Player Reload

Several hours later, deep into the night, Yin City, Red Star Orphanage.

"I still don't quite understand, who exactly are you..."

In the office, the orphanage director looked in bewilderment at the group of young men and women in suits and sunglasses standing behind the table.

"You don't need to worry about who we are; you just need to know that we fully represent the relevant department."

The young man in the suit, or rather Fuding Hualong, sighed as he recalled the memorized information, saying to the director: "Tomorrow morning, a patriotic overseas Chinese will donate one billion cash to various welfare institutions in Yin City, among which the Red Heart Orphanage will receive sixteen million to improve infrastructure and enhance staff welfare. Subsequently, five million will be allocated annually.

Later, an Asian Charity Foundation will also establish a special fund and cooperate with a major children's medical institution in Yin City under the guise of 'exploring advanced medical technology,' providing long-term free treatment for children with congenital diseases in orphanages across the country.

Such as congenital deaf-muteness, hemophilia, spina bifida, cleft lip and palate, autism, etc.

To avoid being too conspicuous, your orphanage will be ranked fifth."

"This..."

The director showed hesitation, as wealthy people who earned black-hearted money always felt uneasy; he had seen charitable donations for peace of mind from wealthy tycoons before,

but this young man in front of him spoke of one billion cash and an Asian Charity Foundation with the inexplicable undertone of a scam call.

The director instinctively glanced at the leader of Yin City's civil affairs department standing behind the young man, who silently nodded to express that the young man's words were 100% true.

"Alright then."

The director hesitantly asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"The day after tomorrow at noon, we will arrange for an eight-year-old girl to arrive at your orphanage. Here are her photo and information."

The young man in the suit took out an envelope and gently placed it on the desk, "She will live in the orphanage as an ordinary person for a long time.

Until six months, or a year or two later, we will send people...

Cough, cough, I mean invite people, a pair of middle-aged couples who meet the standards in every aspect, to adopt her.

Whether to accept the adoption will depend on her willingness."

The director opened the envelope, and the girl's photo inside gave him an inexplicable sense of familiarity, especially with the butterfly hairpin on her hair...

The director instinctively stood up, "Wait, she's wearing on her head..."

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask."

The young man in the suit gently pressed him back into the chair, "Please cooperate with our work. Trust me, this plan, in the long run, is beneficial to Yin City, the country, and all the people."

With the conversation reaching this point, the director could only silently sit down.

Accompanied by the civil affairs department leader, the mysterious men and women in suits walked out the door, and before leaving, Fuding Hualong suddenly thought of something, turned around, and placed an unbranded medication bottle, printed only with usage instructions, on the desk.

"This is..."

"You are a good person, Director."

Fuding Hualong sighed with a complex tone, "This medication is a specialty of our department, although it can't prolong life, it somewhat can delay aging and maintain health.

Consider it my personal small gift."

Having said that, he waved his hand and walked out the door to catch up with his companions.

The civil affairs department leader left first in a government car, while Fuding Hualong and the others boarded a low-profile black SUV.

The director of the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau, Xing Hechou, was already waiting in the car, "All settled?"

Xing Hechou, a robust man with a square face, was considered part of the 1.5 batch to become a player transcendent, coming from the military system.

However, in the past two years as director of the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau, the heavy administrative work had made his sideburns somewhat gray.

"Yes, all taken care of."

Fuding Hualong paused, hesitating, "But Director Xing, a Mobile Task Force in five-member teams, rotating between eight groups, monitoring the orphanage 24 hours a day to protect the reincarnated Cai Anjie; is this setup a bit... too much?"

Fuding Hualong belongs to the Chuanyu Branch and not the Yin City system. But because he knows Pifu and happened to be on the scene at the time, he was conscripted.

"Cai Anjie, living anew, has been stripped of most of her extraordinary powers, not even up to Lv5. Keeping her under care at the Yin City Special Affairs Bureau nursery should be fine, right? The environment might even be a little better."

Fuding Hualong's doubts were also the thoughts of the young people in the car.

The Mobile Task Force usually hunts abnormal existences, captures illegal players, or explores killing field death zones; now using eight fully armed groups to monitor the orphanage somewhat touches on the realm of kindergarten nannies,

those unaware might think it's a filming of "The Truman Show."

"You all, are still too young."

Xing Hechou sipped on his lingzhi and wolfberry tea from his travel mug and said, "Firstly, Cai Anjie's life's tragedy stemmed from early cross-national adoption program loopholes,

The greatest responsibility lies with the foreign adoptive parents who abused her long-term and the non-performing foreign judicial institutions, but saying we bear some part isn't entirely wrong.

Now we must, of course, respect her personal wishes.

Secondly, the reincarnated Cai Anjie is akin to a dormant demigod and still holds part of the Hidden Room authority, capable of opening the Soul Divine Country.

Vietnamese women and other lingering spirits, even after exorcism by high monks and Daoists we summoned, still reside in Cai Anjie's butterfly hairpin.

If someday, a major anomalous incident occurs, destroying a city or an even larger area, we might still need to find Cai Anjie and have her open the Divine Country to help shelter hundreds of thousands, or millions, of souls."

"Oh~"

The young people in the car chorused, but their faces somewhat bore expressions of indifference.

As the young generation of the Special Affairs Bureau, they are very aware of how much effort the country has put into preventing large-scale supernatural events.

Therefore, they don't believe any terrifying supernatural accident can cause millions of casualties all at once.

Xing Hechou sighed helplessly at the sight and muttered, "Young people these days," before taking a sip of goji berry tea.

————

Outside the black SUV, a dozen kilometers away, the Side of Truth, rare to appear in the real world, was standing on a skyscraper rooftop, using a mirror formed from Star Realm material to observe the Red Star Orphanage from afar.

Next to him stood Li Cheng and Gray Rain.

"So the Special Affairs Bureau still decided to send Cai Anjie back to the original Red Star Orphanage."

The Side of Truth waved to disperse the mirror, then turned to Li Cheng in a cheerful manner: "Satisfied with this way of handling?"

"It's fine."

Li Cheng nodded; since Cai Anjie had given him a Legendary-grade item, he naturally wanted to reciprocate and ensure a good ending for her.

"You know, you're still too kind, too soft-hearted.

Back in those days, when the killing field had just opened, Lone Wolf players would pursue maximum profit for survival, thoroughly erasing Cai Anjie or tricking and brainwashing her to control her, monopolizing the Hidden Room."

The Side of Truth laughed lightly with kindness, yet it was precisely because of the goodwill of Li Cheng and Gray Rain that he could use time reversal to return to the past, saving himself and his family.

He clapped his hands, "Alright, my work here is done. Time to head back to the slum."

Li Cheng joked, "Not staying for dinner?"

"Hahaha, no, I have to go back and check on my PhD students' dissertations."

"Uh...speaking of which, there's a question I've always wanted to ask."

Li Cheng scratched his head, curiously asking, "Brother Truth Side, weren't you a firefighter before? How did you suddenly become a scientist?"

"Well..."

The Side of Truth chuckled heartily. "My first task was in a script world similar to the movie 'Limitless,' where I obtained the smart drug NZT-48 to boost my IQ.

The second task was in the 'Dune' world, starting as a slave, where I used homemade burrow bombs to kill sandworms and obtained the 'spice' with precognitive ability.

The third task was in the DND 'Doomsday Sunset' world, apprenticing under a schizophrenic, sadistic Witch King who delighted in killing apprentices. Using sandworm spice, I mastered Spirit Power.

From then on, multitasking became second nature, gradually turning into a mad scientist."

He spoke easily, but the risks involved were evident—during the Lone Wolf player's third script task, at most Lv5, he dared to risk consciousness disintegration to grasp even master Spirit Power.

Tough on others, tougher on himself, the hallmark of the older generation of players.

With a wave of his sleeve, the Side of Truth departed from the real world, returning to the slum.

Only Li Cheng and Gray Rain remained on the rooftop.

"What are we waiting for, buddy."

Gray Rain, impatient, rubbed her hands together furiously, "What did Cai Anjie gift us?"

Under normal circumstances, Gray Rain would have rushed back to play on her phone by now, but this time she was too eager to see the Legendary-grade item they received.

"Look at you, so impatient."

Li Cheng rolled his eyes but still took out the metal glove.

The glove was moderately sized, nested together with steel wire loops, resembling protective cutting gloves or dishwashing steel gloves.

What's different is that interspersed among them are some green threads.

[Name: Mercy Soul Song]

[Type: Divine Magic Artifact]

[Quality: Legendary]

[Special Effect: Soul Implantation. Touch an item to enable it to independently generate a soul based on its own traits. The more complex, complete, and cohesive the item, the stronger the soul it produces.]

[Consumption: At least 100 points of Spiritual Power Value and Sanity Value, exact amount depends on soul strength imparted]

[Cooling Time: 1 minute]

[Use Conditions: None]

[Note: "After careful observation, this patient was instantly 21 grams lighter after death, proving the human soul weighs 21 grams." "...well, Doctor, this deceased person had before death suffered bowel torsion, that was just gas."]

"Huh...this,"

Gray Rain scratched her head, "Seems like it's just a logistics item, and it only grants souls, what use does that have?

Could it be that the plan is to grant souls to our home appliances to do chores themselves?"

"You don't understand."

Li Cheng, however, realized the artifact's limitless potential right away, solemnly saying: "The special effect description stated it can grant souls to any complex self-contained item.

Sword Spirit, Ship Girl, Artifact Spirit, Machine Soul,

including items produced by the killing field..."