Fu Songcheng opened the system panel and contacted Chen Ke.
“We’ve successfully brought everyone out of the instance. Please honor your promise and have Bai Mu use her skill.”
Fu Songcheng spoke quickly. Having spent so long with him, Yu Huaiting could tell—when Fu Songcheng was anxious, his speech would speed up.
Chen Ke was silent for two seconds on the other end.
Yu Huaiting spoke up. “What’s with the nonsense? Hurry up!”
“I’ll have her come right away.”
Chen Ke’s voice carried probing and irrepressible curiosity. “But Mr. Fu, I heard… you caught an NPC and brought him back from the instance?”
Chen Ke’s information network spread fast. Through Bai Mu and the others, he’d already learned that Fu Songcheng and Yu Huaiting had brought out an “extra person” from the instance during settlement.
Fu Songcheng glanced at the now-clean floor—after Quan Heng was “killed,” he’d vanished.
He’d expected the companions would report it, and he’d long since prepared his story.
“Yes.” Fu Songcheng’s voice was flat. “In the instance, the NPC’s identity was the hotel owner. Opening the channel required the owner to be present in person, so we brought him out together.”
A lie came out smooth as could be—though the Death Party owner could arguably count as the instance’s owner too…
Chen Ke immediately pressed further. “Then what happens when an instance NPC enters the rest area?”
“You can research that yourself.”
Fu Songcheng cut him off directly. “Hasn’t Bai Mu come yet?”
Chen Ke was a smart man; he knew Fu Songcheng had lost patience.
“Send the coordinates to the Dawn base. Bai Mu’s already been called over, waiting for you there.”
Cutting the communication, Fu Songcheng straightened up, preparing to set out.
Seeing this, Yu Huaiting trailed closely after him.
“Bai Mu’s skill can only teleport one person at a time.”
Fu Songcheng stopped and turned to Yu Huaiting, reminding him. “Do you want to stay here and rest?”
Yu Huaiting’s brows instantly knotted into a tight knot.
He stared at Fu Songcheng with the aggrieved look of an abandoned pet, making Fu Songcheng feel an inexplicable pang of guilt.
“Let’s still go together. Without you, Dawn will eat me alive.”
“Mm-hm!”
Only then was Yu Huaiting satisfied, leaning crookedly against Fu Songcheng. “It’s dangerous outside. You have to bring me along.”
He wanted to come along, not wanting to be apart from Fu Songcheng for even a second. Fu Songcheng’s reply let him push his luck, grinning so wide his eyes disappeared.
“I’ll go with you to find her, and then I’ll wait for you in place.”
“Okay~”
Fu Songcheng ruffled Yu Huaiting’s hair.
The two arrived at the core area of the Dawn base through the teleport point. Bai Mu had already been brought over by Chen Ke, waiting for them.
Fu Songcheng and Bai Mu exchanged a glance and nodded slightly.
“Ready.”
Bai Mu took a deep breath and released her skill.
White light blazed instantly, swallowing Fu Songcheng’s figure.
The next second, he vanished from everyone’s sight out of thin air.
…
When his feet touched the ground again, Fu Songcheng’s state relaxed instantly.
He was back on Blue Star, in his own office.
Before teleporting, he’d had Bai Mu lock onto this location.
Standing in the center of his familiar office, Fu Songcheng casually tossed—slamming the Source Star “specialty” he’d brought heavily onto the floor.
A dull thud.
With that thud, a card in Fu Songcheng’s palm turned into black powder and completely dispersed.
[S-rank Item: Loan and Run]
[One-time consumable item. After use, the player cannot be detected by any means for ten minutes.]
[System Note: “Stop looking. Not home.”]
This was the high-grade anti-tracking skill he’d extorted from the executioner player in the Offering of Peace instance.
In the rest area, before Yu Huaiting was to kill Quan Heng, Fu Songcheng had stored Quan Heng in his space, used a high-grade recovery potion on him, and activated [Loan and Run].
The ten-minute shielding let him evade Shen Ning’s transaction probe and successfully fool the system’s death-settlement judgment.
Fu Songcheng hadn’t killed Quan Heng. Instead, he’d used the item to treat the fake-death-state Quan Heng as an “undetectable item,” and through Bai Mu’s skill, smuggled him back to the real world.
To Shen Ning, it looked like Yu Huaiting had killed Quan Heng, and Quan Heng had vanished on the spot.
On the carpet, the fake-dead Quan Heng jolted violently from the heavy impact and the change of environment.
He woke.
Quan Heng struggled to pry open his heavy eyelids, his vision gradually sharpening from blur.
He saw an unfamiliar ceiling, transparent reinforced glass walls, and beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, the nightscape of Blue Star.
Finally, his gaze settled on Fu Songcheng, looking down at him from above.
Quan Heng’s breathing abruptly quickened. He touched his own neck—no wound, no blood.
He was still alive.
But he immediately realized his current situation.
He’d been treated as spoils, as an object, brought to the lowly planet he’d once looked down on most.
“You…”
Quan Heng’s voice was hoarse beyond recognition. He stared dead at Fu Songcheng, his eyes interweaving the relief of surviving a disaster, humiliation, and deep disbelief.
He wanted to ask why, but the words reached his lips and turned into violent gasping.
Fu Songcheng pulled over the leather swivel chair behind the desk and sat down relaxed, his long legs crossed.
“Don’t misunderstand. I didn’t much want to save you.”
Fu Songcheng’s voice was cold. “You only have ten minutes here. After ten minutes we’ll return to Death Party, and I’ll kill you before then.”
Quan Heng knew Fu Songcheng had used some item skill to smuggle him here, and that after the system players’ ten-minute self-check, he’d be retrieved.
“I’m a Source Star person. I’m not on the system’s player self-check list. If you bring me to Blue Star, I won’t be automatically recalled into the game.”
Those words relaxed Fu Songcheng. Quan Heng, as the founder, knew more about the game’s details. He’d originally wanted to use these ten minutes to ask more questions—now there was no rush.
“Having a Source Star person in hand will make things convenient later. Now that you’re here, you should learn to be smart.”
He leaned forward slightly, his sharp gaze piercing straight into Quan Heng’s eyes. “Especially a Source Star person like you—thoroughly abandoned by your own kind, someone who was supposed to ‘die.’”
Leave a Reply