Yan Qingwen never did a deal that left him out of pocket.

Joining the evaluation team now — familiar games all around, his organization’s walkthroughs in hand, small risk for a generous return, and a map from Professor Song to top it off.

But the moment the base moved somewhere else, it would be nothing but unfamiliar games in every direction, without a single walkthrough. Taking companions into a game would be a fight with nine-to-one odds of death, and simply not worth it.

Bai Youwei thought it over, then turned to look at Shen Mo. “Why don’t we go to your dad’s first?”

Shen Mo was quiet for a moment, then said, “Let’s go back.”

“Huh?” She was taken aback. “Aren’t we going to see Uncle Shen?”

“We’ll go another day.” Shen Mo said. “I’ll give him some advance notice — showing up with this many people unannounced might catch him off guard.”

“Oh……” Bai Youwei murmured.

In her heart, she couldn’t quite shake a feeling she couldn’t name. She had the nagging sense that Shen Mo had left something unsaid.

……

In the sweltering afternoon, two men leaned idly beneath a tree, smoking, occasionally glancing back at the tall building behind them.

Their clothes were far from clean — they looked dusty and worn all over — yet both pairs of hands were encased in gleaming white gloves, blindingly white.

When they had finished one cigarette, they finally saw the person from inside emerge.

The two immediately stepped forward to ask: “What took so long? Did those people give you a hard time?”

The man who had come out of headquarters curved his lips. “So many people died — they naturally had to ask thorough questions. Don’t worry. Even if they suspect me, they have no evidence.”

“Those fools — they’d never figure out in a million years how those people actually died!” His companion laughed, triumphant and brazen, then immediately asked with impatience, “So what did we get this time? I heard the ones who went in were all base elites — they must have had plenty of items and puzzle pieces on them?”

The other companion’s eyes lit up with eagerness. “If they had the nerve to enter a game, they definitely brought along things to keep themselves alive!”

But the man frowned, his expression souring.

He pulled two things out of his pocket — a piece of chalk and a length of colorful string, both items.

“That’s all?” His companion couldn’t believe it. He snatched the items out of his hand, furious. “These two items are completely useless! You used up one of our puzzle pieces, and this is all you brought back? Trash?!”

The man’s face went cold. His expression darkened instantly.

The other companion saw his face change, quickly shot the first one a warning look, and tried to smooth things over. “He had no way of knowing it would turn out like this. And you agreed to go to Game 21 in the first place — what’s the point in saying all this now?!”

The two of them seemed to hold the man in some degree of fear. Even with dissatisfaction festering inside, they didn’t dare let it show too easily.

“I’m just anxious… I didn’t mean to blame anyone…”

“Let’s go, head back first. We’ll just chalk this up as bad luck… And that group of people were idiots anyway! Going into a game with just a handful of items? How dense can you get?!”

The man’s lips curved very slightly upward. He said softly, “Idiots? I wouldn’t say that.”

He opened his other hand. There, in his palm, were three puzzle pieces.

“Those ARE puzzle pieces!” one companion gasped. “Why didn’t you show us those earlier?! You had us thinking you went and wasted everything this time!”

“Look more carefully.” The man picked up one of the pieces and, pressing between two fingers with a little force, snapped the metal puzzle piece cleanly in half with a crack.

“These puzzle pieces are fakes.” He tossed away the broken fragment and patted his hands lightly. The white gloves remained spotless.

His two companions looked at each other, thoroughly baffled.

“What? …Why would anyone carry fake puzzle pieces into a game?”

“Black eating black.” The man gave them a dispassionate glance. “Before we made our move, the puzzle pieces those people were carrying had already been swapped out.”

……

—