After an Infinite Flow Player Retires

Chapter 23

Early morning.

A group of people hurried into the M City branch of the Paranormal Investigation and Management Bureau, scattering dust behind them.

The one leading them was a tall man with a short beard.

He rushed in, grabbed the approaching receptionist, and asked anxiously, "Where is that person?"

The receptionist stammered, "W-what person?"

"I'm talking about your staff who was parasitised by something unknown. Where is he?!" The man had a fierce look as he shook the receptionist, "Hurry up! It will be too late if we delay it any longer!"

A voice sounded from a distance, "Ohh, Zhao Dong."

The man let go of the receptionist. His eyes lit up and he looked over, "You know about it?"

"Yes." That employee nodded, "There was news from the hospital today. His condition has stabilised, and he should be able to be discharged in a week."

Now it was the man's turn to look confused, "…..Huh?"

Half an hour later.

On the eighth floor of the hospital, at the entrance to the special isolation ward.

Liu Zhaocheng pointed at Zhao Dong who was sleeping inside, "Look."

The man cautiously entered the ward and lifted the blanket covering Zhao Dong's body.

There were still traces of swelling on his limbs but it was obvious that it was slowly improving and the normal skin could be faintly seen underneath.

Please read this from kk translates

The members of the team looked at each other suspiciously.

This…..

This had never happened before……

Could it have been a mistake?

Only the bearded man who stood at the foot of the bed suddenly bent down and examined Zhao Dong's knee carefully for a while.

He reached out, wiped the other person's skin with his finger, sniffed it and then stuck out his tongue and gave it a lick.

Liu Zhaocheng who witnessed everything, "……..?"

But the surrounding team members seemed to find it normal. One of them approached and asked, "How is it? Did Brother Wu discover anything?"

The man named Brother Wu had a solemn expression.

"It's definitely the ghost-face spider."

"Then…..?

Brother Wu was deep in thought. He slowly shook his head and then nodded, "Someone came before us."

The teammates were shocked.

"Moreover, they are very knowledgeable." Brother Wu slowly let out a sigh of relief.

"!" The team members looked at each other and then lowered their voices. "Could it be……"

"Ring, ring, ring!"

A sharp ringing sounded, interrupting the solemn atmosphere in the ward.

Brother Wu answered the phone, "…..Yes, yes, okay, okay."

After answering briefly, he hung up and said, "There is news from the police. Early this morning, someone found twenty-eight missing persons on Fourth Avenue. When they were found, they were all huddled together trembling. They weren't terribly wounded but they couldn't recall what happened while they were missing."

Everyone was shocked.

"This too." Brother Wu dazedly bit onto a cigarette and muttered, "….Too knowledgeable."

Liu Zhaocheng on the side listened with an anxious heart.

"Why are you guys speaking in riddles? What knowledgeable?"

Brother Wu and his team members looked at each other. Several of them nodded.

"Are you the head of the logistics department?" He took the unlit cigarette out of his mouth and looked at Liu Zhaocheng while holding it in his hand, "We will be staying in M City for a while and may still need your cooperation."

"Would you be willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement?"

Liu Zhaocheng, "Sure!"

Ten minutes later.

Liu Zhaocheng was silent for several seconds. He then spoke with difficulty, "This….this is your non-disclosure agreement?"

It was a long black and red worm-like insect. It was like a large mutant leech. With numerous sharp fangs, it was quite a chilling sight.

"Actually……"

I'm actually not that curious anymore……

As if he didn't see Liu Zhaocheng's resistance, Brother Wu had already directly placed the leech onto the back of Liu Zhaocheng's hand.

Liu Zhaocheng's vision went black.

The black and red leech slowly squirmed around. Before it could suck too much blood, it was expertly torn off by Brother Wu who then tossed it back into the container it originally came from, "Done."

"……" Liu Zhaocheng smiled dryly, "Haha, that's great."

Brother Wu handed the container to his team member behind him and then began to talk about the matter with a serious expression.

The more he listened to it, the more solemn Liu Zhaocheng's expression became.

After a long time, he slowly asked, "So that…..game, what exactly is it?"

"We don't know." Brother Wu lit his cigarette, "Us humans have very little information about it. No one knows where it came from, why it appeared, how it works and how it brought about so many terrible fierce ghosts and monsters.

Faint smoke circled up and rose in the air.

"All we know is that its system had for some reason collapsed." Brother Wu bit onto the cigarette butt, "As a result, the monsters originally trapped in the game have broken free and are invading our world. Although the two worlds have not completely fully integrated yet, it is only a matter of time."

Liu Zhaocheng felt a chill run through his body. He involuntarily shivered.

Unknown darkness spread before his eyes, making him instinctively afraid.

He calmed himself down, "Then what about you? Why do you know so much?"

Brother Wu laughed but there was no smile in his voice.

His dark eyes reflected the burning cigarette. It was like a blooming firework in the dark night sky.

"—-Because, I crawled out from that place."

.

Ye Jia covered himself tightly with seven or eight layers of yin energy. He didn't stop until he was absolutely certain that he wouldn't reveal his human scent.

He activated his ghost domain and very soon arrived at the agreed place to meet the shadow ghost.

The setting sun above had gradually fallen. Only the last rays of light illuminated this deserted place.

The shadow ghost was already waiting there.

In the sun its body seemed to be of a semi-transparent fuzzy texture. It swayed about with the evening breeze.

Ye Jia looked around the deserted space cautiously.

A familiar figure wasn't around.

As soon as it saw Ye Jia, the shadow ghost greeted him enthusiastically.

"Over here, over here."

Ye Jia walked over and asked tentatively, "Ji Xuan didn't come this time?"

"!" The shadow ghost gasped. It lowered its voice and hurriedly scolded him, "What's the matter with you?! How can you speak of the King's name directly! Fortunately, he didn't come this time. You don't want to live anymore?"

—Didn't come this time.

After accurately capturing key words in the shadow ghost's words, Ye Jia secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry."

He asked, "What are we going to do this time?"

The shadow ghost's voice instantly cooled down, "Cleaning."

"Although most of the ghosts who participated in the gathering yesterday were eliminated by King, there were still some who managed to slip away." It sneered darkly, "Since they have the courage to betray, they should have the courage to bear the consequences."

Ye Jia quickly glanced at it.

—It was clear that this was a warning.

The shadow ghost took out a pitch-black compass. There were no pointers on the compass, only ink of different shades of black which constantly flowed and changed.

It looked down and then looked at a certain direction, "This way."

Ye Jia closely followed the somewhat vague figure of the shadow ghost. The scenery around him flew by and became a blur.

They swiftly shuttled through the shadows of the buildings before finally stopping at the entrance of a dark alley.

The sound of roaring traffic in the distance seemed indistinct and vague. The alley in front of them was shrouded in gloomy silence. If one listened carefully, they could hear the faint sound of chewing and swallowing coming from the darkness ahead.

The shadow ghost slowly melted into the darkness.

In the depths of the alley, two hungry ghosts were chewing on human remains. They tore off the flesh and crushed the bones with their teeth without much difficulty. They didn't seem to be satisfied. As they licked greedily at the blood and small pieces of crushed flesh on the ground, they murmured again and again, "…..Hungry, hungry, hungry……."

"You will soon be full forever." A cold voice sounded from the darkness.

The two hungry ghosts suddenly became alert. They slowly approached the source of the sound, hissing bitterly, "Ji Xuan's dog….."

"Yes." The shadow ghost laughed darkly, "The King's dog is here to give his greetings."

The voice that was originally in front of them suddenly sounded behind the hungry ghosts. It continued maliciously, "Have a nice trip."

The dark shadow suddenly swelled up. As if it was opening a large mouth, it suddenly enveloped around one of the hungry ghosts.

The next second, the hungry ghost's miserable cry sounded.

The other hungry ghost saw that the situation wasn't good and hurriedly tried to escape. Numerous hands stretched out from the depths of the shadows, gripping tightly onto its thin leg and then proceeded to drag the hungry ghost into the darkness.

The hungry ghost immediately opened its large mouth and bit off its calf before continuing to quickly scamper away.

The moment it made its escape, a mouth appeared on the pale calf that had just been cut off and it bit firmly onto the shadow ghost's hand.

"Damn!" The shadow ghost was taken aback.

The hungry ghost that was caught by the shadow ghost earlier used this opportunity to break free and then proceeded to attack.

The shadow ghost could only deal with this hungry ghost first before it could go after the other one who had just escaped.

When it was done, it quickly chased after it out of the alley.

Just as it came out of the darkness, it heard a 'squish'.

The body of the hungry ghost was under its feet.

Its slender limbs were stretched out like dead branches, its pale face was facing up and there was a large wound inside the large mouth on its abdomen. It was as if it was cleanly cut by some sort of sharp weapon, almost splitting the ghost in half.

Its body gradually faded.

—-It was actually dead.

The shadow ghost looked up at the new ghost standing at the entrance of the alley in disbelief.

Layers of dark yin energy completely enveloped the other party. Under the streetlamp at the entrance of the alley, one could faintly see a tall and straight figure hidden under the dark, ash-like fog.

A cold light gleamed for a moment on the other person's fingertip before soon disappearing.

The shadow ghost couldn't help but secretly express some surprise.

Hungry ghosts were notoriously difficult to deal with. Although their attack power wasn't great, their defences were something that was out of this world.

The escaped hungry ghost could even control its severed limb, so it meant that was at least B-level or greater.

And the one it had just dealt with was only C+.

Even despite this, it had to drag the hungry ghost into its own ghost domain before it could barely break through the other's abnormally hard skin.

Yet this new ghost actually…..managed to accurately kill a B-level hungry ghost in one shot without the use of their ghost domain. In its impression, even if it was a ghost with a similar level to itself, it would be a difficult feat.

—-The technique, the experience, the strength. All of them were indispensable.

The eyes the shadow ghost used to look at the other party changed.

"Brother, you're amazing."

It used shadows to recover the hungry ghost's body and then approached Ye Jia, "What was that just now?"

"You also used that yesterday to hurt me?" The shadow ghost examined Ye Jia curiously, "You should know that I am considered to be pretty fast but even I wasn't able to see how you did it!"

It had been a long, long time since the shadow ghost felt pain inflicted onto its body.

"Is it your weapon?"

Ye Jia: "…..Something like that."

"What does it look like? Let me see?" The shadow ghost asked.

If I let you see, my true identity will be revealed.

Ye Jia, "It's a claw. It's usually not exposed."

"But didn't you expose it while fighting?" The shadow ghost wouldn't back down.

"That's passive." Ye Jia felt a headache forming from all the noise and proceeded to conjure up a lie, "It's something that can only be exposed on my own initiative when mating."

"Oh!" The shadow ghost understood, "Turns out you belong to the race that needs to mate! Sorry, sorry, us shadow ghosts just divide ourselves, so we easily forget about races like you."

This was a rather private issue.

Please read this from kk translates

After confirming the other person's strength, the shadow ghost seemed to find him more pleasing to the eye.

As expected of King!

So insightful!

Having broken the ice, the shadow ghost asked, "Oh right, what is your name?"

In the game, fierce ghosts and monsters are usually distinguished by race, for example hungry ghosts, shadow ghosts, suckers, ghost-face spiders and so on, but within the ghosts that have evolved to possess higher intelligence, they would also have their own names. These names are very private and are rarely revealed to ghosts outside of their race.

However, as fellow coworkers working under the same boss, they should exchange their names.

The reason why it hadn't happened until now was because it hadn't recognised Ye Jia as an ally yet.

The shadow ghost said, "You can call me A'mi." (KKnotes: The 'mi' is something often used to refer to kittens LOL)

Ye Jia: "……."

What the hell is with that name?

He slowly asked, "Did you…..pick it yourself?"

A'mi nodded. Ye Jia could actually see a hint of shyness from its vague facial features, "Yeah, doesn't it sound good?"

"…….." Ye Jia replied dryly, "….Very unique."

"And you?"

Ye Jia responded casually, "A'ye."

After exchanging names, the two were now more familiar. The work following this also became smoother.

One human and one ghost cooperated with tacit understanding. Very soon, all the fish that managed to escape from the net were caught.

A'mi checked the time on its phone and was somwhat surprised, "Much faster than I thought."

Ye Jia's eyes lit up, "All done?"

"One more thing left." A'mi put away the compass, "There should be a lot of spider soldiers and spider eggs left in the nest. If you leave them alone, they might be able to raise another spider queen."

—But last night, Ye Jia had already personally ensured that something like that wouldn't happen.

The shadow ghost however didn't know this.

Ye Jia nodded calmly, "Okay, let's go."

Soon, they arrived at the construction site from last night.

A waning moon hung above the thin clouds. The desolate construction site below looked chilling and terrifying.

It was clearly summer, but the moment they set foot into this place, they could instantly feel icy cold air penetrating deep into their bones. It made them automatically shudder.

Even despite the fact that they had not yet reached the entrance, they could feel the dense evil energy and bloody air ahead. All of it condensed into a thick cloud, faintly enveloping the ruins below.

"Hey." The small black hand secretly whispered in Ye Jia's ear, "There seems to be people here."

Very clearly, A'mi also noticed this. It turned its head and used its face with blurred features to look in a particular direction, "I can smell the scent of humans."

The moment it finished saying that, several figures slowly appeared in the ruins not far away.

"This is the place."

Without even needing to look down at the map in his hands, Wu Su knew that he had found the right place —- This heavy yin energy and smell of blood. Even people without spiritual vision would notice that something wasn't right.

The other members of the team also had the same serious expressions.

Although they were still quite far away, they could distinctly feel the evil energy ahead.

Despite already having experienced many battles in their lifetime, the instinctive fear of danger still remained. It slowly crept up their spines like an icy cold snake.

There was no need to get any closer. They could already sense how dangerous it must be ahead.

"Brother Wu." One of the team members hesitated. He turned his head back to look at Wu Su and asked, "Are we……really going in?"

Wu Su took out a cigarette and held it in his mouth.

He looked thoughtfully into the distance, as if he was conflicted over something, and had even forgotten about lighting the cigarette in his mouth.

After a long time, he finally made up his mind. He gritted his teeth and said: "Let's go."

On the other side, A'mi coldly watched the team as they advanced towards the spider's nest. The shadow behind it slowly stretched out and grew bigger, as if it was looking for a chance to act.

Ye Jia quickly grabbed the shadow ghost, "Wait."

"What's the matter?" A'mi glanced at Ye Jia suspiciously.

Ye Jia said, "Do you still remember the task King gave me?"

"Of course."

Ye Jia pointed to the team, "They're wearing the bureau's uniform."

"Let's not get involved with this matter. It won't be good if we leave any traces behind and ruin King's plan." He lied without a change to his expression, "Anyway, there would be spider soldiers waiting for them inside. Perhaps they could help us by reducing the amount of work we need to do."

"Oh!" A'mi understood, "You're very thorough."

"However, I think it's better for one of us to sneak in and watch them." Ye Jia patted its shoulder, "You have been the one doing the most work tonight. I'll finish it off. You can take a break this time."

A'mi was very moved, "Brother, you're so kind."

Ye Jia was very humble, "No, no, this is something I should be doing."

And so, one human and one ghost happily parted.

A'mi kept watch outside while Ye Jia secretly followed behind the humans under the cover of the night.

The small black hand who had been clinging onto Ye Jia's shoulder quietly spoke up, "Deceiving such a naïve ghost, does your conscience not hurt?"

Ye Jia asked back, "Was anything that I said a lie?"

The small black hand: "….."

That seems to be true.

This human really had a lot of tricks up his sleeves.

—-You're really dirty!

Inside the cave.

Wu Su walked at the forefront of the team. He slowly advanced forward, scanning his sharp eyes around the pitch-black cave with vigilance.

The passage carried a strong stench, and the ground and walls were wet. When illuminated by the flashlight, it glistened dark red.

It looked like a massacre had just happened.

Wu Su bent down and carefully examined the spider soldier's corpse that was almost half a human in size.

He stretched out his hand and moved away the dead spider's dark, hairy legs. He noted a large wound on its belly that was so deep, the spider was almost cut in half.

Yellow-green fluid slowly poured out as he did this. It fell onto the ground with a gurgle, making the stench in the cave even worse.

Wu Su let go, "We were a step late."

"…..Haha." A team member laughed dryly, "That's also pretty good."

Based on the information they had received and what they have seen here, if they came earlier, they were probably destined to die.

Wu Su bit onto his cigarette and didn't respond.

He led the teammate onwards.

After passing through the tortuous and complicated passages, they finally arrived at the centre of the spider's nest.

Fierce ghosts would dissipate into yin energy, but monsters wouldn't.

In this huge but empty cave laid the horrifically disfigured body of the spider queen.

Her human face was frozen stiff and distorted into a hideous look of anger, pain and hatred. Her turbid eyes stared lifelessly into the distance and large amounts of her blood and guts were scattered around her body.

The egg sac behind her was already broken. The fluid inside had already soaked through the soil and the eggs which had lost their nutrient supply had turned grey-white in colour.

The ground was covered with severed limbs and dried blood stains.

The team members were stunned by this almost purgatory-like scene before them.

"These….were done by that knowledgeable person you mentioned earlier?"

One of them slowly asked this in a very small voice as if he was afraid of disturbing something.

"….I'm afraid so." Wu Su took a deep breath and held the cigarette in his hand, "This ghost-face spider is most likely at least A-level or higher. Apart from him, I don't think anyone else could handle it."

The team member was taken aback, "Who?"

Wu Su's gaze was distant and solemn. He slowly spoke, "Ace."

Ye Jia who was inexplicably mentioned, "……"

???

Actually, it really wasn't me this time…..

The name was very unfamiliar. The team member repeated, "Ace?"

"He was a legendary character in the game." Wu Su pinched his bearded chin, his eyes flashing slightly. He seemed to be stuck in his memories, "The game was point based. One hundred million points could be exchanged with the chance to leave the game. Ace was first on the leaderboard and is also the only player who has ever cleared the game."

What?!

The team members all gasped.

No one in this team was unaware of Wu Su's experience.

He had stayed in the game for three full years, struggling desperately to survive. He had originally thought that his life would come to an end in there but one day, the game system suddenly collapsed.

For the first time, the rank that hung above his head was gone.

The game's store was no longer accessible, and the system no longer responded to the player's call. It no longer forced the players into the deadly instances one after another.

After a brief moment of confusion, all the experienced players realised something.

The game had crashed.

—–And the door to the real world had opened.

All the players were ecstatic. It was as if they were suddenly given another chance to live.

But they had forgotten that this door wasn't open only for them. The ghosts and monsters in the game also no longer had anything restraining them and similarly invaded reality.

As one of the players, after returning to reality, Wu Su joined the Paranormal Investigation and Management Bureau and used his experiences in the game to try and curb the rapidly increasing number of ghosts and monsters appearing in society.

—-It was precisely because they were aware of Wu Su's experience and because they had fought alongside him that they had the opportunity to go against those terrible ghosts and monsters personally.

And so, the other team members knew very well what the title of being the 'first and only player to clear the game' meant.

"My god….." One of them exclaimed in awe.

"T….this person……is he a celestial being or a monster?"

"Perhaps both." Wu Su raised his head and looked at the spider's body before him. His line of sight slowly moved along the large wound.

He said, "Shortly after I entered the game, I was once in the same team as him."

A team member asked eagerly, "And then? What was he like?"

Wu Su took a deep breath, retracted his gaze and spoke very solemnly, "Strong. Very strong."

—-He still remembered very clearly everything that happened in that instance.

Under the pitch-black sky, a hooded young man walked silently at the end of the group with his face obscured by the shadows.

He didn't speak and just silently followed.

No one knew his identity.

—That is, until the instance started.

A large scythe as bright as the moonlight that gleamed a deadly light cut through the monster's abdomen with ease. Severed limbs and flesh flew through the sky, dying it a scarlet colour.

When they returned to their senses, the other party had already slaughtered the entire group of monsters.

In fact, this was Wu Su's first time where he took the initiative to take over the task from M City.

When he was sorting out the documents, he had seen the name Ace appearing in one of them.

And now, all the evidence pointed towards the same conclusion—-

The rumours were true. Ace had indeed cleared the game.

And….

An almost fanatical light flashed through Wu Su's eyes. He murmured: "——–He is currently in M City."

In a hidden passage not far away.

"My god." The small black hand grabbed Ye Jia's shoulder and listened to the conversation in the distance with great interest. It exclaimed, "You're that popular? After clearing the game so long ago, you still have diehard fans?"

"…….." Ye Jia was expressionless, "You, shut up."

Was there anything in this world more shameful than listening in person to other people blowing rainbow farts about yourself?

—-No.

"So, are there any forces in this world that don't want to find you?" The small black hand asked quietly.

Ye Jia: "…….."

He was about to suffocate.