Chapter 95: The Danger Behind It

The man playing at ghosts and gods knew he could not stay hidden for long. His original purpose had been to appear before Chu Ning under the guise of a reasonable explanation.

“Surely you all have some understanding of the company’s way of doing things?” The mysterious figure emerged from the darkness before them, fixing an意味深长 look on Tan Ya as he spoke.

He still kept himself concealed, wrapped from head to toe in a black cloak, making it impossible to discern his build or appearance. Even his voice had been run through a changer, so that his sex was hard to determine.

At one moment it was a hoarse male bass; at the next, a soft female voice.

The two distinct tones kept shifting back and forth, making Chu Ning feel distinctly ill at ease. He looked listlessly at the figure who had appeared. “Could you at least tell us who you are?”

“Who I am is not important. What matters is that I know this is a scheme laid out by the company. In fact, the company has another way of assigning tasks. Such tasks are usually impossible for ordinary people to receive; only the person who is the target of the task can receive them.”

The mysterious figure kept a certain distance from Chu Ning. He stood at the border between darkness and light, already prepared to retreat back into the shadows at any moment, making escape easier.

“As part of the game, the target of a task can also accept it and thus gain the chance to win rewards. This is also one of the company’s methods for enticing people to take part in the game—offering terms that are hard to refuse, thereby making them part of the task.”

Chu Ning said bluntly, “So you mean the target volunteered to become the target? That does make sense; otherwise it would be hard to explain why the target remained stalled here for so long, and why a simple repair of the chemical plant could explain things.”

But what interested Chu Ning most was still the mysterious figure’s identity. Often, what is said to be unimportant is in fact the very point worth attention. He knew the mysterious figure had not come out simply because he was idle and wanted to chat with them.

The information the figure offered was indeed shocking, and it broadened their understanding. Yet this kind of leading approach certainly had some hidden purpose that could not be made public. Chu Ning narrowed his eyes and watched the figure. Now it was the mysterious man’s turn to speak.

The more he said, the more information they would obtain.

“Correct. You need to be careful of the dangers on the road, especially the danger from behind.” After issuing that cryptic warning, the mysterious figure retreated on his own into the darkness and vanished completely before their eyes.

“What was that about?” Tan Ya shone the light from her phone toward the place where the figure had disappeared. Yet there was no one there at all, not even a footprint left on the ground—only a layer of dust accumulated over the years.

Tan Ya rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Had they run into someone from the same line of work? Could the other party have been a ghost as well? But why would he say those strange things in front of them? It felt as though he harbored malicious intent.

“Danger from behind?” Chu Ning pondered the deeper meaning of the phrase. Those who make a show of ghosts and spirits often know some inside truth. Danger from behind—he could only think of Tan Ya. After all, their relationship now was intimate to a degree, yet they still guarded themselves against each other.

He glanced sideways at Tan Ya, suspicion beginning to rise in his heart. In truth, it was difficult enough for Chu Ning to trust even himself, let alone anyone else.

Thinking carefully, Tan Ya had indeed once been a target of the company. It was not impossible that they had tampered with her in secret. What was more, the mysterious figure had just mentioned that tasks could be two-way, and Tan Ya might also have reached some kind of cooperation with the company.

Once suspicion takes root, it is truly hard to extinguish. No one knew what the other was thinking, and it was impossible to lay bare one’s whole heart and mind.

Chu Ning shook off those jumbled thoughts. Perhaps the mysterious figure had deliberately meant to drive a wedge between them, intentionally saying things that were vague and suggestive.

“What did he mean by what he just said?” Tan Ya felt that his words were somehow pointed, but she could not make out the hidden meaning.

“Nothing.” Chu Ning’s expression was slightly unnatural. He wanted to brush it off in a vague way; in his view, it would be best not to let Tan Ya know about this matter. Whether the mysterious figure had meant her or not, it was not appropriate to keep probing in front of the person involved.

“Did you hear chewing?” Chu Ning suddenly asked. He felt a faint sound of chewing coming from somewhere not far away.

“Chewing?” Tan Ya’s attention was indeed drawn elsewhere. She closed her eyes and listened quietly to the sounds around them.

The silence inside the chemical plant was truly unnatural. This strange sense of familiarity was, however one looked at it, far from normal. Clearly, more than a dozen living people had entered the plant in several groups, yet now it was eerily quiet, as though no one were there at all.

One could hardly say that everyone was being very courteous and deliberately making no noise so as not to disturb the others. From the brazen way they behaved, they were not the sort to care about anyone else’s feelings.

“Where is there any... sound?”

Tan Ya’s words abruptly trailed off. She had heard the chewing too.

“Should we go see where the sound is coming from?”

“Of course. Don’t forget why we came here.” Chu Ning’s eyes shone brightly. He felt that success was not far away.

The sound of chewing was truly thrilling. After noticing the unusual movement, Chu Ning felt that the target of this trip was right before his eyes. In his impression, test subjects always had all sorts of flaws, so behaving abnormally was perfectly normal.

They tiptoed toward the source, fearing they might alarm the gluttonous fellow. As they drew closer, Chu Ning frowned in thought. The target seemed far too unguarded, or did it simply not care that they had come?

In any case, they would know once they saw the target.