After an Infinite Flow Player Retires

"Why is there another one turning themself in?"

Wu Su put on his coat and hurried over.

Last night's matter with the ghosts and monsters couldn't be concealed. The news was like an explosive, instantly causing a wave-like chain reaction throughout the internet. Countless conspiracy theories and conjectures flooded the forums and social networks and, with the sharing of recordings made by the general public, the government's secret organisation, the Paranormal Investigation and Management Bureau, had come to the public's attention.

All the staff were ordered not to leave any comments on the internet or speak to the media until the officials have determined their next approach.

As for Wu Su, the highest ranked member in M City's Combat Division, he had to bear most of the pressure from both his superiors and his subordinates.

Although last night's chaos was over, his workload had increased several folds.

After an entire day and night of working nonstop, Wu Su's eyes were bloodshot and his beard that had not been taken care of was messy. He however still appeared energetic.

"It's related to Ace again?" He lit a cigarette and asked incoherently, "Just like Dong Gua from before?"

"Not this time." Ke Zheng replied.

He thought for a while but was unable to find a suitable way to describe the current situation. He could only say with a complicated expression.

"Umm…..In any case, Brother Wu, you'll know when you get there."

Wu Su: "?"

He glanced suspiciously at his vice-captain and finally didn't ask anything and went over to the place that was pointed out by the other party.

As soon as he opened the door to the interrogation room, Wu Su's footsteps subconsciously stopped.

The interrogation room wasn't very big, and the light above was cold and bright. The overall design of the room was very simple with a somewhat monotonous tone to it.

Sitting in the middle of the room was a tall man. Dressed rather simply, he sat in a relaxed manner in the chair. He possessed almost killer looks, his dark eyes were half narrowed, and his pale hands rested on the table with eye-catching silver shackles around his wrists. Although he was sitting behind the metal table with special restraining shackles around his wrists, he seemed very at home. Oppressiveness emanated from deep within his bones, bringing others instinctive fear.

And in the other corner of the room, Wu Su recognised him. Sitting there was the employee from the Logistics Department who had helped him out last time.

The young man's amber eyes were lowered, and his handsome and pale face contained no expression, making him seem very distant.

He seemed to have deliberately chosen this position in the room. It was neither too far nor too close to the man sitting behind the metal table. He constantly maintained a vigilant distance from the other man.

The atmosphere in the room was so dignified, it even made breathing very difficult.

For some reason, although the two hadn't interacted or communicated, Wu Su couldn't help but think that the two probably knew each other.

Wu Su: "……….."

So what was with this strange atmosphere?

As if noticing the new arrival, the man sitting at the table raised his eyes and casually swept his eyes that were as dark as the abyss across to Wu Su.

In an instant, Wu Su felt a surge instinctual fear rise from the depths of his heart. A layer of cold sweat formed across his back and alarms went off inside him. The intuition he had honed during his years of struggle in the game constantly warned him of the danger.

That hair-raising feeling he had when he looked into those eyes, that feeling where every cell in his body clamoured to escape…..

—–He wasn't human.

The other party clearly had no intentions to hide it. He continued to boldly reveal his nonhuman qualities, making no attempt to hide his strength and fearsomeness, much like a large beast slowly stretching out its body in a narrow room.

Wu Su's heart was tense. He subconsciously reached towards the gun holster at his waist and asked sternly, "Who are you?"

Face with his vigilance, the other party's reaction was particularly calm.

Ji Xuan raised his hand, the special shackles around his wrist knocking onto the metal table, and smiled and said, "Don't be nervous."

Wu Su only now reacted.

The other party was bound using shackles specially developed by the Bureau that could restrain powerful fierce ghosts that they were unable to eliminate for the time being. As long as they are bound, all the yin energy in their bodies would be suppressed and they would no longer have the ability to harm others.

But even so, Wu Su still couldn't relax his vigilance.

Perhaps it was because the other party's attitude was too relaxed and too casual, making him subconsciously wary of him.

Wu Su was tense all over. He narrowed his eyes and asked coldly:

"What is your purpose?"

Ji Xuan chuckled, "Isn't my purpose obvious?"

This time, Ye Jia who was sitting a distance away also looked up at him.

The young man's expression was still calm and indifferent, and his gaze as sharp as knives.

Seeing that he had finally attracted the other's attention, Ji Xuan curled his lips faintly and said:

"Cooperation."

"……Cooperation?!" Wu Su repeated in surprise.

Ji Xuan leaned back relaxedly, and half narrowed his eyes, "Correct."

"Aren't you curious about whether the ghosts who have escaped from the game have a leader and what their purpose is?" His said this with a light smile, "Or….Don't you want to know the reason for that chaos last night?"

Under the man's gaze, Wu Su felt a chill run down his back.

But it had to be said that every word spoken by the other party just now had hit the mark.

Even now, humans had no idea what they were dealing with—–Who was their enemy? What do they want?

The fierce ghosts who had escaped from the game seemed to have their own objectives in mind. Some had scattered while others had gone missing. With the increase in paranormal events happening all over the country, regardless of what happened and the victims affected, there didn't seem to be any patterns or trends. But, as a player who have experience inside the game, Wu Su felt that there was something in the making, but he didn't have any evidence to prove this conjecture of his.

And now, a powerful, high-level ghost had finally appeared before him, and he seemed to know the truth behind it all.

Wu Su couldn't help but tremble ——- Half of him was excited, and the other half was scared.

He took in a deep breath, pulled a chair to sit opposite the man and slowly asked:

"Then let's start from the beginning ——- Who is your leader?"

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"Mother." Ji Xuan answered, "She is the source and also the leader of all the ghosts and monsters."

His expression was extraordinarily magnanimous, as if he didn't care much about the shocking words leaving his mouth.

Wu Su looked at him suspiciously, "When I was in the game, I have never heard of the fierce ghosts having a mother."

"Low-level fierce ghosts and monsters are just inferior creatures spawned from yin energy." Ji Xuan chuckled lowly, "Only high-level fierce ghosts have the concept of a 'mother', and know of the existence from which they came from."

"What about Ji Xuan?" Wu Su frowned, "Isn't he your King?"

Ye Jia: "……….."

He unbearably looked away.

Ji Xuan said without a change to his expression, "Indeed, but the so-called King is just Mother's substitute."

"Substitute?" Why?"

There was a smile on Ji Xuan's lips. Dark red light flashed through the depths of his eyes and his voice was low and dark, making it seem quite frightening:

"——Because she is unable come out to the human world for the time being."

Wu Su swallowed nervously. He opened his mouth and asked slowly, "So you're saying that these fierce ghost's main objective is to bring her to the human world? What happens when she does? What will happen?"

Ji Xuan didn't answer.

He just casually tapped on the table with his finger, making a soft, rhythmic sound, "Mother's control over us is through our blood. This means that some information I cannot and am unable to reveal to you —– That's why, you should choose carefully what questions you want to ask."

"Alright then." Wu Su took in a deep breath and changed the question, "You are also a high-level fierce ghost, and you are also one of your mother's subordinates, but why are you choosing to help humans?"

Ji Xuan narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

"Mmm…..We have a difference in opinion."

His gaze swept over to Ye Jia who was sitting nearby, and his lips raised slightly, "She gave me an impossible task to complete."

The atmosphere in the air suddenly became strange.

Wu Su wisely did not continue asking about this.

He thought for a while and said, "The capital is closer to the main headquarters than we are and there are more capable people there."

The one in M City was only a small, inconspicuous subdivision of the main headquarters. It stood to reason that if you wanted to seek cooperation, it would be wiser to go to the main headquarter in the capital instead. Wu Su believed that distance shouldn't be an issue for this man in front of him. He didn't understand why he would instead go out of his way to deliberately go up to a Logistics Department employee to 'turn himself in'.

It was too strange.

Wu Su secretly glanced at Ye Jia and asked in a roundabout way:

"Why do you want to cooperate with us?"

This time, Ji Xuan's smile deepened further. He spoke without hiding anything, "To repay a debt."

The small black hand sitting on Ye Jia's shoulder was concealed using Ye Jia's power —- As the ghost closest to Ye Jia, it could clearly feel the subtle changes in his body.

It was a cold and murderous air. It was just like that time when he made up his mind to kill Ji Xuan.

The small black hand was so scared, it didn't dare breathe. It was afraid that Ye Jia would suddenly step forward and stab the other party.

It wanted to cry without tears.

—–If I am guilty, please punish me according to the law instead of putting me in between these two big bosses!!!

Ji Xuan seemed like he hadn't noticed it. He just smiled and looked at Ye Jia, "I believe you humans have a saying: The grace of a drop of water should be reciprocated with a gushing spring. Furthermore, it's a lifesaving grace." (KKnotes: Basically means that even if it was just a little help from others, you should return the favor with all you can when others are in need.)

Please read this from kk translates

—–A lifesaving grace should be repaid with one's body.

Ye Jia's expression grew even colder.

Seeing Wu Su's questioning gaze, he calmly replied:

"……It was just an accident."

Ye Jia's eyes met with Ji Xuan's. His eyes were icy cold, and his expression was dark. He slowly continued, "If I was given another chance, I believe I would not have made the same decision."

Wu Su: "…………"

Wait a minute, was it really okay for him to say it so straightforwardly?

—–Especially when facing a high-level fierce ghost whose mood was unpredictable? He didn't know how much of an use these special shackles would be if this fierce ghost really got angered.

Wu Su looked in the direction of the man in trepidation, but only saw the arc of his lips rise further and a hint of a smile flash across the depths of his dark eyes. He seemed to be in a rather good mood.

Wu Su: "???"

Huh?? What's going on? Was my understanding of that line different from his?

He began to doubt himself.

Wu Su quickly pulled his thoughts back. He cleared his throat to break up this strange atmosphere and said, "Then let's do this. I will report to my superiors about this and while we wait for their decision, you can….."

Ji Xuan interrupted him, "Can I appoint the person I want to watch over me?"

"That….." Wu Su was taken aback, as if he didn't expect the other party to make such a request.

Ji Xuan shook the shackles on his wrist, causing it to clink, "I will be very cooperative."

"I decline." Ye Jia interjected without hesitation.

His eyes reflected the cold and icy light above his head and his voice was similarly cold and impolite, "He is clearly very dangerous. I think we should still follow the rules and imprison him in a special cell. After confirming that his information is correct, we can decide on what to do next."

Wu Su: "…….."

…….That was too straightforward!!!

His heart tensed up again for fear that the other party would be angered, but unexpectedly, Ji Xuan showed no signs of it t all and just nodded, "Alright then."

—–Now it was Wu Su's turn to be in disbelief.

Were fierce ghosts in the game all so easy to talk to???

The door to the interrogation room closed behind him, blocking the man's deep black eyes that seemed to see through people.

Wu Su stood in the corridor in daze.

What happened just now was almost like a dream. Even now, he felt a little in disbelief.

After such a huge loss for mankind, they were now suddenly making such a big progress. A high-level fierce ghost suddenly willing to cooperate and he was even one who was easy to talk to, had come over personally to disclose precious information the humans had sought after for a very long time…..It was something he would have never even dared to imagine.

That logistics staff turned to leave.

Wu Su hurriedly shouted after him, "Ye Jia!"

The young man paused and turned his head slightly. His pale complexion seemed a little unnatural in the dark corridor. His voice was still calm, "What is it?"

Wu Su stepped forward so that he stood next to him and asked curiously:

"So how did you save that fierce ghost?"

Ye Jia: "……All humans can make mistakes."

Wu Su: "???"

For some reason, he felt that the other party seemed to have said those words through gritted teeth.

Ye Jia turned around to face Wu Su and said:

"Don't take him too lightly. I don't think those shackles have much effect on him. Ghosts are all good at lying and what's more, he's a powerful ghost. You should be wary of him. He may be plotting something."

Wu Su agreed, "You're right. Especially since we don't know what his true purpose is, it is better to be vigilant."

"But the information he provided was very important to us." He comfortingly patted Ye Jia's shoulder, "I will ask a trusted senior of mine for their opinion."

Ye Jia: "……….."

I seem to know who this senior of yours is.

He is currently standing in front of you giving you advice.

However, what Wu Su had said was indeed reasonable —– For humans right now, the information provided by Ji Xuan was very important.

He silently sighed.

Looks like he can't do much about this.

But what Ye Jia was most concerned about right now wasn't this.

He changed the course of the conversation and said, "Cap Wu, can you give write me a letter?"

Wu Su: "Huh?"

"I encountered a problem while dealing with the cleaning up work this afternoon." Ye Jia briefly explained the matter with the shooting incident and then added, "For some personal reasons, I want visit the police station to check related reports."

Although he could indeed go there using his ghost domain, but because of the incident with the ghosts and monsters last night, the police station and morgue would most certainly be very chaotic. Ye Jia wasn't sure if he would be able to find the body and the related reports within that short period of time so, in order to save time and get it over with as quickly as possible, he decided that it was better to go through official channels instead.

Wu Su thought for a while and then agreed: "Okay."

He said: "Based on what you have told me, it does indeed sound like there was something strange about this murder case. Take the machine along and remember to submit a report to me when you're back."

Ye Jia: "……Okay."

Unexpectedly, his workload had increased.

.

At the morgue.

After the incident last night, all the police and forensic doctors had become very busy and even the morgue was overcrowded. Most of the bodies that were sent over didn't even have the chance to be inspected before they were stored in the freezer, and they even had to resort to using rented cold storage spaces to store some of the bodies that couldn't fit in the morgue.

An intern led Ye Jia to one of the rented cold storage spaces and pointed to one of the compartments, "There."

Once done, she hurriedly turned and left. She seemed to still have a lot of work waiting for her to complete.

Ye Jia was left alone in the cold storage.

He slowly approached that corpse.

The clothes on the corpse had been removed and the two bullet wounds were no longer bleeding. Stored in a place with such low temperatures, the skin had turned grey and ashen. On the corpses face, the eyelids had already been lowered to conceal the bloodshot eyes but the corners of his lips were still raised and fixed in a crazed smile.

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The device Ye Jia brought with him didn't react —- This was the equipment he had picked up from the youngsters at the haunted villa last time. It should be sensitive enough to detect something.

Moreover, he himself didn't detect even the slightest of yin energy on this body.

It was as if it was just…..a very ordinary corpse.

There were no traces of paranormal changes at all. Even the yin energy fluctuations detected earlier seemed as if it had never happened in the first place.

After all, after that chaos last night, small remnants of yin energy could still be detected almost everywhere, and the fluctuations earlier may have possibly been related to other ghosts or monsters that were not related to this murder case.

Ye Jia pondered for a while and then pulled the small black hand out:

"Do you sense anything?"

The small black hand shook its fingers blankly, "No."

Ye Jia lowered his eyes. His thin, pale lips flattened coldly.

He didn't know what he was expecting to find.

He silently let out the breath he was holding in and turned to leave but before he could take more than a few steps, his line of sight suddenly stopped at a compartment next to him.

As if something had taken over him, Ye Jia walked over.

He stretched out and pulled out the compartment. With a light clatter, another corpse appeared before him.

The blood-stained face, the look of despair, the mutilated abdomen.

—–The stormy night, the blood-stained dress, the broken pearl necklace.

As if he was trying to drive something away, Ye Jia closed his eyes.

The device in his hand let out a few faint beeps.

Ye Jia was startled. He opened his eyes and looked down at the device in his hand.

The dial on the screen swayed for a moment before finally landing on zero. It no longer beeped.

The small black hand was confused: "Huh………That's strange?"

It jumped off Ye Jia's shoulder and entered the corpses open wound. Two minutes later, it came back out: "Her heart is gone."

Ye Jia narrowed his eyes slightly and a small gleam of light flashed across the depths of his eyes, "Did you smell anything?"

The small black hand thought for a moment, "Well…..A little. But it seems to have disappeared now."

"What was it?"

The small black hand tried to describe it, "A little like…..what I felt when I ate that soul back then?"

Ye Jia was stunned.

He stood beside the corpses in daze for a while before closing both compartments and turning to leave.

The door to the cold storage closed behind him.

Dark night once again enveloped the entire city.

Ye Jia's expression was very cold, like icy snow that had never melted all year round.

—–He had never associated that incident with his parents with the game before.

The game had crashed less than a month ago, allowing the ghosts and monsters restrained in it to have the chance to escape and come to the human world.

And as for his mother and father's death, that was when he was eight years old.

Fifteen years later, he entered the game.

.

Travelling through the night, Ye Jia returned to his apartment.

He entered the building and just when he was about to reach his own floor, he suddenly stopped in his steps. His voice was cold, "Who is it?"

With the sound of footsteps, the sound activated lights in the corridor lit up, revealing a tall figure.

It was Ji Xuan.

He was no longer concealing himself. Under the lights, his dark red eyes resembled flowing blood. He slightly raised the corners of his lips and spoke lightly:

"Good evening."

Ye Jia's fingers hanging by his side subconsciously rubbed together.

This was something he instinctively does before he launches an attack.

He narrowed his eyes and didn't answer.

Ji Xuan stepped forward and continued with a low and gentle voice, "After having not met for so long, have you missed me gege?"

—–The young boy the monster had transformed into back in that residential building slowly overlapped with the man before him.

Ye Jia looked at him expressionlessly. There was unconcealable coldness in his voice:

"Move aside."

Ji Xuan blinked back at him innocently and shook the shackles around his wrist. The chain in the middle was already removed and it now looked like two silver bracelets around his pale wrists, "You superiors agreed to cooperate."

Ye Jia repeated, "Move aside."

As if he had performed a magic trick, Ji Xuan pulled out a piece of paper.

With a smile on his lips, his low voice was slightly muted and he dragged out his voice, "Look, they agreed with my request for you to be my primary point of contact."

"Congratulations." Ye Jia hooked up the corners of his lips but there was no smile in his voice, "But I don't want to."

He had just returned from the morgue and the earlier shock was still affecting him. He wasn't in the mood for this.

Ye Jia calmly took out the key, bypassed Ji Xuan and continued upstairs.

But just when the two were about to brush shoulders, Ji Xuan suddenly turned around and grabbed Ye Jia's wrist, trapping Ye Jia between himself and the wall.

The distance between the two of them shrank instantly. Their noses faced each other, almost touching.

But Ye Jia didn't back away.

Instead, he leaned a little closer and narrowed his eyes dangerously.

The tip of the scythe appeared in his palm, its cold blade emitting a beautiful snow-white glow under the dark night.

His voice was cold, "I don't mind finishing what I wasn't able to finish doing last time."

The next second, unexpectedly, the figure before him suddenly shrank.

Ye Jia was surprised.

Before he could react, the other party had turned into the young boy in his memory.

He raised his small, pale face and rested his thin neck against the scythe in Ye Jia's hand, his scarlet eyes gleaming under the light.

"Okay."

The childish voice was a little hoarse and soft, almost as if he was acting coquettish.

"……As long as gege is happy."