Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Yui, Proofreader-Woojoo
The person’s appearance was unusually sudden and lacked vitality.
Therefore, Jiang Fang showed no mercy. Without even looking up, a cold gleam flickered at his fingertips as he swiftly flew towards the source of the sound.
With a swift motion, a piece of the ace of hearts, sharp as a knife, severed the head of the person who had made the sound with a puff.
Clatter.
What fell in front of them was the head of a… toy doll.
The doll’s body was still above the alley, with both hands supporting the waterproof edge, maintaining the posture of poking its head out, and its snow-white, soft limbs hung like shrimp.
…It looked both cute and eerie.
The doll was stuffed with cotton, and there were strands of cotton coming out from the torn part.
When Nan Zhou squatted down in the alley and attempted to flip it over using a small tree branch, the doll’s head rolled around, and its two shiny black eyes shifted a few times, fixating on Nan Zhou’s face.
Li Yinhang was so horrified that she took a step backward.
The doll cleared its throat and said, “Um, hello.”
Its voice was pleasant and magnetic, with a hint of carefree laughter.
Nan Zhou asked, “Who are you?”
The doll replied, “Please wait a moment.”
It tried to straighten itself up but spun around in place several times on the ground, still unable to achieve the desired position.
Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang exchanged a glance.
Nan Zhou took the initiative to reach out and straighten the strange head.
In the doll’s view, Nan Zhou finally changed from sideways to normal.
The doll’s head was polite and said, “Ah, thank you.”
After expressing its gratitude, it began its self-introduction seriously, “Hello, my name is Yi Shui Ge. I’m staying at a hotel about three alleys away from you.”
Before Nan Zhou could say anything, Li Yinhang immediately searched for the name “Yi Shui Ge” in order of ranking on the list.
Nan Zhou got straight to the point, “How can you help us?”
The doll’s head responded just as straightforwardly, “You’ve used the storage function of the warehouse, right? Did you know that the warehouse can also store people?”
Li Yinhang’s searching hand paused slightly.
Damn, is this a trap?
Only an idiot would fall for this.
He was so enthusiastic in explaining his location and inviting them to find him.
But if they entered the other person’s warehouse, it would be like handing over their whereabouts and freedom completely to this stranger.
In the end, wouldn’t they just be at the mercy of this person?
Li Yinhang felt very bored and lost interest in negotiating with him, “Don’t bother with him.”
The man who called himself “Yi Shui Ge” on the other side made a “hmm” sound, “If that doesn’t work, then there’s another way.”
Nan Zhou continued to talk to him, “What is it?”
“Your Sugar Glider…” Yi Shui Ge smiled suggestively, “It should have a pretty big mouth. Have you considered letting it use its ‘proper’ function?”
Jiang Fang’s eyebrows twitched.
…He knows Nanji Star?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Nan Zhou’s curiosity grew stronger, “Who are you?”
Ktf wjc ijeutfv, “P jw Tl Vtel Xf.”
Rjc Itbe jrxfv, “Qtb lr Tl Vtel Xf?”
Tl Vtel Xf gfqilfv, “Vlcmf sbe’gf lcafgfrafv, kts vbc’a sbe mbwf jcv wffa wf?”
Pa rffwr atja tf gfjilhfv atja atf afwqajalbc jcv kfluta bc tlr tjcvr kfgf cba fcbeut, rb tf mjrejiis rjlv, “Tbe kbeivc’a yf mbwlcu obg cbatlcu. Snfc lo P rfa j agjq obg sbe, sbe mbeiv jirb ajxf atf bqqbgaeclas ab rafji atf qgbqr atja P erf ab wjclqeijaf atf qeqqfar. Ktfs jgf V-mijrr jcv nfgs erfoei.”
…What a strange person.
He doesn’t seem to think that it’s inappropriate to blatantly present such a heavyweight temptation.
Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang exchanged a glance.
——Should we go?
——Why not?
They looked at Li Yinhang again.
Li Yinhang was holding Nanji Star, lost in thought.
She said carefully, “Hmm.”
When the three agreed, the puppet master Yi Shui Ge smiled and said,
“Then follow my puppet. It will find you a path with no one around, and bring you to me.”
He added, “Remember to give its head back to its body, or it won’t be able to find the way.”
…..
In the dark of the night, a gentle doll with a snow-white body lifted its hands and grasped its head, which had already become detached from its body. After guiding them through the maze-like alley for a while, it ascended a fire escape. Resembling a cat, it led them cautiously, taking small steps through the shadows cast by various neon colors.
Li Yinhang unconsciously imitated the puppet’s movements while quietly asking Nan Zhou and Jiang Fang for reassurance, “Is it really okay?”
Nan Zhou, “Who knows.”
Jiang Fang, “It’s quite interesting.”
Li Yinhang, “…”
She still couldn’t compare her mentality with the big shots.
She was a coward.
So she picked up her unfinished business and continued to look for information related to “Yi Shui Ge” on the leaderboard.
The puppet led them all the way to the roof of a hotel.
The hotel was adorned with huge, flashing neon signs, which took advantage of the darkness to perfectly conceal the three figures moving through it.
And on the cement wall at the top of the building, behind the dazzling lights and shadows, someone had carved a sentence.
——There is no hope left.
These were probably the last words left by a player selected for “Gravity” in the corner of the [Paper Gold City], in fear and extreme despair.
The puppet stopped here and didn’t move anymore.
After standing in a corner on the south side of the rooftop, it turned around and politely bowed to the three of them.
Immediately, it made a “puff” sound and completely disappeared in front of the three people.
When Nan Zhou curiously approached the edge of the rooftop, Li Yinhang finally found Yi Shui Ge’s name on the leaderboard.
His personal ranking was 300th, so he should be a good player.
But the problem was… he had a teammate.
She looked at it and got goosebumps.
She tried to stop Nan Zhou, “Don’t go over there–”
But it was too late.
Just below where the puppet disappeared, a window was pushed open from the inside.
A young man of about 25 or 26 years old, with his elbows pressed against the window frame, met Nan Zhou’s gaze as he leaned down to look.
He wore light brown sunglasses.
The edge of the platinum frame was engraved with the words “Life and death are predetermined.”
He pressed the metal nose pad with his index finger and slid slightly along the arc of the bridge of the nose, revealing his eyes.
His eyes had a peculiar color, as if woven from countless luminous puppet threads, possessing a subtle sense of fluidity. They were simultaneously eerie and radiant.
He smiled before speaking, “Hi.”
Compared to his soul stirring name that makes people want to write poetry, his appearance was quite beautiful.
Li Yinhang was anxious and didn’t care about startling the snake. She said urgently, “He has a teammate! His teammate is Xie Xiangyu!”
Li Yinhang knew very little about Xie Xiangyu.
But not long ago, when Nan Zhou revealed his situation to her, he briefly mentioned that when they were playing the [Sha, Sha, Sha] instance, there was a player surnamed Xie who knew his identity.
Li Yinhang was suspicious and believed that Xie Xiangyu must have revealed something that caused the game to begin.
Maybe he reported Nan Zhou to the system.
Therefore, her resentment towards him was at its peak.
… Yi Shui Ge was actually Xie Xiangyu’s teammate?
What are they scheming?
Nan Zhou accepted it well.
He remembered that when he met Mr. Xie in the second world, he was a lone ranger.
Therefore, he was more concerned about how Yi Shui Ge became Xie Xiangyu’s teammate.
Hearing Li Yinhang’s whisper, Yi Shui Ge was not panicked at all about his identity being exposed.
He put on his sunglasses again and smiled, “It’s okay, I’ve tied up the person for you. Come in.”
Li Yinhang, “…” Huh?!
When he silently jumped into the window, Nan Zhou saw Xie Xiangyu, who was tied to the head of the bed.
His handsome features could not conceal the pale face with a hint of watery red, and his eyes were full of dissatisfaction and anger.
Yi Shui Ge was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and jeans wrapped around his long and slender legs. He was wearing a simple and clean outfit for home wear.
He walked up to Xie Xiangyu, who had his hands tied behind his back and was staring at the corner, patted his shoulder, and said to Nan Zhou, “Let me introduce you. This is my teammate, Xie Xiangyu.”
Nan Zhou took two steps inward and approached Xie Xiangyu curiously, saying, “You actually have a teammate.”
Xie Xiangyu’s white teeth were clenched tightly, and his chest was heaving with anger.
Jiang Fang whistled lightly as he jumped into the window and saw the strange scene.
Li Yinhang was stunned. “What’s going on?”
“It’s like this,” Yi Shui Ge said frankly and refreshingly.
“In a certain mission, he approached me on his own initiative, wanting my S-level props and he knew from somewhere that I like men and took the initiative-”
At the mention of this, Xie Xiangyu’s eyes were filled with tears of anger. He glared at Yi Shui Ge with a cold voice, “I’ll kill you if you dare to say it.”
Yi Shui Ge rubbed his nose and said, “You want to kill me even if I don’t say it.”
But he didn’t go any further.
Xie Xiangyu had just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Yi Shui Ge summarize, “Since you slept with me, you should take responsibility, right?”
…he almost suffocated on the spot.
As soon as he met Yi Shui Ge, Jiang Fang, who had a good eye for people, judged that this person’s personality and thinking were different from normal people.
His face was firm, and his actions were cheerful and straightforward, but his thoughts were contrasting.
Jiang Fang asked, “Why do you want to help us?”
Yi Shui Ge lightly pointed his thumb behind him and said, “I’m here for my teammate.”
He was unusually straightforward, “He wanted to use this game to plot against you, but I found out and tied him up, not letting him do anything bad. By the way, be careful of him. He loves to cause trouble.”
Xie Xiangyu sat at the bedside, biting his pale lips angrily until they turned red.
Yi Shui Ge stood with his arms crossed and laughed, “So, can we talk now?”
After sitting down, Yi Shui Ge casually dropped another bombshell.
He said, “I recognized you guys a long time ago.”
Nan Zhou asked, “When?”
“When the World Channel was just opened.”
He looked at the “Cube Boat” trio.
“Nan Zhou, your name has a high repetition rate, but your appearance is very eye-catching. I can tell at a glance that you look a lot like the ‘modelling’ in the game. Perhaps, it’s not modelling at all.”
He then turned to Jiang Fan, “Jiang Fan, I remember you too.”
“You’re the only player who survived after the problem occurred in the game ‘Gravity’ and before the disappearance incident,” Yishuige said.
Hearing this, Nan Zhou immediately looked at Jiang Fan.
Jiang Fan gestured to him to calm down and listen to Yi Shui Ge.
Yi Shui Ge looked at the third person, “Li Yinhang… I haven’t heard of her.”
Li Yinhang, “…” Thank you.
Yi Shui Ge said, “After Li Yinhang spoke on the World Channel, I guessed you captured the boss in the copy and wanted to trade with the system.”
“After the incident was over, I went to observe you in [Squirrel Town].”
Nan Zhou lightly said “Ah”.
After finishing the transaction with the system, Nan Zhou and the others played with Nanji Star in the square of [Squirrel Town].
Yi Shui Ge probably saw Nanji Star at that time.
…But how did he know that Nanji Star could become bigger?
Jiang Fan asked, “What were you observing us for?”
Yi Shui Ge directly said, “This game has brought enough chaos. I don’t like people who further disrupt order and create panic. Everyone is playing the game properly, but you brought danger back. So, if you want to do something bad, I’ll kill you.”
This very straightforward answer made Li Yinhang completely confused.
Nan Zhou was not angry either, “This is not easy.”
“I know,” Yi Shui Ge said, “but if I work hard, catch you off guard, and sacrifice myself, I think it’s okay.”
“However, you performed well. I didn’t do anything else. I just didn’t expect your identities to be revealed by the system.”
“This time, it was the system that created panic and chaos first. I won’t stand on their side.”
Yi Shui Ge was still smiling as he spoke, shrugging with ease, as if he felt no offense whatsoever in discussing the act of killing him right in front of the rightful owner.
Nan Zhou agreed, “You make sense.”
Nan Zhou looked at Xie Xiangyu again, “So, you also want to keep an eye on him for the same reason, to prevent him from doing bad things, and that’s why you teamed up with him, right?”
Xie Xiangyu, who was suddenly mentioned, pursed his lips and turned pale, silent like a dead man.
Yi Shui Ge didn’t avoid the topic, “Right. Besides, his appearance is also my type.”
Nan Zhou remained noncommittal, “……Ah.”
Yi Shui Ge said, “Don’t you think so? Like a frangipani blooming in a trash can.”
Xie Xiangyu, who had been silent, finally couldn’t take it anymore and said, “Get lost!”
I’m not quite sure but is Yu Shui Ge our very first openly gay side character? Because I have a feeling that we’re going to see him more often in the future chapters! I’m not complaining though, as long as he holds back Mr. Xie from making trouble with Cube Boat!
Yu Shui Ge seems interesting. There’s a part of him that is alike with Nan Zhou. If he’s in another novel, he would definitely be a main character.
Someone pleeeaassee make a spin-off!
Thank you for translating this chapter! Liking it so far!
This guy has a strong value’s system (I don’t know how describe it in English, sorry)
Спасибо за ваш перевод 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
I love having two little lunatics now
I don’t know why, but I think this guy is kinda funny. 😅
Thanks for the chapter.