Chapter 42

A Port is a beautiful city.

As a coastal city, it is adjacent to a vast and magnificent ocean, with dark fine sand covering its beaches. Temples dedicated to Mazu are bustling with incense, and European-style buildings are nestled along the streets, where Eastern and Western styles converge and complement each other. Every evening at dusk, the setting sun casts a warm glow over the entire city.

At the same time, it is also the only city in Xia Calendar where gambling is legal.

Every year, a large number of tourists visit to enjoy the food and scenery, and then satisfy their curiosity by entering various gambling centers.

Dream Game City is a “game city” with gambling characteristics that has emerged in the past two years. Minors are prohibited from entering.

After entering Dream Game City, people need to exchange money for game tokens to play games.

If one only wants to satisfy their curiosity and is afraid to delve deeper, they can just play on the first two floors. The first two floors have many game machines, such as slot machines and fruit machines, in various types, and there are even ordinary claw machines. If one doesn’t dare to touch games like slot machines, they can entirely treat it as an arcade, which is also why it has become popular.

Starting from the third floor, it becomes a true “gambling addict’s paradise,” prohibiting entry to those under 21 and requiring a certain amount of game tokens. The higher one goes, the more game tokens one needs to possess.

The top floor is the residence of the Dream Game City Lord. One can compete with the City Lord here to win huge amounts of game tokens.

On the top floor, people can exchange everything they possess for game tokens, including abstract concepts like kinship and friendship. What is lost here can only be won back by playing games. It is said that since the establishment of Dream Game City, only one white-haired youth has ever walked out of the top floor with a smile.

Since I was going to A Port, I naturally had to make some preparations.

Bai Xuechao sent messages to assign tasks before going to bed, and then lay down to sleep.

The next day, Bai Xuechao sat in his office, eating breakfast and looking at documents. His subordinates, who had received the task last night, had already prepared what he needed overnight and sent it to his office.

What the subordinates sent were intelligence related to Dream Game City and a fake ID card.

Cough, after all, he was still a 17-year-old minor.

Bai Xuechao picked up the intelligence file and, just as he started reading, realized that Jiang Yunyi would definitely get involved in this—

He was being used, but not completely.

Although the higher the floor in Dream Game City, the more game tokens were required, the top floor was special. As long as the City Lord was willing, even if you only had one game token, you could enter. More than half of the waiters and dealers here were former gamblers who had stayed after playing games with the City Lord and never left.

On December 31st of last year, there was a famous high-stakes gamble on the top floor of Dream Game City, where a white-haired youth exchanged 200 million game tokens to play with the City Lord.

Because the exchange rate between currency and game tokens in Dream Game City was 10:1, 200 million game tokens was equivalent to 2 billion yuan, so this game attracted widespread attention. Unfortunately, they couldn’t witness the game process on the top floor firsthand and could only see the ups and downs of both sides’ game tokens displayed on the big screen, ultimately resulting in the City Lord’s game tokens being zeroed out.

As the New Year’s bell rang at midnight, the white-haired youth walked out of the top floor with a radiant smile, turned back, blew a kiss to the people behind him, and left happily.

—The City Lord lost.

No one knew what their wager was. Most people had never entered the top floor and didn’t know the mechanism where everything on the top floor could be exchanged for game tokens. They only thought their wager was money.

However, the Dark Organization’s intelligence department found that from that New Year’s Day, Dream Game City began to be associated with the Apocalypse Society, implying that the City Lord might have joined the Apocalypse Society.

The identity of the white-haired youth was self-evident: it was the perverted villain leader of the Apocalypse Society.

Bai Xuechao was not surprised that Dream Game City was connected to the Apocalypse Society. After all, the last update already introduced the Dark Organization, and the ending also brought in the Apocalypse Society. It was only normal for the next plot to continue introducing the Apocalypse Society, and that perverted villain leader was interested in the male lead, so he would naturally take action.

But previously, Jiang Yunyi’s revelation of the “Game City” special ability user’s information to him had ulterior motives.

Jiang Yunyi was helping him on one hand, and on the other hand, he wanted to use him, to make him contact the City Lord and further investigate that mysterious white-haired youth—Bai Xuechao knew from the manga that the white-haired youth was the leader of the Apocalypse Society, but Jiang Yunyi didn’t know this yet; he only knew that this youth was related to the Apocalypse Society.

“Tsk, a little annoyed,” Bai Xuechao muttered while pulling out his phone. “Just a little bit.”

Xiao 6 was still puzzled: “What’s wrong?”

Bai Xuechao dialed Jiang Yunyi’s number and answered Xiao 6: “I’ve been played.”

Whether he found out about that special ability user by himself or not, as long as he went to A Port and contacted that City Lord, Jiang Yunyi’s goal would pretty much be achieved.

He clearly did everything to prevent him from leaving Y City not long ago, wanting to trap him in the hospital. Now, it was good. Knowing that his unstoppable return, made possible by using the special ability energy crystal, was inevitable, he wanted to send him to A Port to investigate. At this point, he wasn’t worried about his health anymore.

“Calling me so soon, huh?” The call connected, and Jiang Yunyi’s gentle voice came through the receiver. From his words, it was clear he had long anticipated his call.

Bai Xuechao got straight to the point: “Arrange for me to go to A Port.”

As an executive raised by the Dark Organization, Bai Xuechao was both free and not free.

He couldn’t just leave the Dark Organization’s headquarters in Y City whenever he wanted.

He had to be on call for the Old leader, and unless there was a mission, if he wanted to leave Y City, his movements had to be reported to the Old leader.

Since he was going to be used, he might as well use Jiang Yunyi in return. Nothing wrong with that.

Jiang Yunyi chuckled softly, then started speaking, “I’ve already prepared for you. You’ll go to A Port in four days.”

Bai Xuechao asked, “What for?”

“Auditing the accounts,” Jiang Yunyi said. “There’s a rat.”

Bai Xuechao “oh-ed” and then asked, “What do you want to know?”

“Who is that white-haired youth, what does he look like, what is his relationship with the Apocalypse Society, and ideally, his special ability and level. You can read the rest as you see fit; if there’s any other useful information, that would be even better.” Jiang Yunyi was not at all polite, listing everything out like ordering food. He added at the end, “However, your safe return is most important.”

Bai Xuechao scoffed, “Hypocrite.”

“If I could, I wouldn’t want you to go to such a distant place, but only you can do it.” Jiang Yunyi’s gentle voice, like warm spring water, flowed past his ears. He asked, “Or do you have another way?”

Here it came again. Jiang Yunyi always seized every opportunity to subtly probe, wanting to know what his special ability had evolved into at Level 6.

When special ability users reach Level 6, their special abilities upgrade and evolve, potentially generating new characteristics or adding new skills.

Taking an elemental water special ability user as an example, a new characteristic might be that the water they create can naturally carry toxins, or a new skill might be the ability to use water to create living water figures or other things. These evolutions are not unique, meaning it’s possible for two water special ability users to evolve the same skill.

For special ability users, these evolutions can be a trump card, capable of catching enemies off guard, so some special ability users keep the results of their evolution a secret.

No one knew the result of Bai Xuechao’s Level 6 evolution. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell anyone; rather, Duan Xingzhi and Liu Jingchun, whom he trusted and wanted to tell, both said they didn’t want to know and asked him to keep it a secret.

On the other hand, Jiang Yunyi, whom he didn’t want to tell, would often subtly try to find out the results of his evolution, but he consistently refused to disclose it, feeling that if he did, he would be used even more ruthlessly.

“What other way could I have? Hanging up.” Bai Xuechao said.

Just as he was about to hang up, he heard the other party say, “I’ll send Ji Chuanze with you.”

Bai Xuechao let out a sarcastic chuckle and said, “To monitor me?”

“How could that be?” Judging by Jiang Yunyi’s tone, he seemed very surprised that he would think that. “Of course, it’s to take care of you. That child, Ji Chuanze, is very good at taking care of people, and he can also assist you.”

Bai Xuechao almost rolled his eyes.

Good at taking care of people? Only when it came to Jiang Yunyi, probably. If it were him, Ji Chuanze would probably want to poison him.

“Then why don’t you send Xiao Mei instead?” Bai Xuechao said, and then knew it was a mistake.

“Oh, do you prefer Xiao Mei?” As expected, Jiang Yunyi seized the opportunity and said, “Then I’ll send her to you? You’re probably used to her taking care of you by now.”

“I don’t like anyone, don’t give her to me, I don’t need her.” Bai Xuechao immediately denied it three times. He would never give Jiang Yunyi the chance to plant spies around him. Bringing Ji Chuanze on this trip to A Port was already the limit; he still had to find a way to shake him off, otherwise, it would delay matters.

“Alright,” Jiang Yunyi didn’t press the matter. “Ji Chuanze will be over soon. You can get used to the feeling of him being nearby.”

Bai Xuechao flatly refused: “Tell him to come back in three days.”

After speaking, he didn’t wait for Jiang Yunyi’s answer and directly hung up the phone.

Putting down his phone, the hint of irritation in Bai Xuechao’s eyes quickly dissipated. He yawned lazily and leaned back in his chair.

“Alright, problem solved.” Bai Xuechao closed his eyes and relaxed. He no longer needed to figure out how to get to A Port himself. Reading the Apocalypse Society leader’s information was also something he had planned to do anyway. Now, the only problem was having to bring Ji Chuanze, but that wasn’t too difficult to solve either. “But the thought of seeing Ji Chuanze’s sour face in a while is a bit annoying.”

Xiao 6 was puzzled: “Didn’t Host tell him to come back in three days?”

“Do you think Jiang Yunyi would listen?” Bai Xuechao still had his eyes closed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Xiao 6 thought for a moment, not knowing if it was comfort or persuasion: “Actually, Ji Chuanze is pretty good. His setting is that he’s a versatile homemaker and very good at taking care of people.”

Bai Xuechao said, “He’s Jiang Yunyi’s only fan.”

Xiao 6’s code was almost smoking from thinking: “He’s just a bit irritable and tsundere in personality, but he’s actually quite cute.”

Bai Xuechao would only answer with one sentence: “He’s Jiang Yunyi’s only fan.”

Xiao 6: “…”

Bai Xuechao: “He’s Jiang Yunyi’s only fan.”

Xiao 6: “Ying, I know!”

“Even if he’s good, it’s only when he’s facing Jiang Yunyi.” Bai Xuechao couldn’t help but sigh, as if lost in thought, and said with a lazy drawl, “I might just be naturally incompatible with him. The first time he saw me, he disliked me, and coincidentally, I disliked him too. What’s his deal, acting like Jiang Yunyi is so good to me and he’s so jealous.”

He really wanted to ask Ji Chuanze: Do you want this blessing?

He wished Jiang Yunyi and Ji Chuanze would be forever bound, so Jiang Yunyi wouldn’t bother him and would go find Ji Chuanze instead.

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. There was a knock on his office door.

Bai Xuechao remained silent, trying to pretend he wasn’t there.

The person outside didn’t wait for him to say “come in.” After a few seconds of no response, they directly pushed the door open.

Gray hair, gray eyes, holding a Tang Hengdao, with a sour face.

Bai Xuechao also gave the newcomer a sour look and said sarcastically, “You came really fast, why didn’t you dawdle in the hallway a bit more? I don’t want to see you so soon.”

“Do you think I want to come?!” Ji Chuanze bristled.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep