Chapter 176: Special Effect!

Previously, Qing Chen had carefully examined all his memories about the way of cultivation for the Knights and grasped one crucial point: they must go through all Life and Death Stages as an ordinary person.

But he was no longer an ordinary person now.

Therefore, Qing Chen surmised that the Knights had to have a way to reseal their unlocked genetic limits. Otherwise, how else were they supposed to complete the other stages? With the enhanced physique of a Knight, passing the subsequent Life and Death Stages would possess no challenge and defeat the very purpose of those stages.

If his genetic limits were to be resealed, then all he could rely on was his own body, so he had to persevere in his training.

Moreover, Qing Chen could clearly feel that throughout his training, his physical fitness still kept on improving. As long as he hadn't reached the limit of his body, he would continue to train.

Noticing that he kept his silence, Yangyang said, "Seems like it's a secret. Forget it, I won't ask about this anymore. But I admire you for this. Not everyone can stay clear-headed and continue to work hard after suddenly obtaining great power."

Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, "Actually, even if the transmigration never happened, you, Hu Xiaoniu, and Zhang Tianzhen have never lacked any wonders in your lives. In order to sail across the Indian Ocean, you must first be able to afford a sailing yacht. I've seen the price of that thing, and it's an amount that's far out of reach for me. Of course you guys also work hard to do your best, but in the first place, you already have it much better than most people."

"I'm different. For a long time before this, I've lived my life struggling to get enough food and clothing. Perhaps it might get better after I graduate, but that's too long of a wait. Now, the world has finally given me a chance to turn my life around, so of course I have to do all I can to grasp this opportunity. Yangyang, it's not that I want to spend everyday practising until three in the morning, but that I don't have a lot of choice."

...

At this moment, in Shenglong neighbourhood two kilometres away from Xingshu Road.

Nan Gengchen, who was hiding in the bedroom checking his phone, stared in a daze at the text message he had just abruptly received.

'Hello student Nan Gengchen, for a better communication experience, please click the link to join the group chat. —He Xiaoxiao.'

An invitation!

It was actually an invitation!

Nan Gengchen wanted to send Qing Chen a message on WeChat, but he quickly held back.

He glanced at the time, then hurriedly changed his clothes and went outside.

In the living room, his father was drinking a bottle of hard liquor by himself, his eyes already going hazy. "Where are you going this late at night? You can't even study properly, all you know to do is run around outside just like your mother, you guys don't consider this your home at all!"

With that, his father stood up and pulled out his belt.

But this time, Nan Gengchen didn't stand still and stupidly let himself get beaten. Instead, he ran out in a flash, leaving his alcoholic and gambler father stunned in his place.

Like the wind, Nan Gengchen sprinted all the way to the door of Qing Chen's house and frantically knocked on it. "Open the door, open the door!"

However, the one that opened was the door of the opposite unit. Qing Chen calmly looked at him and said, "Let's talk inside."

Nan Gengchen was a little puzzled as to why Qing Chen moved houses, but he was currently too excited to ask. He followed Qing Chen into the house and said, "He Xiaoxiao's group chat... hicc!"

Halfway through his sentence, Nan Gengchen suddenly spotted Yangyang sitting on the sofa!

The girl dressed in pyjamas and cute indoor slippers was expressionlessly staring at him...

The amount of information in front of him was simply too great.

Nan Gengchen instantly felt a deep awe for Qing Chen!

Qing Chen looked at him and calmly asked, "What's up with He Xiaoxiao's group chat? Is there any good news?"

"Ohhh!" Nan Gengchen came back to his senses. "The good news is—I've joined He Xiaoxiao's group chat!"

In an instant, the room fell quiet, the atmosphere slowly turning dense.

After a moment of deep silence, Qing Chen asked, "...You call this good news?"

Nan Gengchen continued to babble in high spirits, "Of course! Hundreds of millions of people applied to join the group chat but are still stuck waiting, meanwhile, they actually sent me a special invitation through a text message! The message said that student Nan Gengchen is welcomed to the group chat and can click on the link to join. After I clicked the link, I really got into the group!"

Qing Chen was taken aback—He Xiaoxiao actually invited Nan Gengchen by name?

This meant that He Xiaoxiao possessed even more information than he imagined.

All the information he previously revealed could still be accounted to his identity as an 'expert gamer'. After all, a gaming expert's ability to explore the world and clues was indeed better than ordinary people.

But the current scale of his reach had climbed to another level. He wouldn't be able to do this without the backing of a strong organisation.

Kun Lun, or Jiu Zhou—which of these organisations was behind He Xiaoxiao?

Qing Chen sighed. Since this was the case, then Nan Gengchen's direct invitation meant that his identity had already been exposed.

The organisation He Xiaoxiao belonged to must have mastered the technology from the Inner World. The entire information network in the Outer World was practically a playing field for them.

At the current time where most people still didn't have the capability to build a data fortress, if they wanted to hack into Nan Gengchen's phone and obtain information from him, they would've already done so a long time ago.

They didn't need to wait until now.

In other words, by sending a direct message to the relevant person, He Xiaoxiao was actually conveying another meaning: There's no need to refuse, you've already been exposed.

Qing Chen suddenly felt that the way this organisation operated was much more terrifying than Kun Lun.

Looking at Qing Chen's serious expression, Nan Gengchen hesitantly asked, "Isn't this good news..."

"It is," Yangyang dully nodded, "The last time you won against hundreds of millions others was eighteen years ago. This kind of thing is indeed something worth being happy about."

Nan Gengchen: "???"

Qing Chen: "???"

They felt as though someone had just run a car over their faces.

Qing Chen silently took Nan Gengchen's phone, then grabbed a black tape and carefully stuck it over all the cameras, making sure to stick several layers over the microphone holes.

After he finished with Nan Gengchen's phone, he even handed the tape to Yangyang, motioning for her to also do the same with her phone.

Yangyang glanced at Qing Chen's phone and only then found out that the cameras and microphones had long since been covered by tape.

"Have you always been so cautious?" she asked.

"It's a matter of habit," replied Qing Chen.

Nan Gengchen wondered. "But they can easily infiltrate our phones. Isn't it rather useless to do this?"

Qing Chen met his gaze and explained, "Nowadays, aside from reading the news, I hardly use my phone for anything else, so there's no real secret to be found inside my phone. I do this because I don't want my privacy to be exposed to others."

Yangyang said, "I've covered everything."

Only then did Qing Chen continue to speak to Nan Gengchen. "Open that message and let me see what it says."

Nan Gengchen clicked on the message and explained in a low voice beside him, "When you click on the link, the app for the group chat will be automatically downloaded to your phone. I've checked the app, and you can even top up money to buy decorative frames for your icon... They also offer a special effect that plays out when you open the app. It's not expensive either, they're offering it at a limited time special price for the first three days."

What kind of bullshit was that...

Qing Chen expressionlessly looked at Nan Gengchen. "Did you buy it?"

"I bought it, it looks pretty good," Nan Gengchen answered honestly.

As he said that, he clicked on an app with a green icon. The moment it opened, the app directly jumped to the group chat interface. Except for the extra column for the in-app store, the layout wasn't too different from WeChat's group chat interface.

Immediately afterwards, a bunch of small bubbles randomly floated across the screen.

Qing Chen instantly understood—this was the special effect purchased by Nan Gengchen...

How pointless!

"Is this something only you can see, or can everyone else see it?" Qing Chen asked.

"Only I can see it, it's just to make it look good," Nan Gengchen replied.

Qing Chen sighed, this guy really was still that same idiot who was willing to buy non-existent nano socks.

But he couldn't figure it out, shouldn't He Xiaoxiao establish this group chat for serious purposes? Why did he even set up this kind of penny-pinching thing?

How strange was this!

When Qing Chen checked the list of members, he unexpectedly found that there were only twenty seven people in the group.

Compared with the hundreds of millions others in the queue, these twenty seven people seemed like an extremely small number.

Qing Chen pondered, "Did He Xiaoxiao divide everyone into smaller groups, or are these twenty seven people the only participants in the group chat?"

Yangyang said, "I think it's the former. If I were He Xiaoxiao, I'd also gather time travellers from various regions and put them together in many different groups. This way, time travellers from all around the country would get to know each other. Because their locations in the Outer World correspond to their locations in the Inner World, everyone would be able to exchange valuable information with one another."

At this time, a member with the username 'Zhang San' sent a message in the group chat: "Has any of you ever received a letter out of thin air? For example, when you wake up, have you ever suddenly found a letter lying beside your pillow? It's so scary."

Username 'Roaming King' replied: "No."

Soon after, username'Li Si' replied: "I received it once. The letter just appeared right under my pillow. I also don't know how the sender did it."

Qing Chen was stunned, he didn't expect that Nan Gengchen would be in the same group as Roaming King.

Roaming King said: "Little Duck, you haven't said anything since you joined the group chat. Are you shy? It's okay, just come out and chat with us."

Qing Chen slowly turned to look at Nan Gengchen. "This 'Little Duck' isn't you, right?"

Nan Gengchen's face instantly reddened. "It's just a nickname I randomly chose. When I did it, I didn't know that you won't be able to change your username after joining the group chat..."

Translator: Zee