Life Game In Other World
Chapter 511: Let Some People Live Until Next Week (Extra Long - , Seeking Monthly Pass)

Chapter 511: Chapter 511: Let Some People Live Until Next Week (Extra Long Chapter, Seeking Monthly Pass)

Had Lani ever been to Oak Street?

Was she drawn there, or was she looking for someone?

He Ao’s thoughts raced as he picked a bottle of water. "Boss, how much for this?"

"Five bucks," the boss glanced at He Ao, "Young man, your Rodan language isn’t bad."

"Just learning, still not very proficient," He Ao paid the money, and waving the bottle of water he held, "Thanks, Boss."

Then he turned and headed towards the end of the street.

At that moment, a young man came over, with the appearance of someone from the Tia Empire, speaking fluent Tia language, asking the boss for a pack of cigarettes in Tia.

He lit a cigarette and placed it between his lips, watching He Ao’s vanishing figure, he mused softly, "That man..."

"That’ll be fifty. What about that man?"

The boss looked on, puzzled.

"His silhouette, it’s like those heroes you see on TV,"

A waft of smoke obscured the young man’s face as he chuckled softly, "Pity that heroes don’t live long."

He casually pulled out a fifty-dollar bill, dropped it on the ground, and walked back into the depths of Oak Street, smoking.

The boss squatted down, picked up the money from the ground, dusted it off, and put it in the cash box.

He looked up at the sign posted on his stall that read ’If you encounter suspicious persons, please contact...’ He reached out and ripped it off, using it as a cushion to sit on.

——

Vitrand Street

This was an old street to the west of South City in Eren, the area that Li Le confirmed where Lani and Gade’s shared ’secret’ was located.

Whenever the two entered this area, they would basically disguise themselves and never entered the area at the same time.

Vitrand, in Rodan language, means gardenia. It was also one of the most chaotic streets of Eren, filled with all sorts of riffraff, and Li Le’s people couldn’t completely exert their influence here.

Moreover, Lani and Gade had strong anti-surveillance abilities, so the people Li Le sent to investigate would lose them every time.

Li Le was also reluctant to expose his own presence, considering the Research Institute didn’t have a strong presence here, everything he did required caution.

Since the two hadn’t actually threatened the interests of the Research Institute, Li Le didn’t invest more effort into investigating their secret.

This led to the lack of detailed information about the two’s secret in the materials He Ao had obtained.

Though through the material and his previous investigation, He Ao now had a rough guess about their secret, he still needed to acquire a definitive answer to see if there were other clues.

Asking Li Le could probably yield some results after some time, but for such investigations, seeking those who ruled the local streets might be more reliable.

The more chaotic a place, the more invisible order there is, and there are always those who stand in the shadows maintaining this chaotic order.

What is referred to as chaos is just the people’s defiance of the overt order.

He Ao picked up his phone and called the gendarmerie captain.

Half an hour later, a man, skinny, with the sides of his hair shaved off, the middle standing up, and a scar on the side of his face, walked over.

He looked at He Ao and greeted him with a smile, "Are you young Mr. He Ao, a friend of Captain Antway?"

Antway was the name of the gendarmerie captain.

He Ao sized up the man and nodded slightly.

"A friend of Captain Antway is a friend of mine," the man said with a smile, walking up beside He Ao. He pulled out a cigarette, glanced at He Ao’s young face, and then put it back, chuckling softly, "Are you here to find someone?"

He Ao showed the man Lani and Gade’s photos.

"Oh, a young couple?"

Laughing, the man said, "Leave it to me. In Vitrand, searching for a scoundrel among scoundrels is as troublesome as finding a drop in the ocean, but looking for respectable folks like these is as easy as spotting a lotus in the mud.

"Brother, give me your contact, and wait for me a while."

He Ao took out a new local cell phone he just bought on the road and exchanged contact information with the man.

Afterward, the man left.

He Ao wandered around the vicinity for a while, turned on his phone, located the Trunk area nearby, and started searching for information about the area.

The Trunk area was the location of the World Tree’s Rodan branch as determined by Li Le, and this area was quite large, spanning tens of square kilometers. The World Tree likely did not have many people here, and even fewer core members of the branch, so the branch itself wouldn’t be very big.

Therefore, finding the World Tree’s branch in this area was not an easy task.

He Ao quickly flipped through the pages, browsing the landmark buildings of the Trunk area and introductions to various streets.

Time passed by the minute, and approximately two hours after they had parted, the skinny man contacted He Ao.

He Ao met him at the entrance of Vitrand Street.

"Brother, I found them," the skinny man said with a cigarette in his mouth, smiling, "These two you’re looking for are quite good at disguising themselves. It took me some effort, but their temperament is just too eye-catching, bright as the lights in the dark, attracting too much attention. Many ’vaulters’ had their eye on them.

"But those two haven’t shown up for a day or two. Their house hasn’t been returned yet. Do you want to go have a look?"

’Vaulters’ is a Rodan term found in the dictionary, referring to thieves who break into other people’s houses to steal.

"Then I appreciate your efforts."

He Ao took a roll of banknotes from his pocket and casually stuffed it into the man’s hand.

"No trouble at all, we’re all friends here, it’s the least I can do."

While the man laughed in response and naturally pocketed the money, his smile became even warmer, "Their house is in that building up ahead. Brother, follow me."

Saying so, he led He Ao deeper into the street.

He Ao quickly followed him.

The two walked for about fifteen minutes, entered an old building, and stopped in front of the door of the innermost room on the fifth floor.

The man directly took out a key from his waist, inserted it into the keyhole, then turned back to He Ao with a smile, "Sometimes I do some ’broker’ work, helping people rent out houses, or ’clean’ them—you know, some tenants are not so willing to move out,"

He turned back to He Ao with a smile, "This room happens to be within my line of work. Speaking of which, the lease on this room expired yesterday; today is just the right time to clean up. Things work this way around here—rent is paid weekly, no one knows if they’ll be alive next week."

With that, he looked up into the room.

Warm white light illuminated the tidy floor, and the even glow spread over the cozy decorations within the room.

"Oh, they even changed the light bulbs and laid new flooring; that’s not common in Vitrand,"

The skinny man looked around and chuckled, "The little couple here sure knows how to live. Are they planning to settle down here for good?"

He Ao’s gaze, too, crossed the threshold and entered the room.

This was just a small one-bedroom apartment, but it was exceptionally tidy.

Brand new clean carpets and spotless tabletops clearly indicated that the previous occupants of this room had taken great care in maintaining it.

Even though nobody had been back for a few days, the place still looked as if its owners had just stepped out.

"Brother, do you want to come in and have a look?"

The man walked into the room, looked back at He Ao, and asked softly, "If you’re not coming in, I’ll just clean up and throw these things away."

He Ao followed the man into the room.

The living room decorations were simple. On the shoe cabinet at the entrance was a picture of a couple in an intimate embrace—Lani and Gade.

Just as Li Le had guessed, these two were a secret couple.

It’s generally forbidden for intelligence operatives from different countries to enter into relationships as this can easily distract from the mission due to various factors.

He Ao continued to walk inside.

Although the whole house was very obviously decorated with care, in reality, there weren’t many things in the room. Behind the dining table, hanging on the wall, was a large photo board pinned with various pictures of the two dating.

Behind the photo board was the somewhat worn wall, which was the original color of the room.

There was nothing in the living room worth noting, so He Ao advanced to the bedroom door and pushed it open.

The bedroom décor was even cozier than the living room, the room featured a large balcony, and bright sunlight shone through it onto a small short table in front of the balcony.

The chaotic manuscripts and photos were piled messily on the desk.

He Ao walked straight up to the desk.

On the desk lay many photos beside a laminating machine.

Most of these photos had been laminated for long-term preservation, and each one had lines of text written on the back in black ink.

This text was neither in Tia nor in Rodan.

He Ao opened a translation app and scanned the text behind the photos.

It was identified as being in the language of the Yika Republic.

He Ao took the photos and began to read through them one by one.

The majority of the photos depicted scenes of Lani and Gade dating, as well as some photos Gade took of Lani, while the words on the back resembled commemorative notes like a diary.

Most of the text behind these photos described the progression of their relationship and didn’t seem like valuable information.

However, He Ao noticed that in the early photos, there were many individual pictures of Gade and Lani, where a tall building appeared frequently in the background.

He Ao had just gone over information about that building; it was the Eren City TV Tower, one of the landmark buildings in the Trunk area.

He Ao selected photos with the TV tower and related area scenes and spread them out on the desk.

The intelligence provided by Li Le indicated that Lani and Gade’s disguised identities were entirely different, with one in the west and one in the east, making it impossible for their paths to cross in daily life.

Before their romantic relationship was fully confirmed, the only place that could enable their encounter was one — their common workplace, the Rodan division of the World Tree.

Based on the angles these photos were shot from, He Ao began to roughly estimate the distance and direction from the shooting location to the TV tower.

He quickly constructed an approximate 3D model in his mind.

He then opened the online map street view and started searching for the shooting locations along the model he had built.

The street view of Eren City on the online map was almost five years old, but as there had been little change in Eren City over those five years, He Ao was able to easily find the approximate area where the photos were taken.

Near Nuke Street and a couple of other streets.

All the shooting points were dispersed in areas somewhat distant from Nuke Street, with no photos taken in the central part of the street itself.

It was unlikely that the two would take photos at the entrance of the Rodan division; they would have to be some distance away to do so.

Therefore, He Ao conjectured that the Rodan division of the World Tree was probably located in Nuke Street or some nearby buildings.

He Ao collected the photos and neatly arranged them on the low table.

But he didn’t leave. Instead, he briefly activated Super Memory and scanned the entire room with his gaze.

There was still an unresolved question about Lani’s death — why did she "run away"?

Before the Shadow approached, there was no danger apart from a bit of terror, and no large-scale sacrifices had broken out on that night. Most of the deaths occurred without the victims realizing it in their homes.

How then did Lani notice the danger of the Divine Power? And how did she know she was being "hunted"?

Soon, He Ao spotted an uneven bulge on the pillow at the head of the bed.

He walked over to the headboard, fumbled around, then unzipped the pillowcase and took out a stack of blank photos.

These photos weren’t laminated and some had dried bloodstains on the edges.

He Ao had already checked when he scanned the room, and it was very clean with no traces of fresh blood anywhere.

The bloodstains could only have come from somewhere else, suggesting that the photos might not have been originally placed there but were brought back from another location.

The back of these photos had lines of text written in a hasty scrawl.

[Today, something is off at the division; everyone’s eyes look strange. They mentioned hearing eerie sounds from the sky in last night’s group chat, but when I asked them today, they all claimed ignorance, even though the chat logs are still there. I don’t know what purpose the chief has in summoning us.]

[No good, I have to call Lani and tell her not to come. The situation is peculiar, and I feel like I’m caught in a whirlpool. I must record this.]

[They’ve gone mad! What are they worshipping! They took Herhan away!]

[Is that lump of flesh Herhan? Damn it, all the exits are blocked. I sense something terrifying approaching. They invited me to join their worship, what should I do, Herhan’s already dead, and if I don’t participate, I could be next.]

[No signal anymore, the chief seems to be still trying to gather those who are scattered outside.]]

[I saw Lani by the window, damn it, God, don’t let her come in.]

[Lani left, good news, but she was so close, she couldn’t have been influenced by that thing too, could she? I don’t want to participate in that bizarre worship anymore, I feel like I’m becoming less like myself, it’s getting closer and closer to me.]

[I know now, this worship is something akin to those classical religious ceremonies, where all the participants have their erosion by that thing accelerated, it’s getting closer and closer to me, and once it’s completely near, what will I become, a vague mass of flesh and blood like He Han?]

[Jeno is dead, he said he dreamed that the shadow was pressing against his back, damn it, participating in this worship seems to also lead to death, as long as that thing approaches, we will die.]

[The deputy minister came to dance, she’s so cold, yet her dancing is surprisingly beautiful, but after watching the dance, that thing approached even faster.]

[It seems I’ve lost a lot of memories, I can’t clearly recall what I’ve just done, the Black Shadow approached me, but I seem to have not died.]

[Great ¥&*&**&%¥#! You are the lord of the eternal night!]

Here, the bloodstained photo was gone, and He Ao was left with only one last clean photo that was a different color from the rest.

He turned the photo over and gazed at the content within.

The last person to write the text on the back of the photo seemed to be in an abnormal mental state, with his handwriting so messy that it was almost illegible. He Ao could only transcribe it, use handwriting input on a translation software, and attempt to translate,

[Damn it... Lani too has been lured by them... she was deceived... chased away Lani... so many people... they lured so many people today... the more people die, the faster that thing’s advent, huh... I should be dying... Lani... run... run... leave South City...]

[No... I can’t stay here... Unable to contact headquarters, communication cut off by the minister... Moonlight and C-level... I need to find Moonlight...]

The entire text stopped abruptly there.

After that content, presumably, the person who left these photos must have hidden the photos and then left the house.

And he never came back.

These words must have been left by Gade.

As He Ao speculated, something indeed went wrong with the World Tree Rodan branch; from the content described in these words, the minister of the Rodan branch must have been corrupted.

Similarly, these words affirmed some of He Ao’s speculations.

The ’ritual’ of the Molt Shadow Club can accelerate the approach of the shadow in dreams. The Primitive Church does not actively kill; they only speed up the shadow’s approach, making these innocents directly become the ’sacrifices’ for the ’Mysterious Shadow.’

And after absorbing these lives, the Mysterious Shadow’s advent speeds up.

However, not everyone who the shadow completely nears will become ’sacrifices’; some with ’Aptitude’ will be transformed by the Mysterious Shadow into its own ’servants.’ Gade was such a person.

Lani was lured to the club the night before last, where she encountered Gade who had already been converted into a ’servant,’ which awakened a part of Gade’s self-awareness, and then she was chased away by Gade.

Starting from Oak Street, the shortest direct path out of South City passes near the dojo, which is why Lani fell near the dojo. Heeding her ’boyfriend’s’ advice, she ran all the way towards the outskirts of South City, but ultimately, she did not escape the control of the Primitive Church.

From how the Shadow acted, she had always been under the Church’s control, perhaps already affected by the ritual, so in reality, Gade did not save his girlfriend.

Gade himself also mentioned, Lani was deceived.

However, another issue was exposed; Lani didn’t sleep, she was constantly running, but she still died.

So, the ’Shadow’ is not only approaching in dreams, it’s always approaching; it’s only in dreams that you can observe it.

All of these events occurred before He Ao’s arrival.

Gade couldn’t reach the World Tree headquarters and wanted to seek help from Moonlight, but in the end, he failed and became a puppet ’greeting’ at the door of the Molt Shadow Club.

Seeing the bloodstained photo in He Ao’s hand, the gaunt man standing behind him seemed to understand something.

He took a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and slowly lit it with a lighter, "In this city, that’s how it is; you never know whether you’ll be alive next week, it’s the same for everyone. It was like this in the Era of Kingdoms, and it’s the same now,"

The faint smoke filled the room, "I’ll come clean this room in a couple of days, maybe someone will remember them, come to collect what belongs to them."

"They will."

He Ao placed the photos on the table and turned to walk towards the door.

"Bro, where are you planning to go now?"

The gaunt man followed behind He Ao, reaching out to pull the door closed.

He Ao turned to look at him, pocketed his phone.

"I’m going to make sure some people can live until next week."