Life Game In Other World
Chapter 518

Chapter 518: 518

Bright sunlight spilled across the cracked, old wooden table of the small tavern.

The man set down his glass and placed his large palm on the table surface, worn smooth by countless patrons, as he turned to watch the bustling crowd on the street.

He thoroughly enjoyed such leisurely moments.

He remembered that many years ago, he would often sit quietly in such taverns, drinking alone, merely watching the slow-moving throng outside the window.

That seemed to have become a distant memory.

His years had been filled with ceaseless busyness, either taking lives or on the way to do so.

He had so many memories that he could no longer recall what ’peace’ and ’leisure’ even meant.

It wasn’t until this time that he, by chance, encountered that being and, unexpectedly, gained some time to rest.

"What’s the best drink here? Any recommendations?"

A young man from Central Earth, looking somewhat green, took a seat in front of him and asked in fairly fluent Rodanese.

"You could try their ’Prince Ronnie.’ It’s a strong cocktail based on vodka. According to the boss, this drink is connected to Prince Ronnie from the Era of Kingdoms," the man said, pausing as he glanced at the young man with a soft chuckle before turning his gaze back to the window, not lingering on He Ao.

"Don’t listen to this bastard, kid," the tavern’s boss was wiping the counter, and he tossed over a menu, "Prince Ronnie is too strong. Pick something you like."

The thick menu landed precisely in front of He Ao.

He Ao picked up the menu, flipping through it. His eyes skimmed over each drink name. The boss had put effort into the menu, detailing the strength and main ingredients of each drink; some even had a backstory included.

The pages flipped, emitting a crisp sound.

"Krod," He Ao suddenly whispered under his breath.

Krod was the man from Daybreak whom He Ao had marked as a C-level.

The man who was drinking froze mid-sip, and he abruptly turned his head to look at He Ao.

"Shush, don’t get excited, Mister Blood Apprentice," He Ao said calmly, his eyes resting on the menu item ’Prince Ronnie.’

The drink was originally called Warrior’s Drink, a cocktail concocted by the boss himself, who claimed that only the strongest warriors could walk out of the tavern standing after drinking it.

When Prince Ronnie was younger, he used to challenge and defeat every martial arts gym in Eren, and each time, he would come to this tavern for a Warrior’s Drink.

After so many visits, the boss felt that Prince Ronnie and the drink belonged together, so he renamed it to Prince Ronnie.

He Ao lifted his gaze to the man, closed the menu with a snap, and tossed it aside.

The hefty menu spun several times in the air before landing in front of the boss, with the pages flipping swiftly to stop on the ’Prince Ronnie’ page.

The boss glanced at the neatly landed menu in front of him and said with a smile, "Nice skill."

He closed the menu and turned to make the drink.

Meanwhile, He Ao’s attention rose to Krod, whose expression had now settled back to calm.

"Are you from the Research Institute?"

Krod watched He Ao, his eyes sharp as daggers, as if trying to slice open He Ao’s inner self.

"Who I am is not important," He Ao smiled, pulling out a pen and a piece of paper from his pocket and began to write quickly while looking at Krod’s bright red eyes, "Maybe we can have a chat, Mister Krod."

"About what?" Krod’s hand moved toward his waist.

"About your ’boss,’ the Duke of Eren," He Ao continued to write swiftly, his tone calm.

In that brief moment, He Ao had activated his Super Memory.

The first reaction in Krod’s mind quickly entered He Ao’s thoughts.

Indeed, the ’boss’ was the Duke of Eren.

There was no faster way to gain information than to ask directly from someone in the know.

If the ’boss’ was the Duke of Eren, then perhaps Rodan was his main base.

"Or perhaps," He Ao continued, looking at Krod as he flipped the sketch he was making to show a man visualized as ’father’ by Elfia the night before,

He Ao’s tone hesitated slightly, "Should I refer to him as ’Prince Ronnie’?"

Krod’s unflappable expression finally showed an almost imperceptible shift.

All these shifts and the thoughts racing through his mind were perceived by He Ao.

The ’boss’ is ’Prince Ronnie’? The same man Elfia’s missing father?

He Ao’s thoughts paused momentarily.

Some things don’t match up, according to Elfia. Her father remained a common man up until his disappearance.

Could a person in the main world become a B-level and form a formidable power within five years?

To be exact, at least two years ago, the ’Boss’ must have already been B-level; otherwise, he couldn’t have protected Jin Ya, who had assassinated several important figures of Rodan, from a B-level of Moonlight.

This means, Elfia’s father would have had to become B-level within three years of his disappearance, to match the ’Boss’s strength.

However, it’s not impossible to reach B-level in three years, after all, He Ao has only stepped into the Transcendent realm a little over a month ago.

Of course, it’s also possible that Elfia doesn’t understand her own father, and Prince Ronnie has always been hiding it from his daughter.

Or perhaps, some of the information is not entirely true.

And there’s another problem here.

Clearly, the ’Boss’ is in control of the real power of Rodan’s Restoration Organization, but could a ’missing prince’ who emerged after the fall of the nation, really so easily take control of the old Kingdom’s power without any foundation?

He Ao put away the sketch in his hand and continued,

"Five years ago, after the King’s death, Prince Ronnie appeared and became your leader."

When he said this, Krod’s expression visibly changed.

At the same time, the thoughts in Krod’s mind were transmitted to He Ao’s mind.

Prince Ronnie didn’t appear five years ago!

He had appeared earlier and had always been the person in charge of Rodan’s underground Transcendent organization!

That’s why he could seamlessly take over the old Kingdom’s forces after the King’s death.

Some even suspected that the death of the last king had something to do with him.

This was almost contrary to what Elfia had described.

The information previously obtained had problems.

Someone was lying!

"It seems you don’t know as much as you thought,"

Krod smiled, finally recovering from the shock He Ao had brought him, but then his expression froze as if he realized something, his chest heaving intensely, "Mind Reading Technique? Are you tricking me?"

In Daybreak, there are Transcendents who are ’Psychologists’ adept in Mind Reading Technique, and Krod naturally had encountered this power, aware that it existed in this world.

"Let’s talk outside."

He Ao smiled as he looked at Krod and slowly got up.

Krod’s emotions were now under control, his identity could not be exposed, and starting a fight here was too conspicuous.

Moreover, this tavern was a place that ’Prince Ronnie’ used to frequent, and killing someone here could very likely anger the ’Boss’.

So he stood up as well, following behind He Ao.

The two of them, one after the other, exited the tavern and turned into a small alley deep in the street.

With no one around, Krod fished out a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and clenched it between his teeth, "You seem very confident. Do you think you can deal with me?"

"I have to say, I have no animosity towards you and do not want to fight. I am a law-abiding person, I’m just curious about some things and want to have a chat with you,"

He Ao turned around, a smile on his face, "For instance, you must have had a fairly high status in the Era of Kingdoms, don’t you know where Prince Ronnie’s secret base is?"

"I don’t know."

Krod drew a curved knife from his waist, the blade shimmering like a crescent moon in the dim light.

He truly didn’t know; ’Prince Ronnie,’ now the ’Boss,’ was exceptionally secretive, and hardly any of his subordinates knew the prince’s detailed information.

"Then do you know where the last King’s secret base is?"

He Ao continued to inquire.

In an instant, a thought flashed through Krod’s mind, then he forcibly extinguished it.

But that thought had already been captured by He Ao.

Resisting ’Mind Reading’ was not as easy as one might think.

"That’s why I hate you mind readers the most in my life."

Krod spat out a breath of smoke.

The ’friendliness’ and ’non-conflict’ He Ao had just displayed made him ’realize’ that this mind reader might not be as strong as he seemed.

In fact, that previous Psychologist from Daybreak killed by the Research Institute wasn’t strong in single combat either, certainly much weaker than him.

Although he couldn’t completely counter the Mind Reading Technique, he had figured out some strategies to deal with it in combat.

Mind Reading Technique has a range, and if he pulled out of this distance, he could confirm his tactics and then appropriately clear his mind. Before the other party could react, he could use his conditioned reflex to take down his opponent.

For this purpose, he specifically practiced a move to make it a conditioned reflex.

Although it was only one move, in the heat of battle, one move was enough.

His muscles tensed, and in an instant, he leaped back several dozen meters.

Krod estimated the distance, thinking he should be beyond the range of the Mind Reading Technique now. He looked up at He Ao to see the young man’s naive face.

He Ao still made no move, standing there calmly watching him, his gaze composed and serene.

This guy is still too young, his rationale clouded by the power of becoming a Transcendent, thinking himself invincible and still not running.

This very moment was the kid’s only chance at life.

Krod sneered, gripping his scimitar as a faint smell of blood began to drift around him.

His figure suddenly turned into a blood-red phantom, rushing towards He Ao with a speed several times faster than before.

He Ao shifted his body to the side, seemingly preparing to dodge to the right.

Because the direction Krod was about to attack from was his left.

Ordinarily speaking, his dodge indeed would have evaded Krod’s scimitar.

However, just as Krod’s figure neared He Ao, his body bent at an almost incomprehensible angle, forming a ninety-degree angle and forcibly changing the attack from the left to the right.

The crescent-like scimitar aimed straight for He Ao’s heart.

At the same time, another scimitar appeared in his other hand, circling towards He Ao’s neck, blocking off any retreat for He Ao.

A somewhat cruel smile emerged on Krod’s face—this was a move he had trained for a long time and had perfected.

Any potential evasive move that an enemy could make was already anticipated in his simulations. He used this move not just against those who could utilize the Mind Reading Technique, but also against other enemies, as the body’s instinctive reflex response is quicker than a thought-out countermove.

He took He Ao seriously enough to go all out, unleashing his strongest killing move.

Until now, no one had survived this attack.

This will be an absolute kill!

The youth in front of him had almost no chance to live!

He Ao watched the scimitar gouging toward his heart calmly, channeling his body’s strength to his right foot, then abruptly lifted his knee and kicked out, landing on Krod’s abdomen.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment; an immense impact caused the concrete beneath He Ao’s left foot to shatter instantly, yet his own body remained unmoved.

Krod’s body jolted as if he were a cooked lobster, bending at an awkward angle and being flung backwards, crashing into a wall at the end of the alley and breaking it apart.

He Ao set down his right foot and turned, walking towards the exit of the alley.

Krod struggled within the rubble, trying to rise, but He Ao’s strike had shattered his energy focal point. The raging energies were now ravaging every organ in his body, and eventually, his hands slowly dropped, his body motionless.

Mountain Collapse Tsunami: 7/5

He Ao returned to the street.

His ability to kill Krod with a single kick was also due to Krod’s overconfidence.

Krod’s blood-red form likely possessed a degree of physical immunity. In a normal state, it wouldn’t be easy to kill him—using the bone sword would take considerable effort.

However, when he twisted his body, the flow of energy within him changed, exposing the energy focal point hidden inside his body to the surface.

This allowed He Ao to strike directly at his energy focal point without the need for a weapon, which made it more convenient for He Ao to launch his attack.

With Krod’s death, the marks that had been placed returned to He Ao’s mind. Now, of his three marks, two were still cooling down.

These two marks had been used in the Copy World to modify choices at the C-level.

At this moment, He Ao also sensed the remaining cooldown time of these two marks, which was 7 hours.

Theoretically, modifying choices at the C-level should have a cooldown time of one month, but He Ao’s previous guess was correct—soul repair indeed significantly shortened the cooldown time of the marks.

Since his return from the Copy World, as his soul was strengthened, the cooldown time for the marks was also reduced by at least four-fifths.

While pondering, He Ao returned to the tavern. The Boss had already prepared the cocktail and placed it on the counter, smiling at He Ao, "Your ’Prince Ronnie,’ of course, you can also call it Warrior’s Drink."

He Ao lifted the cocktail and asked softly, "Does Prince Ronnie still come here for drinks often?"

"Prince Ronnie hasn’t been here for many years," the Boss said with a smile. "He left Rodan, and no one knows where he went."

"It’s possible he has returned to Rodan but just doesn’t come here for drinks anymore," He Ao lightly laughed, lifting his glass.

"Before he left, he said that if he ever returned, he would come here to drink first," the Boss said while wiping the drinkware with a cleaning cloth, his smile calm, "He’s a man of his word."

He Ao looked at the Boss’s face and raised his glass, downing the bright liquid in one gulp.

The fiery, spicy sensation exploded in his throat, making him feel like he was back on the blood-boiling battlefield for a moment.

Setting down the glass, he smiled. "Good drink!"

He left the money for the drink under the glass and left the tavern.

Watching He Ao’s retreating figure disappear into the street, the Boss picked up the glass.

Good drinks are for heroes.

——

The evening sunlight filtered into the sequestered medical clinic.

He Ao sat on an old chair, smiling at the two gaunt men strapped to the medical chairs opposite him. After Lei Cheng’s ’resuscitation,’ they had finally woken up as the day was about to end.

Lei Cheng immediately contacted He Ao and asked him to come over.

And He Ao had been listening to the two men’s stories for a while now.

"So, you were planning to sneak in and steal something?"

His gaze swept over the two men as he asked softly,

"Is it..."

The man with the scar on his face kept his head down, not daring to look at He Ao.

Though He Ao had a smile on his face and looked young and tender in the warm sunlight, appearing benign and harmless, like a law-abiding good citizen,

the scenes from that night in the building had been deeply etched into his soul.

And had become the main material for his nightmares during his periods of unconsciousness.

"How long approximately did it take for you guys to climb in? When did that courtyard start to have so few people coming and going?"

He Ao inquired in a low voice.

"I can’t remember," the other gaunt man replied,

"We have been living the same life every day, sleeping when tired, and then being woken up by that woman, repeatedly living out these days.

"I can only estimate that the time we climbed in was about six or seven days ago? And about two days before we climbed in, hardly anyone was coming out of the courtyard. Only a very few people would enter during the day, and almost no one at night."

"It must have been," the man with the scar seemed to recall some terrifying memory and continued, "We don’t have the habit of keeping track of time, but it was around then that we climbed in and got lost in the fog. When we woke up, we were in bed. I used to weigh over 190 pounds..."

He Ao glanced at him; the man barely weighed more than 90 pounds now.

After listening to the two men, he lowered his head and thought for a moment.

That means, at least eight days ago, the World Tree’s Rodan branch had already been contaminated.

So, when were the C-level footprints at the corridor entrance of the World Tree’s Rodan branch left? Before the contamination, or after?

He Ao lifted his head and looked at the two men, "How many days had you guys been scoping out the area before?"

The two men exchanged glances, hesitating for a moment.

In the end, the man with the scar said, "We scoped out the place for five days, the shop across from the courtyard belongs to my aunt, and we just stayed there watching the people coming and going. We didn’t intend to do this at first, but we lost all our money recently, truly had no money, and then we saw that the people entering and leaving that courtyard seemed quite wealthy, so we thought about snagging a bit."

The other gaunt man also chimed in, "We made sure to observe. It looked like the place was on a break. There weren’t many people coming and going for two days, so we specifically climbed in..."

The time the two men were scoping out should have included the process of the contamination at the World Tree’s Rodan branch. They might have picked up something.

He Ao thought for a moment, took out a piece of paper, quickly sketched a drawing, and handed it to the two men, "Have you seen this person?"

"I don’t think..."

The man with the scar shook his head.

At that moment, the gaunt man by his side furrowed his brow slightly, as if hesitating.

Seeing this reaction, He Ao lifted his pen and roughly outlined the figure in the drawing, adding a complete full-body image.

Only then did the gaunt man say uncertainly, "I think I’ve seen... on the second night we were scoping out, I had just come out from the gambling house on that street, having lost all my money, and specifically watched that courtyard. At that time, this person seemed to be standing at the entrance, not being let in,"

He hesitated a bit more and continued, "At that time, I only saw the person’s back and side profile. It looked somewhat similar, I’m not sure if it’s the same person you’ve drawn."

"I understand,"

He Ao put away the drawing and stood up with a smile, "Thank you for your cooperation."

He had acquired the last piece of the puzzle.

Then he said goodbye to Lei Cheng and left the clinic.

Now, the sunset had already disappeared over the edge of the city, and dusk was slowly setting in.

He Ao looked up at the sky and hailed a cab, getting inside.

At that moment, his phone received a message, from Li Le.

[Latest news, Moonlight seems to have lost an important Transcendent’s corpse last night. The person in charge at Moonlight’s Rodan believes there might be a traitor within their ranks and has sealed off the entire Rodan headquarters.]

[Currently, aside from a C-level who arrived not long ago and some of his subordinates who are outside investigating the collapse of the building from yesterday, all of Moonlight’s Transcendents in Rodan have been called back to 17 West Road.]

The distant rumble of a train could be faintly heard in the void.

He Ao turned his head, looking at the television on the street.

On the TV, the morning’s missing person notice was still being broadcast.

Moonlight really seemed to have prepared a grand feast, waiting for the arrival of ’Hao Yi’.

The distant rumble of a train could be faintly heard in the void again.

He Ao switched off his phone and took out a mithril test tube from his pocket, with gray Secret Medicine swirling inside it.

This was what ’Hao Yi’ had given him last night.

[Talent Sequences 72: Secret Mage]

[Main ingredients: Shadow Snake’s gallbladder, Chameleon Tiger’s heart]

[Supporting ingredients: Invisible Grass’s roots, 100 milliliters of Pure Water, Shadow Venus Flytrap’s petals]

[Mixing method: Mix the Shadow Snake’s gallbladder with the Chameleon Tiger’s heart, crush them using an Agate Pestle in an Agate Mortar; strain the crushed remains with a fine mesh cloth, then mix the filtered juice with Invisible Grass’s roots and boil for thirty minutes, filter again, blend the twice-filtered liquid with Shadow Venus Flytrap’s petals and Pure Water, boil for three hours; after boiling, immediately pour out the clear liquid on the top.]

[Ascension ceremony: In absolute secrecy, perform a widely witnessed ’Miracle’.]