The investigator immediately regained his seriousness.
In a cold, warning tone, he told Pei Liang, “It’s not as though no player has ever tried to bribe an investigator.”
“But all of them were merely indulging in wishful thinking. To ensure objectivity and fairness, an investigator’s activity records are monitored from every angle, and even their memories can be extracted.”
“Even if I agreed, I would be exposed immediately. Besides, there’s no need for you to do anything so superfluous.”
“I’m here solely to investigate the truth behind the male lead’s disappearance. Since the male lead is still alive and simply cannot be tracked or detected for special reasons, you’re not suspected of murdering him.”
“Why go out of your way to take such a risk? Being discovered bribing an investigator is a serious crime.”
Pei Liang rubbed her chin. “Huh~ I guessed early on that you weren’t doing very well, but I didn’t realize things were this bad.”
“They can even read your memories at will.”
Judging from the way the presence behind the scenes had tripped her up before, the management system of this game already had some serious problems.
The basic points-exchange system that players were supposed to have had not even been activated, yet this game had a department whose personnel were being exploited to such an extreme degree, with every last bit of their value squeezed out of them without the slightest regard for privacy.
The investigator’s refusal only further confirmed Pei Liang’s judgment.
Looking at him, she asked, “When you say your memories are read, do you mean only the memories from after you joined, or all of them?”
The investigator frowned and answered somewhat reluctantly, “All of them.”
“After all, they have to ensure that an investigator’s background and origins are clean, in case another game plants a spy.”
Pei Liang smiled. “Really? That includes the memories from when you were employed by the previous game? So everyone gets to look through them. How humiliating.”
“It’s practically more embarrassing than standing naked at a street intersection. By that logic, this should count as workplace sexual harassment, shouldn’t it? I’m amazed you can stand it.”
The investigator’s face flushed red. His eyes even seemed to glisten with tears, though it was unclear exactly what Pei Liang had struck a nerve about.
His voice grew strained. “The one reading the memories is only an AI. It doesn’t constitute, s-sexual harassment.”
The hand Pei Liang had tangled in his hair slid down and gripped his chin, forcing his head upward and holding it at an uncomfortable angle.
As her fingers rubbed the tip of his chin, she said, “Oh? Is that so? If it’s only an AI doing the reading, then why are you reacting so shamefully?”
“Look. Your ears and neck are red too. No one feels ashamed just because they’ve used a toilet, right? Unless those memories can actually be accessed and manipulated by people.”
“Then the reemployed members of your game are really getting the short end of the stick. They’re using the stains from your previous company against you and treating all of you reemployed workers as second-class citizens.”
“They hold your former occupations over your heads and keep stripping away your rights. Are you really sure your memories haven’t become some people’s private entertainment archive?”
The investigator’s entire body turned as red as a boiled shrimp.
They had seen far too much in their previous game. Compared to that, this bland and innocent environment was practically unbearable for them.
After hearing Pei Liang put it that way, it did seem as though quite a few higher-ups had copied certain things out.
They had previously wondered why, despite their history of being harshly punished, the Cannon Fodder Struggle Game imposed such unusually strict restrictions on them, supposedly because it was afraid of being reported and investigated.
But was it really necessary for so many high-ranking officials to get involved at once?
With this reminder, everything suddenly made sense. Those bastards had treated their past experiences observing the eighteen-plus game as a free resource library.
So they were freeloading off the resource pack while subjecting them to workplace gaslighting?
Sure enough, Pei Liang summed it up with her next words: “Think about it. Hasn’t something been wrong from the very beginning?”
“But I also believe that, deep down, none of you genuinely feel any sense of belonging to a system like this, do you?”
According to the system, which had already begun living off her, it was nothing more than a tragedy of wage slaves: forced into it by circumstances and unable to find employment elsewhere.
Pei Liang continued, “There’s no need to waste time on empty pleasantries.”
“There are only two things to consider: the odds of success and the risks involved.”
“You can try contacting the game now and see whether it works.”
The investigator didn’t need to check. From the moment he regained consciousness, he had already confirmed that he had lost contact with the game.
Pei Liang continued, “You’re different from ordinary NPCs or players. Your memories can only be read after you return to the game space.”
“In other words, as long as you remain in the instance world, you possess greater authority and more room for secrecy than we do.”
“Let me confirm one more time. With your authority, what is the highest level of management you can report information to?”
The investigator looked at Pei Liang, his expression hesitant.
She had not even finished explaining herself, so he was nowhere near swayed by her proposal. If anything, he simply thought she was insane.
But there was no denying that this woman was astonishingly persuasive. At that moment, he actually found himself thinking that if it didn’t require too great a sacrifice, he wouldn’t mind causing the game a little trouble.
So the investigator honestly answered, “In the event of a red-level emergency, I can report directly to the game.”
In other words, the head of the entire Cannon Fodder Struggle Game.
As he spoke, the investigator once again gave Pei Liang a look that said she was imagining things. “However, the criteria for determining an emergency are extremely strict.”
“This world’s level isn’t low, but it isn’t particularly high either. Unless the entire world is destroyed or space itself explodes, it wouldn’t qualify for a red-level alert.”
At this point, the investigator had more or less figured out Pei Liang’s motive. He glanced at Chu Yebai and Gong Ran. “Is this why you hid the two male leads and lured an investigator into showing himself?”
“Then you’re oversimplifying things. Even if that were all there was to it, it wouldn’t qualify as a red-level crisis—not even a blue-level one.”
Pei Liang smiled. “So your chance to get promoted and rich has arrived.”
With that, Pei Liang leaned closer to the investigator and whispered a few words into his ear.
The investigator’s pupils abruptly contracted. He instinctively looked toward Yu Cheng, his eyes filled with shock.
Then his gaze returned to Pei Liang. “Is that really true?”
Pei Liang replied, “Can’t you verify it when you submit your report?”
With that, she kicked him to his feet. “Go outside first.”
The investigator had not yet finished digesting what she had told him and asked instinctively, “Why?”
Pei Liang said, “From the beginning, my plan included luring over the investigators they had bribed and making a few moves against them.”
“But after those four went outside, both games essentially saw my analysis and line of thought through their memories.”
“Even if they realize that I might have deliberately set this trap, the problems I pointed out are real. If they ignore them, I can still seize on those points and strike them where it hurts. They’ll be ruined either way.”
“So their only choice is to eliminate me as quickly as possible, and with a perfect justification—to cover up the truth.”
“Almost everything I did afterward was practically flawless. They knew perfectly well that the two male leads were inside the space belonging to the transmigrated character, but they didn’t dare expose that fact outright.
“Otherwise, a space like Guan Qian’s, which could isolate itself from the game’s detection, would inevitably attract a more authoritative technical investigation team. After all, although Guan Qian’s space was small, it existed independently outside the game and already possessed the basic conditions needed to give rise to an entirely new space.
“And once the technical team arrived, the fact that other game players had infiltrated this place would be exposed instantly. They could then follow the traces and uncover the existence of the Reincarnation Game. They’d still end up dead.
“So how can they eliminate me without exposing themselves? Let’s think along the lines of what I’ve done before. What if an investigator disappeared here using the same method?
“If an investigator appeared in front of me, and I didn’t know whether they were friend or foe, then to avoid detection, I would definitely kidnap them into the space and interrogate them. That’s precisely the result they want.
“The moment the investigator appears in this world, the mission world will come under the monitoring agency’s control. If the investigator then suddenly disappears while being taken away by me, it will directly prove that I’m the source of this world’s abnormal danger.
“That way, they can eliminate me immediately and patch up the loopholes from before.
“So for me, this space is the only safe place right now. The moment I leave, I’ll be eliminated on the spot. And if I go out first, even if you follow me only one second later, they can claim that they made a misjudgment to prevent even greater losses.”
The investigator understood. This woman was practically walking on the edge of a blade.
But that was only natural. If everything she said was true, then the series of consequences that followed would involve enormous responsibility. It was indeed worth taking such a risk.
Unable to help himself, he asked, “But even if I leave first, you’ll probably still be eliminated.”
“You may not know this, but investigators are privy to too many of the game’s secrets. If one of us disappears for no reason, the authority to initiate an elimination is much lower than usual.
“But I’ve already been missing for so long that it’s an established fact. This amount of time is enough for me to have revealed some secrets. The moment you leave, if they detect that your mind contains information you shouldn’t know, then—”
Pei Liang shrugged indifferently. “So, since we’re both going to die anyway, there’s no point wasting it.”
With that, she said to Yu Cheng, “Kill me. Don’t waste the reward.”
Everyone was startled. Yu Cheng shook his head. “No. The risk is too high. Why not let him go out and submit his report directly?”
“He’s an investigator. The people behind him won’t know what he’s learned or what he intends to do. As long as you report what you’ve discovered, we win. There’s no need to take this risk.
“You stay in Guan Qian’s space. It’s safe here.”
Chu Yebai and Gong Ran had some understanding of Pei Liang’s abilities, but even they disagreed with her plan at this moment.
“Your ability should be enough to handle it, but you’ve never used it to its full extent. If something goes wrong—”
Pei Liang smiled, her expression carrying a hint of hidden meaning. “That’s not true. I’ve already used it to its full extent.”
She turned to Yu Cheng again. “Don’t worry. Get ready. Kill me before I’m eliminated.”
“This isn’t only to guard against the worst-case scenario and preserve your reward. It’s also meant to make them lower their guard for the time being.”
Yu Cheng was not usually an indecisive person, but at that moment, his face was a clear refusal.
Pei Liang ignored him and kicked the investigator out.
Then she activated her ability and said to Yu Cheng, “Hurry. We absolutely cannot let them get there first.”
Behind the scenes, the unseen eyes were all startled when the investigator appeared.
Immediately afterward, the two “missing” male leads, Chu Yebai and Gong Ran, emerged one after another, looking as though the malfunction had been repaired and the Monitoring Department could relax its oversight.
Yu Cheng was the next to come out.
The moment he appeared, the Reincarnation System came online. But before it had time to extract any information from his memories, Pei Liang’s figure suddenly appeared.
The elimination began!
But someone was faster.
Yu Cheng’s hand seemed to materialize behind Pei Liang in an instant. In that interval of less than a tenth of a second, before even the elimination mechanism could activate, his hand pierced through Pei Liang’s heart.
An expression of disbelief appeared on Pei Liang’s face as blood surged from her mouth.
[Mission successful. Eliminate Pei Liang, the greatest villain in this world. Mission difficulty: S. Calculating rewards…]
The system’s voice was faintly excited, although it had no idea what had happened inside.
But since Yu Cheng had ultimately chosen to complete the mission, everything would return to normal.
With Pei Liang dead, the doubts she had noticed and the conclusions she had drawn could no longer be passed on.
However, the Reincarnation Game had learned its lesson. Given its shameful existence, it could no longer remain here.
Perhaps because the death of their greatest threat had caused both sides to relax, even if only slightly, their vigilance eased for a brief moment.
It was only after the system had prioritized and completed the reward calculation that it received Yu Cheng’s memories.
The system’s voice rose into a scream. “No! They’re planning to—”
Yu Cheng caught Pei Liang’s corpse, panic and frustration surging through him at the same time. Hearing the system’s voice, he let out a cold laugh.
“You’re only realizing it now? Too late.”
Pei Liang’s true target had never been some existence behind the minor game that was targeting her.
At the end of the day, she was merely a player who had experienced four worlds. Even if she had been treated unfairly, even if there were some shady dealings involved, it would still be difficult for her to bring the other side down completely.
The real breakthrough had always been the Reincarnation Game.
The strategy Pei Liang had deliberately revealed to the other four people seemed to be aimed entirely at her own game, making it appear as though the Reincarnation Game could do nothing but wait for Yu Cheng to return to the reincarnation space before making its move.
If Pei Liang’s guess was correct, Yu Cheng would likely be in grave danger once he returned to the reincarnation space.
At the very least, a memory-erasure package would be waiting for him.
Thus, all the diversions she had created were ultimately meant to make the investigator report the Reincarnation Game’s circumstances to the authorities.
As a game, an existence like the Reincarnation Game that secretly hid in the shadows and siphoned off profits would certainly be intolerable to legitimate games.
And for the upper echelons of the game to collude with such an unknown entity, allowing its players to enter worlds under their jurisdiction and exploit them for profit, was even more unacceptable.
After all, in a world overflowing with supernatural abilities and opportunities, if players like Yu Cheng brought even a small benefit back with them, it would amount to stealing from their own territory.
Sure enough, as Yu Cheng’s memories were read, he withdrew his hand from Pei Liang’s chest. Yet Pei Liang’s corpse visibly repaired itself.
No—this didn’t look like healing. It was more as if the time affecting her were flowing backward.
Pei Liang opened her eyes and rose to her feet from Yu Cheng’s arms. Everyone around them breathed a sigh of relief.
The ability Pei Liang had inherited from the original host was extremely powerful. She could manipulate time, and if she was willing to pay a sufficiently heavy price, she could even accomplish far more.
For instance, she could turn back time for the entire world. That was the reason Pei Ning was reborn.
The original host, disheartened and despairing, had not chosen to be reborn herself. Instead, she gave the opportunity to her younger sister.
Her ability was powerful, but she herself lacked both the offensive power and the formidable state of mind to match it. Perhaps she had tried to use her ability to change something.
But in the end, after feeling her way forward, she failed to achieve what she wanted.
Or perhaps she had discovered the cruelty of the truth after all her efforts, and the result was that the faith supporting her finally collapsed.
In any case, that was what had led to the opening of Pei Ning’s storyline. Pei Liang had already harbored suspicions at the time, and later, in front of Gong Ran, they were indeed confirmed.
The original host’s ability was precisely the trait of making herself invincible.
Pei Liang had rarely used this ability, because from her observations, even the Game itself had not truly identified it.
That made it the perfect trump card to save for last.
Sure enough, just after the system’s terrified warning ended, the entire world seemed to freeze.
A voice appeared in the minds of everyone, including Bai Rou and the other three who were laboring far away at the boundary—
[Illegal game operation detected. Instance world temporarily sealed.]
Then Pei Liang and the others appeared inside a blank space.
A blue scanning beam swept over them, after which there was little left for them to do.
The investigator had slightly higher clearance. Since he was still conducting an investigation, he could directly connect to the monitoring department and keep track of the situation.
Seeing Pei Liang sitting cross-legged on the floor, completely unconcerned, he could not help telling her, “I’m not sure about the Reincarnation Game, but it should have been targeted by the alliance of legitimate games, including our own, by now.”
As he spoke, he looked at Yu Cheng. “In other words, you Reincarnation players are free.”
Yu Cheng asked, “Judging by your reaction, this doesn’t seem to be the first time something like this has happened. What happened to the players who gained their freedom before?”
The investigator did not conceal anything. The inside information Pei Liang had told him was genuine, and he had been the one to submit the report. That was a major achievement, and getting promoted three ranks in a row would be no problem.
He had certainly benefited handsomely from riding Pei Liang’s coattails, so he naturally regarded her favorably.
He was also a little more patient with the others, and said, “The case I experienced was the first, but according to the records, this is indeed not the first time it has happened.”
“There are plenty of makeshift operations running illegally. Everyone dreams of becoming a legitimate Game someday, gaining control over countless worlds, and rising to an existence equal to the gods.”
“But illegal games that grow to the scale of your Reincarnation Game are exceedingly rare. Your Game must have originally come from a major game and been run by an extremely powerful figure; otherwise, it could never have possessed the resources, connections, or scale.”
“Still, the bigger the fish, the more benefits there are to divide up after bringing it down.”
As he spoke, the investigator smiled at Pei Liang. He usually put on an icy, serious front, but when he smiled, there was an innate hint of allure and seduction to it.
Every movement he made, every strand of hair on his body, seemed to radiate the message: Come on, bully me.
Yu Cheng stared at him for a moment, then nodded to show that he understood. He followed up by driving an elbow into the investigator and shoving him aside.
“Why did you shove me?” the investigator snapped.
It was one thing for the player Pei Liang to bully him, but how dare a player from an illegally operated Game bully him too?
Pei Liang waved her hand and continued asking, “You haven’t finished.”
The investigator glared resentfully at Yu Cheng before continuing, “Ordinary makeshift operations exploit their players without restraint. Naturally, once they’re taken down, the players are liberated, their memories erased, and they’re sent back to their normal lives.”
“But the Reincarnation Game is fairly large and has a great many players. Quite a few of them are genuinely talented.”
As he said this, the investigator glanced at Yu Cheng. He did not want to admit it, but that man’s talent and mental strength were indeed not something the Game would willingly give up.
“So in situations like this, ordinary players are generally given the freedom to choose. They can either continue as players, in which case they’ll be recruited by the various Games that divide up the seized territories…”
For example, if Bai Rou was willing, the Cannon Fodder Game would probably be happy to take her on as a player.
“But some people, although they also have the right to choose for themselves, may still be persuaded and courted by the various Games with lucrative offers, since all of them are competing for talented individuals.”
Yu Cheng immediately spoke up. “Got it. Then I want to be her colleague.”
He pointed at Pei Liang.
The investigator stared at him in bewilderment. “No, look at the nature of our players’ missions. You should know that our Game only accepts women, not men.”
Yu Cheng’s expression instantly darkened. Chu Yebai and Gong Ran also looked as though their dreams had been shattered.
Pei Liang gave the three of them an amused look. “Hey! Don’t tell me you’re actually interested in this kind of Game?”
“The other Games are much better. Honestly, if the Reincarnation Game hadn’t come from an illegitimate source and didn’t fundamentally depend on draining its players’ blood as nourishment, ultimately heading toward destruction, I might actually prefer being one of its players.”
“By common logic, once Chu Yebai and Gong Ran have learned this much of the inside story, the Cannon Fodder Game probably won’t be so fanatical about protecting its secrets that it would crudely erase your memories.”
“So, to prevent you from causing trouble, the most likely outcome is that you’ll be recruited as players by another Game.”
She looked at the three of them and smiled. “Work hard and climb higher from here on out. As long as you rise high enough, we’ll meet again at the summit someday.”
Chu Yebai had ambitions of his own and had never abandoned them, even now. And Gong Ran’s insatiable thirst for knowledge went without saying.
The two of them were unquestionably well suited to the Games—arguably even more so than Yu Cheng.
Hearing this, the three of them smiled, filled with a little more anticipation for the future.
The battle between the Games was resolved quickly. Or perhaps, within that space, it was impossible to perceive the passage of time at all.
In any case, before long, Pei Liang and the others returned to the instance world, once again inside her room.
Guan Qian was still frozen in the same position she had been in before they left, as though they had vanished for no more than a second.
The instant they returned to reality, a system notification sounded in Yu Cheng’s mind—
[The Game has been disconnected. Players Yu Cheng, Bai Rou… have regained their freedom. Further arrangements will be handled collectively after you are sent back to the Reincarnation Space, in accordance with the confidentiality agreement.]
[Before that, all mission progress completed by the Game’s players and the corresponding rewards will be settled as usual.]
In other words, a new big boss to take over had already been found in that incredibly short span of time.
Yu Cheng glanced back at Pei Liang, reluctant to part with her. “See you around.”
Pei Liang waved at him. “See you around.”
After Yu Cheng and the others disappeared, Pei Liang’s system came back online.
Its voice was brimming with excitement, and its tone was ingratiating. “Big Sister, Big Sister, you didn’t see it! Our department manager, his lackey of a supervisor, and his mistress were all taken away.”
“The charges were colluding with an illegal Game, violating Game regulations, withholding players’ benefits, and deliberately restricting outstanding players.”
“I can finally say it out loud. You have no idea how awful that fat pig is. He even deliberately docked our wages, cutting five hundred yuan from our monthly base pay under the excuse that he was saving it up to give us as a year-end bonus. Then, when the year-end evaluations came around, he nitpicked everything. If the job market weren’t so terrible lately, I would’ve quit ages ago.”
“And there’s more. To fake our performance figures, they assigned us monthly quotas—basically tricking players into earning points through projects that didn’t require any payment at all. They even set KPIs for that nonsense, and anyone who failed to meet them had their bonuses docked again.”
“As for what happened to the points afterward, he had complete control over all the item transactions in the shop. A lot of the items in the Reincarnation Game were smuggled over and sold at inflated prices this way.”
“Oh, right. There also seems to be some connection to a veteran player—that’s supposedly why they targeted you. But the other party kept a pretty low profile, so we couldn’t find out who it was.”
Pei Liang raised an eyebrow. “A veteran player?”
She wasn’t exactly some big shot in the game. When had she ever offended a veteran player?
But after thinking it over, the investigator said something astonishing:
“I think I might know who it is.”
