Chapter 336: Stage A of the Dungeon Begins

At the mention of this fourth person, everyone at the dinner table fell silent.

Zhou Xian frowned.

"What's wrong? Is there a story behind this guy?"

Qi Ming scratched his head.

"It's nothing major, really."

"It's just that when we went our separate ways, we made a pact. No matter what happened, none of us would work for the Mu Family."

"But..."

Zhou Xian caught on.

"He broke the pact?"

"I wouldn't say he broke it..."

Qi Ming looked a little awkward.

"He joined the Public Security Association in the Third Ring Domain and is now serving as a security chief in a Central Municipality. But... Mu Yi had already taken control of over half the branches in the Third Ring Domain. So, really, he's working under Mu Yi."

"That's all in the past."

Right then, Shen Youran cut him off with a smile.

"Xiao Gan doesn't owe me anything. I'm the one who owes him."

"To be exact, I, Shen Youran, owe every single one of you here."

"A toast to you all."

She stood up, raised her glass, bowed to the group, and drained it in one gulp.

The others exchanged glances and quickly moved past the subject, letting the drinks flow as they clinked glasses.

Shen Youran drank the most during that meal.

Once dinner ended, bleary-eyed from the alcohol, she stubbornly insisted on seeing everyone off herself. Then she turned to Yan Jing beside her.

"Xiao Yanzi!"

"Yeah."

Yan Jing nodded.

"Did I embarrass myself just now?"

Shen Youran looked up. Her long, fox-like eyes seemed to ripple with a crystal-clear gleam—if it wasn't tears, it was the light.

"No," Yan Jing smiled.

"Really?" She extended an index finger to point at him, but misjudged the distance and accidentally poked him right in the face.

"You can't lie to me."

"Of course not."

Yan Jing kept his smile.

"Liar! I definitely embarrassed myself! Why didn't you stop me from drinking so much?"

Shen Youran's eyes widened, acting deliberately unreasonable.

"Why would I stop you? It's not like there was no one to take you home."

Smiling, Yan Jing looked down and gazed at her face.

"Does that answer satisfy you, Teacher Shen?"

"Can we go home now?"

"..."

Shen Youran's face flushed. She ducked her head.

"Where did you learn all this nonsense..."

In her flustered state, finally...

She suddenly jerked her head up, taking a step closer to him, her eyes sparkling.

Then she violently threw up.

Several minutes later, Yan Jing had cleaned up the mess and was taking her home.

Sprawled ungracefully across the back seat, Shen Youran mumbled in a daze, "Xiao Yanzi."

"Yeah."

Yan Jing held the steering wheel.

"You're so nice."

Shen Youran mumbled with her eyes shut.

"Thanks," Yan Jing smiled.

But Shen Youran clearly couldn't hear him. She kept sleep-talking.

"I'm old now, not pretty anymore. My Tier isn't even high, and I'm dragging around a huge mess. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me to see the sea, Xiao Yanzi..."

The drive from the hotel to their home took about thirty minutes, but to Yan Jing, it felt like he had been driving all day.

The girl's inner thoughts were laid bare in her sleep-talking. During the second half of the trip, she kept calling out for her mom and dad.

Once they got home, Yan Jing put Shen Youran to bed, set out water and a trash can, then sat quietly beside her, scrolling through the latest news and videos.

He had overachieved his personal goals a few days ago, earning a one-day exemption from entering the Inner World. It was the perfect time to use it.

Soon after, he received a call from Lin Xiaoran.

"Reporter Lin, what's up?"

"Is Big Sister Shen asleep?"

"She is."

"That's great. This is the perfect opportunity. Go in for the kiss, boy, and you'll get everything you want."

Hearing Lin Xiaoran's words, Yan Jing finally remembered that she had also been so drunk she could barely walk just a little while ago—even though she'd only had a single can of beer.

"Is there no one taking care of you?" Yan Jing asked.

"No," Lin Xiaoran said in confusion. "Why?"

"Find yourself a partner."

Yan Jing said gently.

"For a single person, you sure meddle a lot."

With that, Yan Jing hung up.

Lin Xiaoran stared blankly at her phone screen and rubbed her eyes. It took her a long time to realize she had just been insulted.

"What a jerk!"

She tried calling back, but couldn't get through at all.

Furious, she slammed her phone onto the bed.

...

...

Two days later.

Muke District.

"Reform brings wisdom! Councilwoman Li Yuwan has proposed a new bill. We hope everyone will cast a vote..."

A vehicle equipped with high-end loudspeakers drove past from the other end of the street.

"Reform brings wealth to the people! Councilman Liu Yihan has put forth the latest proposal. We're only missing your vote..."

Another loudspeaker-laden vehicle approached from the opposite direction.

As the two vehicles crossed paths, they abruptly braked. A crowd of burly men got out and started shoving each other.

It was entirely predictable that the shoving would soon escalate into a higher degree of violence.

"Where is the peace in this Peace Heavenly Kingdom..."

In a dark alleyway, a man in a leather jacket retracted his gaze and looked at the few people beside him.

"Is the boss back yet?"

"He should be back soon."

The one who spoke was a one-armed man.

They were Players who had entered the Dungeon today. Their mission was to assassinate an internal candidate council member from the Reconciliation Faction.

The catch was that another team was racing against them.

Once one council member was killed, the other would inevitably raise their guard.

This mission wasn't particularly difficult for battle-hardened veterans like them, but right after entering the Dungeon, things had started getting a bit strange.

Because the Dungeon mission had changed.

Originally, they only had to choose one of the two council members to kill. Now, the mission required a single team to assassinate both of them.

If a team didn't assassinate a council member or only assassinated one, the system would forcibly expose the locations of everyone on that team.

"Why do you think the mission changed?"

A potbellied middle-aged man spoke up.

"Didn't the boss already say? It might be a title's ability," the one-armed man said.

"I'm just suspicious. After all, don't ordinary titles only affect the user? This is the first time I've seen one that can affect others..."

The potbellied man said, "Doesn't that mean our opponents this time aren't sim—"

"Boss." Right then, someone looked at the man returning from the other end of the alley, stood up, and called out.

The others immediately stood up as well, turning to look at the returning man.

The most striking thing about the man was his eyes. His irises were a dazzling gold, like two suns.

Beside him stood a masked woman. She was also a member of their team, primarily responsible for gathering intelligence.

"Salira, did you get any intel?"

The one-armed man looked at her.

The woman shook her head, a hint of helplessness in her tone.

"This place is going to be harder to deal with than we thought."

"My appearance doesn't fit the aesthetic standards of most people here. If I forcibly activate my Ritual abilities, those bracelet-like things on some of their wrists will automatically sound an alarm."

The woman's Ritual was primarily based on the Sin—desire system, and she normally served as the squad's intelligence gatherer, but this time she was returning with clipped feathers. She hadn't expected that so many people here would actually prefer animals.

"But it wasn't completely without gain," the woman said.

"The boss and I found a few residents who clearly looked poor based on their outfits. Those things on their wrists called 'Information Components' generally don't have an alarm function, so we managed to get some news out of them."

"This place is divided into three groups: the Peace Faction, the Reconciliation Faction, and the Reform Faction. The Peace Faction is currently in power, and the people we need to kill belong to the Reconciliation Faction. Furthermore, they are divided into..."

The woman shared some more information. Combined with what the group had gathered before entering the Dungeon, they finally had a rough understanding of the situation.

But because the people they found were of fairly low status, they only managed to learn the names of the two council members running in this election:

One was Wen Tian, and the other was Li Chengxi.

"Sigh... it's a heavy burden and a long road..."

The potbellied man sighed.

"Since we find it difficult, the other side won't have it easy either. This should be a long-term mission, so look alive."

The man with the golden irises finally spoke. The others straightened up and answered in unison, "Yes!"

...

...

On the other side.

Aside from the four main members, this team also included two filler Players brought in by Shen Youran.

Pure dead weight.

One of them had even been injured in a previous Dungeon and had to use a wheelchair to get around.

"So, what's the plan now, Captain?"

Qi Ming looked at Yan Jing.

"Do we gather intel on the assassination targets first? Or figure out where we are? You decide."

Beside him, Pan Yue and Zhou Xian felt the same way, waiting to see how Yan Jing would deploy them.

"Let's learn about the targets first,"

Yan Jing said.

"Alright."

Qi Ming nodded.

Even though he felt that figuring out their current location and the overall state of this Domain was more important, just as he had said before entering the Dungeon, whatever Yan Jing decided went.

At dinner yesterday, they had familiarized themselves with each other's abilities. One of his Rituals came from Minhu's auditory cultivation.

"We need to find a place for me to drop an anchor point to act as a wiretap. Ideally, we should locate the Reconciliation Faction so the intel we gather will be more complete."

"If worse comes to worst, we can just find any random person from the Reconciliation Faction and I can plant the anchor point on them."

So the problem came full circle. They didn't even know where they were, so how were they supposed to find the target's location?

Beside them, Pan Yue sighed inwardly. It seemed that while Yan Jing was very strong, he lacked experience leading a team.

"It's fine. I don't rely on that to gather intel,"

Yan Jing said with a smile.

"Then what do you rely on?" Qi Ming was taken aback.

"Luck," Yan Jing said.

Before his words faded, he raised a hand. Several newspaper-like pages blew into the mouth of the alley with the wind, landing right in his grasp.

Yan Jing unfolded them to look and said in pleasant surprise,

"Look, luck has arrived."

The others leaned in to look and all stared blankly.

'Reconciliation Faction Candidate Council Member Profiles'

What the hell was this?!!

Qi Ming was utterly dumbfounded.

...

...

In the car, Zeng Qing held the steering wheel, looking at 'Luo Sheng' beside her in confusion. "What did you just throw out?"

"Trash."

Luo Sheng smiled and answered "automatically."