frightfiction Chapter 160 The President
Chapter 160 The President
In this instance, each of them has a direct or indirect connection with Jia Ye, and Lou Yanchuan is involved in all of them.
Yan Xun initially believed that his parents, who were believers in Kagyu, had died because they had abandoned their faith. However, he couldn't trust what Lou Yanchuan said, so the truth about their deaths remained a question.
When Mu Yuanming was young, he was held hostage by his parents and the Bodhisattva Fairy. It wasn't until he was told about the existence of Jia Ye that he believed in Jia Ye and got rid of his parents. Because the Chi family's offerings and the mortals' faith were gone, the Bodhisattva Fairy's power was greatly reduced until Lou Yanchuan found her and cleverly transferred their faith in Jia Ye to the Bodhisattva Fairy.
Ning Xinian is purely a tool; he was sent by Jia Ye to give hints to her followers because she couldn't bear seeing them being deceived and having their power taken away.
He Jingtang and his assistant represent the rational side. They do not believe in any gods and are only investigating the connection between the serial suicides and Jia Ye. However, it was Lou Yanchuan's arrangement that allowed He Jingtang to join the group.
The storyline of He Jinqiu is meant to introduce the existence of the master and reinforce the impression that Jia Ye is an evil god.
Song Baiyuan's stance was not firm; on the one hand, he believed in Jia Ye, and on the other hand, he wanted to rely on the power of the Bodhisattva Fairy.
He took Yan Xun to find Mu Yuanming, which made Mu Yuanming aware of Jia Ye's existence, indirectly causing the Fairy Bodhi to lose her followers. Afterwards, he was entangled by the Fairy Bodhi. If Yan Xun and the others had discovered this a little later, the Fairy Bodhi would most likely have already successfully possessed him.
"So, you're saying the Master is a traitor?" Sun Zhao asked. On the surface, he was spreading faith to Jia Ye, but in reality, his actions were completely aimed at preventing Jia Ye's descent and even stripping him of his divine power.
"More or less," Yan Xun said.
"I have a question," Su Yumin said, looking at Yan Xun. "Why are you dating Jia Ye?"
He couldn't understand the hidden truth, but he understood one thing—the sister-in-law Yan Xun found in the dungeon was that evil god.
"Aren't you incredibly bold?" Su Yumin asked incredulously, "You actually dare to date an evil god?"
Yan Xun wiped away non-existent sweat from his forehead. After leaving the instance, he also recalled his memories before the rollback.
He only dreamt of a wedding.
Then someone asked him if he would like to be with him.
He asked that person if being with him would mean he had a sister-in-law.
That person said, "Of course it counts."
So, in the dream, Yan Xun thought that since it was just a game, he simply and decisively got married to that person.
When he woke up the next day, he happily told the system that he had found himself a sister-in-law and that the system didn't need to worry, as they would definitely be able to leave the instance.
Yan Xun pretended not to hear Su Yumin's words, "What are you thinking?"
“That’s strange,” Sun Zhao said.
“I’ve never heard of NPCs in dungeons having memories from other walkthroughs before.” He looked at Yan Xun. “After players enter this sister-in-law dungeon, they won’t have any kinship with the manager.”
"Could it be that there was a minor change to the dungeon recently?" Ruan Yun asked, "because everyone on the forum is saying that the dungeon is too easy."
"Therefore, a hidden ending and a truth storyline were added."
Ruan Yun counted on her fingers, "Everyone has their own secret. Mu Yuanming's secret is that he was once a tool for summoning gods, and his parents' deaths were most likely orchestrated by him."
"He Jingtang's secret is to investigate the cult within the company and the group."
"Yan Xun's secret is that his parents died because of a mysterious belief, and he once mentioned this belief to Mu Yuanming, which indirectly influenced Mu Yuanming's subsequent choices."
"Ning Xinian's secret is that he was brought back to life and became a tool for Jia Ye to reveal the truth."
"Song Baiyuan was the tool connecting the group and the company's secrets. He believed the master's nonsense and buried those things downstairs in the company, which led to the company's later troubles and also brought these people who were related to Jia Ye together."
"He Jinqiu's secret is his non-existent brother, a crime committed by his father after he believed in charlatans."
Ruan Yun looked at them and said, "Lou Yanchuan is just a tool that connects all of you."
She propped her chin on her hand, "Why do I have a feeling that there are more changes to this story later on?"
"According to Lou Yanchuan, his goal is to turn the company building into a graveyard..."
Yan Xun didn't speak. Actually, he had another feeling that Lou Yanchuan might not be an NPC, but a player, just with a different mission.
Perhaps his goal is to turn the world into ruins?
As Yan Xun thought of this, he noticed that Li Wu was unexpectedly silent, or rather, after he explained the entire instance in detail, the other party remained seated without saying a word.
—In his memory, Li Wu was not that kind of player.
Yan Xun then looked at Li Wu and asked, "What do you think, Vice President?"
Li Wu looked at Yan Xun with a subtle expression, "What did you say that swindler's name was?"
“Lou Yanchuan,” Yan Xun said.
"Have you met this person before?" Yan Xun asked again.
He remembered that this dungeon was recommended by Li Wu, and many people in the Retrospection Guild had run it. He guessed that the other party had probably encountered the character Lou Yanchuan during one of their dungeon runs.
“I haven’t encountered it in the dungeon.” Li Wu didn’t know how to explain it to Yan Xun.
He looked up at Yan Xun's inquisitive expression, and was about to stick his neck out and explain when the tightly closed conference room door was opened.
Someone walked in.
He walked into the conference room wearing a gray hoodie.
Seeing the other people in the conference room, he smiled and asked, "Have I disturbed you?"
Yan Xun subconsciously looked at Li Wu.
He noticed that Li Wu was avoiding his gaze.
The young man in the gray hoodie coughed a few times, looking unwell... He looked at Yan Xun, then at the others in the conference room, and slowly walked to sit down directly opposite Yan Xun.
"Are you reviewing the previous dungeons?"
He glanced at the PowerPoint presentation behind Yan Xun. "Do you need me to participate in the debriefing?"
Yan Xun swung his axe at him.
The man caught the axe that Yan Xun had thrown at him. "Aren't you still angry about stabbing me before?"
Lou Yanchuan held the axe in his hand. "Thank you for the gift."
"Give it back to me." Yan Xun reached out his hand.
Sun Zhao looked at Li Wu, who had his head down, and at the interaction between Yan Xun and this person. Then he thought about who else could come and go so freely in the territory of the Time Traveler without giving the vice president any face—
"...The president who retraced his steps?"
Lou Yanchuan stood up, slowly walked to Yan Xun's side, returned the axe to him, and then took the time to answer Sun Zhao's question.
"Yes."
"I am Lou Yanchuan, the president of the Retrospection Association."
When his name was mentioned, everyone in the conference room gasped.
Sun Yue stared back and forth between him and Yan Xun, never expecting that the NPC they had just been speculating about had some purpose was actually played by a player.
“If you open the forum now, you’ll find that this ‘sister-in-law’ instance is closed,” Lou Yanchuan said.
Upon hearing this, Sun Zhao and the others opened the forum and found that the hottest thread was discussing why the famous casual dungeon had been suddenly closed.
"What's your mission in this instance?" Yan Xun asked, holding an axe, looking like he really wanted to give Lou Yanchuan a good whack on the head.
"My mission is to seize the faith of the Gaya and destroy this world."