Chapter 148: Photos of the Surface World and Old Sin City (Old Sin City Easter Egg Chapter)

"Okay, right away."

Like most men, Yan Jing showered, brushed his teeth, and got dressed in a single, seamless sequence that took less than twenty minutes.

Then, he stepped out of the detached house.

Warm sunlight washed over him, making him squint.

Thinking about it, he hadn't left his room since Stage A began in the Sun-Swallowing Tower.

Even when Stage A ended, Shen Youran had been the one to come over to his house.

He was certainly exhausted, but... fortunately, the results were quite good.

Bathed in the bright sunlight, Yan Jing strolled down the street at a leisurely pace. This entire stretch of detached houses had originally been planned as a whole rural villa district.

However, construction had been abandoned halfway due to a lack of funds.

He had no idea where Shen Youran found the people to renovate two of the houses, or how she had paid to buy out the entire plot of land.

Now, aside from a small village nearby, virtually no one ever came out here.

Walking down the street, Yan Jing could feel that things were slightly different from the last time he had been outside.

The roadside flowerbeds had been planted with flowers and shrubs, and clusters of violets hung from the walls of the unfinished buildings, swaying in the breeze.

It didn't take a genius to figure out this was Shen Youran's handiwork.

Before he even reached her door, he spotted a tall figure waiting a short distance ahead, her hands clasped behind her back.

Today, Shen Youran wore a white crop top and jeans that perfectly highlighted her slender figure. Rather than her usual high ponytail, she had purposefully pushed her hair back using a pair of sunglasses.

It was clearly a carefully prepared look.

"Where are you heading, Teacher Shen?"

Yan Jing smiled.

After a full night of dreamless, worry-free sleep, his mental state had recovered nicely.

"To your house, Xiao Yanzi."

Hearing his teasing, Shen Youran bared her teeth like a little beast.

"I just wanted to know how you managed to do your makeup so fast," Yan Jing asked with a laugh.

"Because I did my base makeup before I called you!"

Shen Youran flashed a smug smile.

"Impressive."

Yan Jing gave her a thumbs-up.

"Hurry, come look at this!"

Shen Youran tugged at the hem of Yan Jing's shirt, leading him forward until they reached a spot just left of the center of the villa district.

There sat a long-abandoned little fountain.

Shen Youran stepped forward. Weird Energy shifted in her palm, and a cube-shaped metal block materialized right over the fountainhead.

Staring at the silver-white metal block, Shen Youran spoke in a conspiratorial tone:

"Walk a bit further away. Go about five or six houses down."

Yan Jing did as he was told.

Soon, he noticed something strange.

Although there was some distance between them now, logically speaking, he should still be able to see her.

Yet there was absolutely no sign of Shen Youran in the distance. Even when he released his Weird Energy to scan the area, he couldn't detect anything out of the ordinary.

But the moment he took another step forward, he saw Shen Youran standing a short distance away, watching him with a radiant smile.

"How is it? Not bad, right?"

"Good stuff."

Yan Jing nodded.

"Never mind you, Xiao Yanzi. Even a Third Tier wouldn't be able to detect this area with Weird Energy from over a hundred meters away. The coverage perfectly blankets everything just left of center in this villa district."

Shen Youran's eyes curved into crescents:

"This way, practically no one will ever find this place."

Yan Jing nodded, fully approving of Shen Youran's plan.

They were hidden by the shielding artifact, the shielding artifact was in an unfinished villa district, the unfinished villa district was in the countryside, and the countryside was in the mid-to-lower tier Ling'an City. It was a permanent, foolproof solution.

"By the time your Tier goes up, Xiao Yanzi, you definitely won't even need to take Third Tiers seriously anymore."

Shen Youran looked up at the sunlight and stretched out her five fingers:

"When that day comes, the entirety of Ling'an will be our sanctuary."

She turned back and flashed Yan Jing a radiant smile, only to realize he had pulled out his phone and pointed it right at her.

"Click—"

At the sound of the shutter, Shen Youran lunged at him in a panic:

"Did you turn on the beauty filter?!"

A moment later, Shen Youran stared at the photo on his phone, her eyes going wide.

"It actually looks really good! I thought you were a total blockhead when it came to photography, Xiao Yanzi!"

Her eyes narrowed as she caught on to something suspicious:

"Fess up! Were you taking pictures of some girl in the Inner World?!"

"Yeah."

Yan Jing smiled. "More than one, actually."

"And in the Surface World?"

Shen Youran asked the question she truly cared about, staring at him with wide, beautiful eyes.

"Then you're the first, Teacher Shen."

Yan Jing smiled. "But in the future—"

He didn't finish his sentence. Having heard the first half, Shen Youran immediately guessed what he was going to say and refused to let him finish.

"I feel like you're going to turn into a total scumbag who lies to girls without batting an eye, Xiao Yanzi!"

Shen Youran declared confidently, her eyes wide.

"Highly unlikely."

Yan Jing laughed:

"But if you're judging that by my looks, Teacher Shen, I suppose I can reluctantly accept it."

At that, they both burst into laughter.

Shen Youran looked at him and seemed to finally breathe a sigh of relief, offering a comforting smile:

"I think you're in a much better headspace now than before you went into seclusion, Xiao Yanzi."

"At least you aren't carrying such a heavy burden anymore."

"Yeah. Some things have finally been resolved,"

Yan Jing said slowly.

He turned sideways to admire the roadside violets, though his gaze was deep and distant as he thought of his friends far away in another world.

He didn't know when he would be able to see them again.

The dawn of initiation...

Speaking of which, it seemed he still hadn't chosen the gift Mantou was supposed to give him.

...

...

Old Sin City.

Rose and One-Eye sat in the office.

As of last night, they had officially been promoted to Grade C.

They could have actually become Grade A if they'd wanted to. Giant Mouth was dead anyway, and the previous vice executive was now acting in his place, answering entirely to Mantou's orders.

But in the end, they had only asked for Grade C, afraid they wouldn't be able to handle anything higher.

"Did you look at the gift the boss gave us yesterday?"

One-Eye looked over at Rose and asked.

"Of course I did!"

Rose proudly pulled a few photo frames out of her bag. The pictures inside showed her dozing off, scarfing down her food, and watching humans fight alongside One-Eye.

Of course, her absolute favorite was this one.

Rose looked at the final photo.

It had been taken one afternoon while she, One-Eye, and the boss were sitting around the bar. With no customers to bother them, they had been chatting idly when the boss suddenly told them to look out the glass window.

At the time, they had complained that they couldn't see anything.

They hadn't realized that, through the reflection in the glass, the three of them were getting their one and only group photo together.

Looking at Yan Jing's smile in the picture, Rose's eyes gradually blurred.

Order Management Bureau.

"Good morning, Team Leader!"

The officers greeted An Ze in unison as he walked through the door.

"Morning!"

An Ze suppressed a grin and puffed out his chest.

It was his first day on the job; he had to look the part.

He soon reached his office. Sitting on his desk were two photos: one of him and Tiger after he had gotten completely drunk, and another taken on the day of the award ceremony in Rotten Vegetable Village.

Caught in a moment of sheer surprise as he looked back, he and that group of friends had left behind their one and only group photo together.

"I hope everything is going well for you, Mr. Yi Ji."

An Ze murmured earnestly, then dove into his work.

Next door.

Lu Miao wore an indifferent expression.

Unlike An Ze, her desk was completely bare.

That was because she hadn't opened that envelope.

There were certain things she simply didn't want to know, because she had no way to verify if they were true.

Unless she ran into that person again someday and forced an answer out of him.

For that to happen, she had to become stronger.

Glancing at the heavy stack of paperwork in front of her, she reached out and processed it at top speed. Then, she picked up her book.

She easily flipped back to the chapter she had been reading before.

A pale purple bookmark had been tucked into that page.

Rotten Vegetable Village.

Mantou sat in Yi Ji's room, staring blankly out the window.

She had become the Lord of Old Sin City, but her life didn't seem to have changed much.

As for the previous Third Tiers.

She had killed a batch and spared a batch.

Giant Mouth and Madam Yu were dead, because they were the main culprits who had attacked Yi Ji!

Then, the bureau chief had died too.

Because there was a Third Tier ready to replace him.

She couldn't kill too many Third Tiers; they would still be needed for the upcoming campaign.

That was what Big Brother Chen Nian had taught her.

Big Brother Chen Nian had been severely wounded and needed a long time to recover.

Once he was fully healed, the campaign could basically begin.

If it had been Yi Ji, he definitely would have done a much better job than her.

If only Yi Ji had stayed behind...

"Yi... Ji..."

She pulled out the items Yan Jing had stuffed into her hands right before he left.

It was a few photos. She had already looked at them countless times.

Every single one was of her.

Her running by the go-karts.

Her sleeping on the Ferris wheel.

Her sweeping up in the Sun-Swallowing Tower.

Her chatting with Yi Ji in Rotten Vegetable Village.

In every single photo, she was the main subject.

But what she really wanted was a photo of the two of them together.

With that thought, she quickly wiped away the tears welling up in her eyes.

"No... I can't... cry..."

Big Brother Chen Nian had said the road ahead was dangerous. Without Yi Ji, she had to become very, very strong if she wanted to survive.

But as she wiped her tears, she suddenly froze.

She stared at her own eyes in those photographs.

In every single picture where her eyes were open, a figure was reflected in her pupils, smiling as he looked right back at her.

"Yi... Ji... Yi... Ji..."

Unable to hold it back any longer, Mantou burst into loud tears.

"I... I miss you... so much..."

...

Sitting at home, Chen Nian took out a screwdriver and meticulously repaired the right half of his body, piece by piece.

He also had a pile of photographs.

However, he didn't view those photos as precious keepsakes.

Given what he knew of that guy...

That guy had left those photos behind with the intention of leaving his last words.

Photographs were for people you would never see again. That was his philosophy.

But for him, seeing those guys again was a guaranteed certainty.

At that thought, he glanced at a Badge resting on the table.

It depicted crude stars and the sea, with a little figure missing its arms and legs in the center.

"Tianque."

"Disease, currently executing the mission."

He murmured under his breath before chuckling softly. It was all because of those two lunatics that he was starting to get influenced.