Douluo Continent: Starting with controlling Ning Rongrong and establishing the Holy Cult

"I survived," she murmured, her feet already moving.

After what happened, she no longer wanted to stay in the city; she wanted to get back to school as soon as possible and tell...

Before she could finish thinking, Ning Rongrong heard that familiar voice again.

"By the way, our meeting today is a secret. Don't mention my existence to anyone. In return, I can tell you that you've been targeted by the Holy Spirit Cult. Be careful."

Ning Rongrong felt another chill run down her spine. She had no doubt that revealing the secret would lead to her being killed. It seemed this secret could only remain buried in her heart, and besides—

What do you mean by being targeted by the Holy Spirit Cult just because you disrupted a saint's ceremony?

I'm innocent! I didn't even do it; it was my body that did it!

Some things become more and more terrifying the more you think about them, so Ning Rongrong stopped thinking and simply returned to Shrek Academy.

Back at Shrek Academy, I had no appetite left.

Ning Rongrong hurried back to her dormitory, where Zhu Zhuqing was still diligently cultivating. She stared at Zhu Zhuqing for a few seconds, but ultimately didn't utter a single word.

At the grilled fish restaurant, Huo Shengsheng ate her fish and finally met the person she had been waiting for.

The black-haired girl sat down opposite her, looked at the three fish that had been eaten clean, and hesitated before speaking: "What do you want from me? Someone is pursuing me very closely. You'd better really have something to say, Miss Manager."

"Oh, I need you to come and pay my bill."

"and then?"

"It's gone."

"That's it, and that's it?" The black-haired girl scratched her head, a little confused about the thought process of the person in front of her.

“Yes.” Huo Shengsheng replied shamelessly.

"Hey, what are you doing~" the black-haired girl snapped.

"Here, you should try some, it's delicious."

Huo Shengsheng pushed a grilled fish in front of the other person, picked up a piece of meat and forced it into the other person's mouth.

"Hmm...it's not bad, alright, I forgive you." The black-haired girl ate her grilled fish, then changed the subject, "Since you have nothing else to say, then I'll tell you. There's a traitor within the Holy Spirit Cult, do you know who it is?"

Huo Shengsheng paused, and in that pause, the fish she picked up fell onto her plate.

"Traitor? They've all joined the Holy Spirit Cult, how could there be a traitor? Even a spy should have been assimilated by now."

"Yes, I think so too. But how do we explain the leak of the location of the saintess ritual?"

"Huh? It really got leaked?" Huo Shengsheng's movements became practiced again. "If it really got leaked, how could you be here, a candidate for the third Saintess Ceremony? Your presence here means the third Saintess Ceremony should have been successful."

The black-haired girl's expression suddenly turned melancholy.

"Success is not that easy."

-

Ning Fengzhi and Gu Rong have been investigating the third Holy Maiden Ceremony for a day now. Since receiving the intelligence a day ago, they have been searching the entire city of Soto.

The faint black mist above Soto City indicated that the Saintess Ceremony was about to take place here, but no suitable location could be found within Soto City.

This caused them considerable distress.

"Is there a problem with the intelligence?" Gu Rong asked Ning Fengzhi, who was standing beside him, looking at the black mist in the sky.

"The intelligence came from a spy within the Holy Spirit Cult. He's a spy personally certified by the Spirit Hall, so he's absolutely trustworthy..."

Ning Fengzhi shook his head.

"Oh? Who is that spy?"

"I can't say, and the Spirit Hall didn't tell me either."

Chapter 29 Lu Ma: This profession is called Ning Rongrong

Why didn't you answer my calls?

"Why did you call me? And what do you mean by not saying anything after I answered?"

In the evening, we had a farmhouse restaurant, in a private room for two.

A man and a woman of similar height stood facing each other, their hands resting on a small table.

"I'll call you when I have time! I won't say anything because what I want to say is hard to explain over the phone!"

The woman puffed out her cheeks.

"You're free, but I'm playing games, I'm not free!"

Lu Ma shrugged, showing no sign of shyness whatsoever.

The man opposite him is Sima Xi, Lu Ma's best friend. Lu Ma always speaks his mind when it comes to his best friend.

"You didn't invite me to play games at all. I really regret turning down the live streaming gig for you. Your live stream time is from 6 pm to 10 pm, and your special live stream for your new game finished yesterday at noon. I've been waiting for so many days, just to play games with you today, and what do you do? You play games by yourself without inviting me?"

When Sima Xi heard that Lu Ma was playing games instead of answering the phone, he became even angrier.

"How can I call you when I'm playing a single-player game? Will you come test it with me?"

"test?"

Sima Xi's expression changed very quickly. One second she was angry, and the next she was puzzled. She sat down and stared straight at Lu Ma.

"What test? You've received a business order?"

Lu Ma sat down, nodded proudly, picked up the menu on the table, and randomly ticked off a few signature dishes.

"Finally, someone has recognized my talent."

"Stop bragging. Do you think I don't know what your talents are? If I hadn't pushed you to get those business deals back then, you'd probably be working in some factory right now."

Sima Xi rolled her eyes at Lu Ma, took the menu, and then paused for a moment.

"You ordered such a lavish meal, are you trying to starve yourself? What serious illness have you contracted that you've given up on treatment? Tell me, and I'll... push a few more orders onto you."

Sima Xi wanted to give Lu Ma money directly, but she knew Lu Ma's personality. If she gave him money directly, he definitely wouldn't accept it. But if she gave him a business order or something similar, which was a roundabout way of giving money, Lu Ma might accept it.

For example, the commercial order that Lu Ma started live streaming was recommended by her. The price was 100 yuan a day for four hours of live streaming.

Looking at the dishes checked off on the menu, which probably cost more than 500 yuan in total, Sima Xi was a little worried about Lu Ma. They had agreed on WeChat that Lu Ma would treat them to this meal.

"Huh?" Lu Ma looked blank, then realized, "I'm not sick, I just got a big order and now I have money."

"A big order?"

Sima Xi frowned.

"Yeah, a mysterious client suddenly contacted me, asking me to test a single-player game and even paying me a deposit of 30,000 yuan. Shouldn't I treat my good buddy now that I'm rich?"

"A mysterious client, single-player mode, 30,000?" Sima Xi frowned even more. "What do they need you for?"

"Just... testing the game."

"That's it? What about the details? Making a guide, finding bugs?"

"Uh... I'm looking for places that might cause discomfort during the trip."

"Why would they choose you? You're not very popular, and you're only streaming commercial games based on the Douluo IP. There's no reason for them to choose you..."

"Hey, are you putting me down?"

Lu Ma looked at Sima Xi, who had gotten himself into this mess, and felt a little dissatisfied.

"No, that's not what I meant. Forget about it, just consider yourself lucky. Did you sign any confidentiality agreements or anything like that?"

Lu Ma shook his head. Aside from the game package, patches, instructions, and money, the dolphin-headed guy hadn't sent him anything else.

There was no confidentiality agreement signed.

"Strange." Sima Xi clicked her tongue and called over a waiter to hand over the menu. She didn't add any dishes; Lu Ma's few orders alone might not be enough to finish them all.

Back in his seat, looking at Lu Ma who was lost in his daydream, Sima Xi thought for a moment and then spoke:

"Let's talk about this single-player game then. You're not going to try to brush me off with some 'professional ethics' excuse again, are you?"

"No, no." Lu Ma gave an embarrassed smile.

"What type is it?"

"It's an action role-playing game set in the Douluo Continent universe, but... it's a little different. Perhaps to fit the theme, monsters and other creatures have been added to the game."

“Douluo Continent, single-player…” Sima Xi and Lu Ma had the same reaction. Clearly, Sima Xi also found it difficult to connect the two words.

As for what the monster is, that's a minor matter.

"Okay, let's ignore that for now. What about the gameplay?"

"Similar to the Old Man's Ring, it involves exploration and combat."

Lu Ma reflected on his gaming experience; he realized he spent the vast majority of his time fighting and searching for treasure chests.

"However, this game has many problems."

"Oh? Tell me about it?"

"His guidance was terrible, just like the guidance in My World!"

Does my world have a guide?

“In the version I played, it didn’t have that,” Lu Ma continued to explain. “The game’s tutorial completely obscures the main storyline and how to trigger it. It’s not like Dark Souls, where you start with a boss that you can’t beat and just run away to collect equipment and come back to fight.”

"You mean there's a missing initial objective?"

"Correct!"

Lu Ma nodded heavily.

"So how did you solve this problem?"

"I overheard about the mission by chance."

"A coincidence?"

“Right!” Lu Ma thought for a moment. If he hadn’t gone to the main hall, he probably wouldn’t have received this quest, and he would have been in real trouble. To prevent the other party from saying that it wasn’t a coincidence, he added, “Besides, there are no new quest prompts after this quest is completed. Guess how the game solves this problem?”

"How was it resolved?"

"He sent me a patch that directly put me into the Shrek Academy storyline, where I fight Zhao Wuji!"