The pink Maserati came from the end of the street and braked suddenly in front of Su Ji.
The harsh sound of brakes and the low roar of the engine hit him right in the face.
The window of the car was rolled down, and Hana Jianxiao, who was wearing a pair of black sunglasses with a dusty face, made a careless gesture, signaling Su Ji to get in the car immediately.
"Awesome, buddy, so fast?" Su Ji was extremely shocked by Hua Jianxiao's speed, "It's just that your appearance is a bit... how should I say, burying love?"
"You are the one who buries love!"
Hanami smiled and cursed, "And it must be done quickly. If I don't go on a mission, I won't be able to afford food!"
"Despite my young age, I already have mortgage payments for two houses!"
"If I don't earn some bonuses and come back, I'll be in trouble."
"So it's true that you moonlight as a duck?"
"Get lost!"
The on-board map navigation sound sounded, and the route to Xinning Port was spread out on the city roads.
The pink Maserati started and inserted straight into the traffic flow.
Hua Jianxiao was obviously a veteran driver who was used to being coquettish. It was common practice to use his left hand to turn the direction and his right hand to touch his thigh. However, today's traffic conditions gave him no chance to show off.
Since the city closure order was issued, personnel from the Public Security Department have been stationed at key intersections in Xinning City. Anyone who encounters suspicious persons must immediately check the vehicle and the person for verification.
During this time, the traffic has become a bit congested, and netizens in Xinning City have made complaints on various major platforms.
Only the players in the forum did not complain. They all understand this kind of thing. Ordinary people who don’t know the truth will naturally not understand the seriousness of the matter.
Although Hua Jianxiao can obtain some priority at intersections by showing some official documents authorized by the Administrative Office provided by Tianxuan Society, it is still not possible to achieve smooth traffic.
But it's not a big problem.
The location of Xinning Port is not too far away from them. If nothing happens, it is still quite possible to get there in time.
Taking advantage of the time along the way, Su Ji quickly explained the whole incident to Hua Jianxiao.
"Damn, let me tell you why you are so active this time. It turns out you are planning to be a hero and save the beauty!" Hua Jianxiao said with disdain.
"This is really not the point...so you ducks are really only thinking about women?"
"Gan, you have to fight the duck today, right?"
After talking some useless nonsense, Su Ji asked seriously: "Speaking of which, do you know Zhang Lihua?"
"Zhang Lihua? Of course!"
Hanami smiled and nodded and said, "More than ten years ago, the Kuroshio organization had a group of believers composed of ordinary human players. They sold their souls to Kuroshio in exchange for sublimated power or money and other things.
.”
"At that time, Kuroshio was just an ordinary private player organization. It was like a group of brats making little fuss. It couldn't make any waves at all."
"Later, a group of capital with a keen sense of smell spotted this opportunity to enter the market."
"After the inflow of capital, large numbers of believers flocked in, injecting tons of fresh blood into the black tide."
"It was also from that time that the Kuroshio began to develop rapidly."
"From the very beginning, it spread to nearby Hangzhou and Sioux City, then to the northeastern part of Dongxia, and now there are members of the Kuroshio all over the country involved..."
"This is the speed of development."
"In recent years, they have made plans to visit areas near the southern coastal areas, and Xinning City has also been targeted by them recently."
Hua Jianxiao said, "And the Zhang Lihua you are talking about was the most famous among the believers in Xinning City back then."
"How do you get famous?" Su Ji asked again.
"Uh... do you know Vipel?"
Hua Jianxiao scratched his cheek, "Weipel was the leader of the Kuroshio organization in this area of Xinning City at that time. Of course, we don't know if he is now. After all, he has not been arrested yet."
"Maybe he has moved to other cities."
"Vipair? Is this his ID?" Su Ji asked.
"No...well, it might be." Hua Jianxiao said, "Because this is just a name he spread from within the organization. In fact, no one has ever seen his true face, let alone his real ID."
"Are there any rumors about what he looks like?"
"That's true, but there are so many different versions. At least I haven't played ten of them since I've heard them."
Hua Jianxiao thought for a while and said, "But no matter which version of the story it is, there seems to be a common feature, that is, Vipel always likes to wear a black robe..."
"But it seems that it is also to follow him, so in fact, the followers of the Kuroshio also like to dress in black robes, so this feature does not seem to be representative..."
"Then do you know V?" Su Ji asked again.
"Isn't he your number one player in Xinning? I know, but I haven't paid much attention to him."
Hua Jianxiao shrugged, "The forum likes to do this kind of rankings with all the bells and whistles."
"To be honest, I don't quite understand what this kind of ranking means..."
"It's like playing the King of Pesticides. I don't even know who is number one in the national server, let alone paying attention to a city-level number one."
"There is indeed nothing wrong with it." Su Ji nodded in agreement, "But now I think that V——may be the Vipel you mentioned."
"I wipe it, right?"
Hua Jianxiao's eyes widened, as if he had seen a ghost, "To be fair, you can eat randomly, but you can't talk nonsense."
"Let me tell you. If your news is true, it would be quite shocking."
"Oh? How exciting is it?"
Hua Jianxiao thought for a moment: "Is it so exciting that the bonus will be enough for me to pay off my mortgage for a year?"
[Ding dong!]
At this time, a system beep sounded in Su Ji's mind.
[Received an attachment email sent to you by the player "Lollipop Ranger"!]
The name Su Ji is naturally very familiar. It is Tang Ran's game name.
"I went to look around the source cellar, and I passed on everything that could be useful."
Tang Ran called and said, "Xinning City is indeed poor, and Xiao Yong, a bastard, has never done anything reliable."
After opening the email to receive the attachment, Su Ji found several boxes of supplies.
The first equipment box contains pistols, submachine guns, 9mm bullets loaded with elemental stone warheads, body armor, tactical daggers, and high-explosive fragmentation grenades.
Inside the second box are [Detection Guard], [Escape Crystal], [Psychic Potion], [Enrichment Potion], [Healing Capsule]... and other basic extraordinary props and materials.
The last box contains the more precious tips, namely [Purification] and [Sprint].
This large box full of supplies really dumbfounded Su Ji, who had never seen such a big scene before.
Hua Jianxiao obviously also received Tang Ran's attachment email. Seeing Su Ji's appearance, she couldn't help but laugh a little:
"Brother, don't be too surprised."
"This is standard equipment for our normal missions."
"When I was sneaking in the Western Desert a few years ago, the branch there even provided us with two tanks equipped with soul-killing cannons. One shot could blast a group of little bastards like you into smithereens!"
After listening, Su Ji chose to remain tactically silent...
Good guy, now we can finally see how broken the Xinning Branch is.
"I just hope the task later won't be too difficult."
Hanami smiled and turned the steering wheel, curled his lips, and mumbled a bit like he was complaining:
"I made an appointment with KFC's sister tonight."
*
*
The sky is getting dark.
Xinning City.
Along the coast of a certain section of the Yongjiang River Basin, Xinning Port.
This is the largest port in Xinning City.
The annual throughput of this large port can reach four million tons, and its construction alone cost one billion Dongxia Yuan.
It covers an area of 800 acres, has a coastline of more than 1,000 meters, and has built 11 berths exceeding 3,000 tons. The total yard area has reached more than 200,000 square meters.
The warehouse in the port has reached a level of nearly 30,000 square meters.
However, although the numbers sound extremely alarming, in fact many of the warehouses have been idle and abandoned for a long time.
After all, Xinning Port’s huge throughput and extremely high operational efficiency make it almost impossible to have an excessive backlog of transported goods.
At this moment, in a certain room hidden in the corner of the warehouse group, all the doors and windows are closed.
The area around it is cordoned off.
The setting of the cordon can also be called ingenious. It marks out a large area, making it impossible for the people passing by and passing by, but it does not create any strange feeling about it.
A van took a path and drove in from the side of the port.
The first person to get off the bus was Lu Hekai, followed closely by a group of men in black.
Surrounded between them was a woman about fifty years old, with gray hair tied back in a bun and light makeup on her face.
She was wearing a white shirt and black trousers, looking smart and tall.
Although she is indeed old, and time has left wrinkles on her face like knives, her eyebrows are sharp and heroic.
If someone who didn't know her looked at her at first glance, they would never associate her with a woman who is over fifty years old and half of her feet have already reached the grandmother level.
Under the leadership of Lu Hekai, a group of people surrounded the woman and entered the huge warehouse from a very secret entrance.
Except for everyone in the van, no one else around noticed this scene.
The light inside the warehouse was very dim. Lu Hekai turned on the flashlight and led the group of people to a room on the innermost floor in a familiar way.
"I'm back."
Lu Hekai said.
The moment the door opened, the first thing he saw was a patchwork of light spots in the darkness, or countless square-shaped flashing blocks of light.
There are countless indicator lights and display screens of various instruments arranged here.
This place is like a huge ward, with many hospital beds densely packed.
On every bed lies a comatose person.
Their hands and feet were fixed to the bed, and their heads were covered with a cover-like device connected to complex and dense wires.
At this time, these devices are operating normally and at high frequency, ensuring that everyone on them is stable and firmly in the Avalon environment.
"Thank you for your hard work. You did a good job."
V's voice came from the darkness.
His figure gradually approached and slowly became clear in front of everyone.
When the other party's figure, outline, and the particularly familiar mask on his face were revealed.
Zhang Lihua only felt that the memories buried in her heart that she didn't want to be reviewed began to sway wildly again, like the black algae accumulated on the bottom of the sea.
"Long time no see, Miss Zhang."
A gentle and smiling voice came from behind V's mask.
He walked up to Zhang Lihua and stuck out his black gloved hands from his black robe.
Zhang Lihua mechanically shook hands with him and said in a calm voice: "Where is my daughter?"
"Just rest assured, as long as I'm here, she will be well taken care of." V smiled and said, "Follow me."
Zhang Lihua followed V for some distance, and then came to a room.
Through the tempered glass, Zhang Lihua could see a pale girl sleeping on the bed. Under the control of the hood device, she frowned and looked nervous.
It was like experiencing an indescribable horrific nightmare.
"Here, look, look."
"How could I lie to you, my dear~"
V said with a smile, his voice brisk and bright:
"Specially equipped single room, all hardware and equipment are top-notch. For example, when playing AAA masterpieces, equipped with top-notch graphics cards and CPUs, the Avalon experience will be even better.
!”
Zhang Lihua did not speak, but her fingers clenched into fists involuntarily, trembling slightly.
Naturally, she didn't believe even a single punctuation mark when V was talking about nonsense.
Although she has not been in contact with the player circle for many years, she still understands that her daughter is suffering from dire straits at this time.
Most Avalons do not cause physical harm, but the psychological trauma is immeasurable.
For young children whose minds are not yet mature, a terrifying Avalon experience is enough to cast a shadow on their childhood.
And medical research data has shown that the probability of such children suffering from depression, neurasthenia or other mental diseases during their growth is nearly 25% higher than that of normal children.
Even for adults, if they experience the torture of Avalon for too long, they will inevitably suffer mental trauma.
Zhang Lihua knew very well that it was not surprising that the man wearing a funny mask and now called V would do such a thing.
"Vipel, I'm warning you."
Zhang Lihua's tone was even colder, "If you really dare to lay a finger on my daughter, I will fight you tooth and nail."
"Desperately?"
After listening to Zhang Lihua's words, V laughed loudly as if he had heard some great joke of the century:
"More than ten years ago, I no longer took you seriously."
"Do you think I will take what you say now seriously?"
V's smile gradually solidified, and his voice became calm and emotionless: "You can go to the altar to arrange the sublimation ceremony."
"OK."
Xiao Yong, who had been standing silently behind V, nodded in response, and then left with Lu Hekai.
After the two of them left, V slowly turned around and continued to say to Zhang Lihua:
"You might not believe it if you tell me."
"In just over ten years, I have completed the second stage of sublimation."
"You won't find anyone in the entire organization who can match my speed and efficiency."
"And after today's third sublimation ceremony ends, I will completely shed the body of this lower race and become a great being that you can't even imagine."
"This will be the moment in my life when I am closest to the name [god]..."
V took two more steps forward, getting closer to Zhang Lihua, then bent down slightly, looked down at her, and said with a smile on his face: "And all of this will be thanks to you, my dear."
"You are so disgusting." Zhang Lihua said expressionlessly.
Whenever she heard the other party use this word to call her, Zhang Lihua felt a surge of stomach acid and felt like vomiting.
"Is it disgusting? No, are you serious?"
V looked directly at her through the mask and said in an exaggerated tone, "Do you really know what you are doing?"
"You are arrogant and blasphemous."
"You know you're in trouble? You're in big trouble..."
"No matter how much you say, it's useless." Zhang Lihua shook her head and said in a very cold tone, "Unless you let my daughter go now, I will never cooperate with you."
This is the real reason why she came here today.
Three days ago, she received a threatening message from V, to the effect that her daughter was already in their hands, and she came to Xinning City to cooperate with his sublimation ceremony in exchange for her life.
Zhang Lihua knew what he wanted.
When she first ascended, the [embers] contained in her soul fragments were equivalent to the amount of ten people.
And in terms of purity, she is the only one who can reach the essence level.
To put it in a not-so-nice but common enough way, in V's eyes, she is the most perfect negative energy-generating machine.
Obviously, V has traveled all over Dongxia and the world over the years, but has not been able to find a better substitute than her.
So for this most critical sublimation, he came to the door again.
However, since she sold half of her soul to this guy more than ten years ago in order to raise money for her daughter's medical treatment, she broke away from the underworld and severed all ties with the organization.
Therefore, Zhang Lihua could never have imagined that ten years later, this bastard would really spend a lot of time tracking down her whereabouts, and he would succeed.
V not only contacted her, but also found her daughter living in Xinning City.
So she had no choice but to keep the appointment.
But this does not mean that she will let V slaughter her at will. She also has a bargaining chip in her hand, which is the remaining half of her soul.
There are many ways to capture the soul, one is to extract it from the corpse, and the other is to strip it from the living body.
What is obtained by the former are basically sporadic fragments, and most of the [embers] contained disappear at the time of death, so the purity is not very high.
Only the latter can obtain the perfect essence and refine high-quality [Soul Crystal].
The soul, strictly speaking, exists in the spirit of the human body.
For humans, having a strong will is like putting a strong lock on the soul.
Zhang Lihua happens to be such a person.
Her perseverance and determination can make V completely give up the idea of separating her soul from her living body. As long as she is not willing, V will never be able to do anything to her.
And this is why she is not afraid of the other party.
"What do I want?"
V asked Zhang Lihua in return.
Immediately afterwards, a burst of horrifying laughter came from deep in his throat, followed by wild laughter.
"I really like your confident look, my dear..."
V suddenly reached out his hand and grabbed Zhang Lihua's hair.
Then he pushed the latter hard, pinched her head, and roughly pressed her face against the glass while she screamed.
"I have to admit that you were indeed the most outstanding [ember] container in the past."
"Unfortunately - not anymore."
Through the glass, Zhang Lihua once again saw Liu Yiyi lying on the hospital bed.
She suddenly understood something.
A wave of fear suddenly surged into my heart.
…
at the same time.
In front of the entrance of Xinning Port.
A bright pink Maserati came from the end of the road at high speed like a sharp arrow...
