Chapter 24: A Savior in Disguise

“Come with me.”

Yu Ziyu couldn’t be bothered with more nonsense.

He reached out, grabbed Lou Chen by the collar, and dragged their captain stumbling forward right in front of everyone.

But the culprit didn’t care at all about the other members’ astonished expressions.

He twisted the door open, and the two of them disappeared from sight.

Soon, they arrived at the corridor.

Strange tapestries hung on the walls of this floor as decoration.

Yu Ziyu’s peripheral vision noticed that as they passed, the patterns on the tapestries were slowly writhing.

It was as if they were alive, breathing curiously because of their passing, measuring the two young men.

Yu Ziyu’s gaze lingered on them for a few seconds.

“That’s a protective device, a barrier,” Lou Chen said.

“Given that this is headquarters, we have to be careful.”

As he spoke, Lou Chen pretended to struggle a few times under Yu Ziyu’s grip.

Only when Yu Ziyu let go did he have the chance to straighten up and tidy his crumpled jacket.

But because of this, he missed the astonishing scene of Yu Ziyu reaching out to touch the tapestry.

He merely touched it with his fingertip.

The tapestry immediately emitted a sizzling sound like it was being scorched.

A wisp of white smoke drifted out.

And the embroidered flower that had been blooming on the tapestry visibly and rapidly withered, curling into a wrinkled ball, quickly splitting apart from the point of contact.

Yu Ziyu lowered his hand as if nothing had happened.

Just then, Lou Chen finally looked up.

This young man had delicate features; one would never imagine he held such an important role in this mysterious department, because he looked only in his twenties.

“…I know what you want to ask.”

“Then stop beating around the bush,” Yu Ziyu said coldly.

Lou Chen looked at him for a moment, then sighed.

He crossed his arms, leaned back, and happened to block the spot where Yu Ziyu had damaged the tapestry, covering that small patch of destruction.

“You seem to reject the title of ‘savior.'”

“Don’t you think it sounds like something out of a novel?”

Yu Ziyu glanced at him, mocking.

“I don’t believe a human could have that much power.”

Of course, he wasn’t human.

Precisely because he wasn’t human, and even the opposing side, he understood the gap between them all too well.

In short, people who believed in things that only existed in fairy tale books were naive to the point of being unbelievable, enough to make one snicker.

“You should have more confidence in yourself,” Lou Chen simply said.

He was used to Yu Ziyu questioning everything, treating them like mud on his shoes.

“Because this person refers to you—the one who truly first cleared the game.”

The meaning revealed by these words successfully made Yu Ziyu frown.

“Say that again?”

“I could say it a hundred times if you want.”

Lou Chen straightened up and walked to the corridor railing.

He looked down at the bustling office hall below, a trace of obscurity and confusion in his eyes.

“The fact is, I am not the first player to clear the game.”

Yu Ziyu measured him with his gaze: “Not funny.”

“And you should still remember the words the game gave at the very beginning, right.”

Actually, Yu Ziyu didn’t know.

He had become a player halfway through, so he had no idea what kind of novice guidance the game gave those humans.

Fortunately, Lou Chen’s personality was to finish what he was saying, so Yu Ziyu learned the second half without any effort.

“‘Only when the first player to clear the game appears can the game’s deadlock be broken.

This person will surely appear one day…’

And this person,” Lou Chen paused, “is the savior…

So, this isn’t some childish title we imagined ourselves, but something the game clearly pointed out from the beginning.”

Because of this, even those trapped in the terrifying game who wanted to commit suicide, unable to persevere, would think about the destined rules the game had laid out.

Since it stated that such a person would definitely appear, they would eventually have a day to leave this place.

No matter how desperate, everyone would muster the motivation to live just a little longer.

So they would all repeatedly chant “savior,” waiting and hoping.

Hearing this, Yu Ziyu said, “Oh.”

Actually, he thought that according to the game’s tradition, this sentence was just a fabricated lie, used to make those players even more desperate.

After all, nothing is crueler than the shattering of hope, like the little match girl.

It was a smokescreen, to prevent the game from lacking the interest brought by the motivation to clear levels, injecting vitality into the lifeless game.

But unexpectedly, everything happened to coincide, and this hollow setting actually came to fruition one day.

“Then, shouldn’t the savior be you?”

Yu Ziyu glanced at him and said, “The only player to clear the game?”

Compared to biting sarcasm, this sentence sounded more like teasing and ridicule.

His tone seemed to say that Lou Chen had evaded responsibility, which was why he had dragged him, this pitiful and innocent outsider photographer, into the mess.

“It’s not me.”

Yu Ziyu looked at him with that “are you an idiot” expression, but Lou Chen didn’t get angry.

“I wasn’t sure before, just had a feeling.

But after seeing you appear, I finally knew…

I am definitely not the first person to leave the veil.”

Lou Chen could vaguely recall a veil with hazy light.

It was like an archway shrouded in gossamer, connecting the boundary between the dead and the living, glowing on the farthest horizon.

The seventh floor was pitch black, so the only light revealed from behind the veil under the apple tree seemed especially tempting.

Lou Chen was certain he had no memory of passing through it.

So how he got out remained a mystery.

Regardless, the one who truly first left the Land of Desire Amusement Park wouldn’t be him.

And strangely, the one who actually accomplished all this first, for some reason, had hidden himself away, making him hard to find in the real world.

Was that possible?

It wasn’t until he met Yu Ziyu that Lou Chen discovered this possibility was actually real.

The reason Lou Chen hadn’t denied titles like “the first player to successfully clear the game” before meeting Yu Ziyu was because he didn’t want news that the real savior was nowhere to be found to reach the already terrified players, causing them to lose confidence in defeating the evil forces.

Of course, he also never admitted to being that person.

So the high-level members of the Supernatural Management Bureau all knew about this.

They had vague suspicions in their hearts, but couldn’t bear to accept it, so they had been pretending to deceive themselves, until the real person finally appeared.

Therefore, when Lou Chen declared, “He is the savior,” and pinned it on Yu Ziyu, they all naturally showed ecstasy.

Lou Chen wouldn’t lie.

So, Yu Ziyu was the one they had always been secretly and eagerly searching for—the real one.

Not Lou Chen, this impostor.

He was very clear about his own positioning.

Before this, the main target of the heretics’ attacks had been him; he was just a raised decoy.

Just as he had said to Old Yu about the positioning of a “knight”—no problem.

All along, what Lou Chen did was act as a shield.

The reason he urgently wanted Yu Ziyu to join the Supernatural Management Bureau was naturally to better allocate resources and use his official position to do corresponding things.

Otherwise, as the captain of a task force, Lou Chen had no way to always protect someone who claimed to be an “outsider.”

“…”

Yu Ziyu understood his meaning, but he didn’t feel happy about it.

“How noble of you,” he mocked, yet he couldn’t find it in himself to be sarcastic about this.

“I couldn’t do that.”

“You don’t need to either.

Just do some maneuvering at the conference…

I mean, I can continue to be that person.”

Lou Chen frowned deeply, his words devoid of any deceit. “As long as we find a way to make them think I’m the savior, and that you’re just a front I raised to escape responsibility, you’ll be safe.”

His eyes tightly stared at Yu Ziyu.

He wasn’t lying.

But it would have been better if he had lied.

Aside from Lou Chen, Yu Ziyu had never seen this type of person.

He was too foolish, almost like a saint, making it hard to believe.

“…Tell me, what are you made of?”

He narrowed his eyes, sizing up Lou Chen as if he had suddenly turned into some strange creature.

“Don’t think too highly of me.

I’m not having a bout of saintly compassion,” Lou Chen said coldly.

Yu Ziyu gave a light snort: “I never said that.”

Hearing this, Lou Chen smiled.

Realizing he had smiled, he quickly tightened the corners of his mouth, pretending their topic was still dead serious. “It’s simple.

Because I don’t really want to keep living, but I don’t really want to die either.

So I might as well do something.

This way, I can pretend to be a noble person.”

Didn’t really want to keep living…?

Could words like that come from Lou Chen’s mouth?

Yu Ziyu’s eyes widened slightly, then quickly returned to expressionless.

“I’ve been looking for a person who might not exist,” Lou Chen said, staring at the ground.

That feeling was very strange… like a piece of his heart was missing.

He was certain this person was very important to him, that there was a promise between them…

And Lou Chen had made a mistake, so he disappeared.

Lou Chen had felt exhausted for a long time, and this wasn’t physical, but psychological.

Most people thought his partner was dead, or thought he was lying.

He didn’t know which was the good thing.

Coupled with the fact that he always dreamed of various supernatural creatures and witnessed various murder scenes, it made him feel like a living corpse.

Maybe ending it like this was the best choice.

He thought, the experiences in the Land of Desire Amusement Park had more or less left marks on all of them.

Even he couldn’t escape.

“…”

Yu Ziyu felt there was no need for them to pretend to be friends and dissect their hearts in this deliberately created relaxed atmosphere.

Moreover, the most crucial point was… he didn’t want to hear Lou Chen talk about that partner—himself.

He didn’t want to hear about him changing because of himself.

It was as if some kind of connection had really been established between them, and this kind of thing fundamentally shouldn’t happen.

“Oh, I see.”

Yu Ziyu roughly interrupted his words, his voice completely flat, just raising an eyebrow. “I can introduce you to my psychologist, Doctor Zhang.”

“No need.

I know what I’m doing.

I’m not sick,” Lou Chen refused.

Then, a memory of the face of that woman wearing glasses flashed through his mind.

However, he remembered her surname seemed to be Li…

Which one of them had misremembered?

Or did Yu Ziyu have more than one psychologist?

Lou Chen fell into deep thought, because Yu Ziyu’s voice was too assured, making him doubt his own memory.

Yu Ziyu crossed his arms, his thin lips moving slightly. “Continue.

I’m doing a photography survey, ‘How Neurotics Choose to Self-Deceive in Order to Heal.’

I’ve finally found my first respondent.

Do you want to be anonymous or have your name credited?”

“He Yu investigated your recent schedule plans, and it fundamentally doesn’t include this photography topic.”

“I’ve been very gentle.

Why do you insist on humiliating yourself?”

Yu Ziyu clicked his tongue, saying with disgust. “And you guys are such perverts.

Why don’t you just move into my house and watch me every day to make sure I go to bed on time, just to prevent me from suddenly dying of exhaustion?”

Hearing this, Lou Chen’s eyes flickered, as if he wanted to speak.

He looked a bit tempted.

But Yu Ziyu slapped his hand onto his face, his expression darkening. “If you dare make that request, you’re dead.”

After a moment’s thought, Lou Chen had to defend himself: “But, I haven’t said anything yet.”

“If you had spoken, you’d already be dead.”

The corner of Lou Chen’s mouth twitched. “…………Alright.”

So domineering.

How reassuring.

However, no sooner had his words fallen than a sharp alarm, like a phoenix’s cry, suddenly began to blare above their heads, almost bursting the eardrums of everyone present.

Yu Ziyu saw Lou Chen’s expression change drastically.

He had never seen him put on such a cautious expression before.

He had even already placed his hand on the weapon at his waist.

This high-level alarm had only sounded when Jealousy appeared—and this time, it was even more piercing than that one, also indirectly illustrating that the strength of this entity was clearly above Jealousy’s.

“Something’s wrong.”

“I’m not deaf,” Yu Ziyu said calmly. “Something trying to break in?”

Lou Chen’s eyes were heavy.

He closed his eyes and listened for a moment.

Then, he opened them, seeming a bit puzzled by his own judgment, frowning as he spoke deliberately: “No… the alarm came from inside.

It’s here, in this building all along.”

But Yu Ziyu wasn’t listening to what he was saying at all.

Because he felt a current of air, a certain familiar aura, coming from a room on the third floor…

Clearly, an acquaintance.