“I don’t mind. I don’t mind. It’s not rough. I—I—I think you were already very gentle under the circumstances. Really!”
Li Yao heard Zhang Daniu crying in a high-pitched voice, “Don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. I don’t know anything, and I don’t want to know anything. I was forced. Really. I’m very obedient. Please don’t kill me!”
“Relax, Mr. Zhang.”
The hunter chuckled. “If we want to kill you, we can do it in the neighborhood. You are not an ‘awakened one’. One fireball is enough to burn you to the ground. Just like countless mysterious cases of spontaneous human combustion, we don’t need to invite you to this place at all, do we?
“I think so, too.
Zhang Daniu breathed heavily. He swallowed his saliva with difficulty and said in a trembling voice, “There’s no need to be so polite as to call me ‘Teacher Zhang’. I’m just an ordinary down-and-out web novelist. How am I qualified to be a teacher? You can just call me ‘Little Cow’ or ‘Ah Niu’!”
“That’s inappropriate.”
The hunter said casually, “Although we haven’t figured out what kind of weird secrets you are hiding inside your body, we must show you the necessary respect now that you are in the center of the swirl for no good reason. I’ll just call you ‘Master Niu’ like the college student did. Master Niu, your heart is beating and your blood is flowing too fast. Your secretion of adrenaline is abnormal, too. You seem to be in a state of extreme fear. Are you scared of us?”
“No, no. I know that you are all from the Ark Foundation. You are all good and righteous people who would never kill the innocent!
Zhang Daniu stammered, “You—you are not here to kill me. Then, you are here to protect me, aren’t you? I—I understand now. The massacres targeting the creators of the fantasy world were all done by the Heaven’s Origin Sector. You are definitely not the same as them, are you?”
“Oh?”
Li Yao seemed to see the hunter raise his eyebrow slightly, with a vague smile on his face. “Master Niu, you even know about the Heaven’s Origin Sector?”
“Yes, I’ve read the news.”
Zhang Daniu quickly said, “The shooting at the T3 Game Show was done by them. The death of Gilson, the author of ‘Blood and Sand’, and Gao Wuyi, the author of ‘Strength Hunters’, are all related to them! They are the ruthless, inhuman, and evil superpowered people, and the Ark Foundation is a good man who is against them and protecting the creators of the fantasy world such as myself. That must be it, right?”
“Your knowledge is truly amazing.
The hunter did not comment. “Where did you learn so much about the ‘Ark Foundation’ and the ‘Apocalyptic Organization’? Did the college student tell you everything?”
“90%. He told me 10%.”
Zhang Daniu said, “The other 90% is my own deduction based on my extraordinary wisdom and meticulous logic.
“What an excellent deduction ability. So—”
The hunter smiled. “You are not scared now, are you?”
“Of course, of course not!”
Zhang Daniu took a long breath in relief. He beamed with joy and said, “If you are really the good people of the Ark Foundation, then everything will be easy. I—I’ve admired the Ark Foundation for a long time. Really. I’m speaking from the bottom of my heart. I believe that you absolutely won’t hurt me. Over the past two days, a voice has been echoing in my head, telling me that the world belongs to the Ark. To tell you the truth, I—I feel that I’m seeing my family when I see you. You look very much like my second uncle. Really. Of course, the color of your hair is different. I won’t lie about that. But in other places, the eyes, no, the nose and the mouth, they are exactly the same. When I was a kid, I used to go to my second uncle’s house to pick bayberries and eat them. He treated me very well, even better than my own father. I’m not lying to you. If I lie about anything, I will be struck by lightning!”
BOOM! CRACK!
Thunder was roaring between the sky and the earth. Ten thousand lightning dragons seemed to be rushing toward the building of wealth. Guided by the lightning rods, they circled the building and led it underground.
Even Li Yao’s earphones were emitting squeaking noises, which almost deafened him.
Li Yao took off his headphones, spat, and scratched his bleeding ears.
When he put on the earphones again, he heard the cold laughter of the hunter.
“I appreciate your logical deduction ability and feel honored by your friendliness. However, there is a minor misunderstanding here. I’m afraid you are mistaken about something.
The hunter replied unhurriedly, “We are not from the Ark Foundation. On the contrary, we are from the ‘Apocalyptic Organization’.
“…Huh?”
Zhang Daniu was dazed for a long time before he replied, “Yes, I know you are from the Heaven’s Origin Sector. Didn’t I say just now? I’ve always admired the Heaven’s Origin Sector and dreamed of joining it. Even in my dreams, a voice was telling me that the world belongs to the Heaven’s Origin Sector, including the shooting at the T3 Game Exposition and the death of the author of ‘Blood and Sand’ and ‘Strong Colonization Hunter’. It was all done by the Ark Foundation and the Heaven’s Origin Sector is to blame. Those bastards are truly cunning, shameless, and despicable. They are truly intolerable!”
“You…”
The hunter was silent for half a minute, too. It seemed that he had rarely met such a species as Zhang Daniu. He pondered for a long time before he replied, “You are wrong again. The shooting case of the T3 game exhibitions and the deaths of the authors of ‘Blood and Sand’ and ‘Strong Colonial Hunters’ were indeed the work of the Heaven’s Origin Sector.
“…Ah, is that so? Like I said, this… this… is actually nothing!”
Zhang Daniu said, “There’s no telling how many kids have been corrupted by this bloody, violent game called ‘World of Stars’. It should’ve been banned a long time ago. Right now, the game creator himself has been shot to death. This, this is the cycle of justice. He only has himself to blame!”
“As for Blood and Sand, it is also a piece of work that has killed many people and is extremely bad in nature. The author seemed to be teasing the readers on purpose. Whichever character is more popular and popular will be beheaded in the next book. Now that the author is dead, the readers finally don’t have to suffer such torment. How refreshing!
“There’s no need to mention the . It has been drawn on and off for more than twenty years and still hasn’t been completed. The author would rather go out to play mahjong than draw a few extra pages. It’s simply infuriating. Countless readers want to send razor blades to the author’s home. Fortunately, our Heaven’s Apocalyptic Organization was one step ahead and eliminated the evil for the people. Otherwise, I would have gone to berate the author. Really!”
“However, hunter, no. Uncle Smith, please look at me carefully. I, the calf, am innocent. I’m different from those people. My works are filled with positive, hot-blooded, patriotic, and very positive things. My protagonist doesn’t even have a mistress! Besides, I’m diligent and never give my readers a hard time. Besides, my novels don’t have the same influence as ‘World of Star Ring’. Even if I teach the bad kids, there will only be one or two of them at most. The street police and the community police will take care of me. There’s no reason for such a large organization of superpowers to attack a nobody like me. It doesn’t make sense!”
“Calm down, Master Niu.”
The hunter was not used to Zhang Daniu’s way of speaking. Of course, Li Yao, who was eavesdropping below the bridge, could not stand it, either. He raised his voice slightly, with a hint of tranquility in the soundwaves. “As I said, if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it on the spot. The reason I invited you to this place is that I hope to communicate with you in a more gentle way and reach a deeper level of cooperation. Don’t you want that?”
“Of course, I do!”
Zhang Daniu swallowed his saliva. “Scholarly is good, cultured is good. We are all cultured people. Can’t we talk nicely? Uncle Smith, as long as you don’t kill me, I will tell you everything I know!”
“Don’t call me ‘Uncle Smith’. Call me ‘Hunter’!”
The hunter suddenly raised his voice. He was somewhat affected by Zhang Daniu’s words. He was dazed for a moment, too, before he resumed his calm and indifferent tone and said, “First of all, let’s talk about the college student. He tortured the ‘striped-face tiger’ quite a bit. At the very least, he is a ‘Deep Perception’. Right, you passed out because of fright. You didn’t know any of this.
“The problem is, before he met us, he snatched you from the Ark Foundation. Therefore, he is not a member of the Ark. Then, who is he and what organization does he belong to?
“No, no, no. Don’t tell me the information that is floating on the surface. Of course, I know that he is a senior graduate of the Jiangnan Institute of Technology. His name is Li Yao, and he happens to have the same name as the protagonist of your novel. But this information doesn’t explain any problems. Tell me some confidential, unknown, and crucial information. Believe me, your honesty will make both of us very happy.”
“I’m honest. I’m honest. I’ll confess!”
Zhang Daniu breathed heavily, as if he was recalling the short one day of time he had spent with Li Yao. Then, he said in a high-pitched voice, “I—I remember now. He does have an unknown, deeply-hidden secret. He is a very dangerous guy!”
“Oh?”
The hunter asked, “How so?”
“His mind is very twisted. He has a hobby of disguising himself as a girl, which is the legendary ‘fake girl’.
Zhang Daniu said, “Therefore, you must be careful of the women who look very masculine. Maybe they are his disguises!”
The hunter was rendered speechless.
“…” Li Yao.
Li Yao looked around. If the storm was too heavy and there were no cabs nearby, he really wanted to take a taxi and leave!
“We—we are not interested in his or your personal life.
Gritting his teeth, the hunter took a deep breath and said with difficulty, “What we want to know is the things that happened to him or you that are beyond common sense, or ‘superpowers’ according to you.
