Waiting until the others had left, Tang Erda turned his head to look at the cemetery in the night. He turned to look at Bai Liu, his expression becoming heavy. "Are you really sure that the corpse of that big developer from District E is buried in one of these cemetery buildings?"
"If my guess isn't wrong, it should be like that." Bai Liu nodded calmly. "According to my logic, these developers should have died long ago, using land contracts to attach their partially mutated corpses to the land. Since that's the case, I suspect the most likely situation is that their real corpses are kept together with the contracts, buried in a certain place."
"Given that most places in District E, aside from the cemetery, have been overdeveloped, I am inclined to believe that the corpses of these five major developers were buried from the very beginning in the cemetery buildings belonging to their own land."
Tang Erda frowned. "But there are too many cemeteries here. You still have a blood-sucking buff on you, and the medicine Liu Jiayi gave you won't last long enough for you and me to sweep every building step by step. We need a faster and more precise search range."
Bai Liu scanned his surroundings and asked softly, "Captain Tang, you say there are unfinished buildings on the ground; could there be unfinished cemetery buildings underground as well?"
Tang Erda froze at this abrupt question. "Why would there be unfinished cemetery buildings underground…"
He stopped halfway through his sentence, paused, and suddenly looked at Bai Liu. "You mean?!"
"Yes." Bai Liu looked at Tang Erda and explained unhurriedly, "Have you forgotten what that NPC told me? Developers linger near unfinished buildings."
"According to the information we got at the very beginning, deceased homeowners become ghosts that return to their own rooms and attack anyone who tries to enter their house. Then, following the logic of that setting, it follows naturally that a deceased developer would also enter the cemetery containing their own corpse and attack anyone attempting to enter their domain."
"A homeowner's roaming range is the entire room. Naturally, a developer's roaming range should be a certain building or a certain area. The closer one gets to the area where its corpse is located, the stronger its protectiveness and offensive power will be. Once it develops to a certain point, it will prevent the workers outside from further construction on the cemetery where it resides, resulting in the cemetery building where its corpse is located becoming 'unfinished.'"
Bai Liu raised his eyes and held up two fingers. "Then, progressing to this step, there are only two types of cemeteries where this developer is likely to exist."
"The first type is a standalone cemetery."
"The second type is an unfinished building constructed around the cemetery room where it is located at the center."
Bai Liu smiled. "Captain Tang, now that the range has been narrowed down to this extent, as the main attacker, are you confident you can screen the opponent out and shoot them before I die?"
Tang Erda exhaled, his gaze sharp as he pulled out the gun tucked into his lower back. "It is my duty."
—————————————————
District C, under a new residential development.
Yuan Guang had sequentially rescued the residents from upstairs and forcibly sent them home. Having not slept all night, he and Shi Qian were exhausted and just about to find a spot on the construction ground of the new development to lie down and sleep for a few hours to recover their energy when they heard a strange sound of footsteps coming from the new building behind them.
It was a "boing-boing" (pop-pop) sound of footsteps, like countless tentacles moving on the ground, with suckers pulling away and reattaching.
Yuan Guang, who was dozing against a support frame, slowly turned his head and came face-to-face with Director C, whose mouth was split open in a wide grin and whose saliva was dripping down.
"Found you." This Director C, whose head had deformed to the point of being unrecognizable as human, stuck out a thin, long tongue covered in writhing tentacles and licked his lips, saying hoarsely, "Delicious tenants."
Yuan Guang took a deep breath and grabbed the nearby, still-slumbering Shi Qian, turning to run. "Sleep? What sleep! The monster has come to the door! Run!!"
Shi Qian was pulled into a stumble by Yuan Guang, saliva flying from her mouth. She looked back blearily and was instantly jolted awake by the fright. She grabbed Yuan Guang's two feet in reverse and ran forward crazily. "Damn! Why didn't you say so earlier!"
Director C chased after them from behind with a surge of tentacles. Half of his blood-stained face split open, and his long tongue stretched out. The tentacles on it lengthened and straightened into sharp mouthparts like those used by insects to suck blood. He laughed hideously. "Come and buy my house!"
"Don't you want a home of your own?"
Shi Qian ran so fast her feet were almost a blur. While huffing and puffing for breath, she shouted frantically at Yuan Guang, "Yuan Guang, should we use a skill to resist this monster? If this monster takes one of our big skills, we won't have any trump cards left when we face Wandering Circus later!"
Yuan Guang, being dragged by Shi Qian so fast his feet were nearly off the ground, had a solemn expression. "Besides, that skill of mine is too dangerous; I absolutely cannot use it lightly until the very last moment! My summons will attack everyone on the field except me, including you!"
"You shouldn't have entered the game with me!"
Shi Qian did not answer. She just kept looking back while pulling Yuan Guang by the wrist into a small alleyway. She and Yuan Guang leaned against the wall, panting continuously, their eyes fixed and the atmosphere heavy.
"You shouldn't have entered the game with me," Yuan Guang repeated as if talking to himself. "I've always competed alone because the first time I competed, I used my skill, and then…"
"After your summons killed your opponents, they turned around and killed every teammate except you." Shi Qian lowered her head and finished the second half of what Yuan Guang was saying. "From then on, you never entered a team competition again."
Yuan Guang fell into silence.
Shi Qian raised her hand and gave Yuan Guang's head a hard smack. "But how can a team competition with one person be called a team competition?!"
"Rather than having everyone sadly watch you stand on the field alone, as your teammates, we would rather risk being killed by you to stand on the field with you."
Shi Qian raised her head, her eyes slightly red. "Russell Cemetery has never been a guild that sacrifices teammates."
"Weren't you the one who kept telling us that even if we die, we should die within the hope of living? Are we supposed to watch you stand on the field alone, dying in despair amidst those hideous summons?"
Shi Qian clenched her fists. "I can't do it."
Yuan Guang didn't speak; his fingers hanging by his side curled slightly.
The sound of Director C's footsteps approached them again. Shi Qian couldn't help but curse, grabbing Yuan Guang's wrist and jumping out from the other side of the alley, swearing, "Isn't this Director C only able to move within the range of the floors he developed? Is everything nearby developed by him? This movement range is way too wide!"
"The cemetery isn't." Yuan Guang recalled the information he saw at the trading center and quickly told Shi Qian, "The cemeteries in each district were original supporting facilities, not developed by the later proxy developers. We can go there!"
Shi Qian gave an OK gesture and started sprinting toward the cemetery.
However, just as she emerged from the alley, Shi Qian ran head-on into a solid chest. From behind, Director C's arrogant, evil laughter rang out. The person in front of Shi Qian steadily supported her shoulders, then reached to his lower back, drew a gun, and aimed it cleanly at Director C behind them.
"Bang, bang—!" After two gunshots, Director C let out an unwilling and furious roar. Then the roar became weak and trembling, followed by the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground.
Shi Qian looked back instinctively. She saw Director C's corpse on the ground, and then her pupils shrank.
Being able to cleanly deal with such a high-level monster in just two shots… this person could only be…
Even though Shi Qian's face was under strict disguise, the threat of impending death made her tremble uncontrollably. Meanwhile, the man who had just helped her solve the monster problem asked her, "Are you a resident of District C? Are you alright?"
—If they were seen through, this guy could kill her and Yuan Guang with a single shot, leaving no time even to escape.
Shi Qian struggled to compose her expression, took two deep breaths, and turned around.
Tang Erda leaned forward, his brow furrowed as he held her arm, politely asking about her situation. "Is that ghost the developer of the unfinished building in your district?"
"Yes, cough cough, yes." The fear brought by such an overwhelming gap in combat power caused Shi Qian to choke and cough the moment she opened her mouth, her face pale as she shrank into a small ball. "We just bought a house in the new development—no, I don't know why we were suddenly chased."
Yuan Guang was still in a state of stasis. He stared blankly at Bai Liu standing next to Tang Erda, only coming to his senses after Shi Qian poked him hard with her elbow. His consciousness was dazed as he echoed, "Yes, yes, just bought a house, and it became unfinished."
Bai Liu's gaze swept back and forth between the two of them, and he asked with a smile, "Are you two a married couple?"
Shi Qian squeezed out a fake smile and pulled Yuan Guang to stand close beside her. "Yes, yes, just married and bought a house with a loan."
"Oh, is that so?" Bai Liu nonchalantly took out a blood-stained document wrapped in a file bag. "It's like this: we just found an unfinished building in the District E cemetery building, and coincidentally found the remains of District E's largest developer in that unfinished building. Then, after killing—or rather, eliminating—the ghost of the District E developer, we pulled this land certificate out of its corpse."
Bai Liu's lips curled into a faint smile. "Now that the land in District E has returned to normal management, have you considered buying a house in District E instead?"
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu has obtained the District E Land Certificate and stripped it from the body of the District E developer, activating the True End side-quest — Find and destroy all land certificates for the five districts of Sunshine City.]
[Current progress (1/5)]
Bai Liu looked at them with a half-smile and shook the certificate in his hand, his gaze calmly meeting Yuan Guang's. "Newlywed Guild Leader of Russell Cemetery, have you considered giving up the unfinished house you just bought and buying one in District E instead?"
Yuan Guang stared at that land certificate, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks. "How could you…"
Before Yuan Guang could finish his sentence, Bai Liu moved to his side at a speed invisible to the naked eye.
Bai Liu struck the stomach of the not-yet-reacted Yuan Guang with the handle of his whip, while lowering his eyes and chuckling softly into Yuan Guang's ear:
"Yuan Guang, next time you don't want to be recognized, you'd better control the way you look at your enemies."
"The killing intent is too heavy."
The next second, Yuan Guang was sent flying with an expression of shock, crashing into a wall and creating spiderweb cracks. He tumbled down from the wall and knelt on the ground, clutching his stomach and vomiting large mouthfuls of blood.
Bai Liu didn't pause for a moment as he followed up the attack. With an indifferent expression, he raised his whip again and lashed down at the bloodied, staggering Yuan Guang, who was trying to stand up.
Shi Qian's pupils constricted. "Yuan Guang!!"
Yuan Guang looked up with a dazed expression as a snow-white whip, sprouting sharp bone barbs on both sides, smashed down toward his face.