Chapter 74: Collective Return, The Real World’s Response…

Real World

C City Strange Tales Confidentiality Bureau

Based on the dungeon progress patterns Rao Fei had transmitted from the dungeon before, the Confidentiality Bureau had roughly estimated that the [Weird 101] dungeon would end sometime in the next couple of days.

Since everyone who was supposed to enter had already gone in, this matter wasn’t classified at an especially high level within the Bureau. Basically, all the key members of the various action teams had a good sense of it.

Especially these past couple of days—as the dungeon’s end drew nearer, the Confidentiality Bureau grew increasingly restless.

Everyone there had been through wind and fire, and they could disregard their own life and death. But who didn’t have elders or young ones at home?

Unless they were the kind who were orphans themselves and never started a family later on, ending up as lone loners. But people like that were extremely rare in everyday life.

As Bureau Chief Zhao Yanhan naturally noticed this phenomenon too, but aside from those few about to enter the dungeon, there wasn’t much he could say to the rest.

Because even he himself, though he kept a calm face on the surface these past couple of days, was actually worried sick about it deep down.

To put it bluntly and realistically, over these years, the Confidentiality Bureau had never stopped searching for other players who could use that weird prop. Unfortunately, the ones they had managed to find in the end all had terrible compatibility with the prop.

So far, Lin Lan remained their only option.

“Only”—that word carried far too much uncertainty.

It even included Lin Lan himself as one link in that chain of uncertainty.

Zhao Yanhan wasn’t too worried about whether Lin Lan could smoothly exit the dungeon.

Wang Xingxing, Rao Fei, Peng Jia, Peng Xu—they were all action team members the Bureau had carefully selected.

Before entering the dungeon, Peng Jia and Peng Xu had even received authorization from Central Bureau. If, after linking up with those four, they still couldn’t secure Lin Lan’s clearance slot, Central Bureau permitted them to take action against other players in the same dungeon.

With the abilities of the Peng brothers, plus Rao Fei, Lin Lan would get out of the dungeon no matter what.

But he also understood the characters of these three—as long as the situation wasn’t so critical that they had no other choice, they would ultimately choose to sacrifice themselves first.

Unless another player struck first, in which case they would counterattack to ensure stability.

What he was worried about was…

Zhao Yanhan recalled his last contact with Rao Fei, when Rao Fei had said Lin Lan’s ranking was somewhat dangerous.

In his office, the man unclenched his tightly fisted hand, picked up the phone, and dialed. “Is the psychological counseling team ready?”

The response came quickly from the other end. “Bureau Chief Zhao, we’re ready. The moment Bureau Chief Lin exits the dungeon, we’ll provide him with psychological intervention right away. We’re familiar with the procedures.”

Zhao Yanhan said nothing about that and simply ordered, “Keep the procedures gentle. Before entering the dungeon, did Lin Lan give your team any orders?”

The psychological counseling team leader fell silent for a few seconds before replying, “Yes. Before entering the dungeon, Bureau Chief Lin said that if he exited alone this time, you were permitted to use any form of soothing measures on him and had to ensure his emotional stability as soon as possible.”

Zhao Yanhan said, “Good, got it.”

With that, he hung up.

The entire office plunged back into dead silence.

Having worked together for many years, Zhao Yanhan had a very deep understanding of Lin Lan’s personality.

He wasn’t cold or selfish. He didn’t have much presence usually and hated troubling others. Every month, he got a fixed allowance, internet at his place, and he could hole up at home for months without stepping out.

At first glance, he seemed like a perfectly ordinary person.

His psyche was healthy yet fragile.

A few years back, Central Bureau hadn’t given up on the idea of nudging Lin Lan’s personality in other directions. But in the end, it had been shot down by the Central Bureau Chief with a single sentence.

It was a simple truth: who could guarantee that a cold-blooded, heartless person who felt no psychological burden from anyone sacrificing themselves in front of him would be willing to bear the consequences of his strength being restricted by that weird item, never able to improve much, all for the sake of those strangers—elders and children he had never met?

And so, the personality cultivation plan for Lin Lan had been shelved.

None of these meetings had been hidden from Lin Lan.

After that, every time Lin Lan came out of a dungeon, he put on an indifferent face. But Zhao Yanhan knew he couldn’t bear too many sacrifices made for him.

Every time he exited a dungeon, he needed a certain degree of psychological intervention.

But with so many interventions piling up, Zhao Yanhan always harbored a faint worry in his heart that one day, Lin Lan wouldn’t be able to take it anymore and some irreparable psychological issue would arise.

Moreover, because of the weird item Lin Lan carried, its power was so domineering that the powers of other weird items had a hard time affecting him.

At this thought, Zhao Yanhan couldn’t hold back his stifled frustration and took a deep breath, his face stern and cold.

The next second, the phone rang again.

He exhaled and picked it up. “Speak.”

“Bureau Chief Zhao, Bureau Chief Lin and the others are back!”

The others?

The man shot to his feet. “The others? Besides Lin Lan, who else?”

The action team member on the phone was clearly thrilled, his voice loud enough to faintly leak from the receiver. “Them! They’re all back! Bureau Chief Lin, Rao Fei, Wang Xingxing, Peng Jia, Peng Xu! They’re all here!”

“Good, I got it.” After hearing those names, Zhao Yanhan steadily hung up.

The next second, with a bang, the office door slammed against the frame, and Zhao Yanhan’s figure was gone from the room.

Meanwhile, the second Lin Lan exited the dungeon, he activated his prop and locked onto the other four besides himself.

He couldn’t spare even a sliver more of his power, nor was it enough to pull Rao Fei and the others into the range where they couldn’t be selected by the dungeon.

But after such a long time, he had also discovered a bug he could exploit with this weird prop of his.

He couldn’t include Rao Fei and the others in the range, but before actual implementation, there was still the step of selecting targets.

The prop’s purpose was to prevent humans of a certain age group from being selected by weird dungeons.

In other words, only humans could be selected as targets.

Inside the dungeon, due to the suppression, he couldn’t complete the full operation aside from routine powering.

Now that he was out, Lin Lan adeptly locked onto one person after another in front of him.

Rao Fei, Wang Xingxing, Peng Jia, and finally Peng Xu got scanned too. Lin Lan, who had been holding onto that last taut string and not daring to relax, finally let go completely.

Under the watchful eyes of the many Confidentiality Bureau colleagues, his eyes reddened as he bent over at the waist, his whole body starting to gasp violently.

He felt like a prisoner who had to undergo inhuman punishment on a regular basis, and for once, heaven had taken pity—after going out for a turn, he hadn’t received any “punishment.”

He could finally catch his breath.

“You guys, you’re all really human. Not weird entities, not weird entities in disguise.”

“Haha, you guys, hahaha, you’re all still alive.”

“You all exited the dungeon with me! Haha, you all exited the dungeon with me!!”

The usually refined and gentle man had an expression and tone that was half crying, half laughing. By the end, from sheer emotional agitation, he even started coughing.

Rao Fei and the others were equally speechless.

It had all been too much like a dream—like a dream when he woke up, like a dream in the sea, and like a beautiful pre-death illusion when he sank to the seabed and saw the youth waving to them from the deck.

Only after truly leaving the dungeon, with their feet on Confidentiality Bureau soil and their minds receiving the Weird World feedback of dungeon clearance, did they wake as from a dream.

Wang Xingxing looked at his hand. Slowly, a transparent little stone like a diamond floated up in his palm.

【Weird Item: Industrial Waste from the Wasteland World

Grade: Unknown

Usage Method: Unknown

Usage Effect: Unknown

Usage Description: Industrial waste commonly seen in the Wasteland World. Could it be a little cutie’s treasured collectible? Lucky player, now that you have this item, will you discard it or cherish it?】

This was the thing Supervisor Su had given him during the makeup session backstage at the public performance.

Recalling the string of “unknowns” fed back to him by the Weird World, Wang Xingxing carefully put the little stone away again and turned to comfort Bureau Chief Lin, who was still laughing and crying.

“Bureau Chief Lin, control your emotions, control your emotions~”

“Don’t have us all out safe and sound, only for you to pass out from oxygen poisoning.”

Having vented for a good while now and indeed starting to feel dizzy with numb hands and feet, Lin Lan leaned against the wall and readily worked to calm himself down.

At this moment, Liu Jiang, who was also among the onlookers and adhered to a “handle things without delay” work ethic, efficiently sidled up to Rao Fei, who seemed to be in the best shape.

Rao Fei, who had also received a “diamond” as a return gift, turned his head. “What’s up? Speak.”

His emotions were extremely complicated right now.

One could tell from his earlier warning to Wang Xingxing that he held extreme vigilance toward any weird entities.

But now…

Whatever, just say it.

Liu Jiang spoke right away. “That weird entity you encountered in the dungeon before—the one that pops up everywhere in dungeons—did you run into him in this dungeon?”

Rao Fei leaned against the wall too. “What about it?”

“When you and Bureau Chief Lin entered the dungeon, I made a new discovery. Take a look—is the weird entity you met in the dungeon like this?”

Liu Jiang pulled out a photo, which was the one Wu Yang had provided: a club activity snapshot of Su Ximu from his university days.

Rao Fei took the photo and examined it closely. The youth in the photo had delicate features, clear eyes, and even the position of that little pear dimple when he smiled matched perfectly.

He frowned. “Where’d you get this photo?”

The team members who came to receive Bureau Chief Lin were all core Confidentiality Bureau personnel.

So Liu Jiang didn’t need to mince words.

He lowered his voice directly. “About two months ago, a student vanished straight out of his dorm. Because this student had previously witnessed a player disappearance with his roommate, the roommate had my contact and came straight to the Bureau.”

“This photo is of the missing student named Su Ximu.”

Rao Fei’s hand paused as he held the photo. “What’s the name?”

Liu Jiang repeated, “Su Ximu.”

“Which Su, which Xi, which Mu?”

Liu Jiang flipped the photo over to show him the name written on the back.

Rao Fei rubbed the edge of the photo and stared at those three characters. As if struck by a thought, his pupils suddenly contracted.

He looked at Liu Jiang and spoke—as if asking him, or perhaps himself. “Would a weird entity, after fancying a player’s skin, also fancy that player’s name?”

In other words, was there really such a coincidence in this world?

It was possible.

But Rao Fei knew his own heart had begun to waver.

He was even somewhat unwilling to speculate too darkly on that youth who had smiled and waved them goodbye, sending them home.