Chapter 74 - 69: The Cat’s Gratitude

Chapter 74: Chapter 69: The Cat’s Gratitude

Nan Jiamu raised her gun, aiming at the man and woman in front of her. In her eyes, the light of the mask was red, indicating a man, and blue, indicating a woman. Nan Jiamu felt a strong sense of incongruity from the man wearing the red mask, but at this moment, she had no time to dwell on it.

"Speak. What is going on with that Blood Clan member? Are you conspiring something with the Black Domain Walkers?"

"Conspiring?" Bai Qiang was shocked. How could she possibly conspire with that trashy human traitor?

"What are you looking at? Say something!" Bai Qiang suddenly roared at Yin Zhen, attempting to push all the blame onto him. She was one step short of pointing her finger at him and declaring, "Him! Ask him! He’s the mastermind."

Yin Zhen chuckled coldly. "No comment!"

As soon as the words fell, the set Effect was suddenly lifted. Clutching the Universal Key that had entered its cooldown period, Yin Zhen vanished using Shadow Instant Teleportation.

"How do you also have shadow..."

In her astonishment, Bai Qiang didn’t forget to run away quickly, merging into the shadows and disappearing.

Nan Jiamu gritted her teeth and took two angry steps forward.

"Even your Extraordinary Abilities are the same, yet you claim not to know each other!" Nan Jiamu furrowed her brow. Neither of these two seemed surprised to see her. Did they already know her Identity?

"A-level Shadow Manipulation includes Shadow Instant Teleportation, which could also be an independent B-level ability. But anything involving shadows must be related to the Cavendish family," she reasoned aloud. "Male possessing male and female possessing female is a fixed rule. As for the male... it might just be a layer of disguise, which is why it felt so incongruous. Which one of you is Adeline?"

Nan Jiamu felt a headache coming on. She had finally tracked down these two deeply hidden individuals, yet it felt as if she hadn’t found anything at all. There was no useful information whatsoever.

Little did she know, Bai Qiang was in the exact same boat.

On one hand, she genuinely needed Blossoming Prosperity’s help to ensure the mission could be completed without worrying about the protagonist stealing her kills. On the other hand, or perhaps more importantly, Bai Qiang wanted to uncover Blossoming Prosperity’s Identity.

She had finally managed to bait him out, only to find that this person didn’t transform into Raven, nor did he possess any of Lucia’s characteristics. He was a man who could use the Shadow Instant Teleportation exclusive to the Cavendish family? Could it be that Adeline’s scumbag father had an illegitimate son on the outside?

"Blossoming Prosperity, who exactly are you?!" Bai Qiang wondered. Her mind was in total chaos.

The sound of gunfire ceased, as did the explosions. The wreckage of the crashed drones was still burning, the firelight reflecting upon the ruins. Nan Jiamu returned to the factory area, her Combat Uniform covered entirely in dust.

Wang ran over from the command vehicle. "We have three casualties, seven severely injured, and eleven with minor injuries. One armored vehicle is totaled, and we lost seven drones."

Nan Jiamu remained silent for a few seconds. "Tonight’s strategic error was mine. I will personally contribute an additional portion for their pensions and medical expenses. As for those who died, I will take full responsibility for their children and elderly family members."

"I’ll go make the arrangements right away," Wang replied.

Nan Jiamu walked to the outside of the partially collapsed Warehouse B. Trouble was leaning against a pillar that hadn’t fallen, his right arm suspended in a sling made of bandages, his face deathly pale.

Xian Yu, Ye Se, and Signal were still searching through the rubble, moving broken bricks one by one, lifting collapsed iron sheets, and shining their flashlights into every crevice. Ye Se supported his ailing lower back, wiped a smear of dust from his face, and shook his head at Nan Jiamu.

Unable to hold back her tears any longer, Xian Yu squatted on the ground and sobbed aloud. "We can’t find her... We can’t find sister Mao Xuewang’s body... It must be that bastard... He took her away..."

Signal crouched down and wrapped an arm around Xian Yu’s shoulders. "We will definitely avenge her. Definitely."

The moment Mao Xuewang died, her death announcement had already appeared on the forum. There was no possibility of a fluke.

Ye Se walked over. Being older and having experienced more, he appeared very calm. "Captain, why did that Blood Clan member take Mao Xuewang’s body? And what do those symbols we found in the other warehouses mean?"

Nan Jiamu let out a breath. "I’m still waiting for Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence to give me an answer, but this matter is absolutely not that simple."

RUMBLE.

A sudden clap of thunder streaked across the gloomy sky, heralding an impending torrential rain.

At exactly seven o’clock, everyone froze simultaneously as that cold mechanical voice echoed in their minds.

[Current Round Public Mission: Eliminate Blood Clan Invaders 0/500]

Xian Yu’s crying stopped abruptly, and Signal’s hand froze in mid-air. Ye Se had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, but the lighter flame was blown out by the wind. Trouble closed his eyes and let out a long, heavy sigh.

The previous round had required one hundred. This round demanded five hundred. Those invaders would be stronger, more numerous, and much harder to deal with.

Everyone’s gaze fell on Nan Jiamu. Xian Yu couldn’t help but ask, "Captain, why did you insist on starting this game in the first place?" Her tone was filled with resentment.

Nan Jiamu closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

The system had jolted her awake from a mindless romance, only to tell her that if she didn’t sacrifice the male lead, Guan Heting, to initiate the invasion game and forcibly twist her main storyline, she would live happily ever after with him. She would raise five children, take care of the entire family’s daily life, and become the perfect, supportive wife.

That was the most terrifying, spine-chilling sentence Nan Jiamu had ever heard in her entire life.

Dragging this world and everyone in it into this cruel game and watching innocent people die did indeed fill her with guilt, but she did not regret it!

When others asked her what gave her the right, she wanted to ask those people the exact same thing. What gave them the right? What gave them the right to demand she drown in a ridiculous romance novel? What gave them the right to let those readers define her happiness? What gave her no right to shatter it all!

She had committed a heinous crime and was willing to go to Hell. But before she went to Hell, she would fight to the bitter end!

Keeping her head down, Nan Jiamu ejected the empty magazine from her gun, pulled out a fresh one, and slapped it into place.

"There’s no time to grieve. Get up and get to work."

Ye Se stubbed out his unlit cigarette, crushing it underfoot. "Let’s go."

Signal helped Xian Yu to her feet. Trouble grimaced in pain from his arm but didn’t utter a sound. Following Nan Jiamu, the group marched toward their new battlefield.

"Wang, tell everyone to hold on a little longer," Nan Jiamu ordered. "Continue the city-wide manhunt tonight. Kill as many as possible before dawn and do everything in your power to protect the citizens’ safety."

"Yes!"

At 7:03 PM, Bai Qiang pushed open her front door. Without even pausing to change her shoes, she dashed to the sofa, grabbed her phone, turned it on, and tried to check in.

"Did the check-in system crash?" she wondered aloud.

Bai Qiang tried several times but couldn’t access the check-in Mini Program. Just then, an SMS notification provided a link to an alternative check-in portal. However, barely two seconds after she entered it, this portal crashed as well.

"This got hacked too? Well, that’s going to be tricky!" she muttered.

She had to admit, Nan Jiamu’s strategy of having the citizens check in was highly effective. While the invading Blood Clan members were still disoriented and hadn’t yet assimilated the memories of their new bodies, they would expose themselves by missing the check-in. In the previous round, it had taken less than six hours to suppress an incipient riot.

But now...

Bai Qiang sighed. Even if the sky fell, the protagonist would hold it up. Her own Strength was limited, so there was no need to force herself to act heroic.

She quickly shut all the doors and windows in the house. Worried about her Li Hua returning, she left only a locked, narrow gap in the balcony window, just wide enough for Li Hua to squeeze through. After finishing this, Bai Qiang chugged half a glass of cold, boiled water and went to the bathroom to take a shower. Standing with her eyes closed under the showerhead, her mind was still replaying the scenes from tonight.

Emerging from the shower, Bai Qiang wrapped her hair in a towel, donned loose loungewear, and sat cross-legged on the carpet.

Picking up a pen, she began to organize everything that had happened tonight. She wrote down every single detail, drawing lines to connect related points and making annotations for her questions.

Tonight was another sleepless night for Guan City. The wail of police sirens, the buzzing of drones, and occasional gunshots drifted in from the window and faded away, like a stream of white noise playing in the background.

Bai Qiang was so engrossed in her writing that she didn’t even notice a grayish-black shadow darting in from the night and landing silently on the floor. Li Hua padded along gracefully, its movements incredibly light without making a single sound, and swiftly ran over to Bai Qiang’s side.

Just as Bai Qiang was looking down at her writing, something icy cold dropped onto her lap.

She looked down.

A grayish-brown, scaly creature, as thick as a thumb, with a drooping head...

"AHHH!! A SNAKE!!!"

Bai Qiang practically bounced off the carpet and scrambled onto the sofa, completely paralyzed with fear.

Her beloved Li Hua, covered in grass clippings and dirt, squatted next to the snake of unknown status. Tilting its head, it looked at her with bright, amber eyes.

"MEOW~~~"

Yin Zhen thought bitterly, "I really must thank you for tonight!"