Volume 4, Chapter 27 – A Complete Mess

“…”

Li Zhuying and Aila faced each other in a standoff.

If she hadn’t been worried about causing trouble for Anran, Aila would have beaten Li Zhuying up and thrown her out long ago.

They remained locked like that for a moment before someone finally stepped in to break the stalemate.

“Zhuying, we’re leaving!”

Li Zhuying turned around and saw that it was the unnamed team leader.

In the end, she still turned and left.

Anran’s favorability had just dropped by so much. She was definitely unhappy with her now. But thankfully, it was still at 20 and hadn’t fallen into the negatives.

That meant she still had a chance!

And before that, her favorability with Anran had been 60. Sixty!

That meant if she took things step by step, she really had a shot. Anran did have feelings for her!

Excited!

Li Zhuying was so giddy she could barely walk straight.

“What’s wrong with you? You’re swaying all over the place, and your face is so red. Are you sick?” the unnamed team leader asked curiously.

“It’s nothing, really nothing.” Li Zhuying shook her head.

The cocktail party began.

On the surface, it was a charity fundraiser. Underneath, it was a place for all kinds of big shots to brag and build connections.

Poor Anran was completely out of place among them, so she took Aila around on hit-and-run raids.

They mooched food and drink everywhere they went, eating so much cutlery that even the servers started to feel something was off.

Where was the cutlery?

Where had the cutlery they had just brought over gone?

Murmurs started to spread.

While eating, Anran noticed that Loriang was about to slip away.

After saying a few words to the woman beside him, he smiled and clinked glasses with several other “important figures,” then pressed his palms together and left with a cheerful grin.

At the same time, Anran also saw Heloise, who had been standing in the corner with an icy expression the whole time, start moving as well.

Chomp!

Aila swallowed a piece of cake together with the fork in one bite.

She was just about to eat the handle too when Anran immediately patted her head. “Aila, get ready to work.”

“Mhm.”

Aila hurriedly stuffed the fork into her mouth, and the two of them walked out of the banquet hall.

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong?”

Inside the hall, someone patted their companion on the shoulder.

“I… I just saw a little girl eat a fork whole!”

“What? Eat a fork? How strong are your glasses? If they’re that bad, go get them changed already.”

“I probably saw it wrong.”

…

“What happened? Did something go wrong?”

The moment Loriang saw Heloise’s expression, like someone owed her tens of millions, his heart skipped a beat.

Could something huge have happened?

The thing Loriang feared hearing most right now was that something had gone wrong.

“Nothing. I just ran into someone really disgusting.” Heloise shook her head.

Someone even Heloise found disgusting?

Could it be some troublesome expert?

“Hurry up and get started. I don’t want to drag this out any longer,” Heloise urged.

Loriang hesitated for a moment. “People from Nine Songs came looking for us just now. If we’re exposed now, we’ll all go down here. How about postponing it for a day or two?”

“Now,” Heloise said coldly.

“But…”

“There is no but.” Heloise cut him off. “If you’re unwilling, I don’t mind letting something happen to you right now.”

“Yes, yes, yes. Right now, right now.”

Cold sweat broke out on Loriang’s forehead.

Inside, he cursed viciously. Crazy woman.

What the fuck good is being pretty?

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…

In the corridor, a “spider” was creeping forward in secret.

Anran felt like she was playing a stealth game as she controlled the spider to keep crawling onward.

The fourth-floor meeting room.

A pair of long legs in black high heels suddenly appeared ahead.

It was Loriang’s female secretary.

She was just about to head into the meeting room when Anran immediately sent the spider scuttling over. It grabbed onto her heel and followed her inside.

The camera mounted on the spider’s head began surveying the meeting room.

Mm. Two shoulder straps. The one inside was purple lace.

“…”

Anran immediately switched the camera angle away. Sinful, sinful.

As they passed a small sofa, the spider robot quickly slipped underneath it.

All she had to do next was film the people inside and record a few keywords, and the mission would be complete.

Not long after, the door opened and two people entered the room.

Heloise and Loriang.

Loriang sat down on the sofa, while Heloise walked to the wall, suddenly opened a hidden passage, and slipped inside.

“…”

A few minutes later, several more people came in from outside.

“Chairman Loriang!”

They greeted him.

“Sit down, gentlemen.” Loriang nodded.

This was a big deal.

The spider robot crept beside a sofa leg. With a shift in camera angle, it caught all the people opposite in frame.

“Everyone made a tidy profit from the last deal. This time, the other side wants an even larger quantity,” Loriang said.

The moment he opened with that, everyone in the meeting room immediately began chattering all at once.

But the longer Anran listened, the more deeply she frowned.

These people were too cautious.

They had been talking for five minutes without mentioning Morningstar even once. Even though the entire discussion revolved around a transaction, it was still unclear what exactly they were trading.

And yet, despite that, they had already started discussing how to transport the goods.

“…”

Goddammit.

If she had known it would be like this, Anran would have been better off just shooting Loriang in the head.

At least that would count as cutting off one of Morningstar’s sources of supply.

Thinking that, Anran decided to keep watching a little longer. If she still couldn’t find anything useful, she would personally finish Loriang off.

Technical work that required brains really wasn’t that easy.

A more violent solution might produce worse results, but it was still a good option.

“Let’s stick to the old process. First move it out by water through Lake Neiya, then continue by land.”

“That’s all well and good, but the weather’s been changing too violently lately. Yesterday it was pouring rain. It let up a bit today, but just now it started coming down hard again. I’m afraid it might affect the water route,” said a fat man.

“They won’t allow any delays on that end,” Loriang said.

The fat man complained, “Sigh, it’s not easy making money these days.”

“Exactly. Otherwise why would we insist on working with Morn…”

“Old Chen!” Loriang barked softly.

“Yes, yes, yes.” The man jolted and immediately started sweating buckets.

Damn you!

Anran glared furiously at the legs in front of the spider robot. Thick and ugly!

This bastard was ruining everything!

They had been this close to getting useful information.

If Heloise hadn’t been hiding inside, Anran would have wanted to storm in and wipe the place clean.

The conversation ended there.

In the end, Anran still failed to get anything deeper out of it.

She copied the video from the computer onto a USB drive, then sent Li Zhuying an MMS with a photo attached.

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After hiding the USB drive in a potted plant, Anran controlled the spider robot back the way it had come.

Loriang and Heloise had already left first.

Loriang returned to the banquet hall, while Heloise had gone off to who knew where.

Anran had already planned her escape route. Her current objective was to kill Loriang.

Since she couldn’t get any more useful information, she would just take the EXP instead.

As for everything else, Nine Songs and Morningstar could wear each other down slowly.

The world outside the hotel was once again drowned in heavy rain.

Li Zhuying received a text from Anran.

Her face lit up immediately.

Eh? Eh? Eh? Anran actually contacted me first!

Li Zhuying hurriedly opened the MMS and read its contents.

“In the third potted plant after turning left in the corridor leading to Meeting Room 1 on the fourth floor of XXX Hotel, there is a USB drive. It contains video of Loriang meeting with Heloise. Please pass it on to the person in charge of Nine Songs. This number is no longer in use.”

The SIM card had already been snapped in half by Anran and flushed down a toilet.

“…”

Li Zhuying froze for a moment.

So it wasn’t some confession of love after all.

Of course it wasn’t.

Still, she passed the message on to the unnamed team leader.

“What? A message from Anran?”

The team leader was stunned.

His voice carried far even through the heavy rain.

That Anran? The Anran with the bounty offered by Lü Changming?

The team leader was not from Twinmoon City’s Nine Songs.

But before Lü Changming was promoted to branch minister, the two of them had gotten along quite well.

The team leader immediately called Anran’s number back, but it wouldn’t go through.

“Looks like she already destroyed the card.”

He pondered for a moment. “If Loriang is really colluding with Morningstar, then this is a huge problem. Come on, let’s hurry back and find that USB drive.”

On the way back to the hotel, the team leader also contacted his superiors, requesting that Nine Songs in Yaxi City send additional personnel, and had the Security Department prepare to provide support at any time.

…

“Haha, compared to Mr. Guan, I’m ashamed to even call myself chairman. Mr. Guan’s business has already expanded all the way to the Southern Hemisphere.” Loriang chatted and clinked glasses as though nothing had happened.

The cocktail party was nearing its end. Some people had already left, so the banquet hall was much more spacious than before.

Bzz… bzz… bzz…

The phone in Loriang’s trouser pocket suddenly began vibrating.

He took it out. It was a call from an unfamiliar number.

Loriang made an apologetic gesture, then stepped aside and answered.

“Hello, is this Mr. Loriang?”

A somewhat awkward male voice came from the phone.

A voice changer?

“It is.” Loriang’s expression darkened.

“I’m your father!” the person on the other end said.

“…”

Loriang’s expression changed sharply. Since he was in public, he didn’t curse out loud, but he was already preparing to hang up.

“Don’t rush to hang up. I was joking just now. I know you’re connected to Heloise of Morningstar… son,” the caller continued.

“…”

Loriang’s face was overcast.

Like the storm outside.

“Who exactly are you?” Loriang took a deep breath. He couldn’t curse out loud.

Using a voice changer meant they didn’t want me to recognize their voice.

That meant there was a good chance I knew this person.

And there weren’t many people who might know about his connection with Heloise.

Loriang began using the process of elimination. First, it couldn’t possibly be his son.

“…”

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Damn it!

He had been led around by the nose by the person on the other end.

He didn’t even have a son. He only had a daughter.

First there was his female secretary. She had seen Heloise, though she didn’t know Heloise’s identity.

Next was…

“Stop guessing, son. Walk over to the wall and you’ll find out who your father is.”

Loriang was furious.

But he wasn’t completely blinded by anger. At that moment, he secretly signaled to the bodyguards nearby.

Then, following the directions on the phone, he slowly moved over, step, half-step, step.

“To be honest, your father here never expected you to make it all the way to the wall. The angle from where you’re standing right now is already perfect.”

The voice on the phone vanished the moment the call ended.

Loriang’s heart lurched, but he was still too slow.

Just as the call was about to disconnect, several bullets had already come flying over.

One burrowed into Loriang’s neck.

One punched into Loriang’s chest.

“Puh…”

Blood sprayed everywhere.

The bodyguards rushing over were instantly thrown into panic when they saw their boss had been shot.

Shouting, they charged forward and drew their weapons one after another.

The guests in the banquet hall were even worse off.

The host of the party had been shot and collapsed, and a cute little girl let out a terrified scream.

The panic in that scream immediately infected the others.

In an instant, the entire banquet hall filled with cries of “Ahhh!” most of them from women.

“Ahhh! Chairman Loriang is dead!”

“Ahhh! There’s a gunman, there’s a gunman!”

“Ahhh! I want out of here. Don’t block me!”

“Ahhh…”

Aila suddenly got her head smacked.

“Stop ahhh-ing. We need to go.”

Anran grabbed Aila, the true source of the ahhh-ing, and ran for the main entrance.

Just now, several notifications had flashed through her mind.

“You killed Loriang, chairman of the United Chamber of Commerce of Yaxi City. You gained 350 Free EXP.”

“Faction mission [Rebel Purge I] completed. You gained 5000 Free EXP.”

After a whole string of missions, Anran’s contribution rate in the faction missions had already reached 0.21%.

If the government army won, she would be able to claim 0.21% of that enormous reward pool.

Never underestimate that 0.21%.

If the reward pool was 100 million EXP, then 0.21% would still be 210,000 EXP.

And besides, the road ahead was still long.

This contribution reward was only the sunlight shining over the battlefield at the very end of the faction conflict.

“Why are you stopping us from leaving? That gunman is still hiding in the banquet hall. If I get hurt at all, can you bear the consequences?”

“Get out of my way. I’m the chairman of Daxin Group!”

The bodyguards and security staff at the entrance tried hard to maintain order, but the barricade they set up was teetering and looked ready to collapse at any moment.

Boom!

At that moment, an explosion suddenly sounded from downstairs.

“A b-bomb!”

“Ahhh!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Even the banquet hall itself wasn’t spared. The red banner hanging on the wall quickly went up in flames.

It was a mess.

A complete mess.

Any human wall, any barricade, any security guards or bodyguards, all of it was useless.

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In an instant, they were smashed apart by the furious, terrified crowd.

Mixed in among them, Anran and Aila slipped away with ease.

“Forget the spoon.”

Anran looked speechlessly at the spoon Aila was biting.

“But I feel like if I just eat a little more, I’ll get stronger!” Aila said around the spoon.

“Just get out of here first. I’ll take you somewhere else for a proper meal later.”

Anran pulled Aila along and ran.

Very quickly, they rushed out through the hotel’s back door.

The moment the umbrella opened, the two of them vanished into the rain.

Li Zhuying and the others were coming back through the front entrance.

The moment they arrived, they saw the chaotic crowd at the doorway.

The team leader grabbed a pot-bellied middle-aged man and asked, “What happened inside?”

“Let go of me!” the middle-aged man struggled with all his might. “Do you know who I am?”

“I don’t know who you are. I only know I’m from Nine Songs!” The team leader narrowed his eyes and suddenly tightened his grip on the man’s wrist.

“Ow, ow, ow…” Pain spread across the man’s face. He no longer dared put on airs and hurriedly explained what had happened inside.

“Loriang is dead?”

The team leader’s eyes widened.

Who did it?

Did Morningstar do it themselves, or…

“I just hope that USB drive is still there.”

He immediately drew his weapon and charged into the hotel against the flow of the crowd. The rest of Nine Songs followed suit and headed straight for the fourth floor.

“People from Nine Songs.” Standing upstairs, Heloise’s gaze shifted slightly. She had originally intended to go after Anran and purify this world a little.

But the moment she saw Nine Songs arrive, her mind changed.

Loriang was already dead.

This transaction was going to be heavily affected. If anything happened to the other few people as well, then the mission would fail completely. At the very least, she had to hold out until the goods were shipped out.

At the moment a mission was about to fail, if Heloise stepped forward, she would definitely become an idol…

She decided to make herself the target and draw everyone’s attention.

“Right now, immediately go blow up the police station of Yaxi City for me!” After sending the text message, Heloise turned and walked out of the restroom.

It was the very place where she had first run into Anran. From here, one could see the area where the paths from the back entrance and front entrance met.

…

Claude Prell: [Live broadcast, live broadcast! Hello everyone, I’m the famous game commentator Claude Prell. Welcome to today’s stream, Thirty Morningstar-side Players Battle Anran!]

“Damn it!” Zhou Jieyu, sitting in the car, immediately cursed.

“No swearing!”

Leading the Charge smacked Zhou Jieyu on the head.

“I’m just expressing my dissatisfaction!” Zhou Jieyu complained.

“What happened?”

“There’s this guy named Claude Prell who actually calls himself a famous game commentator. He’s way too shameless! And the title he gave the livestream thread is Thirty Morningstar-side Players Battle Anran. It sounds so obscene!”

The moment she said the word obscene, Zhou Jieyu got smacked on the head again.

“Isn’t that a perfectly normal title? Can’t you be a little more normal? If Mom and Dad knew your thoughts were this dirty, they’d be so mad they’d want to hit you!” Leading the Charge said.

Zhou Jieyu was instantly displeased. “Forget what my thoughts are like. Aren’t you already hitting me?”

“…”

Leading the Charge had nothing to say.

Zhou Jieyu stopped bothering with Leading the Charge and clicked into Claude Prell’s post instead.

The “famous game” commentator smugly said that he had accepted a mission posted by Anran.

With the eye of a seasoned old hand, Claude began his analysis.

Although the “gender” had changed, there wasn’t much difference in build between that person and Anran in other respects.

After that, he saw that “Anran” run out from the back door with a little girl.

The little girl’s appearance had changed somewhat too, but overall she still fit the image of Anran’s younger sister.

So he passed that information on to the group of Morningstar-side players who had previously lost their fight at the station.

In exchange, he got 2,000 Bilu on a no-refund basis.

Smiling Doge: [And now, let us invite Mr. Claude to give us his wonderful commentary!]