Life Game In Other World
Chapter 517: Banquet or Ambush (Long - , Requesting Monthly Votes)

Chapter 517: Chapter 517: Banquet or Ambush (Long Chapter, Requesting Monthly Votes)

Daybreak’s glow spilled into the somewhat chilly courtyard.

It was now early spring, yet the mornings in Eren City still carried a chill.

It was earlier than usual, and the disciples of the martial arts school had not yet arrived.

He Ao’s steps crossed the threshold, his gaze shifting toward a corner of the courtyard.

A girl in pure white Practice Clothes was pressing down her body, slowly practicing the Fist Technique from yesterday,

Daybreak’s light kissed the delicate cheeks of the girl.

In He Ao’s view, under Daybreak, a strand of extremely fine energy was now following the girl’s movements, seeping into her skin, and merging into her body.

This energy flowed through the girl’s entire body and then, with each move, slowly transformed into the girl’s own strength.

The process was not easy; the girl’s movements were slower and seemed heavier than usual.

As she finished a set of the Fist Technique, fine sweat had begun to bead on her forehead, and wisps of white mist exhaled from her mouth.

She took a deep breath, circulated the Qi back to her spirit, and looked up, just in time to see He Ao standing at the entrance, her face immediately brightening with joy, "Master He Ao!"

"Morning,"

He Ao smiled and nodded at her, "Review and rectify, then consolidate."

Elfia’s movements had become more skillful compared to last night, and she was gradually on the right track, next came the tireless grind of practice and thought.

At this stage, the improvements from practice and thought were no longer as significant as before, but the effort required was no less intense.

"Yes!"

Elfia, having trained in martial arts since a young age, naturally understood the meaning behind He Ao’s words. She nodded vigorously, then cautiously asked, "Master He Ao, have you had breakfast? I have some dumplings here."

"They sell dumplings around here?"

He Ao was somewhat puzzled.

There weren’t many people from Central Earth in Eren City, and the closest supermarket selling Central Earth goods was ten kilometers away.

"I made them myself during my break yesterday,"

Elfia chuckled softly, speaking in a hushed voice.

He Ao considered for a moment, then nodded lightly, "Thank you."

······

Elfia went into the kitchen to cook the dumplings, and the two quickly had their meal. At this moment, He Ao received a message.

The message came from the gendarmerie captain and included a document file.

[This is what I can access, involving cases related to the opposition leaders, hoping it can be of help to you.]

He Ao quickly replied with a [Thank you].

Then he opened the file.

The content of the file was a collection of case data, organized by time and individuals involved.

There were not many cases involving the opposition leaders, but the gendarmerie captain had not just listed those parts directly related to the opposition leaders, but also those that might be indirectly related to them.

The gendarmerie captain had enumerated these cases, including some trivial ones, all densely packed into dozens of pages.

He Ao’s gaze swiftly scanned over these materials, locking onto the details about a few individuals who had allegedly been assassinated by Jin Ya two years prior.

Clearly, the information obtained by the gendarmerie captain was quite basic, and most of the cases detailed in this information involved finding lost cats or catching petty thieves.

However, many details are often hidden in subtleties, and these documents might contain some details not easily noticed.

He Ao stood up and walked into the courtyard, as the glow of the early morning descended upon him, his eyes also converged on a line of text in the document.

Among those people who had been assassinated by Jin Ya, a servant in the house of one of the victims had reported a case a month before the master was assassinated, stating there might be suspicious individuals nearby.

The ultimate investigation result of this case was that nothing was found.

But when linked to subsequent assassination events, it looked as if Jin Ya was scoping out the vicinity.

He Ao quickly flipped through the files of a few other assassination victims and found that none of the others had such reports made.

He Ao pondered for a moment, extended the timeline, and took a careful look to see if similar reports had been made in the years prior regarding these individuals.

Then he discovered that almost every one of those who were later assassinated had one such report of suspicious people in their surroundings, spanning the time from approximately four to three years prior.

The timings of the reports were not evenly distributed, with intervals of one to two months or three to four months, mostly from servants, and in the end, they were often left unresolved.

He Ao’s thoughts paused for a moment.

If the ’suspicious persons’ these individuals had seen were all Jin Ya, and Jin Ya had been continuously ’watching’ his enemies during that period, did that mean that Jin Ya had not left Rodan for those few years? Or even, had not left Eren City?

He Ao contemplated as he walked out of the courtyard gate.

While heading out, he opened the Research Institute’s software and sent a message to Li Le, inquiring about the exact location of Moonlight’s head office in Rodan.

[17 West Road, something seems to have happened inside Moonlight, and now the whole of Moonlight’s Rodan head office is under martial law lockdown. No one can enter or exit.]

Li Le quickly responded, and then he sent a message, [However, it seems Moonlight is looking for Hao Yi.]

Hmm?

He Ao was taken aback; he didn’t quite understand what Li Le meant.

"We interrupt with a public search announcement,"

At this moment, he had reached a nearby street, and the clear voice of a TV host came from the television in the adjacent convenience store.

He Ao looked up at the TV in the convenience store.

The host on the television was now glancing at a file on the desk, slowly speaking,

"A gentleman named ’Moonlight’ is looking for a friend called ’Hao Yi’ and has prepared a lavish feast at home to entertain this friend from afar. He looks forward to making more collaborations with Mr. Hao Yi to achieve mutual benefits.

"If Mr. Hao Yi sees this message, please arrive at 17 West Road before nine o’clock tonight; Mr. Moonlight has been waiting for you for a long time."

He Ao lowered his head to look at the newspapers in front of the convenience store’s Boss, and nearly all the newspapers featured the same public search announcement on their front-page headline.

He Ao turned his head to look at the surrounding shops, and almost every television was broadcasting the message of this search announcement.

"Why is it this again."

The convenience store Boss muttered, picking up the remote to change the channel. The new channel was still broadcasting the search announcement.

Eventually, the Boss gave up, sitting on the chair, waiting for the announcement to finish.

He Ao stood at the convenience store entrance, bought a bottle of water, and while paying, casually asked, "Who is this Hao Yi? Why are there messages looking for him everywhere?"

"I don’t know either," the convenience store Boss took out the change box, giving He Ao his change, "This morning, I woke up to every TV channel broadcasting his search announcement, over and over again. Even the newspapers are all filled with it."

"In Rodanese, Tia’s language," he casually picked up a newspaper, showing it to He Ao, "even in Central Earth’s language."

Shaking his head, he stuffed the newspaper back and exclaimed, "This guy called Moonlight is really damn wealthy, and that Hao Yi must really be something else for them to spend so much money to find him."

"Indeed."

He Ao agreed, took his drink, and left the convenience store.

This was an ’invitation’.

Threads of thought flashed through his mind.

At that moment, Yang De made a phone call to him.

This was the first time Yang De had called him since He Ao arrived in Rodan. "He Ao, have you seen those messages? Moonlight seems to be looking for ’Hao Yi’?"

"Yeah," He Ao nodded, "I know."

"Do you have any thoughts?"

Yang De spoke quickly, "I have obtained intelligence that the building destroyed in Eren City yesterday might have been Hao Yi’s doing. And after last night, the World Tree lost contact with its Rodan branch; it seems Hao Yi has taken action against the World Tree’s Rodan branch.

"And this morning, Moonlight issued him an ’invitation,’" Hao Yi’s actions have exceeded our expectations, and we don’t know what he truly wants. Now, it’s uncertain whether he will collaborate with Moonlight.

"The situation in Eren seems to be slipping into chaos, and there’s also that mysterious club you mentioned before, another unknown force. The arrival of this relic is bringing with it influences we’ve never seen before,"

Yang De paused then whispered,

"After discussing with Director Liu and the dean, we hope you can withdraw. The situation in Eren City is out of control. We can abandon this relic channel; you are right in the center of the vortex, which is very dangerous."

Yang De’s initial goal was simply to let He Ao gain some experience and make contact with the various forces. Now that the situation has exceeded his predictions, He Ao staying any longer would be dangerous, so he hoped He Ao could evacuate in time.

Upon hearing Yang De’s words, He Ao rubbed his brow,

He wasn’t just in the center of the vortex; he was the vortex itself.

Moreover, judging from the shadow that kept approaching in his dreams, he had been marked by the Mysterious Shadow. If the Mysterious Shadow indeed completed its advent, no matter how far he fled, he would probably be killed directly by this entity.

After all, even half the world’s distance is but a step for a Divine Being.

Had the Mysterious Shadow not been so absolute in its actions, he would have likely withdrawn already.

But since when did a Divine Being ever care about the lives of mortals? To the Mysterious Shadow, the hundreds of thousands of people in South City Eren were nothing more than Sacrifices laid upon Its altar for Its consumption.

After pondering for a moment, He Ao said deliberately, "I met Hao Yi yesterday."

"Hm?"

This caught Yang De off guard.

He Ao simply recounted the events of the previous night and relayed part of the truth about the Divine Being’s advent and World Tree’s contamination, as told by ’Hao Yi,’ to Yang De.

In the end, he expressed some of the ’assistance’ that ’Hao Yi’ wished to acquire.

"I understand. I will contact the dean and the others."

After listening to He Ao’s narration, Yang De fell silent for a while, then nodded, but in the end, he still cautioned, "We don’t know if this ’Hao Yi’ is completely trustworthy, you must be ready to leave at any time."

"Okay."

He Ao nodded.

After hanging up the phone with Yang De, He Ao took a deep breath and glanced over the missing persons notices that littered the street.

This might be an ’invitation,’ or it might be a ’lure.’

However, he still had other things to verify for the time being.

Soon, he walked back to where he had encountered the murder for the first time, the place where Lani was victimized.

The area was still cordoned off with isolation tape, preventing the surrounding people from entering.

Lani’s body and items related to her had already been moved away.

Due to the overwhelming number of cases at the time, neither Moonlight nor the gendarmerie had enough manpower to keep watch, so they had just set up temporary isolation tape to block off the area.

Because of the murder, people were still quite afraid to enter that place.

But being somewhat afraid doesn’t mean being completely afraid.

Some people with more courage, or those in a hurry and wanting to take a shortcut, would just crawl under the isolation tape.

When He Ao arrived there, he saw three young people lifting the tape and squeezing through—

-

"I heard this place was a murder scene,"

After crossing the isolation tape, the three of them slowly walked along the gloomy and sinister alley. The one lagging behind, a short teenager, was carefully surveying the grim surroundings and said with a tremble, "Is it really okay for us to be here?"

"What, are you scared?"

The only girl among the trio, a ponytailed girl with distinct freckles on her face, turned around and teased the short teenager with a high-pitched voice, clearly with the intention to startle him.

"No!"

The short boy was clearly startled; he leaned backwards and grabbed his backpack strap, tremblingly saying, "No."

"Hahaha, what a timid little guy."

The freckled girl laughed heartily and carefully surveyed the surroundings.

"We’re just going to take a look, there’s nothing to worry about."

The tall youth walking in the front took out his phone to start recording,

"Think about it, if we show this video in class today, wouldn’t that be cool? Don’t worry, this path isn’t long; haven’t we walked it many times before when there were no problems? Plus, this route will get us to school faster."

"But, the recent murder cases have been kind of strange,"

the short boy said in a low voice, "and haven’t you guys had that dream? The one with a very terrifying shadow? My mom says that there might be a lot of things in this world that we can’t see; we shouldn’t go to places that obviously aren’t normal."

"What, did you dream about some shadow coming to grab you and eat you in the middle of the night?"

The freckled girl burst into laughter, "That’s the kind of stuff you’d only find in paranormal stories. Plus, what are you worried about? The gendarmerie has already cleaned up around here."

She walked to the side of the box and pointed at the exposed brick wall, saying, "See, all the bloodstained cement has been chipped away by the gendarmerie. And you talk about those fantastic stories; it’s broad daylight now, is there going to be a monster staring at us from overhead?"

Just as she said this, the short boy was lifting his head, looking at the ceiling above her with a terrified expression.

"What’s up?"

The freckled girl was taken aback.

At that moment, a drop of warm liquid landed on her hand.

She turned her head and looked at the thing on the back of her hand.

It was a drop of bright red blood.

She trembled as she lifted her head.

Half a meter above her head, clinging to the wall like a gecko, was a creature covered in lumps with a humanoid form and a massive mouth. It was staring at her, and fresh red blood was seeping from the gaps between its teeth.

As the girl lifted her head and noticed the creature, it too opened its blood-filled maw.

Fresh red blood dripped onto the girl’s face.

The girl opened her mouth to scream, but the creature was quicker. In a flash, it crawled in front of her and bit down toward her head.

Just then, a cold white brilliance descended from the heavens, piercing the creature’s body like thunder, nailing it to the wall.

"Ah!!!"

The girl’s scream was finally released.

The quick-reacting short youth by her side pulled her outwards; they both failed to control their strength and fell against the opposite wall in the alley.

"Monster!!!"

The tall youth making the video finally reacted, scrambling madly to flee in the opposite direction.

In the midst of the chaos, the short youth looked up at the light that had nailed the creature to the wall; it appeared to be a pure white ’sword.’

But within the next second, the sword vanished, and the creature’s body slid to the ground.

The short boy lifted his head, gazing into the sky, looking in the direction from which the light had come. In that place, only a slowly rising morning sun was visible.

----

He Ao, standing on the rooftop, glanced at the bone sword that had returned to his hand via Retrieve objects from the air, scanning the direction where the creature had appeared.

Trails of bright red were hidden within the cracks of the wall.

Under the vision of Divine Sense, some surging, faint powers were gestating within them.

It seemed to be part of some ritual.

He Ao’s figure retreated, jumping to another rooftop, disappearing into the sunlight.