Chapter 73: Peacekeeper

In a corner of the main reception hall, Mu Wan lounged in a chair, tracking every move of the players who had entered this dungeon.

After a morning and half an afternoon of work, she had already met her quota of serving five guests.

She hadn't earned five-star ratings from all of them, but the dungeon's evaluation didn't matter to her.

As an investor, she cared only about the dungeon yields of the player she was backing.

Choosing this dungeon had cost her dearly. She had paid a heavy price to coax the intel out of the Chen family: there was a chance that The Vessel, perfectly suited for Mo Nagu, might appear here.

She just hadn't expected Mu Rao to choose this dungeon too, let alone the Chen family's Chen Dalang.

That complicated things.

She was confident Mo Nagu wouldn't lose to Chen Dalang, but Mu Rao...

The Mu family had poured too much blood and sweat into him.

He already carried an aura incredibly close to the heavenly prodigies from the Central Municipality.

All he lacked was a slightly deeper foundation.

Furthermore, aside from their three factions, two other teams had formed in advance. She found herself watching one of them, nagged by a sense of familiarity—as if she had seen them somewhere before.

Their flawless coordination proved they weren't just a band of scattered solo players.

Among the players who hadn't formed teams, she paid close attention and actually spotted several putting on an impressive showing.

A squinting man, a guy wearing a mask, and a rather hefty fat man...

Especially the guy in the mask.

Every time he finished serving a guest, he transitioned almost seamlessly to his next target.

She had been watching him for a long time. Every single guest he served gave him a five-star review.

That was simply terrifying!

Even Mu Rao, whose charm drew women like a magnet, hadn't secured five-star reviews across the board.

Everyone had their own peculiar quirks and specific demands. It was practically impossible to cater to every tiny detail perfectly; avoiding a bad rating was usually the best anyone could hope for.

Yet the guy in the mask had served nearly ten people by now without a single misstep.

If it wasn't just blind luck—if the few profiles he gathered didn't just happen to belong to the guests who showed up today—then... it meant he held detailed dossiers on at least several hundred guests.

She frowned at the thought, realizing just how absurd it sounded.

Who could possibly compile that much detailed information on inner world residents? He would have to know their exact dining preferences and aversions.

It had to be luck.

She let out a soft sigh.

From the looks of it, this dungeon was going to be much harder than she had imagined.

It all depended on how many people had come for The Vessel.

...

"Thank you for the good review."

Mu Rao smiled warmly at the guest before him.

"It's no big deal."

The woman ran a hand through her large, wavy hair, struck what she clearly thought was a seductive pose, and said in a cloying voice, "Do you have time tonight?"

"I could give you my room passcode."

Mu Rao looked at the middle-aged woman. She had to be in her fifties, and her tight evening gown couldn't quite contain the loose rolls of fat around her stomach. Without a change in expression, he said, "If the opportunity arises, I'll be sure to let you know."

With that, he turned and walked briskly away.

Approaching a short-haired girl, he smiled. "Xiao Ai, what's the count?"

"Seven five-star reviews, six four-star reviews."

Xiao Ai gazed at him with unconcealed adoration. "Boss, you're amazing! A dungeon of this difficulty is basically a walk in the park for you!"

Mu Rao chuckled. "Don't get careless. The S-rank evaluation for this task is only awarded to the single best-performing waiter. We still need to see how the others are doing."

Just then, a classic beauty with long, straight black hair walked over to him.

Mu Rao greeted her with a smile. "How is it, Meng'er? Are there any formidable players in the other groups?"

To his surprise, Meng'er wore a grim expression.

"Rao, we might have a problem."

"What's wrong?" Mu Rao blinked. "Is another player getting close to my review count?"

"Not close."

Meng'er shook her head and pointed toward Yan Jing in the distance.

"That man in the mask has served ten guests so far."

"All of them gave him five stars."

Hearing this, the short-haired girl's eyes widened in shock.

"How is that possible?!"

"Sister Meng'er, did you make a mistake?"

Meng'er shot Xiao Ai an icy glare. "If you doubt my words, we can always swap jobs."

Clearly, the two girls weren't particularly close.

They were practically at each other's throats.

Seeing tears welling up in Xiao Ai's eyes, Mu Rao chuckled and intervened.

"Stop fighting, both of you. If you keep arguing, I'll bring Yun'er and the others on the next dungeon run instead."

Hearing that, the two girls finally stifled their brewing conflict.

"So, Rao, what do we do now?" Meng'er looked toward Yan Jing, a cold light glinting in her eyes. "Should I go take care of him now?"

But Mu Rao raised a hand to stop her, a faint smile on his lips. "It's fine. I'll handle him personally later."

Seeing their surprised expressions, Mu Rao rubbed his nose. "I owe someone a favor. Taking care of this guy will be my way of paying it back. Just to be safe, I'll do it myself."

"Still..."

He lifted his gaze to look at Yan Jing and smiled. "His cousin isn't as useless as he claimed."

...

...

Yan Jing remained completely oblivious to the commotion.

By now, he was wholly immersed in his job as a waiter.

Flawlessly fulfilling every guest's needs, securing their praise and top ratings, and watching their eyes widen with pleasant surprise—it was actually quite satisfying.

Whenever he felt hungry, he would pull out a meal to eat, and once finished, he would get right back to work. By the time evening approached, Yan Jing had smoothly served twelve guests. All of them gave him five stars.

Such a stellar performance naturally drew the attention of the other teams. So, when Yan Jing finally wrapped up his shift and headed toward the Employee Cafeteria...

A group of people blocked his path at the stairwell.

It was the seventh team, formed by four or five leftover solo players.

"Brother, could we have a quick word?"

The man leading them was tall and burly, sporting a scar across his face. He offered a smile.

"Sure."

To the scarred man's surprise, Yan Jing nodded and smiled placidly. "There are fifteen minutes left until the Gluttonous Ghost Banquet begins. You have three minutes to tell me what you want."

"Nothing much. We just wanted to borrow some of your intel, brother."

The scarred man flashed a seemingly simple, honest grin. "A few guys in our team have gotten too many bad reviews. We were hoping you could do us a solid and let us farm a few good reviews tonight."

As he spoke, the men around him slowly shifted positions, boxing Yan Jing in.

Faced with their encirclement, Yan Jing remained relaxed, not showing a hint of tension.

"Who put you up to this?"

"Huh?"

The scarred man's face stiffened, his smile turning strained. "I don't really get what you're saying, brother."

Yan Jing didn't say another word.

He took a step forward.

Seeing this, the scarred man immediately scrambled backward to create distance. But his vision blurred, and Yan Jing was already right in front of him, resting a hand on his shoulder.

The speed of it terrified the man, and fine beads of sweat instantly broke out across his forehead.

The others tensed up, looking as if they were facing a mortal enemy.

"I'll ask again. Who's behind you?"

Yan Jing's smile hadn't faded.

These guys couldn't be stupid enough to think someone who had raked in good reviews all afternoon was a soft target. The most likely explanation was that someone else was pulling their strings.

And whoever was commanding this temporary team was definitely another player in the dungeon.

Just as the scarred man was panicking over what to do, a voice rang out from behind a pillar around the corner.

"It's me."

The squinting man slowly stepped out from behind the pillar, smiling.

"I was the one who wanted them to test your skills."

"I suppose it worked. Your performance was certainly beyond—"

He never got to finish that sentence. Yan Jing blurred, leaving behind an afterimage as he vanished, only to appear instantly in front of him.

His right arm, coated in black-and-white armor, smashed heavily toward the squinting man's chest.

The squinting man clearly hadn't expected Yan Jing to be so fast. For a split second, his perpetually narrowed eyes widened in shock. He instantly crossed his arms over his chest to block, a blinding dark light exploding from his right arm.

Boom!!!

Like a cannonball, the man was blasted brutally into the wall. Spiderweb cracks fractured across the surface, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

"Now you've seen it, Mr. Peacekeeper."

Yan Jing turned around and walked right past the shell-shocked mob, heading straight for the Fifth Floor Employee Cafeteria.

It wasn't that he intentionally spared the man's life, even if he did belong to the Public Security Association.

It was simply because the squinting man had chosen his timing very cleverly.

Finishing him off within ten minutes would have been highly difficult.

There was still plenty of time left in the dungeon. Eating came first; eating was the most important thing.

"Cough, cough—"

Not long after Yan Jing left, the squinting man stepped out of the dust cloud.

Aside from a trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth, he didn't appear to have suffered any serious injuries.

However, his originally normal right arm had transformed into a black blade.

Gazing in the direction Yan Jing had disappeared, the man's smile turned somewhat bitter.

"This guy is a bit different from what Xiao Xu described."

"Did Xiao Xu set me up on purpose? That was incredibly embarrassing."