Chapter 101

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

【Queen of Diamonds is out. 】

【King of Diamonds is out. 】

The system prompts that were not more than five minutes apart made Qi Leren relieved. He looked around, but didn’t bother cleaning up the scene. Instead he rolled over and fell from the balcony outside, then left the murder scene before security came.

There are four opponents left.

And also a lover.

Qi Leren leaned against the wall of the dark alley and took out the Queen of Spades in his pocket. His current body is called Alan, codenamed Whiskey, the secret assassin from the Irish mafias, who’s responsible of doing the dirty work.

When he entered the copy, he was alone in a house. Based on the system prompt, Qi Leren quickly targeted the winery where Billy died and went to find Bond for clues——after all, the reward is 30 days——anyways, let’s just wait and see (1). While talking to Bond, Qi Leren quickly found out that the male prostitute in front of him was full of flaws. He deliberately approached him to flirt with him, and the other party’s awful reactions simply told Qi Leren that he was a fake.

When the door was kicked open and a gun was pointed at Qi Leren’s head, he pretended to be frightened and ran away, but actually left the door ajar and listened from a corner.

Even though using items and skill cards is prohibited in the copy, as well as fields and half-fields, Qi Leren isn’t a rookie who can’t do anything without skill cards.

He was quite “delighted”, eliminating two opponents one after another in less than two hours since starting time.

Perhaps, this copy will not be as difficult as he imagined, Qi Leren thought, relieved.

After all, the Prophet did say there won’t be any danger this time.

Of course, that’s not what he actually said.

“This quest is pretty interesting.” When Qi Leren went to find the Prophet, he was napping on the sofa. He wasn’t surprised when he saw Qi Leren, seems like he knew he was coming. “There are occasionally quests like this in the Village of Dusk, since there’s a ‘quest station’ here.”

Qi Leren surely knows what the quest station is. The “Castle Cry” quest was found in the quest station. Its existence in the Nightmare World makes it feel more like a game rather than a real world.

“How did the quest station came to be?” Qi Leren asked. “Can you add buildings with particular functions as you please once the field reaches a certain level, kind of like playing “Sim City” (2)?”

“About that, I made a deal with it.” The Prophet blinked then said vaguely, “After all, the more tasks you can do, the faster you guys will level up.”

“Who’s ‘it’?”

The Prophet smiled mysteriously: “A goldfish.”

Qi Leren is about to get a psychological shadow (3) because of the goldfish. He keenly remembered how the Seyu witch (4) had said that Su He is taking care of a goldfish.

This goldfish is certainly not an ordinary goldfish, it seems to just be a codename for it.

“What kind of thing is the goldfish supposed to be?” Qi Leren asked.

“It’s not a thing, even more so a living creature, you can’t judge it with the human eyesight and logic. It doesn’t have humanly intentions and emotions, not even thoughts. The world it sees is also very different from the world we see with the human eyes. We can never understand each other. If I had to describe it with words, it’s the will of the world.”

Qi Leren could vaguely guess what the goldfish is.

It’s definitely not an actual goldfish, nor is it a person. It’s like a key that controls this world, and it seems to be invincible and omnipotent, but extremely vulnerable. It’s definitely restrained by something, so it’s confined inside the ‘goldfish bowl’ by the Devil of Fraud and the rest.

“Do you want to set it free?” Qi Leren finally asked.

The Prophet chuckled: “No one would want to set it free. Me, them, you, saints, thugs, careerists (5), the way of the savior only leads to one end….”

Qi Leren started blankly at the Prophet, and three shocking words left his (6) lips:

“We replace it.”

These words really moved Qi Leren. He had stepped onto the stage from an audience full of nameless spectators and seen a corner behind the curtain, but he was far from expecting that the cheerful actors on the stage had already been ambitiously planning for the starry sea.

Since the Prophet had personally confirmed that fields and half-fields can’t be opened in this copy, Qi Leren’s uneasy heart finally settled down. Even if Su He appeared, he won’t be afraid. He didn’t believe that he and Ning Zhou won’t be able to deal with Su He who can’t open his field.

He asked how the Prophet knew about the quest’s restrictions, and the Prophet just smiled mysteriously: “Originally there was none, but I added a new restriction for this quest——it’s forbidden to open fields and half-fields in the quest.

“Can anyone at field level interfere with the quest?” Qi Leren asked, he had seen Su He do something similar before, and it left a deep impression for him.

“How messy would that be.” The Prophet rolled his eyes in a downright manner. “It needs a handsome and full of the protagonist halo genius like me.”

“….Su He is also like that.” Qi Leren reminded.

The Prophet’s expression froze for a second, and soon after he showed a familiar sly smile:

“Who do you think taught Su He?”

While Qi Leren was still in shock, the Prophet eloquently said: “I had three students in total, and he was the last one. Back then, his name wasn’t Su He.”

Knock knock.

There was a knocking on the door of this dark and cramped apartment.

Qi Leren set the newspaper aside, stood up from the sofa, and observed the person outside.

It was a beautiful young woman, all dressed up in a trendy style. Compared to the dirty and narrow corridors of this cheap apartment, she was more like a rich celebrity who lives in a grand clubhouse.

“Alan, are you there?” The woman outside the door knocked again, then she spoke while crying, “It’s me, Willow.”

That name is all too familiar. This woman’s name appeared on the quest background, the fiancé of the unlucky man Billy, the Irish mafia’s young madam.

Why is she acquainted with a desperado (7) like Whiskey?

Qi Leren opened the door, then Willow grabbed his hand and said: “Alan, my father was captured!”

“Don’t be so hasty, come in and talk slowly.” Qi Leren pulled her in and closed the door.

Although this body’s original memories are no longer there, he can still obtain some useful information from the minutiae (8)——Willow came to Alan at such a critical moment, and the relationship between the two was definitely not bad.

“Who captured the boss?” Qi Leren questioned.

Willow pursed her lips and said in a flustered manner: “Uncle David said that it was the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) (9), and they had evidence of my father’s tax evasion.

C’mon, that’s even worse than being captured by the police.

Even someone like Qi Leren, who knows very little about American history, have heard about Al Capone, one of the American mafia’s godfather leaders from the last century. This man had committed countless murder and arson in his life, even the police and FBI couldn’t do anything about him. However, the big boss’ reputation was ruined because of tax evasion. After being caught by the IRS, he was imprisoned and eventually died from syphilis (10).

In this era, there are many people who commit murder, arson, smuggling, and sells drugs yet live a glamorous life. But evading taxes…. it’s very risky.

“What evidence did they find?” Qi Leren asked.

Willow shook her head in distress: “I don’t know, Uncle David didn’t tell me.”

“You don’t worry, just leave it to David, he has a lot of experience.” Qi Leren comforted her.

Willow covered her face and sobbed: “I don’t know what to do….”

Qi Leren didn’t know how to comfort her, he wanted to pick out some words to coax her, but then he thought, isn’t his character a secret assassin? Judging from the apartment layout, he seems like an artist and an antisocial rather than the type to coax people. If he talks too much he might end up exposing himself.

So Qi Leren decided to talk less and let Willow cry for a while.

“What time is it?” Willow asked in a tiny whimper.

“20:30.”

“I should go.” Willow wiped her face.

“I’ll accompany you back, it’s not safe at night.” Qi Leren said.

“It’s fine, the driver is waiting for me downstairs.” Willow forced a smile and covered her face again, “Alan, I really don’t know what to do… I should hate him, but he’s still my father after all.”

Without waiting for Qi Leren to say something, Willow had put on a lace top hat, and before leaving, she looked back at him profoundly.

“Thank you. Really, thank you.”

Then Willow walked out. Qi Leren took her to the car, and when he returned to the apartment, a letter stuck in the crack of the door caught his attention.

The envelope was very clean. There was a “For Whiskey” written in pen on it, and it wasn’t stamped with a seal.

Qi Leren looked around, all the doors was closed and there was no trace of anyone.

He opened the envelope, which only contained a printed note:【Same time, same spot. 】

Qi Leren who doesn’t remember anything: ….Fuck!

Translator’s Notes:

Chinese Idiom (守株待兔) literally means wait for the rabbit, originating from a story called ‘Han Feizi: Five Beetles’ (韩非子·五蠹). It can be used in the expression of waiting for an ambush and letting the prey fall into the trap.Honestly if you don’t know what Sim City is you’re living under a rock. But anyways, Sim City is a video game where you build a city basically.I’ve explained what this is before but just in case. Basically it’s not an actual shadow, more like an extreme sense of fear or discomfort caused by trauma.Raw literally said seyu魔女. 魔女 can mean witch, though I have no idea what “seyu” is (maybe a character that I just forgot about? I don’t know).Careerists (野心家) refers to ambitious people who has a strong desire for power.Referring to the prophet, not QLR.亡命之徒, referring to a reckless person, especially a criminal.Minutiae meaning: the small, precise, or trivial details of something.The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax law.Syphilis is a bacterial infection usually spread by sexual contact that starts as a painless sore.

Double update to make up for last week, and also thank you for 1000+ all-time views on this site, you guys rock [smiley face]. (Also can you guys tell I’m bad at translating narrations)