“Sir, should we send in troops?” the officer behind the white-haired old man asked.

The old man thought for a moment. “He seems pretty relaxed. There shouldn’t be any big problems. Put the surveillance away first, so he doesn’t get angry if he finds out—”

He didn’t finish his sentence when a virtual image flickered in front of the screen.

After a moment of darkness, the screen was filled with static.

The old man: “…”

The officer: “…”

They still weren’t fast enough.

The old man’s terminal vibrated. He reluctantly slid it open and saw a string of warnings from a certain digital ID.

[If you dare to forcibly open the surveillance again, I’ll flush the terminal down the toilet.]

The old man: “…………”

His finger hovered in front of the virtual screen. For a long time, he didn’t know how to reply.

“Old Lin, what do you think I should say?” he asked the officer behind him.

The officer, called Old Lin, shrank his neck. “S-soothe him?”

Otherwise, the next time they met, it would be a hellish scene.

This kid was good at other things, but he was even better at holding a grudge.

The old man’s head went bald from thinking. After deliberating for several minutes, he replied.

[Did you forget that you’re a registered “ghost?” If you flush this terminal down the toilet, what account will you use to save money?]

There were very few things Chi Yao cared about. The first was money, the second was his dog. The pirate group was barely half of one, and everything and everyone else was a joke to him.

After sending it, the old man read it twice, and he felt that his reply was so good, it was even better than the war reports he wrote back in the day.

The terminal vibrated, and the other side replied.

[I have many planets where I can store gold and energy ore. Don’t you worry about that.]

The old man: “…”

Becoming a miser at such a young age, what a great future.

In the underwater lounge, Chi Yao let Jing Xi’s miniature robot blow up the old man’s surveillance.

The terminal he used was different from the ones used by ordinary residents. It was custom-made by the old man so he could find him, or rather, to keep him in line.

Because of this, part of the program’s backend was open to the old man.

When Chi Yao found that the small camera in the terminal was gone, he knew the old man was secretly watching him again.

“Xiao Bai, dismantle the thing and bring it to me,” Jing Xi said, gesturing to the miniature robot.

The miniature robot took out the camera embedded in the gap and flew back.

After replying, Chi Yao proactively disconnected from the military network and casually asked, “Xiao Bai? Is that the robot’s name?”

He recalled the colors of the previous two.

“Are the other two named Xiao Hei and Xiao Lan?”

Jing Xi said naturally, “Is there a problem?”

Chi Yao: “…A little cute.”

Jing Xi spread his palm, and Xiao Bai landed steadily.

“Everything is cute when it’s small.”

In his words, he didn’t deny it at all.

Chi Yao lifted the blanket and got out of bed, casually running his hand through his messy hair.

“I was talking about you.”

He was a high achiever, yet his naming skills were not even as good as Tie Xiong, who had not gone to school.

Would this person die if he didn’t flirt with others?

Jing Xi picked up the broken camera to inspect it, his expression calm. “It’s alright.”

Chi Yao couldn’t help but glance at him. “Your skin has gotten thicker.”

Jing Xi: “Learned from you.”

Chi Yao: “…”

The camera was a common model. There was nothing special about its appearance.

Jing Xi casually put it in his pocket and turned to look at Chi Yao. “How about it, want to cooperate?”

Chi Yao: “I can handle it myself. Why do I need to cooperate with you?”

So he wouldn’t.

Jing Xi wasn’t afraid of him refusing to cooperate. He was just afraid of him causing trouble when he was trying to save someone.

At 2 PM, a new round of gambling began, still in the same venue, but with added game mechanics.

Two contestants would fight one mutated beast. The one who killed the beast first would win, and the loser would be executed on the spot.

For the contestants, the enemy on the field had become two.

The betting tycoons roared wildly, as if whoever’s voice was loudest would win.

Chi Yao sat in the sofa by the window, leisurely drinking tea. The bloody scene below did not affect him at all.

Jing Xi saw this.

Fang Liang had said that Chi Yao had intermittent mysophobia, and it seemed to have subsided now.

Halfway through watching, Jing Xi suddenly got up. Chi Yao put down his cup. “Where are you going?”

Jing Xi: “The restroom.”

Chi Yao watched him walk away. He didn’t look away until he couldn’t see him anymore.

After leaving the restroom, Jing Xi stood in front of the sink, his peripheral vision observing the surveillance cameras in the hallway outside.

Another young Beta came out and stood next to him to wash his hands.

Jing Xi’s eyes were half-closed. He suddenly clutched his chest. “Ugh—”

The miniature robot, Xiao Bai, flew out of his sleeve, turned into a fly, and stuck itself onto the surveillance camera directly facing them, perfectly blocking the lens.

The young Beta backed away slightly and scoffed, “Is this your first time seeing a scene like this?”

Jing Xi dry heaved a few times. When he straightened up, his eyes were slightly red, and he looked a bit pitiful.

“This afternoon is a lot bloodier than this morning. Aren’t you afraid at all?”

The moment their eyes met, the Beta’s heart skipped a beat.

He was clearly very average-looking, but those eyes were so beautiful.

The Beta wanted to leave, but he couldn’t move his feet.

Just one look had captivated him.

“I’ve been here several times. I’m used to it.”

“No wonder.” Jing Xi’s voice was a little hoarse. “This morning, I thought it was all an act. How could those people really die? Won’t they be investigated? Won’t their families report them missing?”

The Beta laughed as if he had heard something very funny. “The people on the stage are all desperate people who come here to make quick money. They’re either alienated from their families or completely alone. Who would care about their life or death?”

Who would care about their life or death?

Jing Xi frowned, then relaxed again without a trace.

“I’ve gambled in N9 so many times and never heard of this place. How do these people know about this way of making money?”

Beta: “Is there a specific place that recruits people? I’m not sure. We just need to have fun. Who cares where they come from?”

Jing Xi nodded. “That’s true. We win money, they get a prize. It’s a win-win.”

The two of them walked out after washing their hands. The young Beta couldn’t hold anything back and confessed everything he knew with a little probing.

“They have to be alive to spend the prize money.” The Beta cautiously looked left and right, then leaned in close to Jing Xi’s ear and said, “I heard from a friend that these winners are forced to keep participating in the fights, and they can only get real freedom after a certain number of times.”

Jing Xi’s eyes darkened. He feigned surprise. “What if they lose by accident one time?”

The Beta tsked and shook his head. “The difficulty and rules of the game will change. Even if they don’t make a mistake, they can’t win.”

Jing Xi: “In that case, why do they still participate?”

The Beta grinned. “Because everyone who knows the truth is already dead.”

Jing Xi: “What if they want to quit halfway?”

Beta: “They die.”

Jing Xi: “Even if someone is willing to pay to redeem them?”

Beta shook his head. “No. Once they’re in, it’s a dead end.”

When they reached the door of the hall, the Beta suddenly seemed to remember something.

“It’s not that absolute. A long time ago, I heard my dad say that someone completed the game.”

Jing Xi: “Someone?”

Beta: “Yes, only one person completed the game, took all the prize money, and left.”

Jing Xi: “Who was it?”

The hall door opened, and the deafening noise made the Beta snap back to reality.

Without realizing it, he had talked so much to a stranger as if he were possessed.

The Beta leaned in close and blew into his ear, smiling ambiguously. “If you want to know, come to my room tonight, and we can talk slowly.”

Jing Xi’s eyes sank. Just as he was about to speak, he saw two groups of security guards approaching from the other end of the hall and the corridor.

It seemed they had aroused suspicion.

Jing Xi pushed him away, his face expressionless. “You have bad breath. Stay away from me.”

The Beta’s smile froze at the corners of his mouth, and his face visibly reddened. “You—!”

“You dare to mess with my person?”

Suddenly, Chi Yao’s voice was heard. The next moment, the Beta in front of Jing Xi was lifted and slammed against the wall.

Chi Yao walked past Jing Xi, grabbed the Beta’s collar, and kicked him in the upper abdomen.

“Ugh—! Help me—!”

The Beta was knocked to the ground before he could even react.

Chi Yao stepped on his head and ground it into the floor, his voice icy.

“If you ever dare to get that close again, I’ll kill you.”

Almost simultaneously, the two groups of security guards arrived.

The captain stiffened his face and said respectfully to Chi Yao, “You two are both our honored guests. If there are any conflicts, please sit down and talk it out.”

Chi Yao did not take his foot back. Instead, he pressed down harder. “He wants to steal my person. Is there anything to talk about?”

The Beta wailed and thrashed as Chi Yao stepped on him.

“What are you wasting time for! Restrain him! Ah—!”

As soon as he said that, he felt the pressure on his head increase, as if his skull was about to be crushed.

“Help me, help me!”

Jing Xi grabbed Chi Yao’s arm and pulled him aside. “Stop making a scene. We were just talking.”

Chi Yao: “You talk with your ears touching?”

Staring at the security guards’ wary expressions, Jing Xi said languidly, “The scene was too bloody, and I wasn’t feeling well. He was just being concerned.”

Chi Yao: “You’re even defending him?”

The two of them argued back and forth in front of everyone.

The security team was about to take action, but the security captain stopped them.

It seemed like a simple relationship dispute.

They argued for a long time. When the Beta was almost out of energy to struggle, Chi Yao finally let go and huffily took Jing Xi away.

The security captain immediately had someone follow them and personally knelt down to help the Beta up.

“Are you alright?”

The Beta was a mess, with blood from his nose mixed with sweat all over his face.

“Do I look alright to you?!”

Back in the hall, Jing Xi spoke, his peripheral vision catching a group of security guards following them.

Chi Yao’s face was cold, but there was a teasing smile in his eyes.

“You should get rid of your bad luck with love. You’re so ugly, yet people still like you.”

Jing Xi: “…”

Chi Yao: “I saved you. How are you going to thank me?”

Jing Xi: “A labor uniform.”

Chi Yao: “…”

Chi Yao’s strength had been demonstrated that morning, so even though the Beta was beaten so badly, he didn’t dare to seek revenge.

People who could get here were not short on money, and their social status was most likely not low either.

After a calm assessment, the Beta realized that if he went to get revenge now, he would most likely be beaten even more severely.

After the afternoon’s gambling ended, Chi Yao, with his sharp eyes, won from beginning to end, never once betting incorrectly.

Jing Xi’s account balance, on the other hand, plummeted because he never placed a bet.

By noon on the third day, Chi Yao had the highest balance among all the players.

He slowly got up, stood by the window, and watched the last contestant win, his account balance increasing by several hundred million.

“How boring. It’s so hard to spend money to have some fun.”

The other players nearby: “…”

He was being a show-off again.

Some people were so annoyed that they couldn’t help but retort.

“Then why don’t you just deliberately bet on ‘lose’?”

“You want to spend money? That’s easy. Just give us your account balance.”

“Stop with the sarcastic comments. I’m so annoyed!”

“Are you cheating? I’ve never seen you lose!”

Chi Yao smiled, ignoring them, and said with a meaningful tone, “If only there were more exciting games.”

At lunch, some people in the restaurant were discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the various contestants.

This was a topic they had to talk about every day at mealtime.

In this underwater casino isolated from the outside world, besides enjoying themselves, gambling was the only thing they could do.

“My favorite contestant, number 15, was cut in half by a crab’s claw and became its meal. Sigh.”

“I heard that those who die are thrown out of the protective shield to feed the fish.”

“What about the ones who are still alive? Will they have to keep fighting after we leave?”

“Probably. If I could buy one, I’d want to buy number 20 and take him home. Those muscles are so hot!”

Jing Xi twirled his noodles with his fork, listening to the people around him and falling into thought.

It was the last day. After midnight, they would be forced to leave this place.

According to the young Beta, Chen Yao would have to stay here and keep fighting until he had fought a sufficient number of times to leave, or he would die in battle.

By the time he found a way to come back here after leaving, Chen Yao might already be dead.

Before he could get the answers he needed, the other person absolutely couldn’t die.

If he couldn’t take him out through normal procedures, then he would have to break him out by force.

Back in the suite, Jing Xi asked, “Aren’t you going to take number 3 back?”

Chi Yao went to the bar to pour himself some water and said unhurriedly, “Once you enter here, you’ve left the normal world and can’t go back.”

As if thinking of something, he added nonchalantly, “And no one will care whether you go back or not.”

“I care.”

He didn’t say it to him, but when Chi Yao heard those three words, his heart thumped heavily.

He looked up at Jing Xi.

Jing Xi: “I’ll bring him back.”

There had been no news of him for so many years, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find him.

He had a feeling that if he continued to investigate this matter, he would definitely get useful clues.

After a moment of being lost in thought, Chi Yao chuckled, returning to his usual nonchalant self.

“Even if you have to pay a great price?”

Jing Xi: “At all costs.”

Seeing the serious look in his eyes, the smile on Chi Yao’s lips faded.

If only someone had been willing to look for him back then—

All the contestants were locked in the third basement level of the arena.

To save someone, tonight was the last chance.

In the middle of the night, Jing Xi opened his eyes and sat up from the sofa.

He tightened the laces on his boots, tied his long hair back, and quietly walked out.

As soon as Jing Xi left, Chi Yao on the bed also opened his eyes—