Chapter Twenty-Five: Money

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Zheng Fan loosely clenched his hand, and the fragments of the broken blood blade were drawn in and condensed into a tiny singularity in his palm.

As expected, even an object born of fantasy could be transformed by him.

After finishing this, Zheng Fan temporarily logged off, and Lin Yilin took over.

Her main purpose was to give the man a simple treatment for the injuries Zheng Fan had inflicted on him. At the very least, she could not let him bleed to death so quickly.

“Did Mr. Hallucination never consider keeping someone alive for questioning?” Lin Yilin asked casually while working swiftly.

If Zheng Fan had not known that using someone else’s ability through Lin Yilin’s body would weaken it, he probably would not have had the slightest intention of keeping the man alive. He would have cut him cleanly in half.

“Hmm. I forgot. Sorry.” Zheng Fan stood nearby with his hands on his hips, his tone frank and straightforward.

Honesty was a virtue.

Though he did not sound apologetic in the slightest.

Lin Yilin did not mind. The man was indeed a clue, but she had never placed much hope in extracting anything useful from him.

Or rather, he had already demonstrated the ability to create hallucinations related to property in front of her. That alone was enough. Starting from that point, she had plenty of leads to pursue.

Keeping him alive for questioning was merely a chance to see whether he might offer any unexpected discoveries and fill in the minor details.

The man had already passed out during the process. Lin Yilin’s medical kit contained no painkillers, and after crying out a few times, he had gone limp as though his life had been snuffed out.

Still, as long as Lin Yilin confirmed that his vital signs could hold, that was enough.

“Mr. Hallucination, I’ll have to trouble you again. Take him somewhere quieter for interrogation. You’ll also need to give him a minor life ritual. He seems fine for now, but if he falls asleep and never wakes up, all our work will have been for nothing.” Lin Yilin rose to her feet.

…

After leaving the residential district, they arrived in an empty alley.

The man suddenly felt a cool sensation in his sleep. His spirits jolted, and he awoke.

“I… I’m not dead?” He stared through the gaps between the buildings at a strip of blue sky, his expression bewildered.

“You’re awake? Excellent. You’re the least impressive of this batch.” Zheng Fan folded his arms and spoke with profound solemnity.

But in his hallucination state, he could only amuse himself. Lin Yilin would never play along. She was actually quite interested in the jokes Zheng Fan made, but whenever she asked about them, Zheng Fan would say that explaining a joke was just as awkward as dissecting its punchline, something only boring content marketers did, and then refuse to explain.

Had he somehow turned making a joke into baiting someone, then abandoning them after they took it?

Nearby, Lin Yilin gathered up the bottles and jars. It was difficult to imagine that her little satchel could hold so many things. It was almost as miraculous as possessing a four-dimensional pocket.

“Please begin by introducing yourself, sir. Who are you? Which group do you belong to? What is your connection to Linde, Mrs. Kabis’s husband? And why did you go to his house to steal ‘property’?” Lin Yilin fired off one question after another. Once she had adjusted her satchel, she reached inside with one hand and drew out the Kitty Gun, aiming it at him.

“…”

No ordinary person would be frightened by the Kitty Gun’s appearance, right?

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Meow!

A bullet grazed the man’s cheek.

“Don’t! I’ll talk!”

Well, that had frightened him.

“I… My name is Wang Cheng. I’m just an ordinary man…”

An ordinary man who had shouted “My money!” at a box of flesh and blood?

“Linde and I… we were coworkers.” Wang Cheng shifted slightly and immediately felt a tearing pain from his wounds. Fear still filled his eyes as he looked at Lin Yilin.

Although the scar-faced girl’s air was different from what it had been during their earlier confrontation, he had no time to think about such things.

It was enough to know that the person before him was a walking calamity.

After speaking, he paused, trying to gauge Lin Yilin’s reaction. But she loomed over him with the indifference of a statue, the muzzle of her gun not wavering even slightly.

“We worked together at a casino!” Wang Cheng raised his voice a little.

“Which casino?”

“An underground casino. Its location changes constantly, and it has no legitimate backing,” Wang Cheng replied.

A casino with legitimate backing sounded somewhat amusing, but it was not surprising. There was naturally no shortage of casino businesses in the Great Metropolis, and many gangs and families were involved in them.

As for having no legitimate backing, that referred to the casinos that were not acknowledged by the major powers—the businesses carved out by small and mid-sized gangs that could not get a share of the pie.

They not only had to endure investigations by the authorities of the Great Metropolis, but also had to remain constantly wary of being targeted by the major casinos, surviving in the cracks between them.

But the profits were there. A casino could possess an entire “industrial chain,” and small and mid-sized gangs found it difficult to give up such an opportunity.

Lin Yilin was not particularly surprised. “Do you know who it belongs to?”

Wang Cheng hurriedly shook his head. “We only… only worked for the casino. We were unofficial cleaners. There was no way we could know who was behind it…”

As expected, small did not mean stupid. Any gang bold enough to get involved in this line of work would have some ability. They would not carelessly leave traces behind.

“How did you meet Linde?”

“…I was the one who recruited him.” Wang Cheng’s voice turned solemn.

Well then. This was where the fuse had been lit.

An anonymous casino in the underground black market of a sealed-off residential district, belonging to some unknown gang. Its core members were responsible for operating the casino, while most of those active outside specialized in deceiving and controlling civilians from the gray zones.

Flesh and blood were the currency used inside the casino. The casino strictly required all transactions to be made with living flesh and blood of equivalent value.

As long as one had flesh and blood, one could exchange it for nearly anything an ordinary person could imagine inside the casino.

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Wealth was within easy reach.

The lowest-value currency consisted of small animals—common birds, rats, rabbits, and the like.

Slightly higher in value were medium and large livestock.

The most valuable currency was human beings.

If gamblers lost everything inside the casino, the casino would not treat them particularly harshly. It would merely provide them with some equipment and send them out to “hunt.” Once they had earned enough starting capital, they could return and continue gambling recklessly.

The things won through gambling would certainly not be cash.

Of course, the casino allowed gamblers to cash out, provided that after several rounds, they could still tell which things were “cash.”

At the same time, recruiting people into the casino also earned one “capital.”

The unofficial cleaners who lacked the strength to hunt for big game had no interest in small sums and no courage to pursue large ones. They therefore made recruiting newcomers their primary means of earning money.

Linde had left home on a gloomy day. Though his spirits were low, he had thought of his wife and children and forced himself to stay motivated as he searched for work.

But repeated failures had left him utterly disheartened. The sealed-off district reveled in pleasure and luxury, and its once-peaceful life was on the verge of collapse. The abrupt change in his circumstances left him tottering on the edge as well.

That was when Wang Cheng approached him.

He knew something was wrong, yet he still allowed himself to be led astray.

His first windfall had come with astonishing ease. Overjoyed, he had already become a fly caught in a web.

Lost.

Success, success, failure, failure, failure, failure…

After losing everything, he accepted the equipment and terms offered by those people. Then he left the casino with Wang Cheng and began committing the same crimes.

Linde still possessed some principles. He was more “ambitious” than Wang Cheng, who could earn only meager sums by recruiting people. Someone was waiting for him at home. He could not remain fixated on hunting small prey; recruiting a person paid well, but it was too inefficient.

His goal was a large sum of money.

People walking the streets who were just like him no longer looked human in his eyes.

They were not people.

They were money.

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