The crowd gathered beneath the King’s screen in the Central Lobby grew larger and larger, but before long, the replay on the screen came to an end.

Unable to suppress their excitement, the people began shouting:

“Go to the exit point! Welcome Guild Leader Bai back after clearing the game!”

And so the crowd surged toward the login/logout point with overwhelming momentum.

The login/logout point, which usually operated in an orderly manner, was now completely swamped. Among the people gathered there were not only guild members who had come to welcome Bai Liu, but also those who had joined in for the excitement, as well as members of other guilds who had come to scout out Bai Liu’s situation.

Fortunately, everyone here was separated by dimensions. Otherwise, such a dense flow of people could easily have caused a stampede.

At a glance, the exit point was packed with people, a restless sea of heads. Almost everyone was craning their necks, wanting to be the first to see Bai Liu walk out.

It was beneath all those watching eyes that Bai Liu stepped out of the exit point.

There were many players coming and going at the exit, but the moment Bai Liu appeared, anyone whose gaze fell in that direction recognized him at once—the man in a plain white shirt and suit pants, carrying an eerie, almost unsettling calm about him.

“—It’s Bai Liu!”

“He really cleared a Level 3 game and came out!”

The surrounding crowd, which had originally restrained itself enough to leave a path open, surged inward at those two shouts, forming a dense, airtight semicircle. Everyone wanted to see this extraordinary person up close—the man who had fallen into No-Man’s Land, yet had still managed to climb to first place on the King’s Leaderboard.

Fortunately, the people brought by Mu Ke and Mu Shicheng forced the path open again, maintaining a distance between the crowd and Bai Liu.

Following closely behind Bai Liu as he exited were Tang Erda and Liu Jiayi. In front of him stood Mu Ke and Mu Shicheng, both of whom let out long sighs of relief.

Amid the cheers, celebration, and screams of the crowd lining the path, there was one person lying on the ground, covered in blood. Through the shadows cast by countless moving legs, his half-lidded eyes saw Bai Liu walking in the center of the crowd, quietly saying something to Tang Erda beside him.

Bai Liu stood at the very center of the crowd, hidden by everyone around him, and yet he was also the center of everyone.

But he knew that with nothing more than a casual glance from Bai Liu, this group of people who had gone mad for him would fall silent and obey his next command.

—He had dreamed of this scene three thousand seven hundred and forty-one times.

His apple-green eyes reflected Bai Liu without wavering, separated from him by countless silhouettes, and reflected the people around Bai Liu as well—Tang Erda standing behind Bai Liu’s left shoulder, Liu Jiayi, who did not even reach Bai Liu’s waist, Mu Ke, who could not help tearing up the moment he came near Bai Liu, and Mu Shicheng, who casually rested an elbow on Bai Liu’s right shoulder.

—Among them, in his dreams, the one who had originally stood closest to Bai Liu was him.

He had always stood sixteen inches behind Bai Six. That was the protective position from which he could attack anyone except Bai Six. He would stand there and wait for Bai Six to turn his head, reach out, pat his head, his back, or his shoulder, and say with a smile, “Daniel, you did well.”

When Bai Liu reached the point closest to him in a straight line, he suddenly moved.

Daniel moved his injured limbs and crawled forward through the soles of the people’s feet, letting them step on him. Yet he seemed not to care at all. His eyes remained fixed on Bai Liu’s face as he stubbornly dragged himself forward, inch by inch, leaving a long trail of blood across the ground.

At last, he reached the place where he had once stood.

He was now sixteen inches away from Bai Liu.

Daniel stopped moving. He remained quiet, not making a single sound even as the crowd stepped on him. His upper body struggled to prop itself up on his two fractured, trembling forearms, like a wounded young beast hiding in the grass after its first hunt. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

He tilted his head slightly, prostrated beneath everyone’s feet, and looked up at Bai Six through the gaps in the dense crowd. A faint light fell into his eyes, and blood dripped from his chin, drop by drop, onto the trembling back of his hand.

Daniel was waiting for that person to turn around and find him.

He would definitely turn around.

Every time Bai Six left the login/logout point after a game, he would always turn back to confirm Daniel’s presence. If Daniel was not there, Bai Six would not leave. He would wait until Daniel appeared.

“Daniel is my most important child.”

—Bai Six always said that, wearing a casual smile, as if he were teasing him.

Bai Liu reached that position and suddenly stopped. Daniel’s breath caught as he raised his head. Looking up from below, he saw Bai Liu’s face haloed by a ring of light, utterly devoid of emotion. Having endured the same terrifying game and torture as him, this man’s power and indifference made him seem like a god.

—Just like in his dreams.

Bai Liu turned around, wearing that smile Daniel could draw even with his eyes closed, and patted Mu Ke on the head with a soft laugh.

“What are you crying for? You did well, Mu Ke.”

His god, in front of him as he suffered, bestowed his blessing upon another child.

—Simply because that child was crying happily.

Mu Ke had originally been fine, but after being comforted like this by Bai Liu, he felt as though he might cry himself into a heart attack.

Bai Liu never wasted time handling Mu Ke’s emotions. He gave an order decisively.

“Stop. There is business to attend to.”

Mu Ke’s tears stopped at once. He looked at Bai Liu with damp eyes, trying his best to put on an official, businesslike air.

“...What... what is it?”

Just as they were speaking, a bloody hand with several severed finger joints suddenly reached out from the crowd. From behind Mu Ke, it reached toward Bai Liu’s ankle, trying to stop him from leaving. An extremely faint “Padre” could be heard.

Mu Ke was startled. Instinctively, he took a step forward and blocked the hand before it could touch Bai Liu.

The hand was kicked away by Mu Ke and fell lifelessly to the ground, as though it had exhausted the last of its strength. Soon after, it was swallowed up by the surging crowd and disappeared.

“What’s wrong?” Bai Liu turned his head and asked Mu Ke.

“Nothing...” Mu Ke turned back in confusion, trying to find the person who had reached out from within the dense crowd. “It seemed like someone was playing a prank.”

Bai Liu had offended many people this time, and there was no shortage of guilds that wanted to target him. However, making a move inside the Game Lobby was truly strange—players could not attack one another inside the Lobby, and a hand covered in blood like that felt too much like some prop from a horror game.

Because of that, Mu Ke felt it was probably a prank meant to disgust Bai Liu.

Even so, Mu Ke still wanted to find the person. But after searching twice, there was no way for him to identify anyone based on a single hand, so he gave up and turned back to Bai Liu.

“...What were you going to tell me just now?”

The moment Mu Ke turned around, Bai Liu’s line of sight was completely blocked by Mu Ke’s approaching shoulder. He could no longer look toward the cheering, fanatical crowd nearby, nor beneath the crowd.

They would never know that at the lowest point of this crowd, in a place where no light could reach, a pair of bloodstained green eyes was hidden—watching Bai Liu’s indifferent, retreating back with resentment, madness, and unwavering focus.

—Watching every single person standing at Bai Liu’s side, every person saved by him, every person granted his grace.

“Mu Ke, do you still remember the address of that factory under investigation?” Bai Liu looked at Mu Ke and said something startling. “That factory is about to explode. We need to log out quickly and rush over.”

Everyone froze for a moment.

Tang Erda looked at Bai Liu in disbelief.

“—Are you going to blow up the factory again?!”

His awareness was still stuck at the stage where Su Yang had told him that Bai Liu had blown up the factory. Therefore, Tang Erda, who had been following closely behind Bai Liu, had not worried about the factory exploding. He had thought that as long as he kept a close eye on Bai Liu, the explosion that was originally supposed to be caused by Bai Liu would not happen.

“I didn’t blow up the factory. If I’m not mistaken, that should be part of the inherent process of the game entering ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) reality—” Bai Liu spoke very quickly. “—The one who initiates the explosion is the first-generation factory manager of the Rose Factory.”

After explaining, Bai Liu did not care whether Tang Erda believed him or not. He looked straight at Mu Ke.

After a brief moment of shock, Mu Ke quickly followed Bai Liu’s train of thought. He searched through his memory, then gave Bai Liu a firm answer.

“I remember the address of that factory.”

“Good. Now check which one of us has a logout location closest to the factory.” Bai Liu looked around at the people surrounding him. “Has anyone logged in or out near that area? A car would be best.”

Everyone lowered their heads with serious expressions and began checking their login addresses.

Tang Erda’s expression was somewhat unsteady. Bai Liu patted him lightly on the shoulder and said calmly, “Relax. No matter what happens, I have a way.”

“I have a way.”

Whenever those words came out of Bai Six’s mouth, Tang Erda would only feel a chill crawl down his spine.

But now, when those words came from Bai Liu, they somehow made him feel unexpectedly at ease.

Tang Erda let out a breath, calmed himself, and quickly checked his logout point.

“I have a logout point only five kilometers from that place.” Mu Shicheng quickly raised his hand. “I rented an apartment off-campus there. I have a vehicle, but it can only carry two people at most. We’d better switch to another...”

“Two people is fine.” Bai Liu quickly interrupted Mu Shicheng. “What kind of vehicle? Is it fast enough?”

The corner of Mu Shicheng’s mouth twitched.

“...It’s fast enough, all right. It’s a heavy-duty motorcycle.”

————————

Four in the morning.

The streets near the suburbs were quiet.

On such a quiet, peaceful street, racing through with a roaring motorcycle engine was clearly a public disturbance. However, it was obvious that the two people on the motorcycle had no time to care about that now.

Bai Liu was not properly sitting in the back seat. Instead, he bent forward at the waist and leaned close to Mu Shicheng, who was seated in front of him. He was not wearing a helmet, and his hands gripped Mu Shicheng’s waist tightly. The night wind whipped his white shirt until it billowed behind him.

If any traffic police saw the way these two were riding, they would have blown their whistles until they shrieked.

“...I already told you, this motorcycle is for my own fun. It doesn’t usually carry passengers. It’s a single-seater.” Wearing an oversized helmet, Mu Shicheng gripped the handlebars and controlled the direction of the motorcycle, trying to keep Bai Liu from being thrown off the back.

He complained helplessly, “There’s only one helmet, and you fucking insisted on getting on! And now you want me to go full speed!”

“Full speed is over four hundred! If you get thrown out, your brains will be smeared all over the ground!”

“I believe you won’t let me die like that.” Bai Liu gave the order without the slightest panic. He glanced at the time on Mu Shicheng’s dashboard and calmly commanded, “Full speed. Otherwise, we won’t be able to stop the game from logging into reality in time.”

“Fuck!” Mu Shicheng cursed under his breath and twisted the throttle twice. The motorcycle engine let out a deafening roar as it prepared to surge forward. “Hold on tight! If you fucking get thrown off, I’ll have to take full responsibility for you with the traffic police!”

—

Author’s Note:

The Joker’s Italian name is: Cinquemani for the surname, Daniele for the given name. You can just call the Joker Daniel. Mostly because I don’t know how to read that surname, so everyone, just pretend that surname doesn’t exist! Hey!

That’s right, I pieced this name together entirely with Baidu!

Cinquemani means “five hands,” and in his original team, the Joker’s number was five. Daniele means “God is my judge; only God can judge me.”

But I got all of this from Baidu! It might not be reliable! Please just bear with it! I truly have no talent for naming. Hey!

Sigh. I could have done a double update today, but I spent half an hour just looking up a name for the Joker. Foreigners are so hard to write! Don’t blame foreigners when you’re the one who lacks the knowledge to write them and insists on writing them anyway!