Volume 2, Chapter 51 (Chapter 89): Online Conspiracy

Night time, in the western district of Huacheng.

Zhang Shan, the taxi driver, was still wide awake.

“…he drove the girl to the gate of the high school…

…the abandoned campus is in ruins, and smudges of dried blood painted the walls. Through the corners of your eyes, you could feel countless eyes boring into your very soul…

Some of you might be wondering how the girl is connected with the school? And just what are those eyes staring at you? How will the taxi driver escape with his life? Well, you just have to find out on the next episode! Good night!”

Turning off his stream, he smiled as he took a long sip of tea out of his mug, smiling smugly as he read the barrage of chat messages on his stream.

[lowkey feels real lol… i felt chills down my back like i was there myself]

[Thank god I’m living with my parents. I shouldn’t be listening to your stream at night, haha!]

[[[You have been gifted 5 Rockets from a viewer!]]]

[feet pics plz…]

[[[This user has been banned by the AutoMod.]]]

Zhang Shan watched the barrage of chat messages for a while and replied to some of them before turning off his computer.

He sorted out the script before him, and found that it was coming to an end.

‘My next story…’

He became popular thanks to that… girl who keeps bothering him. If he were to write a new story, would he still retain his new audience?

‘If I could meet her again…’

Thinking of this, Zhang Shan slapped himself.

‘She may have blessed me this time, but she might come and collect the debt I owe her! I better not see her again!’

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but think of the other girl, Du Sixian, who called him during the day.

‘I hope she’s safe and sound…’

Du Sixian’s hand trembled as she held the beaker of tea in An Qing’s office.

“Wait for me,” An Qing told her before she left. “I’ll be back in a while.”

The air in her office made her feel uneasy. It felt as if she was sitting inside a hospital ward.

An Qing reassured Sixian that the Night Division exists to serve the public and protect them so that they are able to live in the light…

…but the dried blood on her hands; the dark, green mucus on her white coat; and her distorted figure that phases from place-to-place time to time… Sixian couldn’t help but feel that she wasn’t a good person.

‘If she were to smile, her smile might reach her ears.’

“I’ll come with you, but I’m keeping my camera on!” Sixian told An Qing, before she was led into the office.

The tea in her beaker was left untouched, and the colour turned from a light orange to a deep, tan brown.

Before An Qing left, she had told Sixian in detail what kind of organization the Night Division was. An Qing told her that 60% of the people who left after seeking their help instead of joining them had less than a year to live before an urban legend devours them.

The remaining 40% of the cases are all suffering from night sickness.

To survive, joining the Night Division was the best choice.

Recalling her dream earlier today, she felt strange – the fiery figure shocked her, but its words weren’t malicious, but kind.

She narrowed her eyes and shook her head, ‘No. It must be tempting me.’

‘I have no choice but to join the Night Division, then!’

Du Sixian is not a timid girl. She survived the trial of guts, and she was determined to survive, no matter what.

Squeak!

Not long after Du Sixian made her decision internally, An Qing hurried back inside, wearing a new set of clothes.

“I-I’ve decided! I’m joining the Night Division!”

“Oh?” An Qing was stunned, but smiled. “Don’t you want to hear about the other details of the work?”

“Salary?” Sixian shrugged. “I don’t really care about that. My family collects rent from seventeen, no, eighteen households.”

“O-oh. I see,” An Qing said, the corners of her mouth twitching.

At around eight o’clock in the morning, Lu Yibei woke up on the roof of the apartment, bathing in the sun’s glorious rays.

The strange dream last night had him in a restless slumber, but his exhaustion nailed him down onto the bed.

If it wasn’t for his coat carrying him up to the roof, the consequences would’ve been disastrous.

Seeing the coat twisting and turning in joy as Yibei woke up, Yibei couldn’t help but praise the coat.

“I didn’t expect you to be the most reliable one. I’ll have to reward you later.”

After bouncing in joy under the sun a few times, the coat hugged Yibei’s body, and put itself on him.

‘He must be rewarding me by feeding me the remaining cores!’ the coat cheered.

Morning class passed in a flash.

Lu Yibei didn’t go to the cafeteria, and instead, he walked towards the student lounge.

Today is the day where he agreed for Jiangli to train him. First, he decided that he needed to sort his thoughts out carefully, so that he doesn’t reveal his own true identity to her.

He made up stories about Lin Yiqi and the Eclipse Society, and scribbled it out onto his notebook.

Taking a sip of his cola, he dug his “new” phone out of his pocket.

It was a mobile phone from seven or eight years ago, but it could still browse the Internet and make calls, which was all he needed.

However, it was somewhat damaged, and held together by scotch tape and a prayer.

Putting away his thoughts, he opened a certain chat software, and through the memories of the four cores in this brain, found the urban legend discussion forum online.

He was put on review, and after waiting for a while, a person named Fenrir in the group sent him a private message and asked him some questions related to urban legends.

With the help of the memory the four, he successfully answered all the questions correctly, and joined the urban legend forum.

[Welcome, my name is Dusk, and…]

[welcome! :p]

[hey]

As soon as he joined the group, he received dozens of welcome messages. He narrowed his eyes as he read the messages, and assured himself that no urban legend lurks among the users of the forum.

[Nice to meet you all.]

After sending a brief reply, he hurriedly gathered all of the four’s thoughts to come up with a convincing story to fool Jiangli, filled with half-truths and half-lies.

The information about the Eclipse Society, Lin Yiqi, and Zigu in his story are all true.

The source of the information is fake, and he made himself an anonymous poster.

Coupled with some subjective and ambiguous analysis from himself, a story of “I discovered a huge conspiracy from the Internet” was compiled.

“Yes!” Yibei nodded. “This should be enough!”

‘There were holes in the story, which Jiangli may pick up. Then, she’ll investigate by asking Pharoah and the others…

…but dead people can’t speak! I’m safe!’

Hence, there is no loophole in this story!