"I've always been unlucky; I run into these kinds of things wherever I go..."
"I'm going to Winterfell... Goodbye."
What kind of person would lead a nomadic life? Would someone keep changing jobs just because they're interested in someone?
What kind of person would expose their scars to everyone?
What kind of person is indifferent to many things, and even laughs and says that they are just unlucky, without a trace of resentment or unwillingness in their tone?
The Xiao Yu Jin in the dungeon is not him.
He was very unwilling.
He was as unwilling as a volcano about to explode, with scalding lava flowing through his body.
"I have an urgent matter to attend to."
Wen Zheng abruptly took off his glasses. In the game, he flashed a white light and suddenly logged off. Bei Sining stared in shock at the spot where he disappeared. The other two kept asking what happened, what happened. The live stream exploded, with everyone asking—What happened to Brother Zheng? What's wrong?
…………
In a small northwestern town, the school is quiet on a winter night.
Yu Jin, wrapped in a thick windproof coat and with two cans of his favorite sweet coffee in his pocket, squatted on the rooftop watching the snow.
The clouds were thin, the snow was light, and everything was quiet and peaceful. The wind, however, was unforgiving, chilling him to the bone.
He had earphones in his ears, and his phone screen was lit up, showing Wen Zheng's live stream.
"What's going on?! Why are you suddenly saying you're not going to fight? Are we still going to fight or not?"
"Either fight or get hit. Look, the door's open, and this poor little thing's still standing there... Hey, beauty, what are you doing?"
"By the way, beauty, don't you know him? Why don't you call and ask? You can always log back in if you get disconnected. I might never enter this dungeon again in my life... Why did you hit me?"
"I can't get through on the phone! I'm logging off."
"Hey, hey, no! Beauty? Great beauty—"
Yu Jin's eyes crinkled as he listened, and he chuckled, then slowly straightened his lips.
Will he come?
Although it wouldn't matter if he didn't come, he was still somewhat looking forward to it.
After warming his hands, he picked up his phone again. Bei Sining had also logged off, leaving the two remaining passersby confused. The chat was filled with question marks. A little while later, Wen Zheng's delayed signal was also cut off, and the scene in the instance was no longer displayed.
When the music ended and the audience dispersed, Yu Jin took off his headphones, but didn't feel disappointed.
After all, every song eventually comes to an end; some songs are joyful, while others are filled with hardship.
He can wait a little longer.
Author's Note: There's one more chapter coming up, mwah!
Chapter 78
Wen Zheng's mind went blank, and he threw all his emotional entanglements with the cat spirit to the back of his mind.
He threw off his glasses and rushed to the living room, then made a phone call to Bai Shuang: "Drive to Wutong Garden to pick me up, in a car that can be driven by people."
Bai Shuang was outside watching the New Year's Eve bell-ringing ceremony with Deng Puyue when she heard this and flew into a rage. Just as she was about to yell at him, Wen Zheng shouted, "Hurry up!!!"
"..." Fine, he won't ask anymore, okay?
Wen Zheng lost control of his emotions and acted this way. As friends, he and Deng Puyue were a little worried and immediately rushed home against the flow of people.
After Wen Zheng hung up, he quickly found the blue spiral notebook, flipped to page twenty-something, and immediately saw the line "save me" that he found very familiar.
That was a simple cipher example. Since this was a single-player dungeon run without star-level progression, the cipher example was only two pages long with three lines. Wen Zheng's years of cipher-solving experience hadn't been for nothing; he immediately recognized that the comparison table in the next cipher example shared the same logic as in the game.
The password, the key, and the lookup table are enough to decipher a plaintext message. Wen Zheng casually picked up the grocery shopping book on the table, turned to the last page, and deciphered a line of numbers in thirty seconds—109, 45, 36, 17.
Four numbers, including the hundreds digit, and this isn't a password, it's plaintext.
What plaintext can be directly represented by numbers?
Wen Zheng closed his eyes, and various geological formations, house numbers, postal codes... these were the coordinates!
e109°45', n36°17', in the northwest of the Xia Kingdom.
Wen Zheng hurriedly threw on his coat, draping his scarf around his neck without even bothering to wrap it around himself. He spread his twenty-pound notebook on the ground, ignoring the remote control he'd knocked over. As he searched for coordinates on his phone, he rushed out the door, leaving the slow walk of the smart home system behind.
Bai Shuang was very efficient; she waited for two minutes at the entrance of the residential area before the other party sped up and came to a stop in a dazzling display. Wen Zheng opened the back seat, letting in a blast of cold air, and said in a cold voice, "Drive quickly."
"What the hell? Have you gone mad?" Bai Shuang, not daring to be distracted while manually driving, said, "You have to tell me where I'm going, right?"
Deng Puyue, sitting in the passenger seat, practically leaned half her body into the back seat: "Brother Zheng, don't rush. I promise I won't delay your business. Why don't you... have some water first?"
"Hirai Castle," Wen Zheng took a couple of breaths, "to Hiirai Castle."
Bai Shuang coughed up blood and said, "My God, my dear Zhengzheng, is Hiiragi City the place I'm thinking of? Let me navigate... five hours and forty minutes! Why do you suddenly want to go there?! And you're acting like you're putting out a fire or catching someone cheating..."
He turned his head to look out the car window, and after a long while said, "I'm sorry."
Bai Shuang and Deng Puyue both fell for him; one frantically sped him up, while the other handed him all sorts of snacks.
Wen Zheng started looking for Wendy online, asking her to help him access data and satellite images of all the primary schools in Hiiragi City.
Since it's based on his real experience, the locations must have been chosen based on his own experience.
Fortunately, Wendy was online. Upon receiving the request, she immediately went to find the information and told him to wait. After the car left the city, Deng Puyue simply climbed back and sat next to Wen Zheng. Seeing that his complexion had improved a lot, she asked him what had happened.
Wen Zheng organized his thoughts, but before he could finish speaking, his phone rang.
Looking down, I saw the number I'd been longing for.
He waited indifferently for it to ring for ten seconds before hanging up.
Deng Puyue was stunned and didn't even ask who had made the call. She just asked, "And then what?"
…………
"Boss!!!" the blond-haired guy cried out, "Come at us if you have a problem! Lava is innocent!!"
The cat demon employees standing nearby were all trembling with fear. They looked up at the paper-cut decorations that had been completely destroyed by a burst of energy, and then at their beautiful and dignified boss. They dared not utter a word.
Bei Sining was both angry and worried. She spun around in circles at the party, making the air above her feel thick and sticky. Her only human partner, Fan Lingrou, felt inexplicably suffocated...
"What's troubling you, Mr. Bei? Tell us and we'll help you figure something out." This strong woman is indeed capable; she stands out as exceptionally wise among the group of clueless little devils.
Bei Sining plopped down at the long buffet table, looked dejected for a moment, and said, "He suddenly went offline, saying he had something urgent to do. I sent him a WeChat message but he ignored me."
"..." Fan Lingrou asked patiently, "Did you make the call?"
Bei Sining said no.
"Then why don't you fight?"
"Why should we fight?! He abandoned me first!" General Bei complained.
Fan Lingrou: "…………"
Take a deep breath and keep a good mood for the New Year.
“After all, he’s the one who’s not responding to your messages, so you’re naturally in a passive position.” The smart human director analyzed it for him point by point: “If he’s not that important to you, then you can just ignore him. But if you absolutely need to know what he’s thinking and what happened, then putting aside your pride for now is the best way to maintain the relationship.”
Does Bei Sining not understand? Of course he does! But that doesn't stop him from hesitating, and there's still a slight urge to completely sever ties.
He himself couldn't tell whether that impulse could overcome his desire to get closer, and that was the crux of his dilemma.
The little demons whispered among themselves, and seeing that their leader had stopped causing trouble, they secretly gathered in twos and threes to eat snacks and crack sunflower seeds.
Who are you talking about?
"It's Brother Zheng, the boss's older brother! Ye Yubing said that he ran to their company to pursue the boss, he's so devoted."
Wow, that's so touching! Is she good-looking?
"You guys forgot? He was there at the beauty pageant that day, the one the boss always watches..."
"I remember now, he's quite handsome, and I heard he's a civil servant."
The cat demons gasped in astonishment, exclaiming in shock and envy, "My God, civil servants!"
Bei Sining: "………………"
I heard everything!
Suddenly his expression changed, and a blurry figure appeared by the glass door.
"Boss... what's wrong now?"
Bei Sining's face was cold and stern, but she could no longer hide the panic that was erupting within her. Wen Zheng was gone. Where did he go?! Wasn't he supposed to leave tomorrow or the day after? Why did he run away now?!
Moreover, he left by car at a very fast speed; in just one minute, Bei Sining could barely sense his presence.
Chase after them.
With only this one thought left, he transformed into a majestic black cat, darted into the night, and ran northwest at lightning speed.
Fan Lingrou: "………………"
Who am I? Where am I? (anan's random post)
***
Bai Shuang's sports car sped along the highway, leaving those self-driving vehicles in the dust.
It's been five hours already; if we keep going, we'll be entering Hiiragi Castle's territory.
At three in the morning, Deng Puyue, who hadn't slept much the night before due to excitement, was so sleepy that she took a couple of short naps. Suddenly, she woke up with a groan as the car bumped along.
"Brother Wuzheng..."
Bai Shuang gave a slightly jealous snort.
"Have the photos arrived, Zheng-ge... Is Wendy reliable...?"
Wen Zheng sent him a copy of the information on his phone: "Help me take a look. The area includes three red-roofed buildings in the shape of the character '品' (pin), and two playgrounds. Let's look at it based on these two conditions first."
Knowing the importance of the task, Deng Puyue and the other person doubled their speed and finished reading in ten minutes. Wen Zheng then made a second selection.
"No," he said firmly, with a hint of anxiety.