Quadruple split.

Chapter 2528: The Underworld

[My name is Kuang Dalei, and I’m a third-class operator of the Viper Chamber of Commerce.

I never expected that an accident would occur on my first mission after I became a regular employee. The reason was very simple. That was the so-called team of adventurers who were only at the intermediate level. There were at least three monsters in that team who were so powerful that they could easily kill me to pieces.

These monsters are the great Onmyoji Gu Xiaole and Ye Ge, who were the champions and runners-up in the team and individual battles of [Battle of Guilt], and Mo, who was able to fight Xinglong head-on.

As for me, Kuang Dalei, although there is the word "Kuang" in my name, it does not mean that I am really crazy.

Even if I am a little crazy, it doesn't mean I am a fool.

I am confident that I can handle a team of adventurers with an average strength of mid-level. In fact, even if there are one or two high-level adventurers of average level among them, I am confident that I can complete the task. However, the goal of this task is obviously beyond my ability.

If I wasn't very clear, it would probably be because the other party was not worthy of attention, which led to the delay in information. Moreover, I myself was just a third-class operator with mediocre conditions. I even suspected that someone wanted to take the opportunity to kill me.

but--

I don't think this is a bad thing.

Of course I am aware that as the leading evil force on the continent, our [Viper Chamber of Commerce] punishes losers extremely harshly. But at least as far as this mission is concerned, the problem lies not with me, the executor, but with the investigators who are responsible for following up on the relevant intelligence, so I will not bear any responsibility.

Not only that, according to organizational regulations, I will not be punished for helping to update target intelligence, and I will even receive certain rewards.

Even though I only have information on Mo, Ye Ge and the great Onmyoji Gu Xiaole, and it’s content that can be easily found by simply searching on the Internet, but considering that the organization still doesn’t know the details of the [PAW Adventurer Team], whether this information is not provided to the organization by other players, or the organization has not matched those three people with the [PAW Adventurer Team], my information will be very valuable!

I believe that it won’t be long before I get a promotion and a raise, become a team leader, and have a sexual relationship with a beautiful NPC girl.

But now, the most urgent task is to find the organization's base in Anka Market——】

……

"Ah this..."

Bathed in the bright morning sun, Kuang Dalei stared blankly at the building in front of him that had been deserted half a month ago. It was so empty that even a mudkachu would have to cry when he walked out. He felt numb all over.

"You all right young man?"

The orc lady who was sitting in front of the grocery store next door and basking in the sun turned to look at Kuang Dalei and asked enthusiastically, "Do they owe you money too?"

Kuang Dalei was stunned immediately: "Owe money?"

"Yes, didn't this group of people go bankrupt due to poor management? I heard that they owed a lot of money to others."

The old lady pointed to the signboard with [Hai Lan Pawnshop] in front of the empty space and sighed, "Hey, that young boss is quite nice. We've been neighbors for a few years, and he's helped us a lot. He even helped the kids with their lessons. But... Tsk, the world is in a bad state. Big players like the Gold Coin Chamber of Commerce are getting richer and richer, but these young people who are doing business honestly..."

"..."

Kuang Dalei ignored the aunt's muttering next door. After a long silence, he walked into the building in front of him, which was once called [Hai Lan Pawnshop] and was also the [Viper Chamber of Commerce Anka Fourth Branch Headquarters].

Because the names matched, Kuang Dalei was now certain that the so-called Hailan Pawn was the Fourth Branch. As for the excuses about poor management and owing a lot of money, he naturally did not believe a word of it. You have to know that this is Anka Market, and even if the organization is the fourth branch ranked last locally, the monthly funding is astronomical. Not to mention the extra money, after exchanging it for money outside the game, it is at least enough to buy a gasoline-powered car.

Considering that the person who pawned Hai Lan did not disappear into thin air, but said goodbye to the neighbors around him, it can be seen that this was a premeditated and planned event, but most likely there was no time to report it, or the information had been reported but the [Black Slime Special Warfare Regiment·17th Logistics Volunteer Team·Fire Dog Commando] to which he belonged had not yet been updated.

But it doesn't matter, if Kuang Dalei guessed correctly -

【Yes! 】

Sure enough, after a brief search, the third-class operator found a small mark in the corner of the wall.

In fact, it was more like 'dirt' than a 'mark'.

From a visual point of view, it can be roughly understood as a dirty and clearly defined thing on the wall, mainly composed of dust and scratches, after a piece of furniture that has been placed somewhere for a long time has been moved away.

The reason why Kuang Dalei noticed this place was based on some angle calculation methods that only Viper insiders knew about, which were different according to different house types and door and window arrangements. For example, this building used to be Hai Lan Pawnshop. Taking into account the door position, number of windows, interior layout and approximate area, the area where "information" may be left will be narrowed down to a specific range. Within that range, the most distinctive thing is the piece of dirt that seems to have no information and only reveals hidden information after being sprayed with a specific potion.

From this we can see that the Viper Chamber of Commerce is a very mature criminal gang. Compared to many young, naive and arrogant self-proclaimed villains, at least they are impeccable in terms of contact codes and do not use any fancy signs.

As far as Mo Tan knows, every day in this world there are a few desperate evil forces that are forced to disband. They are either killed completely or have no business at all and almost starve to death. Among these organizations, the vast majority are new organizations that were established between 3 and 300 days ago.

I don't know why, but there are always many people in this world who think that doing bad things is promising, and thus ignore the many risks of this market, such as high risk, high elimination, high mortality rate, etc., and only see the three words "high returns" which seem golden on the surface but are made up of countless blood and suffering.

Or, many people see the so-called blood and suffering, but mistakenly understand that it is the blood of innocent people and the suffering of good people, and as the "villains", all they need to do is to step on the former to success, and then become the best.

They don't even want to think about whether they have the qualities to become a... uh, qualified villain, they just simply think it's cool!

Mo Tan still remembers that when he was in school, there seemed to be a few children in each class (or simply a class consisting of one or two such children). They were generally unruly and eccentric, and especially liked to show off in front of the "ordinary children" in their perception. These people would protect you with their mouths open and take charge of you with their mouths closed. They liked to make dirty jokes and compete in tug-of-war games, and were proud of how many strong men they had fought alone last weekend, not long ago, or in the last school (not now anyway).

There is no doubt that they all thought they were pretty cool at the time.

Out of interest, Mo Tan also tracked and collected follow-up intelligence on some of these people, including those from elementary school, junior high school and high school. Although he only used it to pass the time, the conclusions were quite interesting.

First is the less dramatic part, which is that although the "success rate" of these people is not very high, it is not shockingly low either. In fact, a considerable proportion of them do quite well later on, which is a conclusion that will disappoint many people.

Then, among these people who later did well, quite a number of them were very secretive about their "cool" years. Although Mo Tan felt that they would definitely talk about it when they reached middle age, at least at this stage, these guys who were either his peers or seniors would never talk about their cool past lives as long as they were doing well.

The reason is simple: they were beaten by society earlier than most of their peers because of some seemingly "cool" things.

Literally - a very vicious and painful blow.

As for those lucky unfortunates, that is, those who did not experience beatings until college or entered society, they have now generally become "losers" in the literal sense and live a life that is not cool at all.

Of course, there are also a small number of people who have indeed gained some power, status and wealth in places where the sun does not shine, but when they really realized their "past" dreams, they became completely different from the past, even more low-key than those peers who were once looked down upon by them but are now able to spend their youth on the basketball court, football field or in front of the computer.

When these people look at the people they once thought were not cool, the emotion that surges out of their hearts is often pure envy. A few years ago, Mo Tan met a classmate who had bullied him and helped him in junior high school. He was a rare person who had truly entered the "evil path" and was quite well-known. However, the latter laughed at himself that his current life was a mess. One of the happiest things in these years was actually seeing his former classmates.

"Brother, you remind me of those silly days."

The man, whose once unruly blond hair had turned into a black buzz cut and whose tattoos were not washed off but were mostly covered by his shirt, took a deep puff of his cigarette and sighed, "It was so good back then."

The little leader, who was only in his twenties but looked as if his body had been hollowed out by life, stretched and patted Mo Tan's shoulder hard. The corners of his mouth twitched a little, and although he looked like he wanted to make a joke, his expression was unusually stiff.

He seemed to have forgotten how to laugh from the bottom of his heart.

He realized this, but was still happy -

"Ma Tang, turn out from the back intersection. If someone stops you, just say you're an old classmate of 'Phineas'."

Because he had offended someone who was a bit difficult to deal with, but in order to prevent those ignorant little brats like himself from getting bullied, the little leader, who was going to give himself a chance to keep things quiet, threw the cigarette butt on the ground and tried to force a very 'cool' smile: "Don't come to this kind of place in the future, it's too messy and not fun."

"Brother Fei, what are you talking about?"

Mo Tan, who had been making a killing in the market half an hour ago and successfully converted the fishmonger Zhang to Buddhism, raised the corner of his mouth exaggeratedly and said happily: "I remember you said that only such a chaotic place is fun."

"Xiao Ma you..."

Fei Ge, who had misremembered Mo Tan's name, curled his lips, then put his arm around Mo Tan's shoulders and said in a low voice, "Be obedient, there will be something going on here soon, stay away."

"Oh?"

Mo Tan laughed even more happily and asked excitedly, "What's the matter? Can I take a look?!"

"You boy."

Brother Fei narrowed his eyes, and after a long while, he looked sullen and asked with a cigarette-smelling mouth, "Holding a grudge? Did I bully you when I was in school?"

Mo Tan shook his head and said with a smile: "Brother Fei, you are overthinking. Everyone knows that you are a righteous man."

"Fuck, no matter what I did back then, I'm going to fucking apologize to you. If I ever 'borrowed' money from you, just give me a number and I'll transfer it to you now."

Brother Fei gnashed his teeth and said with a gloomy expression, "Then get out of here right away. Do you hear me? I'm..."

"You can't even protect yourself right now, and you still have time to act like a coward in front of me?"

A very social person in every sense of the word strolled over from not far away, with a group of people strolling with him behind him. At first glance, few of them were more handsome than Brother Fei, but their faces were more ferocious than Brother Fei.

Brother Fei didn't say much, just said that the "little horse" next to him was someone he bullied when he was in school, and he came to settle the score with him.

Then the other party said that they had to settle their accounts with Fei Ge first, and since "Xiao Ma" was here, they might as well be settled together so that everyone would benefit.

What happened next was very boring.

Basically, Fei Ge wanted Xiao Ma to run first, but Xiao Ma directly asked the other party where the leader was from, and then made a phone call for the other party to answer.

And then...it became a big deal.

Then, Fei Ge wanted to invite Xiao Ma to have a drink and reminisce about the past, but Xiao Ma had no intention of giving Fei Ge the honor.

Among all the "bad kids" that Mo Tan has known since he was a child, he is the only one who can ignore the face of most people in most situations, and can make many people give him face in places where the sun doesn't shine.

Whether it is Brother Fei, or Brother Ji, Brother B, Brother Qiang, or Brother Wei, he is not willing to waste even a second of his time on the other party.

Mo Tan just gave Fei Ge a contact number and said that if he called tomorrow and said the name "Ma Ge", the other party would find a way to make him return to his not-at-all-cool life.

As for what happened later, Mo Tan didn't know.

After all, the owner of that contact information is just an ordinary tool, and a third-rate tool who can only receive instructions from Mo Tan unilaterally and doesn't even know who the latter is.

So I had no interest in asking Mo Tan about the follow-up, and I didn’t know whether Fei Ge had contacted that person.

He only knew that the so-called underworld was cruel and not cool to most people.

It may be the last way out for people in desperate situations, or it may be the forced and helpless situation. But for the naive people who rush into it without sufficient awareness, the so-called underworld will only be a nightmare that makes everything a mess.

Not only that, this nightmare not only does not give any rewards to those who persist in it, but will even continue to demand a price.

In a society ruled by law outside the game, the cost might still be barely kept within a controllable range.

But in a place like the [Realm of Innocence], most people who think they can do things under the table and try to be the "bad guy" without even knowing their own competitiveness often pay the price with their lives.

……

"It's a pity that they thought joining Viper was some kind of game like playing house."

Not long ago, he personally planned the deaths of fifty-nine players. In the past three years, he had been the boss of [Aquamarine Pawnshop] and the first-class deacon of [Viper Chamber of Commerce]. Vito Theresa casually threw the parchment filled with the names of the aliens into the brazier, and then raised the empty cup on the table without sincerity to salute the flames.

“I hope that you can make more responsible decisions for yourself in the rest of your life.”

Chapter 2519: The End