Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 156: Mysterious Man
“Relief panel.”
Wu Sheng and Gu Nian, two teammates separated by dozens of meters without any prior communication or coordination, almost simultaneously uttered these words.
“The one that Wangwang shattered?” This had been on Xu Wang’s mind.
“Definitely.” Qian Ai became more convinced the more he thought about it. “Besides that, we haven’t encountered any other abnormalities!”
“So, that relief panel… is it the switch for the Owl?” Kuang Jinxin was scared by his own guess, uncertainly looking at Wu Sheng.
Chi Yingxue also glanced over, not at Wu Sheng but at the phone in his hand, checking the time. “Did they enter?”
Wu Sheng instantly understood his meaning, as this was also what he intended to verify.
A voice invitation was sent again to “Commander Yue.”
The five friends listened to the tone of the voice invitation uninterrupted, with no response until the invitation ended automatically.
The answer was clear—Captain Yue’s team had entered the Owl as usual, cutting off all external contacts.
Was only 10/23 affected?
Was it really because Wangwang destroyed the purple relief panel?
Is this closure temporary or permanent?
Until the early morning, when the delayed flight finally took off, Xu Wang’s team still hadn’t clarified the answer.
So, they decided not to fly after all—just as the flight began to board, they decisively left the airport.
Of course, they still had a tail following them.
“Could they have realized they were being followed and deliberately ditched us…” Kong Lizhe, having stayed up all night with eyes like a rabbit’s, realized for the first time that tracking someone was more draining than going through checkpoints; indeed, it was tough being the bad guy.
Jiang Dachuan leaned against the SUV window, his head bumping against the glass with every jolt of the vehicle, barely maintaining alertness. “Canceling their flight just to ditch us? The cost is too high.”
Kong Lizhe: “They bought the badge handbook. Do you think they care about the cost of a plane ticket?”
Gu Nian closed his book and raised his head. “Dachuan is talking about the cost of time.”
“At this time, you can still read a book?” Chen Guan glanced at the novel in Gu Nian’s hand. Just the words on the cover gave him a headache.
Gu Nian sighed. “Sometimes I read to calm my mind, and sometimes it’s because I can’t calm down.”
Chen Guan: “…Can we speak in plain language?”
Gu Nian smirked, no longer showcasing his linguistic artistry but getting straight to the point. “They probably want to wait and see if this ‘inability to enter’ is temporary or permanent.”
Chen Guan was frustrated. “If it’s permanent, how long are we supposed to wait?”
“If everyone thought like you, scientists wouldn’t need to experiment, and scholars wouldn’t need to research, since it’s all unknown anyway.” Wang Duanran glanced at him. This companion was only good in physique and efficient in fights without nonsense; otherwise, with his brutish nature and thick-headedness, he wouldn’t hire him even if the other paid him.
“Are you cursing me in your mind again?” Chen Guan squinted, his eyes full of wild intuition.
“No, you haven’t reached my heart,” Wang Duanran corrected decisively. “At most, I’m just grumbling about you in my stomach.”
“……” Being in debt, Chen Guan couldn’t physically retaliate or verbally rebuke, so he resorted to stomping on his foot instead.
“Fuck!” Wang Duanran inhaled sharply as if in pain, trembling as he held his shin, his face showing a “how dare you” shock.
Chen Guan looked at him, utterly unmoved internally. “Boss, I just stepped on your sneaker.”
Xu Wang and his team didn’t return to the city center but stayed in a hotel near the airport. They planned to contact Yue Shuai after settling down, but his voice invitation came first.
As soon as they connected, Captain Yue’s voice boomed like thunder. “You’re sending me voice messages after midnight?!”
It took Xu Wang a while to calm down the “shock”, and then they started discussing the relief panel, also learning about Yue Shuai’s situation.
As they guessed, Yue Shuai had entered the Owl at midnight as usual, but because he was in Zhengzhou, which had no levels, he entered the Endless Sea. They didn’t search for treasure or go to the Flying Island, drifting at sea all night—everything was normal.
“We just don’t know the situation with the other levels.” After sharing information, Xu Wang casually mentioned.
“Give me five minutes.” Yue Shuai unexpectedly cut off the voice call.
Five minutes later, they reconnected.
Yue Shuai: “1/23, 4/23, 7/23, 8/23 are all normal, not closed.”
Xu Wang was stunned for a moment, then quickly asked, “Are all the other levels closed?”
“No,” Captain Yue honestly said. “I don’t know anyone at the other levels.”
Xu Wang: “……”
Yue Shuai: “Don’t be disappointed. My social circle will continue to expand…”
Xu Wang: “No, it’s already quite expansive, really.”
Wu Sheng’s plan was to wait three days. If there was still no movement after three days, regardless of whether the closure was temporary or permanent, they would set off for Zhengzhou again. After all, that was where the important matters were. Things that were visible and could be discussed clearly, at least not as murky as it was now.
However, that night, the call of the Owl arrived as scheduled.
Xu Wang’s team entered 10/23. Wang Duanran’s team entered the Endless Sea—they had lost the qualification to enter 10/23.
The level was still the same; the Endless Sea was still the Endless Sea—nothing had changed.
It was like a game where the server suddenly announced maintenance for a day, and the next day, it reopened, everything as usual.
Once again emerging from the Owl, the five members of Xu Wang’s team no longer engaged in any futile discussions or hesitations—discussions without results could only be speculation—and directly bought tickets to fly to Zhengzhou.
Wang Duanran’s team, persistent as ever, followed closely behind.
Thus, in the crowded economy class, the two teams met—specifically, Chi Yingxue spotted Wang Duanran.
Originally, Young Master Wang wanted to buy first class or business class tickets, but there were no seats left, so he had to settle for economy class. For safety, he chose the two least popular rows of seats.
His choice was correct at first, keeping a distance from Xu Wang and the others, and everyone wore baseball caps, so during boarding, the chaos allowed them to successfully take their seats. Once seated, they pulled their caps down over their faces, making it impossible to recognize anyone.
But, Chi Yingxue was the exception.
As the plane had finished climbing and entered steady flight, Chi Yingxue stood up to go to the restroom. Passing by the row where Wang Duanran was sitting, he glanced over, his gaze locked on.
For no reason, he felt that the figure was very familiar, even though the person was sitting very low and hugging their arms, with a baseball cap covering their face. But a man who had once played with him, not just any person sitting there, but even if turned to ashes in there, he could blow them away in the midst of a crowd with a single breath.
“Hey.” Chi Yingxue was never one for politeness in his vocabulary, directly reaching over to lift the baseball cap and tapping it lightly but firmly against his forehead. “Stop pretending to sleep.”
With three seats in a row and Wang Duanran sitting in the middle, he never expected Chi Yingxue to really reach in. So, when he opened his eyes, his first reaction wasn’t to look for Chi Yingxue, but to turn his head and glare at the employee next to him who was reluctant to protect his boss!
Kong Lizhe, with his baseball cap pulled down, continued to pretend to sleep, as if his life depended on it.
In the same row, sitting by the window, Jiang Dachuan tilted his head slightly, making the baseball cap on his face more stable.
Chi Yingxue only had eyes for Wang Duanran. Once he saw the person react, he immediately narrowed his eyes slightly. “Why are you following us?”
“Who-who’s following you! We’re going to the Endless Sea!” Wang Duanran didn’t care how flawed his excuse was; he responded first.
Chi Yingxue frowned in confusion. “We?” Looking around, he expressed confusion. “The other four are also on the plane?”
Jiang Dachuan by the window: “……”
In the same row, separated by an aisle, Gu Nian and Chen Guan: “……”
Kong Lizhe silently opened his eyes, peering through the gap in the baseball cap. He watched the slender arm in front of him, considering whether to bite down hard or assert his presence.
……
At 30,000 feet, Xu Wang moved next to Wang Duanran, and the two team leaders spoke openly.
Inside the levels, everyone is an opponent, but once outside, they are all unfortunate souls chosen by the Owl, all wishing to end it all early. When two people have a common pursuit, the lines can be united.
Especially since this interest isn’t exclusive—Yue Shuai, when buying intelligence, mentioned that although one million isn’t a small amount, if it’s truly possible to leave the Owl, there won’t be a shortage of buyers. In this way, wouldn’t the value of the intelligence decrease due to the increase in competitors? His original intention was to bargain, but unexpectedly, the seller guaranteed with their ID card and household registration book that this method of leaving early is parallel and independent for every team, with no competition whatsoever. That is, if Team A leaves using this method, Team B can also use it without their chances of success being affected by Team A’s departure.
Based on all this, bringing another team into the fray isn’t a bad thing; it can even help share the cost.
Especially with a classmate as generous as Wang Duanran—
“1 million, right? I’ll pay for it all, but I’ll only take a third of the share. The information we buy will be shared among our three teams.”
Xu Wang suddenly felt that even without the fateful connection, Chi Yingxue could still spot Wang Duanran in the vast economy class—they both radiated the same aura; an aura called “wealthy light”.
The final plan was to share the cost among the three teams, but since it was decided on the plane, they hadn’t had the chance to inform Yue Shuai. Thus, Captain Yue, who ran to the airport to pick them up, only left five seats, not expecting to pick up ten people.
He and Wang Duanran’s team had never interacted, not even encountering each other inside the levels, but after a brief introduction from Xu Wang, understanding they were coming together to buy intelligence, he immediately went forward, shaking their hands warmly with an overwhelming friendliness.
Xu Wang, seeing Wang Duanran’s reflection in his eyes, always felt that the reflection was slowly turning into 333,333.
Wang Duanran, who usually liked to judge people snobbishly, wasn’t accustomed to this kind of warm welcome, reminiscent of a tropical island. He quickly lost to Yue Shuai’s enthusiasm. On the way back to the hotel, they talked about everything and anything, even though they weren’t in the same car, using WeChat voice chat.
Xu Wang finally understood how Yue Shuai could probe four levels in five minutes—the complicated network of relations within the Owl.
When they arrived in Zhengzhou in the afternoon, Yue Shuai met with the seller at seven that evening.
Yue Shuai went to the meeting alone to prevent the seller from seeing there were three teams and then possibly asking for more money.
The rest of the companions waited in the hotel, and it wasn’t long before Yue Shuai returned. The seller’s intelligence was just a sentence—”Go to Beijing and find a person; he will tell you the method to leave early.”
It turns out this person was just a middleman!
But there was no need to pay anymore; just by taking the address he provided and finding that person in Beijing, the information would be directly disclosed.
After discussing among the fifteen companions, they agreed this process was acceptable. Since that person had already left the Owl, he couldn’t go to the Endless Sea anymore. If he wanted to do business within the Owl, he must find a middleman still inside the Owl. And if he directly told the middleman the specific method, then the middleman could bypass him and operate independently.
The next day, the three teams, holding the slip of paper, flew to Beijing. After landing, they went straight to the address on the slip.
The closer they got to the solution, the more nervous they became. The more nervous they were, the more prepared they were, only to realize upon reaching the destination that their entourage was a bit too large.
Fifteen young men, tired from continuous travel, stood imposingly in front of a grand iron gate. Even if the gate was exquisitely crafted and grand, it seemed like it could shatter at any moment.
A young man in his twenties who answered the door was nearly scared by their presence. If it weren’t for Xu Wang and the others promptly showing the slip, he probably would have called the police.
This was a detached villa hidden in the suburbs of Beijing. Following the navigation, Xu Wang and his team nearly got lost. But the villa’s interior was beautifully decorated—not just lavishly but with taste and cultivation.
The young man led them to a door on the second floor, knocked, and then turned to leave before the door opened.
Xu Wang, watching his back, realized he had overlooked a problem—matters within the Owl weren’t to be discussed with outsiders. So, could someone who had left the Owl talk about it with outsiders? Or was it only with those who had experienced the Owl themselves or, like them, were still inside the Owl?
As he pondered, the door opened.
The entire second floor was quiet, with only their fifteen people and the person inside. It was so quiet that they could hear the ticking of a clock from the first floor.
The door silently opened, revealing a man in his forties, dignified and well-dressed. His tall figure and broad shoulders meant he was never meant to be meek. Instead, even his smile exerted a pressure.
Xu Wang thought that if this man were ten years younger, leading a team through all 23 checkpoints would have been possible.
If he were ten years younger…
Xu Wang suddenly froze, taking a closer look at the man’s facial features.
“He didn’t tell me he sold the information to three teams,” the man said with a smile, half serious, half teasing. “Come in.”
Clearly, the man didn’t mind, nor did he plan to settle scores with the middleman.
The group entered one by one. The room was an elegant, serene study, spacious, and bright. Even with so many people entering at once, it didn’t feel cramped.
Wu Sheng took a few steps and noticed Xu Wang hadn’t followed. Turning back, he saw his captain still standing at the doorway.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, concern evident in his eyes.
“I’ve seen him before.” Xu Wang said.
Wu Sheng didn’t understand at first. “Huh? Seen who?”
This back-and-forth drew the attention of all their companions, as well as the man.
Xu Wang’s gaze was fixed on the man’s face.
“I saw you ten years ago,” he said to the man, with more certainty than when he was speaking to Wu Sheng.
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