Three hours later, 12:00 AM, Area E Cemetery.
In the thick of the night, one could only hear the eerie sounds of breathing, flesh-tearing, and slaughter coming from the depths of the silent cemetery. Following the direction from which the sounds originated and searching downward, one would arrive at the 0812 cemetery unit. Passing by the 17-year-old boy sound asleep beneath his grave marker, and passing through the messy, blood-and-gore-smeared 1st to 14th floors, one would finally reach the 15th floor where Bai Liu and his group were resting.
One sleeve of Tang Erda's shirt had been ripped off, and half of his upper body was splattered with blood. Standing bare-armed with his lower back pressed against a half-open sliding door—or rather, a "crematorium" sliding door—he lowered his head slightly and stood as far from Bai Liu as possible, smoking with a dull expression. One hand gripped a heating revolver while two fingers of the other held a cigarette.
The scarlet tip of the cigarette flickered beneath the dim, cold-blue light.
Liu Jiayi leaned against the door, draped in Mu Ke's coat, tilting her head as she slept against Mu Ke's side. Mu Ke's head bobbed slightly as he slept with his eyes closed, yet even in sleep, his back remained straight and his posture composed. Mu Shicheng wasn't so particular; he simply pulled open a crematorium-style sliding compartment and sprawled across it as he slept.
Bai Liu held his blood-stained whip, his eyes lowered as he calmly surveyed the surroundings.
Inside the game, the use of stamina recovery potions and mental bleaching agents was prohibited, so sufficient, quality sleep was essential for everyone to maintain a high-energy state.
They had already cleared the cemetery building down to the 14th floor. With some distance from the ground floor and few monsters remaining on the 15th, Bai Liu deemed it a relatively safe environment and gave the order for everyone to take turns standing guard and resting.
Under long-term group competition training, Mu Shicheng, Mu Ke, and Liu Jiayi had already developed the excellent habit of falling asleep and recovering their energy quickly in any harsh game environment as long as Bai Liu and Tang Erda were standing guard. Now, whenever Bai Liu gave the command to rest, they could all fall asleep within five minutes.
But today, the main striker on guard duty was clearly somewhat absent-minded.
"Captain Tang, what are you thinking about?" Bai Liu asked quietly.
Tang Erda paused. He glanced at the system panel, turned on the spectator pool mute, and then slowly turned to look steadily at Bai Liu: "I'm thinking about the form in which this dungeon will log into reality."
Bai Liu followed suit and opened the system panel to mute it, then looked up at Tang Erda with a smile: "Is Captain Tang suspecting that the way it logs in has something to do with me?"
"I don't know." Tang Erda turned his back to Bai Liu and exhaled a puff of smoke. "But according to the information Su Suyang told me, the dungeons you've gone through are either already logged into reality or will log into reality in the future."
"I don't know whether this is a coincidental pattern or a necessary…" Tang Erda paused. "Arrangement."
Tang Erda took a deep drag from his cigarette: "If Sunshine City really logs into reality, that would truly be…"
"It doesn't matter if it logs in. We can find the root cause in this dungeon and resolve it in reality beforehand," Bai Liu said lightly. He looked steadily at Tang Erda. "But surely that's not the only thing worrying Captain Tang? You've seemed preoccupied ever since entering the dungeon. Could you tell me about it?"
"I'm wondering whether the Sunshine Real Estate where our opponents are located has something to do with this Sunshine City…" Tang Erda's expression became increasingly grave. "The Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau previously investigated that piece of land, but at the time, neither the machines nor we detected any heretics."
"But now we all know that the people living in the Russell Cemetery in the game are basically players. Out of caution, before entering the game, I asked Su Suyang to conduct another investigation into the heretic levels at the Sunshine Real Estate site."
Tang Erda's gaze sharpened: "This time, the heretic levels became particularly abnormal."
"Su Suyang is already investigating, but before I entered the game, they still hadn't identified the heretic at that location. This is very strange."
Tang Erda frowned: "Heretics exist by influencing people and usually have very obvious characteristics, such as the scent of rose perfume or the bloated form of the blood lingzhi from the Love Welfare Home. But the heretic at Sunshine Real Estate wasn't detected at first, and even now that it has been detected, it still cannot be identified."
"What worries me most isn't even that." Tang Erda looked up and met Bai Liu's eyes, taking a deep breath. "Last night, in order to investigate the Sunshine Real Estate issue, Su Suyang and the others relocated the residents living inside. They even used this incident to file a report to their superiors, applying for temporary housing for these residents, claiming that the unfinished building was a heretic that needed to be contained, and requesting that the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau allocate funds to resolve the issue of the unfinished building."
"But the relocated residents, as long as they signed the letter of intent agreeing to lease their unfinished homes to the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau, all developed varying degrees of unexplained organ failure within two or three hours."
Tang Erda's deep-blue eyes seemed to flicker with a strange blue light in the cemetery: "The residents of Sunshine Real Estate, just like the residents in Sunshine City, were trapped in place by the houses, unable to leave even in death."
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Reality, Sunshine Real Estate, 9:00 AM.
Yellow plastic warning tape marked with [WARNING] wrapped layer upon layer around the abandoned building site. A crowd of onlookers had gathered around the usually desolate unfinished building. Staff members from the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau, dressed in uniform, nervously separated the crowd from the building while shouting at the top of their lungs:
"Please do not approach!"
"There are dangerous items inside currently being handled! Please keep your distance!"
Su Suyang looked exhausted as he strode forward in long, hurried steps while the person beside him gave a rapid report:
"They said they could allocate funds to handle the unfinished building, but the budget might not cover it. The transaction price of this building is too high—hundreds of billions. Even if it has become an unfinished building now, the Bureau cannot come up with that much money for containment."
The person looked embarrassed: "Captain Su, this is just one heretic. Hundreds of billions is really too…"
Su Suyang, who had been awake all night, pressed hard against his temples and exhaled a long breath of stagnant air from his chest: "Doesn't the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau have the 4th and 5th Bureaus? You can use that money to swallow up this unfinished building, then renovate the 4th and 5th Bureaus with it. It would kill two birds with one stone—containing the heretic inside the unfinished building while also constructing a new bureau."
The person hesitated: "The money to build a new bureau…"
"Didn't the 3rd Detachment earn quite a lot from leasing and lending out the heretics we captured last year?" Su Suyang's light-colored eyes usually appeared gentle, but when he looked directly at someone without backing down, he carried an unquestionable air of authority.
"The construction costs for the 4th and 5th Bureaus were all earned through the 1st Bureau's own profits. When Captain Tang was here, the 3rd Detachment was always the unit that captured the most heretics, and it was also the Bureau's primary source of profit. Now I want to allocate this money to contain a heretic, and what? Your finance department is going to use 'too much money required' as an excuse to brush me off, the current captain of the 3rd Detachment?"
The person was suppressed by Su Suyang's imposing manner, and his guilt could no longer be hidden. He scratched his face, looking somewhat ingratiating: "…Captain Su, this is a large-scale transfer involving tens of billions of funds. It's only because you filed the report that we are considering it seriously."
"For example, you said you wanted to use the money for the 4th and 5th Bureaus, but this is the city center. If you build the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau here, the confidentiality work…"
Su Suyang interrupted him, his expression already showing a hint of coldness: "If you don't build it here, where do you want to build it? The duty of the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau is to contain heretics. There are heretics gathering here in a densely populated area, endangering the lives of surrounding citizens and requiring containment, so the current priority should be solving the problem and building the 4th Bureau in this location."
"When the 3rd Bureau was rebuilt, it was also built in a prosperous area. I didn't hear you say anything at the time. It's just a matter of money. The reconstruction of the 3rd Bureau was paid for out of Captain George's own pocket, so you didn't have a single word of objection."
Su Suyang said coldly: "Location is nothing but a pretext for you."
"Location is indeed a secondary consideration. It's not that it's impossible to build it here…" The person paused. "That's only if you, Captain Su, can first contain the heretic inside this unfinished building. Then we can discuss it."
"Without understanding the method of containing this heretic, no matter what, we will not approve such a large amount of money."
Su Suyang took a deep breath and swallowed the words, Isn't this money earned by our 3rd Detachment?—words that would have started a fight if spoken aloud. He calmed himself and prepared to continue bargaining: "This heretic has already caused so many people to commit suicide, and people are still dying. You still won't approve this money? Can you take responsibility if something goes wrong later?"
A team member ran over, panting as he interrupted Su Suyang: "Captain… Captain Su!"
Su Suyang rubbed the bridge of his nose and raised a hand: "What is it? Speak directly."
The team member's expression was grave: "Captain Su, the influence of this heretic seems to be expanding."
Su Suyang abruptly turned his head: "What do you mean?"
"At first, only the residents who moved out of Sunshine Real Estate were affected. Just now, someone from a nearby residential area pretended to be a resident of Sunshine Real Estate because he wanted us to process a housing compensation claim." The team member gave a bitter smile. "Because things were too chaotic, the staff didn't check carefully and processed it for him."
"There was no problem at first, but just a moment ago, he suddenly shriveled up, as if the flesh and fat inside his body had been sucked dry by something, leaving only a layer of skin hanging on his bones."
"Is the person still alive?" Su Suyang quickly asked.
The team member took a deep breath: "He has already been sent to the hospital, but he's still alive."
Su Suyang suddenly realized something. His gaze sharpened: "Where did he live?"
"In an old residential area about 300 meters away from Sunshine Real Estate." As soon as the team member finished speaking, his communicator rang. He answered it and spoke rapidly for a few moments, then looked at Su Suyang with an ugly expression. "Someone else who moved out from a residential area 500 meters away to scam compensation has also shriveled up."
"Captain Su, the influence of this heretic is still continuously expanding! Everyone who moved their 'house' away from here has shriveled up!"
Su Suyang exhaled a long breath of stagnant air and swiftly gave an order: "First, move all their houses back and see whether it alleviates the condition. Hurry!"
Then he turned his head and looked coldly at the somewhat stunned finance department staff member: "Fifteen minutes. I want to see the money approved."
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Author's Note:
The evacuation speed here is not the normal speed; it is the evacuation speed after the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau intervened, which I set for the sake of the plot. The normal house evacuation speed is much slower and requires many more procedures.