"Love is something to seize with one's own hands" was a motto of Lin XiaoYi's, and after finally meeting someone she considered her perfect Prince Charming, she was determined to exhaust every possibility of capturing his heart or regret it for the rest of her life.
She could be hard-headed, in some ways.
The frosty rebuff she had received at the café this morning had not dampened her spirits in the slightest. On the contrary, it had only ignited the flames of her fighting spirit.
Since Xia Wen's suggestion had not proved effective, she would just have to try something else.
She was the unsinkable campus belle!
So, she decided to trail Bai Zhi and document his daily activities—in the name of "research". Little did she know that it would lead her to witness yet another incident involving a supernatural entity.
The little boy with the schoolbag had been going around turning students into marionettes, one after another, and stuffing them roughly into his bag. If she hadn't been completely alert and attentive to everything going on around Bai Zhi, she wouldn't have noticed the boy lying in wait and promptly hidden herself in the women's bathroom. That fortunate circumstance had saved her from otherwise certain doom.
Then, she watched in helpless horror as her Prince Charming was turned into a marionette before her very eyes and stuffed like all the rest into the little boy's bag. As great as her confidence in Bai Zhi was, it would be a lie to say that she did not feel a twinge of worry that things might not end well.
She waited for the commotion at the entrance to the stairwell calmed down, before arming herself with a broom and bravely, if cautiously, making her way up to the rooftop—she was determined to rescue Bai Zhi's puppet, at the very least.
However, by the time she arrived at the rooftop, she was astonished to find the fight over, the captured students on the ground, no longer puppets but human again, and in the middle of it all, Bai Zhi standing tall, eyes raised to the heavens.
One look at this scene was all she needed to piece together the truth of what happened!
"I knew it, this guy is a hero! Normally keeping a low profile while he takes care of business, but always first on the scene in a real crisis... Even pulling of a risky gambit like getting caught on purpose was all part of his plan to save the five missing students, I'm sure!"
As she took in the sight of the students lying on the ground, Lin XiaoYi's eyes sparkled like diamonds. Her mind was already painting a picture of Bai Zhi as a stoic, yet passionate hero.
———
...Oh no, is that fraud here
again
?
Bai Zhi had noticed the movement at the doorway and turned to look. Just from the way she was looking at him, he immediately recognized her for who she was, and it left him flabbergasted for a moment.
Was this a joke? The real campus belle should be only too eager to avoid even breathing the same air as him, so how could she be here, looking at him with such admiration? This chick was clearly a fake! He was happy to let it go after it fled from the threat of a brick to the head, but now it was back?
I didn't reveal its identity to the two Players earlier, because I appreciate the money, the help with my homework, plus cleaning up and taking out the trash yesterday, but this is pushing it!
"If I were you, I'd leave, and quickly! This is no place for the likes of you."
Bai Zhi turned to look at the distant ground, and estimated a time in his mind. With a cold snort, he said to the fake campus belle, "Also, stop trying to get close to me. It'll never work."
"Are you... worried for me?"
Lin XiaoYi clasped her hands behind her back and tilted her head. She positively radiated with goodwill.
...Is this bitch mentally unsound?
As he saw how she reacted, Bai Zhi could not help sneering in disbelief.
To be fair, if the real campus belle did not treat him as coldly as she did, but adopted the kind of doe-eyed-damsel attitude he was being treated to now, he might even consider it adorable and endearing.
The problem was, of course, that the thing before him now was something inhuman, a supernatural entity just like the little boy!
It's not like putting a pretty face and figure on a horrifying threat is enough to make it cute and lovable! Unless...?
Suddenly, Bai Zhi recalled his obsession with a certain Nyaruko and found himself conflicted.
"...Whatever," Bai Zhi spat, curling his lip. Resolving not to be moved by his adversary's beauty, he strode past her with his gaze fixed firmly ahead and went down the stairs.
All temptation leads to suffering, and all that Bai Zhi wanted to do was wrap things up here so he could go back to his apartment, where he could properly study his newfound status as Player.
The smile on Lin XiaoYi's face froze awkwardly as she watched him breeze past her without a second glance, completely disregarding her earnest and vulnerable attempt to appeal to him. Finally, she grit her teeth and stamped her foot in anger as she shouted at his retreating figure, "Hmph! Bai Zhi, I will never give up!"
...to which Bai Zhi replied simply, "Har har."
Lin XiaoYi was utterly dumbstruck.
However, this setback could not faze the unsinkable campus belle, and she remained undeterred on her road to Love.
———
Down on ground level, Bai Zhi was eagerly met by Wu Hua and the squad, who were just about to head back up to the rooftop.
At first, Wu Hua looked glad to see the face of the one who had saved them from certain death, but he was immediately struck by a thought and raised a hand, his brows furrowing with concern.
"The boy turned to ash, but good news—the students are all back to normal, except they're still unconscious. They're just lying on the floor of the rooftop," said Bai Zhi calmly as his eyes went to the ring on Wu Hua's hand.
"There are at least two supernatural entities in this school. We got the boy, but the second entity, as you might have guessed, is the one that pretended to be your teammate up there. Its disguise is flawless; there's no way to tell the difference just by looking, but it may give the game away in other ways. The trick to defeating this entity is simple: as long as you feel no fear of it in your heart, there's nothing it can do. You need anything else?"
"Err, n-no..." Dazed by Bai Zhi's forceful lecture, Wu Hua only managed a weak nod in response.
"Good, well I'm off. Let me know if you need anything for a report or whatever."
With a curt nod, Bai Zhi made his way past Wu Hua and headed home.
Xu Qiang waited for Bai Zhi to turn the corner before turning to Wu Hua and asking, "Leader, do you think he's a free player? What level is he?"
He went on, "We were dead meat on that rooftop before he showed up. If he hadn't saved us—"
"We can discuss it later," said Wu Hua with a frown, interrupting Xu Qiang. "First, we should take care of the students. Get the hospital and the police to send more people."
---
"Phew, what a long day... Now, what's this 'Player' thing?"
Back in his apartment just above the food stall lane, Bai Zhi wasted no time turning on his laptop and went online to find out what he could about Players.
Unfortunately, perhaps it was protected by official censorship, all the results he found led to some webnovel or other. He was unable to uncover a single lead to the information he really wanted to know—the authorities had scrubbed it all clean.
The internet could be organized into several layers. The "Surface Web" was the outermost later and could be readily explored by inputting accurate search terms into any search engine, while hidden below it was the "Deep Web", the contents of which could not normally be uncovered by search engines. Beyond that lay the Dark Web.
After a moment's thought, Bai Zhi sat up again. Clicking and typing away with practiced movements, he eventually made his way into the deepest corner of the internet—the Dark Web.
While commonly thought of as a sub-section of the Deep Web, the Dark Web was not easily accessed, as it was uniquely protected. Special techniques, such as secure data encryption, password-protected file transfer protocols, P2P networks, proxy servers and more, were all implemented so that its users were given an environment to trade information in perfect anonymity—the most characteristic feature of the Dark Web—so anyone hoping to gain access had to know how to navigate around those special features.
Most people were not familiar with the Dark Web, but Bai Zhi, who had been searching up information on the Dark Web since he was ten, knew it like the back of his hand.
There were subtle differences between this world and the world he came from, but it would seem that the internet worked in largely the same way.
Even on the Dark Web, information about Players was restricted, and only people who actually possessed the Player status were allowed access. After a lengthy, complicated process of cracking passwords and answering verification questions, Bai Zhi finally achieved his goal, successfully logging in to a forum where the interface was presented in shades of purest black.
While the interface was sparse, the forum featured quite a number of different boards. Bai Zhi was glad that his adventures had led him to find out about Players—there was no way he would have found this forum otherwise.
After browsing the site for about two hours, Bai Zhi leaned back in his chair and massaged his temples tiredly.
He had learned a lot from the forum.
The changes to this world had started about three months ago, which was the same time that Players started to appear. From then on, the whole world turned into the arena for some game, albeit a dangerous one, where life and death were real consequences.
It obeyed the principle that only magic can fight the magical—thus, only Players had the power to defeat the seemingly endless waves of strange beasts and supernatural entities that showed up. Normies might be able to escape the clutches of such things and save themselves, but they could not do any permanent harm to the entities.
Against creatures that simply posed a physical threat, they might have more of a fighting chance, but supernatural entities whose powers were intangible were the deadliest. One of the most popular threads on the forum described, in detail, events in Japan surrounding an entity that was said to be an impossible problem.
The entity was discovered when strange stories surfaced about an otherwise unremarkable Japanese-style garden. Anyone who entered the garden was guaranteed to be found dead within the next three days, their body torn to pieces and scattered randomly within a thirty-mile radius. It was a grisly way to die.
The authorities in Japan
tried
to organize high-level Players to take care of the problem, but after losing over ten such players to the entity, they had no choice but to concede defeat—all they could do was seal off the area.
However, out of the reported cases considered "impossible", that was one of the more harmless ones, because a garden was immobile. Some supernatural entities roamed around regularly, and the most extreme, well-known one had a range that spanned over ten countries.
This world-roaming supernatural entity appeared mainly in the form of a bespectacled grade-school student. Depending on the situation, it was variously accompanied by two sidekicks—a tall, middled-aged man, or a young woman who could snap a blade in two with a single kick. Wherever they appeared, there was sure to occur a murder most foul.
The entity had come to be known as the Kid Reaper, and had proved to be an impossible problem thus far. The Kid Reaper was untouchable—once it activated its "murder-mystery-solving" mode, it was practically over for its targets. If they were fortunate enough not to be declared the victim, their only hope was to avoid being identified as the murderer.
Once someone was identified as the murderer, they would be completely unable to fight back as a stout police inspector appeared on the scene and took them away in a patrol car. To date, there had been a total of 126 people taken away in such a manner, 24 of them Players. After they entered the car, they were never seen again. In other words, they disappeared from the face of the earth.
The more he read about this particular supernatural entity, the more Bai Zhi's face twisted into an incredulous expression. When he got to the end, he went on to search up more information that confirmed his suspicions.
Everything indicated that the manga "Detective C***n" did not exist in this world, and neither did the anime.
"...Is fantasy becoming reality? There's so much I can't figure out about this..."
Bai Zhi slapped his forehead, feeling stumped by the problem.
"Seriously, if I encountered the Kid Reaper, what could I do to keep myself alive? I think I read something once, on Seddit, about how to beat the detective... Huh?"
Bai Zhi was surprised to see a notification from his QQ* app.
[ Infinite Divine Wing ]
>> log in log in log in log in log in! where the hell u been? havent seen u online in 2 days!
Hmm, is this 'my' friend from when the other me was a video game addict?
After some thought, Bai Zhi typed out a suitable response.
[ Black&White ]
>> funny story, i was just outside, really hit it off wit this 20 some y/o girl and before i knew it, we spent all day in a room together.
[ Infinite Divine Wing ]
>> WTF! since when are u into females?! games before dames, don't u know?!
[ Black&White ]
>> then the next day, girl calls up a friend and they both spend the day in the room wit me.
[ Infinite Divine Wing ]
>> top 10 betrayals! don't talk to me u filthy traitor!
[ Black&White ]
>> I still remember the name of the room... Orthopedic Ward, Beds 10 - 12
[ Infinite Divine Wing ]
>> ???
[ Infinite Divine Wing ]
>> ?????????