LWGP - Chapter 29
Chapter 29: Eavesdropping
At the crack of dawn, the System watched Wang Jiu bustle about, not even stopping for coffee, and kept quiet. It wasn't until nine in the morning that her phone began to buzz incessantly. It was a group chat, and she probably hadn't turned on Do Not Disturb. Right, she had checked her phone dozens of times yesterday, all to catch any information about the old lady. Now that she knew the old lady was dead, she seemed particularly cold and heartless, refusing to even glance at the incoming messages.
Many people were tagging Wang Jiu.
They were all asking why she hadn't come.
Wang Jiu finished her work, washed her hands, picked up her phone for a glance, then set it down. She then opened her surveillance feed and quickly scanned through the video. No one had touched her car all night.
System: "Today is your old lady's funeral. You're not going?"
Wang Jiu: "What, did you invade my phone to peek at my group messages?"
System: "I'm not that bored. I just captured the electromagnetic information."
Wang Jiu: "Good for you."
System: "…"
Such a half-hearted dismissal.
From Wang Jiu's current unguarded and casually dismissive state, the System found this female human a bit strange. But all living things in the world were different individuals. From a game perspective, it only cared about strength, not a person's temperament.
But it had a premonition that she was preparing for something.
Wang Jiu was indeed just placating the System. She moved everything she had been working on into her car.
The System watched her work. "You're even bringing cameras?"
Several of them, in fact.
Wang Jiu: "Can't I shoot an art film to document this final period of stability before the apocalypse arrives?"
As she was nearly done moving her things, she saw a pack of women's cigarettes and a lighter in the corner of a drawer. She paused for a moment, but her hand still reached for them.
The cigarette pack twirled in her hand, her thumb tracing the texture on its surface, as if absorbing its scent.
"Now, there's no one left to care if you smoke or not."
After muttering to herself, she gave a slight laugh and tossed them into her pocket.
She quickly heated up some milk and bread, ate, and then left.
After the car exited the garage and left the residential complex, someone in the security office made a call to the manager, who then relayed the message to Chen Jun.
Chen Jun, who had been up all night supervising the creation of various combat models for Yang Yu, was currently sipping coffee. He pushed up the glasses on his nose and listened to the report from the complex, then turned his head to look at the just-awakened Yang Yu.
Behind Yang Yu trailed two women in revealing nightgowns. The snow-white mounds of their breasts jiggled as they walked with a catwalk-like strut. Chen Jun even saw the two women throw seductive glances his way, but he remained completely unmoved, only giving Yang Yu a meaningful look.
Seeing Chen Jun's look, Yang Yu waved his hand to dismiss the two women and asked, "Any news on that Wang Jiu?"
"Yes, she just left. I've already contacted someone to tail her car."
Yang Yu nodded. They had actually wanted to have the security personnel sneak in and install some devices last night, but considering the garage wasn't far from Wang Jiu's sleeping area, they figured if she could detect the two who had infiltrated before, she could just as easily detect ordinary security guards now.
After some thought, they abandoned the idea and decided to have her followed first.
"Today is Lin Zi's funeral. The master and Mr. Zheng have already departed. The executive secretary relayed the master's wishes for you, Young Master, to head over early. After all, you have a certain presence in this matter, and many people will be in attendance today, including government officials."
"I know. I'll get there as soon as I can."
"The master also asked if you need help dealing with that Wang Jiu."
"No need. Dad really thinks I'm just playing around, doesn't he?" Yang Yu sighed, rubbing his forehead. "You all know what happened at the airport. Even though we can't get the video from that time, we know she got a weapon and a treasure chest. I asked the System; if I kill her in reality, her game resources can be dropped. And HP only works inside dungeons; it's useless in reality. So, in the real world, you only have one life!"
Chen Jun nodded. "I understand. The model we made last night has been confirmed after several tests. Our current speculation is that her attributes are as follows."
He had an assistant bring over a laptop. Yang Yu glanced at it and raised an eyebrow. "Strength 3, Agility 4, Stamina 1. That woman's attributes are that high?"
Chen Jun: "Although Chen Hu and Lin Guang fought her to a draw last night, and both of their attributes are Strength 2 with everything else at 1, we have to consider that she had a shoulder injury from the plane… By the way, I bought this piece of information from one of the passengers, who is also a game player."
"Heh, one of the five who got no reward for lying flat like a salted fish?" Yang Yu scoffed. Compared to his own decisive and successful actions, those five were just trash.
"They aren't important, but this information is quite useful. I had someone readjust the model, which resulted in the current attributes."
Chen Jun was somewhat cautious. "Her attributes are already quite high. On our side, only five people have higher attributes than her, one of whom is Second Uncle Zheng. But Second Uncle Zheng went out with the boss."
As he said this, he noticed Yang Yu's expression was somewhat dismissive.
He understood. His young master's attributes were likely a bit higher than hers.
Perhaps even significantly higher.
"Does the young master plan to finish her today? The boss and Second Uncle Zheng's intention is that they don't want you to spend too much time on her."
"I know, I won't. She wasn't worth it in the first place. Let's make it today. Where is she now? Find an opportunity to plant something on her car. Keep a close watch."
Chen Jun was thoughtful. "A bomb? I'm afraid that won't work."
He was a very cautious person and didn't recommend doing something like that in the capital, where military power was extremely terrifying and public order had not yet completely collapsed.
Fortunately, Yang Yu wasn't that reckless yet. "What are you thinking? Just plant a tracker on her. It's too late this morning. With this capital's shitty traffic, I can't just strap on a rocket and fly over. She should be at the funeral today anyway. When she goes home tonight…"
He made a gesture. Chen Jun had the same idea and contacted the tailing personnel again. The latter reported that Wang Jiu had arrived at the seafood market in the west district.
Chen Jun and Yang Yu were surprised and exchanged a look.
What was wrong with this woman? Skipping her only relative's funeral to go buy seafood?
At the West City Nine Gates Seafood Market, the fishy smell of seafood was thick in the air. It was a market of moderate size, though somewhat off the beaten path, and had always been a popular procurement spot for the city's small and medium-sized restaurants and street vendors because the seafood was fresh and the prices weren't high.
It was rare for a lone woman like Wang Jiu to come here, but with people coming and going, bustling with business, no one paid her much mind.
Her private car was parked outside, quite conspicuous next to the delivery trucks. Fortunately, she had parked on the outer edge, so she wasn't blocking the trucks, but it was also a secluded spot. So secluded that almost no one noticed someone approaching it…
Inside the noisy market, Wang Jiu walked and looked around. Soon, she stopped in front of an ordinary stall, watched the fresh seafood jumping around in the water for a moment, and started talking to the owner.
She asked the price, and the owner shook his head. "Pretty lady, times are different now. Look how chaotic it is outside. Everyone's saying it's the end of the world. Facebook, WeChat, Weibo, they've all exploded. The price of everything is skyrocketing. Don't our seafood prices have to go up too? You know, food is the first necessity of the people."
The owner spoke with an authentic Chaoshan accent and was surprisingly trendy, rattling off social media apps with ease before ending with a scholarly flourish.
Before Wang Jiu could laugh, a smoke-scented chuckle drifted over from the side. A man a head taller than her had a strong presence. She had noticed him the moment he approached but had ignored him.
The man had a cigarette dangling from his lips and wore a black trench coat. His legs were so long that the carts used to push seafood crates didn't even seem to reach his waist.
His features were sharp, his aura heavy and fierce.
The owner saw him and his eyes widened. "Handsome, this is a public place, no smoking! Don't you understand common courtesy?"
"Boss, it's not like you're selling bombs. What's to be afraid of?" his voice was deep. Despite his words, he still stubbed out the cigarette.
"I'm not afraid, but this pretty lady might be. Making a pretty lady inhale secondhand smoke isn't what a real man does."
The owner was full of quips, roping the two customers together with just a few sentences. But Wang Jiu could tell that these two were actually very familiar with each other.
Probably a regular customer.
Wang Jiu said nothing, placed her order, paid, and left.
The tall man glanced at her but didn't say anything, continuing to talk to the owner. A short while later, he also placed an order.
The person tailing Wang Jiu watched from a distance and reported to Chen Jun. "This woman is really buying seafood, and a lot of it. She had them pack it into two large freezer boxes. Don't worry, Little A just told me the tracking and listening device is installed. She wasn't discovered. Boss, you can test it in a bit. She's leading people out, gotta go…"
The man turned away, pretending to pick out seafood, as Wang Jiu walked past him, her head down, looking at her phone.
"She's gone. She didn't notice."
At that moment, this man would never have imagined that on the phone screen Wang Jiu was looking down at—Little A, having just finished installing the device on her car, was patting his butt and casually walking away.
Wang Jiu looked up, switched screens, and tapped a few keys on the screen, then walked out without a change in expression.
After thanking two workers for carrying the boxes, Wang Jiu got in the car and closed the door. Just as she was about to start the engine, her phone suddenly rang. She answered it.
At the same time, far away in a villa in the city, Chen Jun and Yang Yu also saw the red dot of the tracker on their screen, as well as the audio from the bug.
The listening device wasn't installed directly on her phone but inside the car, so they could probably only hear her own voice clearly, with the faint, weak response of the other party.
"I'm planning to head over. Yes, the seafood is ready, and the medicine is ready too. What medicine? Crane's Red Crest, arsenic trioxide. I added a little something. I'll put it in the seafood's stomach later…"
Hearing this, Yang Yu was amused and chuckled. "This woman wants to poison me? She has some tricks up her sleeve, I guess. But will I give her the chance? Unless she takes off her clothes, climbs into my bed, and puts the poison in a glass of red wine? Heh!"
Chen Jun was also surprised, but he felt this was actually quite in line with Wang Jiu's profession.
They continued to listen.
The faint voice on the other end was very soft, but with their high-tech equipment, they could vaguely make it out.
"It would be good if we can poison that bastard. Then the two of us can team up and finish it off. But can we confirm its strength?"
Wang Jiu: "I asked the System. The BOSS that spawns from a single Mystic Realm Fragment is generally weaker, probably comparable to a Goblin Mini-Boss. With it poisoned by the seafood, the two of us teaming up can definitely take it down."
Other side: "I asked around, and that's true. But are you sure you don't want to save up five before opening it? That would be a complete mystic realm."
Wang Jiu: "This is the only Mystic Realm Fragment I have. I barely got it through a life-and-death struggle in the airport dungeon. Getting more will be too difficult. I don't have that much time. Yang Yu killed the old lady. With the Yang family's power, by the time I'm capable of opening a complete mystic realm, their strength will surely have surpassed mine by a huge margin. The hope for revenge is too slim. It's better to just use this Mystic Realm Fragment now and get the rewards. The System said that even the BOSS from an incomplete fragment drops far more treasure than a mini-boss."
Other side: "Speaking of which, what were the rewards you got?"
Wang Jiu chuckled. "What, trying to sound me out? You'll know when you get here. You're the only friend I know right now with decent attributes and the possibility of teaming up. The others are either unsuitable or untrustworthy."
Other side: "My Strength is 3 and Agility is 3. Is that barely good enough for you? I need to have a general idea of your strength, otherwise what if I'm just walking to my death?"
Wang Jiu: "The weapon's attributes add 2 to Strength and 1 to Agility. The treasure chest gave a Strengthening Stone."
Other side: "Holy shit, it's a sure thing, bro! I'm heading out now. We definitely can't spawn the BOSS in the city, it'll get stolen. Where's the location?"
Wang Jiu: "The abandoned Sanming Food Factory in the suburbs. You know it?"
Other side: "I know it. A famous undeveloped area, sparsely populated, open terrain. Perfect for spawning a monster. Too bad it probably won't ever see development now. Hanging up, I'm getting ready to move."
The conversation ended, and soon, Wang Jiu's car began to move.
Chen Jun remained silent for a moment, just looking at Yang Yu.
Yang Yu raised a hand. "Don't tell my dad and the others about this."
Wang Jiu's weapon alone was attractive enough, not to mention the Strengthening Stone.
A Strengthening Stone was immensely valuable to him. He had an item on hand… if he strengthened it, his power would absolutely skyrocket!
And the Mystic Realm Fragment. If he could choose to spawn a BOSS himself, what was the difference between that and being handed free rewards?
Yang Yu thought to himself, "If it weren't for Wang Jiu and her partner's plan, I might have called Dad and Zheng Yu to be safe. But now, I can just be the oriole that catches the cicada. After all, that woman Wang Jiu is a doctor, so the poison she prepared must be effective. I can get all the treasures without taking too much risk. That Zheng Yu, just because he was strong to begin with and got high rewards in the tutorial dungeon, now he lectures me like a child every chance he gets. Heh, once I get these treasures, my strength will definitely surpass his. Maybe then I can even take the treasures he has!"
Yang Yu's calculations were perfect, making him even more determined to see this through.
Chen Jun frowned, but his expression quickly relaxed. "Is the young master confident? It's best not to take risks."
"Of course I am." Yang Yu stood up, his expression cold and stern. He gave Chen Jun a deep look. "You know how it is. Too many people, not enough monsters. Resources are hard to distribute. If I can handle it myself, why call others? You know I'm not a child anymore."
Chen Jun knew. The young master probably didn't even want him to know this secret now. Forget not calling Zheng Yu, he likely wasn't planning on calling any of the other experts either.
A Mystic Realm Fragment… that was indeed a secret worth keeping.
"Does the young master plan to go alone? My suggestion is to bring a few more people, but they don't need to be too strong."
The implication was not to bring anyone with high attributes, lest they get greedy over the treasure and turn on Yang Yu.
"I understand. I'll just call Chen Hu and Lin Guang."
Chen Jun narrowed his eyes. He knew these two would probably not be coming back.
"Alright, I'll make the arrangements."
Soon, Yang Yu left the villa with the tracking and listening equipment, heading for the Sanming Food Factory.
On the second-floor balcony, Chen Jun watched the car leave.
He had no idea that at this very moment, Wang Jiu, also driving, casually switched something off. At the same time, in a hidden room in her residence, another phone displayed a closed call screen, and the automatic audio recorder next to it also shut down.
Not far away on the desk sat a voice changer she had used before.
And a half-finished cup of coffee that had long since gone cold.
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