Gangnam’s watertown through the car window.

Wudun Town was crisscrossed with waterways, with houses built along the rivers. With the Internet conference imminent, the streets were filled with foreigners, tourists, reporters, internet celebrities, and some guides introducing Wudun Town.

"Wudun Town might not be the most prosperous town, but it’s surely the most modernized and intelligently connected one. With the Internet of Things spread throughout, a supercomputer ranked in the national top ten controls the town’s electricity, internet, lighting, and even water levels. Indeed, the river water levels are computer-controlled, which is why air conditioning units next to riverside houses can be installed so low..."

"Wudun Town is the first place in the country to apply cutting-edge internet technology, already having put into actual use autonomous driving, drone delivery, intelligent waste sorting, and in addition, the most advanced meteorological systems, including but not limited to radiation observation, wind power measurement, and three-dimensional thunderstorm real-time positioning..."

Listening to the guide’s introduction, Li Cheng suddenly noticed a familiar figure by the roadside.

Yuan Zhixia? What is she doing here?

After thinking for a while, Li Cheng sent her a friend message,

Dressed as a passing tourist with a camera in hand, Yuan Zhixia paused slightly and replied,

Li Cheng casually chatted with Yuan Zhixia and learned that not only the Special Affairs Bureau, but organizations like the Whale Song Guild and Prometheus also had people attending the Internet Conference. The density of Transcendents in the town was quite high.

This was understandable; in script tasks, players could be a hero who kills enemies every ten steps, a villain who dominates a region, but back in the real world, they still have their lives and jobs.

Some players, even with hundreds or thousands of Game Coins in hand, still worked in factories turning screws, as mall security guards, or as ride-hailing drivers, all to alleviate the pressures of survival from the killing fields.

"Boom—"

A muffled thunder rumbled from the distant sky, waking the crying baby. The Feng couple in the car immediately began rummaging through bags in a flurry, getting a pacifier and bottle ready.

Sitting in the driver’s seat, You Anjian looked at the young couple and casually asked, "Did you two get married early?"

"Yeah." Young Master Feng replied shyly, scratching his head, "We got our marriage certificate as soon as we reached marriageable age earlier this year."

He and his wife Fu Jirong were childhood sweethearts, the man 22 and the woman 20. An early marriage like this in a modern, educated family was indeed rare, not to mention having a child so quickly.

According to Fu Jirong, little Feng was conceived through IVF, born in a private hospital invested in by the Feng family—Feng had been strong as a child until a fever at the age of twelve persisted and his health plummeted drastically.

To marry early and have children sooner was to have fewer worries, a sentiment shared by elder Feng. Their family indeed had hundreds of millions in assets awaiting inheritance.

"I see..."

You Anjian appeared contemplative, the message being that elder Feng had encouraged his son to marry and have a child early. Wasn’t he afraid of bringing about a curse of childlessness? Or did he think that an early grandchild could erase the curse’s existence?

More murky thunder sounded on the horizon, looking like rain was imminent. They had forgotten to bring a spare diaper in the car so You Anjian turned the wheel, driving the few of them towards the mountain villa.

As the vehicle rode along the tree-lined road, young Feng’s phone suddenly rang. It was from the villa butler, who was also a child adopted by elder Feng, Zhao Xinglang.

After answering the call, the voice on the other end was excessively noisy, like it was disturbed by electromagnetic interference, "I...you...don’t...quickly..."

"Hello? Hello?"

Just as young Feng was about to inquire further, the call on the other end abruptly ended. He put down the phone and saw the three extraordinary individuals in the car tensing up, looking forward sternly.

They had arrived at the villa in the mountains, only to see Zhao Xinglang standing behind the iron fence, a large puddle of blood and remains under his feet, holding a cellphone with a dazed expression.

He seemed not to see the vehicle at all, staring straight ahead, then suddenly his figure expanded rapidly, like a balloon being inflated, becoming round, and then exploded with a pop.

Blood plasma, meat scraps, and bone spurs splattered. A large amount of blood mixed with internal fragments splashed onto the SUV’s windshield. The rain sensor detected the "rain" and automatically turned on, spreading the bloodstains more evenly.

Two seconds into the shock, young Feng’s wife finally let out a belated scream. You Anjian didn’t hesitate to put the car in reverse, driving the SUV back along the tree-lined road, while turning on the windshield wiper spray to cleanse the crimson from the glass.

"Xinglang... dead?!" Little Feng was still in huge shock when he suddenly came to his senses and said excitedly, "My dad, my dad is still in the villa."

"Quiet." Yu Anjian pursed his lips, "Your father’s commission was to protect his family. I’ll take you to a safe area in the town first, then go back to save him."

It’s probably too late.

Li Cheng glanced at the communication interface with Yuan Zhixia, where the bright words were displayed.

The phone had no signal, GPS location failed, and worse, even though the vehicle had reversed a kilometer away, well beyond the length of the tree-shaded road, there was still no sight of the outside highway.

"We’re trapped."

Bai Zhi took a deep breath and took a drone out of her Backpack, flying it out of the car window, continuously ascending to observe the surroundings.

The roads, bridges, telegraph poles, and other traces of human civilization that could have been seen had all vanished. The view was filled with endless trees, as if copied and pasted.

Just like in Stephen King’s novel, "In The Tall Grass."

"A ghost hitting the wall..." Bai Zhi’s expression was solemn, and since she had albinism, her face was already very pale, it was unclear if she had turned paler with fright.

Yu Anjian shook his head, "An ordinary ghost hitting the wall couldn’t cover such a large area, let alone block the friend communication feature of the system."

"Blocking the system..." Bai Zhi said in astonishment, "What Level would it take to do this? Lv30, Lv40?"

"It’s not as high-end as you think, mid-tier players using the Shadow Realm and some Barriers can achieve similar effects. My boss and a colleague can do it easily."

Yu Anjian casually said this as he took out a grey parchment and tore it.

This parchment was named , a best-selling item in shabby streets, of Rare Quality, and was a Consumable Item. Its specific effect was to pull the surrounding environment into the Shadow Realm.

Tearing the parchment, nothing happened, obviously this place had formed some kind of Barrier that did not allow the Shadow Realm to coexist.

Li Cheng secretly tried the superpower of traversing the Shadow Realm given by the Colored Spider, which also had no effect.

"It’s probably the existence that created this Barrier that killed Zhao Xinglang."

Yu Anjian said, "When accepting this mission, my friends from the Whale Song Guild and I had agreed to contact each other every hour. It’s been just over 10 minutes since the last contact. That is to say, in at most 50 minutes, they will know of my disappearance and report it to the Special Affairs Bureau. We can wait here for 50 minutes, waiting for the Special Affairs Bureau to come..."

The system notification sound interrupted Yu Anjian’s words.