Chapter 124: Mobile Phone

Chapter 124: Mobile Phone

The darkness beside him solidified, swirling up from the abyss-like void before dissipating once more.

Two identical figures appeared before Qin Fei's eyes, then those two shadows merged into one. The temperature of the black crystal ring subsided, but the tingling pain on his palm where it had been lightly licked by a tongue lingered.

Qin Fei raised his gaze to meet the eyes of the person opposite him.

Those icy blue eyes quickly distanced themselves, a barely perceptible ripple passing through them before they returned to calmness.

Qin Fei sensed that this tranquility was superficial, as if feigning composure.

Those eyes looked like a windless sea surface, unruffled, yet carrying the foreboding of an impending storm, as if a misstep would unleash a tumultuous wave.

Qin Fei found it quite amusing.

Even the source of pollution, powerful enough to control the entire copy of the world, could feel nervous?

"Just now—" the young man broached the topic with ill intent.

Then he realized he couldn't speak.

Phi: "?"

He stood here perfectly fine, unable to speak, and it certainly wasn't because of a sudden throat swelling.

It could only be the work of the pollution source.

Are you still playing dirty at your age??

The man opposite him was half obscured in the darkness. Gray-black particles in the air continuously entwined into vines, twisting upward from the edges of His black robes before dissipating and returning to the darkness.

Golden streams of light flickered faintly on His robe hem. He was a mysterious and powerful being, who should have been high above all, but when He looked at the person before Him, a faint flush of red tinged the skin behind His ears.

His eyes were evading.

He was shy, embarrassed.

For that intimate contact that wasn't really anything.

For some reason, Qin Fei felt inexplicably pleased, watching the pollution source with a composed demeanor.

In this pure black domain spawned by the pollution source, every breath overflowed with the oppressive might that ordinary players could hardly bear, but Qin Fei felt very comfortable.

After standing here for a moment, the pallor of his lips had regained some color. His soft, cherry blossom-like lips gently pursed, outlining a gentle smile.

Such a smile should have calmed one's heart, but the pollution source couldn't do so no matter what.

This was strange. He knew there was no heart beating in His chest, yet the slight trembling of His fingertips and blood vessels wouldn't go away.

He opened His mouth slightly, intending to praise Qin Fei with "you did well," but what came out instead was "...He didn't mean to."

Qin Fei raised his eyebrows, asking knowingly, "Who?"

The pollution source lowered His gaze. "Just now."

Qin Fei rarely had the leisure to play such word games with people, but he did so now, maliciously pressing, "Oh? Just now, wasn't it you?"

Those eyes, deeper than any gemstone, gazed quietly at the youth before Him, with a hint of helplessness in them. He was cornered and had to admit, "...Yes."

Qin Fei was right.

It was Him just now, and using lame excuses like "lost memory" or "didn't recognize" was meaningless. The pollution source didn't know how to respond and could only avert His gaze.

Qin Fei falsely comforted Him, "It's okay, it's not the first time."

Last time, at the bottom of the Sea of Seals, He went even further.

Pollution source: "..."

He made a fist in a vague gesture, pressed it against His lips, and coughed lightly.

Why, this space clearly belonged to Him, yet standing here, He felt a sense of disorientation, not knowing where to place His hands and feet?

No.

This couldn't continue.

The pollution source felt that He needed to calm down quickly.

His figure was enveloped in the darkness, and the world suddenly shattered like broken glass, with the pure white settlement space replacing this domain in an instant.

Like turning on a light in a pitch-black room, the brightness before Qin Fei's eyes was so intense that he involuntarily closed his eyes.

In his mind, he thought:

Can't argue, so you run away.

What a cowardly pollution source.

If players or viewers learned of His true face, their jaws would probably drop in shock.

To think of it, Qin Fei still hadn't learned His name this time.

The pollution source had fused another new fragment, so the fragmented memories should have been supplemented, right?

When he returned to Central City, he would pull Him out of the ring and ask.

Countless thoughts flashed through Qin Fei's mind in an instant, but none of them were related to the settlement space.

The system's voice in the space seemed to realize that the player was drifting off, and it spoke with a tone that suggested it was grinding its teeth.

"Congratulations to the player for successfully passing the level. Welcome to the settlement space!"

Qin Fei waved his hand nonchalantly. "Don't broadcast it."

The system's voice immediately fell silent.

This wasn't the first time Qin Fei had made such a request. The last time, the time before that... every time, he was so impatient!!

On previous occasions, it at least opened its mouth and said a few words.

This time, Little Qin didn't even give it a chance to speak, cutting it off directly?

System: I'm going to die of anger!!!

The system had never met a player who was so ungrateful. If it had a human form, it would definitely reach out and pinch him hard right now.

Qin Fei didn't care about how the system felt.

He had the energy to play cat and mouse with the source of pollution, but he couldn't be bothered with the system.

The door to leave the settlement space had already appeared in front of him, and Qin Fei stepped through it.

"Oh, right." Before he completely left the settlement space, he turned around and specifically instructed,

"Although you didn't broadcast it item by item, don't cut corners when calculating points. I'll be paying attention to the receipt on the attribute panel."

System: Grinding my teeth!

And who gave you permission to call the settlement items on the attribute panel a "receipt"?

Do you think you're buying snacks at the supermarket??

...

As an A-rank player, one of the privileges at the pinnacle of the pyramid was the ability to take the ferry back to the player's living area after leaving the settlement space and entering the transition zone, without having to walk back from the central city.

When Qin Fei came to the transition space the last few times, all he saw was a barren wasteland. This time, however, it was different.

Rows of neatly parked ferries lined the roads, and in front of each ferry sat an NPC in uniform.

Seeing Qin Fei approach, the NPCs nearby put on friendly smiles and jumped off their vehicles. "Sir, do you need a ride? Only five points!"

Their service attitude was much better than what Qin Fei had seen from the staff in tourist attractions.

There were more than 20 ferries in total, but there weren't many A-rank players to begin with, and even fewer who had just finished a game.

The NPCs vying for business stared at Qin Fei, their eyes shining. Qin Fei had intended to get into the nearest car directly, but someone suddenly darted out from behind.

"Little Qin!!!"

It was Mi Yang.

After hours of worry, Mother Sheep's eyes were red, and she grabbed Qin Fei's shoulders, her gaze like X-rays scanning him up and down.

Qin Fei smiled awkwardly.

He strongly suspected that if he really was Mi Yang's precious son, the anxious mother might have slapped him across the face.

If Mi Yang knew what Qin Fei was thinking, he might have died of anger. Was he that violent?

"I thought—"

Mi Yang hesitated.

At that time, Qin Fei had pushed him into the passageway, but when he turned around, he saw Qin Fei rushing in the opposite direction, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets in shock.

But once you entered the passageway, you couldn't go back out.

Mi Yang could only watch helplessly as the world behind him disappeared, then sat dazed in the settlement space for a long time.

Afterwards, he kept thinking that something was wrong. Why would Little Qin deliberately seek death when he was perfectly fine?

He didn't seem to be mentally polluted either.

Mi Yang refused to believe it.

Recalling that Qin Fei had said he had also reached A-rank, he simply squatted in the transition space for A-rank players, wanting to see if this guy could actually come out alive.

And he actually waited for him!

"What did you do before the instance ended?" Mi Yang was baffled.

Was it possible that as the only player categorized by the instance as being on the side of the dead, Qin Fei had other missions that were different from theirs?

But the passageway was right in front of him. All he had to do was walk out!

"Well, actually, I didn't do anything," Qin Fei said casually. "I just took care of the source of pollution."

He had gathered the fragments of the source of pollution back into the black crystal ring, which had the same effect as eliminating the source of pollution.

Mi Yang: "?????"

Mi Yang reached out and tugged on his earlobe. He suspected he had misheard. "Do you know what you're saying?"

The inexperienced A-rank player Mi Yang was coming into contact with this topic for the first time at such close range.

Qin Fei nodded calmly.

Mi Yang felt a little dazed. "…And you?"

Did he succeed?

Oh.

Of course he succeeded.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be standing in front of him now.

Dizzy, Mi Yang was pulled by Qin Fei onto a shuttle bus, which drove forward, leaving behind the resentful gazes of the driver NPCs.

The drivers were almost in tears.

After waiting for two A-rank players with great difficulty, why did they have to get on the same vehicle?

...

Mi Yang was so shocked that it took him three days to recover.

Although Mi Yang was dizzy and disoriented, Qin Fei had spent these three days after leaving the instance extremely pleasantly.

—Even though he had once again caused a huge stir in the Central City.

One reason was that his ranking on the popular player leaderboard had risen by five places.

The name "Little Qin" had been incredibly fierce since its debut.

First, he suddenly shot up the rookie list, then he provoked Butterfly.

After provoking Butterfly, not only did he not get killed by the other party, but he also climbed from the rookie list to the popular player list in one fell swoop, rising steadily with a trend to blind all players' eyes.

It was truly inspiring!

The second reason was that Jack the Ripper, the top mercenary in the high-level player circle, publicly announced that he decided to abandon the mission of pursuing Little Qin.

Mercenaries could freely choose to accept or abandon missions.

If they failed to complete a mission after accepting it, mercenaries would not be punished as a result.

—For example, Dawn Squad accepted the mission to protect Diao Ming, but Diao Ming died in this instance. Wenren Liming and the others would not be penalized for it.

What they lost was merely the reward for the hire mission.

But if a mercenary chose to abandon a mission voluntarily, they needed to pay a high penalty fee.

"Why did Jack the Ripper announce the abandonment of the mission on the player forum?" In Qin Fei's courtyard, a group of players sat in recliners. Ghostfire asked in confusion while biting into a watermelon.

If he didn't want to do the mission anymore, couldn't he just pretend to be dead later? Announcing it publicly was costly and laborious, and it would make him lose face.

Only a fool would do such a thing, right?

"It's obviously to show his stance." After being out of his wits for three days, Mi Yang finally fully accepted this fact:

The good son he had picked up for free in the previous instance was indeed no ordinary person.

Mi Yang gently stroked his chin. "As you said, only a fool would do such a thing. Jack the Ripper can't be a fool. He just made a decision after weighing the pros and cons."

And Jack's decision was that he would rather not offend Little Qin than offend Butterfly and lose face.

Wow!

Mi Yang was simply amazed at the tremendous face that Qin Fei had.

This move by Jack successfully added another layer of mystery to Qin Fei.

Qin Fei was almost being placed on a pedestal among newcomers, and countless players became extremely curious about him.

What kind of person could make a gold medal mercenary so wary?

Similarly, Jack's move was undoubtedly rubbing Butterfly's face in the dirt.

Butterfly almost ground his teeth to dust when he heard the news!

But even if he was crazy, he wasn't crazy enough to put out a bounty on Jack as well. He just doubled the bounty on Qin Fei again.

But this time was different from last time.

Facing such an attractive reward, fewer and fewer players were willing to take on the mission.

This was someone even Jack the Ripper couldn't handle!

Who knew how strong he really was? No one had ever seen a rookie climb so fast!

It seemed a bit sinister no matter how you looked at it.

Or perhaps, there was a master supporting him behind the scenes?

High-level player? Or a guild?

Rumors and gossip flew around.

"Jack and Butterfly have a grudge now," San Tu sighed.

While they were discussing these topics, Qin Fei was lazily leaning against a recliner. The young man's pale and slender hands were tossing a square object up and down, as if the topic they were discussing had nothing to do with him.

Mi Yang turned his head and couldn't help but be stunned: "A phone?"

Such things as phones were almost ubiquitous among people before entering the copy worlds. But for the current players, they were undoubtedly foreign.

Strange as it was, the phone in Qin Fei's hand looked increasingly familiar to Mi Yang.

"Where did you get this phone—?" Qin Fei nodded nonchalantly, confirming Mi Yang's guess: "I brought it out from the copy world."

Everyone said that the drop rate of items in the copy worlds was so low that it was laughable, but Qin Fei felt that the probability seemed quite high?

Up until now, he had already obtained a bone whistle, a ring, a phone, and a mysterious VIP card of an inn.

Although none of these items were legitimate rewards from the copy world.

He still felt that the copy world was quite merciful.

This phone, like the ghost infant, was smuggled out by Qin Fei from the copy world.

When he left the snow mountain and ice lake this time, just like when he left Shouyin Village, he didn't go through the exit gate but took a detour to the domain of the pollution source.

The items in his personal space were thus taken out of the copy world by him.

"This is Kong Siming's phone?" Mi Yang curiously took over the object.

But unexpectedly, Qin Fei shook his head in denial: "No, it's not."

Kong Siming's phone was with Wen Ren Liming.

Qin Fei: "This is Zhou Li's phone."

Mi Yang's eyes suddenly widened.

Zhou Li's.

Phone????

"How did you get this?" Mi Yang exclaimed in surprise, "When you were in the copy world..."

He spoke halfway when he suddenly realized: "You got it when you were in the copy world?!!"

Then he secretly hid it, not telling anyone, to cut off the path to success for the players in the living camp.

Qin Fei's sinister plot was exposed, but he had no sense of guilt, calmly admitting: "Yes."

After hiding Zhou Li's phone in the copy world, he hadn't found a chance to open it and look at it, but fortunately, it didn't hinder anything.

After leaving the copy world, Qin Fei found that this thing was still in his personal space, and when he had nothing to do, he went through all its contents instead.

"The points you earned in this copy world should be quite high, right?" Qin Fei's gaze swept lazily over Mi Yang's face, "All the secrets of the snow mountain have been dug up by us."

After looking at Zhou Li's phone, he formally confirmed this point.

The snow mountain was just a snow mountain, with no deeper secrets behind it.

The Ostadia Snow Mountain was the shadow of the Tromond Snow Mountain.

A mysterious, dark, devouring shadow that could swallow people whole.

"Zhou Li, a student of the Y University Mountaineering Club, returned to her hometown in the spring, originally just planning to prepare in advance for the upcoming club graduation trip."

Qin Fei tapped on the phone, selecting the more informative parts for Mi Yang to see.

The pollution source of the Lost Snow Mountain copy world was destroyed by Qin Fei, and the copy world was permanently closed. The rule of "no mention of copy world information in the central city" also lost its effect on this copy world.

"The snow mountain the mountaineering club planned to climb was not far from Zhou Li's hometown. Zhou Li found several experienced climbers in the village and asked them to take her through the travel route first."

Those few people had planned to enter the Tromond Snow Mountain in the near future. After Zhou Li made her request, they changed their route and prepared to start from one end of the Tromond Snow Mountain, cross the snow mountain, and then enter the Edmund Snow Mountain that Zhou Li wanted to enter.

"It was during this mountaineering activity that Zhou Li first accidentally entered the Ostadia Snow Mountain."

But her luck wasn't too bad, and like the surveyor who mistakenly entered the snow mountain in the 1970s and successfully left, Zhou Li walked out of the Ostadia Snow Mountain.

"I speculate that the most critical point in being able to leave the snow mountain smoothly lies in the first rule."

Qin Fei's finger lightly drew a line on the armrest of the bench.

"Do not call each other's names in the snow mountain."

As long as your name isn't caught by the snow mountain, there's a chance to leave the mountain.

Zhou Li walked out of the Ostadia Snow Mountain and returned to the Doron village, but she was severely contaminated due to her accidental entry into the snow mountain, causing her to become dazed and confused.

"She lived in the village like that until July."

Mi Yang seemed to understand something: "July, the season when the snow mountain contamination is the most severe."

From the information they gathered in the copy world, they knew that every July was the season when snow mountain disappearances occurred most frequently.

"I feel a voice calling me, I must, must re-enter that snow mountain again!"

This was a line of text Zhou Li wrote in her phone's notes.

"The contamination at the end of spring established a connection between Zhou Li and the snow mountain. Therefore, when July arrived and the influence of the snow mountain expanded outward, Zhou Li could no longer resist the summons from the snow mountain."

Zhou Li entered the Ostadia Snow Mountain for the second time alone, but this time, she clearly wasn't as lucky as the last.

Although she didn't even have a companion this time and should have continued to hide her name to leave the snow mountain smoothly.

Perhaps the intent of the snow mountain to keep her was too strong.

"Zhou Li is really unlucky," Qin Fei sighed.

Her misfortune lay in the fact that she had answered a voice call in the snow mountain.

In the mountain-climbing diary of Member No. 1, he had mentioned that when he called Zhou Li via video, she didn't answer and instead switched it to a voice call. After answering, she spoke incoherently and hung up after only a few words.

It was during this voice call out of concern that Member No. 1 called out Zhou Li's name.

Since then, Zhou Li had lost her chance to leave the snow mountain forever.

"What about the bodies they found on the broadcast?" Mi Yang couldn't help but ask.

Qin Fei shrugged. "If people can enter Ostadia Snow Mountain from the outside, the Yetis can also leave the mountain."

The broadcast had said that the bodies they found were unrecognizable, with no human features discernible.

"Moreover, since the snow mountain can replicate a corpse identical to mine, it can probably replicate one like yours as well." Qin Fei put his phone back into his personal space.

The snow mountain copy had already been successfully cleared. The secrets hidden in Zhou Li's phone were not its most valuable part.

Now, the most important thing about this phone was that it had become a real prop.

"Zhou Li's Cell Phone, a student at Y University: What? You mean, even in the shadowy snow mountain without any signal, it can still access the internet and make calls?"

"Prop Description: The holder of this prop can use the phone in each copy to dial the person they most want to contact in that copy."

(Please note: This prop can only be used once per copy, and the dialed party can be either a player or an NPC.)

Just reading the usage instructions once, no player could resist being moved by this prop.

Having obtained such a useful item for free, Qin Fei was in a very good mood.

While Qin Fei and Mi Yang were huddled together, discussing the copy content in a secretive manner, Ghostfire and San Tu were also sitting at the table with Xiao Xiao, Lin Ye, and the other two, chatting idly.

Their idle chat was about the topic that had recently surpassed Qin Fei to become the hottest topic in Central City.

The Invitational Tournament.

"I'm so envious. When will I get such an invitation letter?"

Xiao Xiao and Lin Ye held San Tu's invitation letter as if it were some precious treasure, flipping through it repeatedly.

The annual individual showcase tournament and guild tournament were about to begin, and the invitation letter was the threshold for entry into the individual showcase tournament.

The invitation letters were sent out by the system after evaluating the overall level of each player, and only a portion of players D-level and above were eligible to receive them.

Players who received the invitation letter could choose whether to enter the pre-assembled invitational tournament in the copy, and only those who successfully passed the invitational tournament could obtain a spot in the individual showcase tournament.

Over the past three days, the invitation letters had been issued one after another, and every corner of Central City was discussing this matter.

In the Black Feather Guild, located far away in another corner of Central City, in the high-ranking rest room, the players were also gathered in twos and threes, all talking about the showcase tournament.

—Except for Vice President Gala.

At this moment, Gala was sitting in his exclusive high-backed chair, his face, which usually wore a faint smile, showing a rare look of urgency.

He supported himself on the tabletop with both hands, leaning forward slightly, and asked the person in front of him in a hurried tone,

"You said you met a player wearing a black crystal ring in the snow mountain copy?"