Chapter 8

Notorious

"Musheng." The village chief produced his prized tea leaves, brewed a cup, and pressed it into Chao Musheng's hands. "Have some tea, have some tea."

Chao Musheng had the distinct feeling this tea was going to cost him something.

"Come on, have a sip."

"Chief, it's a bit hot." Steam from the tea wafted into his face. Chao Musheng pushed the damp strands of hair off his forehead — still wet from the rain. "If there's something you need, just say it."

"It's nothing much." The village chief picked up a newspaper and fanned it over the cup to cool it down. "The viewers in the livestream are a little curious about you. Do you think you could..."

"Me?" Chao Musheng pointed at himself. "I've never done a livestream before. Would I cause problems for you?"

"No trouble at all, no trouble." Seeing that Chao Musheng wasn't refusing outright, the village chief immediately pulled him over and sat him down in front of the camera. "Here, eat some loquats."

The viewer count had already climbed past a hundred, and as the audience got their first look at the young man on screen — hair slightly disheveled, features strikingly handsome — the comment section erupted.

[！]

[Uncle, how could you have been hiding someone like this?! He's a natural salesman!]

[Girls, get in here — there's a hot guy!]

The viewer count began climbing wildly, leaping from a hundred to two hundred, then rocketing from two hundred to three hundred...

"Hm?" Chao Musheng noticed the gift effects cascading across the screen. "Looks-based streamer?"

"Please don't send gifts, everyone — don't send gifts." He quickly switched off the gift function. "Hello everyone. This is an agricultural support stream — we're selling locally grown produce from the village."

He picked up the product information sheet from the table, gave it a quick once-over, and began responding to the viewers' questions.

[Streamer, you're so handsome — are you a professional?]

"I'm a student visiting family. Not a professional streamer."

The village chief, seated beside him, jumped in to clarify: "Xiao Sheng came back this time to spend the holiday with his grandparents. He's not a streamer, and he's not a village committee staff member."

[Uncle, you really do treat us like family — you're even bringing out good-looking guys for us to see. Loquats ordered. Any chance the young man can stay and chat with us a while?]

Chao Musheng glanced at the backend sales figures. They'd already sold dozens of orders.

Once loquats were ripe, leaving them on the tree too long caused them to shrivel, crack, and drop. He needed to sell as many as possible.

"What would everyone like to talk about?" Chao Musheng smiled at the camera. "Let me read through the comments."

The viewers: !

A face that good-looking, and a smile that clean — who could hold out against that?

Certainly not them.

The village chief and the village Party secretary watched the sales figures climb and climb, too excited to know which way was up.

They wouldn't have to worry about fruit rotting on the trees anymore.

Chao Musheng picked a loquat from the fruit bowl, peeled it clean, and held it up to the camera: "Our village loquats are large, juicy, and high in sweetness. We eat them ourselves — guaranteed no pesticide residue. They've soaked in sunshine and rain, all to meet you in their most perfect form."

[Those fingers — so slender and beautiful. They look delicious. I mean the loquats!]

The viewer count kept climbing. At some point it had crossed five thousand and was still rising.

[Streamer, you're so good-looking, and your voice is so pleasant to listen to. Fine, it's just loquats — I'm buying right now.]

"Gone." The village Party secretary had been watching the backend data without blinking. His voice cracked with excitement: "Everyone — the loquats are sold out!"

"Thank you so much for the warmth and support from everyone in the stream. Our loquats have now completely sold out." Chao Musheng took a sip of the tea, which had gone cold. There were stars in his eyes. "We're truly grateful. It's raining out there right now — and your help has been the real rain that came just when we needed it."

[The streamer's eyes are so beautiful — my heart is pounding.]

[His eyes probably look tender and soulful even when he's staring at a dog, but he said WE were his timely rain~]

The viewers didn't want Chao Musheng to end the stream, and flooded the comments begging them to keep selling something — anything.

And so the village's peanuts, walnuts, and even locally handcrafted goods all found their way to new customers.

*

Outside the activity center, Lone Wolf was crouched in a corner, his hands and feet gone numb in the night wind.

It was early summer by all accounts, yet the wind carried a bone-cutting chill. He stared at Chao Musheng through the window of the activity center, his eyes reddening with fury.

Three hours. He had been crouching here for a full three hours.

When were they going to leave?!

With every health point that ticked away, the anxiety gnawing at Lone Wolf's chest grew sharper, and his hatred for Chao Musheng darker.

Time dragged on. The people inside showed no sign of moving.

After what felt like an eternity, the rain gradually stopped. Lone Wolf looked toward the east, where the first pale light of dawn was seeping into the sky. He pressed one hand against the wall and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

In his other hand was a dagger — a prize he had earned in the Prison Instance.

The dagger's original owner had been a serial killer. In that instance, Lone Wolf had assisted the killer in disposing of victims, completing the run with a perfect clear to obtain the weapon.

The dagger was only A-rank, but it had one extremely useful skill: One-Hit Kill.

Any target struck by the blade — regardless of where they were hit — would die. No exceptions.

*

The livestream ended. The village Party secretary seized Chao Musheng's hand and gripped it tightly: "Xiao Sheng, you really are the hope of this entire village. Go get some proper sleep — dinner's on us tomorrow."

Having pulled an all-nighter, the village Party secretary and the village chief were both bright-eyed with excitement, beaming at Chao Musheng with all the warmth of doting elders.

The village chief had already spent the past while singing Chao Musheng's praises in the "Chaojia Bay Family" group chat, every message practically vibrating with enthusiasm.

Even that wasn't enough. He then opened the inter-village committee contact group and sent a screenshot of the backend sales figures.

[Wangjiagou Village Chief: ?]

[Anzhou Stockade Village Chief: ?]

[Guozigou Village Chief: Are you Chaojia Bay faking your online sales?]

[Chaojia Bay Village Chief: So sorry — wrong group. Can't unsend after two minutes. Oh dear, how embarrassing.]

[Chaojia Bay Village Chief: @GuozigouVillageChief It's entirely thanks to the enthusiasm of our viewers. Faking sales is false advertising — we would never do that.]

[Chaojia Bay Village Chief: With this many orders, what's the best way to get everything packed in the shortest amount of time? Any suggestions?]

The other village chiefs had no desire to respond, and found Chaojia Bay's village chief extremely tiresome.

*

Chao Musheng yawned his way to the door, reached for the handle, then remembered Grandpa's thermos — still forgotten inside — and turned back to get it.

Lone Wolf's strike hit empty air. He watched Chao Musheng reverse direction without warning, and the murderous intent churning in his eyes surged.

"Musheng, hold on." The village Party secretary called him back, wrapped half a bag of tea leaves in newspaper, and tucked it into his arms. "Your grandfather likes this tea — take it home to him."

"Thank you, uncle." Chao Musheng was so exhausted his head was swimming. Without paying much attention to what was being pressed into his arms, he turned and headed back out.

He stepped through the door and caught a face full of cold morning air, rocking back slightly. "Hiss — the temperature really dropped last night. That wind is cold."

"Here, put my jacket on." The village Party secretary, fearing that the village's greatest asset might catch a chill, called him back yet again and rummaged through the cabinet for a coat, draping it over Chao Musheng's shoulders. "My son bought this for me. Haven't worn it yet."

"Oh my, it's a brand name too." The village chief spotted the tags still dangling from it. "This coat isn't cheap — your son really spares no expense for you."

Chao Musheng recognized the brand — Dinosaur Men's Wear, which had recently gone viral online for its outrageously over-the-top advertisements. Internet users had taken to mockingly calling it "the one and only brand certified to resist a thousand charging warriors."

But this was a son's gift to his father, a token of filial devotion. Chao Musheng didn't feel right wearing it.

"What does it matter to wear it for a little while!" The village Party secretary refused to let him take it off. "You're heading back to school in a couple of days — you can't afford to get sick from the cold."

"I'll bring it back to you this afternoon then." Unable to refuse the village Party secretary's kindness, Chao Musheng walked out the door wearing a coat that, according to its advertisements, could withstand a meteor strike.

*

Seeing Chao Musheng finally emerge, Lone Wolf fell into step behind him without expression. When they reached a bend in the road with no one in sight, he raised the dagger and drove it hard into Chao Musheng's back.

The instant the blade made contact, Lone Wolf felt a tremendous force slam into him and hurl him backward. He went flying through the air.

Wind moved through the grass. Chao Musheng slowed to a stop and turned to look behind him.

Something had seemed to touch his back just now. Was he so tired he was hallucinating?

"Woof woof woof."

The plump little yellow dog came barreling out of the undergrowth, circled Chao Musheng's feet several times, then went wagging its tail back into the bushes, biting and scuffling at something within.

"Dahuang, how did you sneak out of Sister Ling's place again?" Chao Musheng lifted it out of the bushes by the scruff. "Come on — I'm taking you back."

"Whine." Dahuang tried to burrow into his arms. Chao Musheng held it at arm's length. "Not with the new jacket."

Lone Wolf lay flat on the ground and watched the young man and the dog disappear down the lane. The dog's claw marks were raked across his face. His expression was one of pure, hollow despair and hatred.

The dagger... why hadn't it worked on Chao Musheng?

[Player Toxic Male has suffered an attack. Under the negative effects of Canine Venom, health is continuously declining.]

[Warning: Your health has dropped below 10. Please complete the instance objective as soon as possible in order to exit the instance in time.]

A drop of dew slid from a leaf and landed on Lone Wolf's face.

He recalled the exchange between the old couple beside Chao Musheng at noon the previous day.

Precious darling... precious darling...

Chao Musheng...

They'd all been deceived by the instance. Perhaps Chao Musheng was the true final boss all along.

[Warning: Your health has dropped below 5. Please complete the instance objective as soon as possible in order to exit the instance in time.]

[Ding!]

[Player Toxic Male's health has reached zero. Eliminated by the instance. Remaining players are advised to exercise extreme caution and value their lives.]

Toxic Male?

The players, jolted awake by the system notification, broke into a cold sweat several seconds too late. They had been sharing an instance with the notorious Toxic Male?!

Toxic Male had killed countless players. For the sake of mission rewards, he was known to eliminate every other player in his instance without exception. His reputation among the player community was nothing short of infamous.

And yet even Toxic Male had died in this instance — quietly, without fanfare. As for the rest of them, how were they supposed to find a way through?

*

"Stay in the yard and don't go wandering off." Chao Musheng shut Dahuang inside Sister Ling's courtyard. "Keep running away and I'll smack those little legs of yours."

"Whimper." Dahuang gave him a mournful tail wag. Seeing that Chao Musheng remained unmoved, the dog could only slink back to its kennel in defeat.

Satisfied, Chao Musheng turned for home. Halfway there, he ran into two of the tourists out for an early-morning walk. Fresh from helping the village sell out its fruit, he was in high spirits, and called out a greeting: "Good morning."

"Good morning." Chubby noticed the rain boots on Chao Musheng's feet. "Out for a walk too, mate?"

"No, just heading back from the activity center." Chao Musheng's smile was bright, his gaze toward them easy and warm.

The activity center...

Chubby's stomach lurched. That was exactly where Toxic Male had slipped off to in secret last night.

He stared fixedly at the space just above Chao Musheng's head. Still no affinity rating. Still no Important NPC marker.

The sun had risen, but an endless tide of cold seemed to be closing in from every direction.

"What are you looking at?" Chao Musheng asked. "Is there something strange on my head?"

He was so sleepy. He really wanted to go to bed.

Their eyes met, and Chubby realized for the first time that the man's irises were an unusually deep black — like a abyss with no visible bottom.