Chapter 33 - Players

Just as Yuan Zhixia anticipated, within minutes, a group dressed in crisp black suits arrived at the scene along with the police.

The officers expertly set up the police tape, evacuating the crowd under the pretext of a natural gas leak.

Several in black suits vanished into thin air as if entering the Shadow Realm.

When they reappeared, they were holding a large bunch of human-shaped silk cocoons, placing these unconscious individuals onto stretchers.

“Do you also employ child labor?”

Sitting on a chair, with arms folded in front, Yuan Zhixia casually observed everything and made the comment.

Next to the stretcher stood a small boy about eleven or twelve years old, also dressed in a black suit.

His bandaged, slightly glowing hands brushed the faces of the patients, immediately improving their complexion.

“His name is Su Jie, a specially hired Medical Practitioner of the Special Affairs Bureau, not child labor.”

A man in a suit bitterly smiled and introduced himself, “Let me introduce myself, I am Xu Yongyan, the captain of the third team’s second squad of the Mobile Task Force from the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau.”

“Alright, Captain Xu.”

Yuan Zhixia nodded, “Since you’ve seen what’s inside the Shadow Realm, you should know we aren’t the bad guys in this crowd.

Despite being in danger ourselves, we still helped to prevent an outbreak of an anomalous event, protecting innocent people.”

“We understand that,” Xu Yongyan said.

“Rest assured, the Special Affairs Bureau is an official organization, with a complete set of laws, rules, and regulations.

We won’t let any bad person go unpunished, nor will we wrongly accuse a good person.

In any case, people will take care of the situation in the mall; this isn’t a place for discussion.

Please get in the car first.

I’m taking you to the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau; someone wants to meet you.”

“Who?”

“The Heavenly Eye System of the Special Affairs Bureau, precisely, the Heavenly Eye itself.”

Inside the Shadow Realm, as Li Cheng hitched a free ride to school, he heard the voice directly in his mind once again.

He paused, dividing his attention between observing the direction of the vehicle and transferring to another ride while silently directing his question to the voice.

“What is a Summoner?”

“What is a killing field?

Who founded the killing field?”

Even this question can’t be answered?

Li Cheng furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

Although the player forums already had a clear Q&A collection to answer many questions, the killing field system itself remained elusive.

Either it’s a prototype, or it’s hiding some crucial information.

He pondered for a moment and tried a different question, “How can I increase my authority?”

[Raise the Summoner level to the maximum.

The current highest level achievable is Lv40.]

“Current?

Does that mean Lv40 isn’t the end, and it might increase in the future?

Wait, does that mean there was also this kind of level cap before, like Lv20, Lv30, etc., similar to the major version updates in online games, giving a chance for later players to catch up?”

Here it comes again.

Li Cheng’s eyes twitched, and he simply asked, “Tell me the basic information I can look up now.”

[Summoners can use the system panel to log into a physical killing field.

The first login will default into a safe area.]

Li Cheng’s vision was filled with subtitles similar to holographic projections that stayed visible whether he shifted his gaze, unfocused his eyes, or closed them.

It was as if they were projected directly into his brain.

After a moment of thought, Li Cheng concentrated, clicked the negative option, and closed the subtitles before his eyes.

The newly launched Summoner system wasn’t something that could be understood in a short time.

It was better to get past this situation first.

He maintained the Shadow Realm, speeding back to school, and when he stepped onto the campus, the bell signaling the start of classes had just rung.

Fortunately, he wasn’t too late.

He tidied up his attire a bit, combed his hair to cover the wound on his forehead, and walked out of the restroom in the administrative building.

He had been in this restroom during the lunch break to clean up a nosebleed, which was much more upscale than those in the academic buildings, featuring spacious interiors, patterned tiles, no central light, and high-end odor eliminizers and hand soap like those used in five-star hotels.

Therefore, students often came to the administrative building to use the restroom.

He returned to his classroom, where the first class in the afternoon was Chinese, taught by Yang Hui.

Ye Jiaying’s deskmate raised a hand and said, “Teacher, Ye Jiaying hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Um, I know.

Her family just called to say she wasn’t feeling well and has gone home.”

Yang Hui responded offhand, opened the textbook, and began the class.

Li Cheng secretly thought to himself “as expected,” feeling slightly relieved.

Just now at Longheng Mall, due to the death of the Ink Spider, the Shadow Realm it maintained began to dissipate.

Li Cheng continued to maintain the Shadow Realm, drawing all the smaller spider monsters into it, and “kicked” Ye Jiaying, Yuan Zhixia, and Yang Ling out, achieving the effect of moving them out of the Shadow Realm.

Upon their return to the real world, they would definitely be detected by the Special Affairs Bureau.

Since, objectively speaking, they had helped kill the Ink Spider and resolved an abnormal incident, the Bureau would not trouble them but would instead help cover up their absence from school.

Whether Yang Ling could return to human form and resume a normal life…that was up to the Special Affairs Bureau.

After the Chinese class ended, Yang Hui packed up her teaching materials and called out Li Cheng’s name alone, “Li Cheng, come to the office.”

“Oh, okay.”

Li Cheng, with sympathetic looks from Han Letian and Mu Yulu as if to say ‘dude, you’re in trouble,’ left the classroom and followed Yang Hui to the office, standing honestly beside the desk.

“Has changing desks recently affected you in any way?” Yang Hui asked with a pleasant expression.

Is that all?

Li Cheng answered truthfully, “Not really.”

After all, his former deskmate, Han Letian, was just sitting behind him, and they still chatted and joked during breaks as usual.

“That’s good.” Yang Hui nodded, speaking earnestly, “Your exam scores have dropped recently; you need to be careful.

It’s your second year of high school now, and the college entrance exam isn’t far away.

Take this chance to strive harder and improve your grades…”

Facing the earnest guidance of the headteacher, Li Cheng nodded like pounding garlic, his gaze inadvertently sweeping across the desk and pausing briefly on a photograph.

The photo, encased in a frame, captured Yang Hui years ago in front of Disneyland, holding a braid-clad Yang Ling, both of them smiling happily.

At that time, Madam Yang’s husband had not yet passed away; he was probably the one who took the photo.

The reason for placing this photo on the desk instead of a family portrait was probably because Yang Hui feared seeing the family portrait would remind her of her husband and bring sadness.

Yang Hui noticed Li Cheng’s gaze and also looked toward the photo—in her perspective, she couldn’t see Yang Ling; the photo only showed her alone.

“Hmm?”

Yang Hui looked puzzled; she couldn’t remember why she would place a single-person photo on the desk.

Never mind, let it be.

She waved her hand, signaling Li Cheng to return to the classroom, then casually picked up the frame, intending to throw it into the bottommost drawer, yet for some reason, paused, and instead placed the photo back on the desk.

It seemed more pleasing to the eye this way.