Chapter 177: Hehe

"I'm afraid you're going to be known as 'Little Duck' when you appear in front of other time travelers in the future," Qing Chen said with a face full of pity and sympathy.

Nan Gengchen expressionlessly replied, "Brother Chen, you can just laugh if you want to."

"Hahahahahaha!"

His laughter lasted for five whole minutes.

Another person in the group chat asked: "Little Duck, why aren't you saying anything? Why did you join the group chat if you're not going to chat?"

Zhang San thought for a moment before replying: "It's 11:30 at night, judging from his username, he might be working right now..."

Qing Chen exclaimed, "This Zhang San sure came up with a good analysis!"

Nan Gengchen powerlessly slumped onto the sofa. He debated for a long time before finally raising his head and asked, "Brother Chen, tell me, if I go to commit suicide now, will you be legally responsible for it?!"

"There's no need to commit suicide over this, alright." Qing Chen rubbed his cheeks that had gotten sore from laughing. "After I thought about it, the fact that you joined the group chat may not actually be a bad thing. Although the people who set this up know that you're a time traveler, they don't necessarily know what your... true identity in the Inner World is."

As he said this, Qing Chen glanced at Yangyang. Since she was present, it was somewhat inconvenient for him to talk to Nan Gengchen here.

After all, none of them could determine whether the girl was an enemy or a friend, so Qing Chen would definitely refrain from exposing Nan Gengchen's identity to her.

Yangyang nonchalantly said, "I know that I'm an outsider. It's normal for you to hide things from me."

"Thank you for understanding." Qing Chen nodded and continued to talk to Nan Gengchen, "If we play this card well, we might be able to get a good result. You guys wait here for a moment, I'm going to the toilet to report the situation to the boss."

Qing Chen went to the toilet and checked his communication device to see that Liu Dezhu had already sent him a message: "Boss, boss, I have important information to report about He Xiaoxiao's group chat!!!"

Qing Chen was quite surprised. Liu Dezhu had now become very active and cooperative. He would report everything to him without even needing to be asked.

He replied to Liu Dezhu's message: "You should have already received He Xiaoxiao's invitation."

On the other side of the communication device, Liu Dezhu was very shocked: "Boss, how did you know I was going to talk about this? You're really like a prophet! I've indeed just received the invitation and wanted to ask you if I should join!!!"

This guy typed out so many extra exclamation marks that Qing Chen wondered if he was still in a state of anger.

He pondered for a while.

With this, they actually had one and a half 'cards' in total.

The one card was Liu Dezhu, and the half card was Nan Gengchen.

The difference between these two cards laid in their recognizability. Only a few people knew that Nan Gengchen was a time traveler, and even then, none of them knew about his identity in the Inner World.

Meanwhile, Liu Dezhu was very conspicuous. Most people now thought that he had already become an important member of Li Shutong's party, and that Li Shutong had even ordered Li Dongze from Heng Society to kill someone for his sake.

These two cards had to be used together in order to bring out their maximum effect.

In addition, there was an opponent who needed to be dealt with as soon as possible!

Qing Chen texted Liu Dezhu: "Join the group chat and then tell me which group you're in and the usernames of the members of your group."

When Liu Dezhu saw the boss' instructions, he stopped worrying about exposing himself and decisively clicked the link.

After downloading the app, he landed on the username registration page. Liu Dezhu was still thinking about what nickname to use so as not to easily reveal his identity when the column to enter the username suddenly disappeared. Immediately afterwards, the username 'Liu Dezhu (verified)' appeared in his profile information.

Liu Dezhu nearly vomited on the spot. To actually do a real-name verification—what kind of damned app was this?

The next moment, the group chat exploded with messages.

"Liu Dezhu is here?"

"Fuck, it's Liu Dezhu! He even had a real-name verification!"

"They verified Liu Dezhu!"

Nowadays, there was no time traveler who didn't recognize the name Liu Dezhu. His fame was so widespread that he even caused a small commotion upon joining the group chat.

Qing Chen was still waiting for a reply, but soon he heard Nan Gengchen shouting outside the toilet, "Brother Chen, Liu Dezhu just joined our group chat!"

Qing Chen frowned. Was Liu Dezhu joining this group a deliberate arrangement, a coincidence, or had He Xiaoxiao only invited this small number of people as of now?

He instructed Liu Dezhu: "Cooperate with the member with the username 'Little Duck'."

After sending that, Qing Chen walked out of the toilet. He carefully observed the stream of messages in the group chat, patiently waiting for an opportunity.

Nan Gengchen thought to himself that Liu Dezhu must've suddenly joined the group under Qing Chen's instruction. He raised his head and glanced at Yangyang, wondering if this girl knew about Brother Chen's real identity.

Because Liu Dezhu didn't say a word after joining the group chat, the members gradually lost their enthusiasm.

At this time, username 'Yue'er' asked: "Why are there so few people in this group? Including He Xiaoxiao, we only have 28 members."

Roaming King replied: "Without a data fortress, who'll dare to join this shady group chat? No one knows what He Xiaoxiao has in mind... There won't really be anyone who joined this group without a data fortress, right?"

Yangyang and Qing Chen silently looked at Nan Gengchen. Nan Gengchen lowered his head in embarrassment, unable to say a word.

Zhang San said: "Everyone's feeling wary now. I heard there's even a time traveller who immigrated overseas after obtaining the qualification for transmigration. By doing this, the country won't be able to find him easily, and the foreign time travellers won't know who he is either because of the different locations."

Someone asked Roaming King: "Roaming King, why do you know so much about the Fight for the Shadows? You even know the news about Qing Huai's death, were you there when it happened?"

Roaming King replied: "You don't need to be surprised about this, I know about a ton of other things. I'll keep on reporting relevant news in the future. Don't worry, I won't charge for it."

Roaming King—this person really had a personality that lived up to his username. He gave off the impression of someone who was very impetuous and had great confidence in himself, as if he was ready to jump out of the screen at any time.

Qing Chen was puzzled by this guy. Was he really doing all this to get the attention and satisfy his own vanity? Was he really not afraid of being found out?

Where did his confidence come from?

Li Si asked: "Roaming King, when I was in the Inner World, I heard that the previous Fights for the Shadow weren't as fierce as the current one. At least not to the point where there's already a casualty in the first round. What makes it different this time?"

Roaming King replied: "Hehe, I do know a thing or two about this. It's said that the head of the Qing Family, Qing Xun, has been weakened by injury, so he plans to abdicate from the position and wants to choose a suitable successor from the existing Shadows. As of now, there are only three Shadows who are still alive. One is very old and seems to want nothing more than to peacefully enjoy his later years, the other is freely travelling around the world, and the current Shadow probably won't have much longer to live due to the lingering effects of the injuries he suffered in the previous Fight for the Shadow. The winner of the current Fight for the Shadow might very well be the next head of the Qing family, and that's why everyone involved in this is seeing red."

The head of each generation was assisted by several generations of Shadows, and when the time came, he would choose one successor among these Shadows to become the next head of the family.

The position of a Shadow was already incredibly attractive, so one could imagine how coveted the position of the head was.

Li Si asked again: "Now that Qing Huai's dead, who's the most popular candidate? Is there any chance for time travellers to join their faction and ride on their coattails?"

Roaming King replied: "If you really want to choose, I suggest picking either Qing Wen from the Main Branch or Qing Zhong from the Second Branch."

Roaming King had practically become an advisor. He was only short of giving Li Si a strategy.

Yangyang chimed from the side, "This Li Si is so fixated on the Fight for the Shadow, is he part of the Qing Family?"

"There's also a possibility that he deliberately did this in order to mislead everyone into thinking so," Qing Chen said. "Nothing is certain for now."

The next moment, Zhang San brought up an old topic: "Roaming King, do you know about the ability that lets you send letters to other people out of thin air? Having the letter directly appearing next to my pillow really makes me feel uneasy whenever I go to sleep."

Qing Chen's wait had finally come to an end. He looked at Nan Gengchen. "Type down what I'm saying. Forbidden Item ACE-017, the Devil Stamp Post. It can send letters to any known address with a stamp formed from fresh blood. The content of each letter is limited to only one sentence. If both Zhang San and Li Si have received these letters, it means that the owner of this Forbidden Item already knows where your home addresses are."

In the group chat, everyone saw the 'Little Duck' who had been silent all this time suddenly sending a message, revealing a shockingly important information the moment he opened his mouth.

Information about Forbidden Items might not be worth much to Qing Chen, but to other time travellers, it was extremely precious!

At first, everyone thought that this 'Little Duck' didn't say anything because he was a newbie time traveller, but now, they finally realised that he was also a hidden expert!

In an instant, everyone stopped sending messages in the group chat. They were all waiting for Little Duck to continue speaking!

Qing Chen said, "The owner of this Forbidden Item is very evil. Not only did he orchestrate the kidnapping in Laojun Mountain, many people who received his letters were also eventually led into their deaths by his schemes. He's a very manipulative and temperamental person who kills even his own people. If any of you receive his letter, the first thing you need to do is to move to a place where no one knows about, then try to recall any clues that might lead to his identity and report it to Jiu Zhou or Kun Lun."

This time, the group chat became even quieter.

After a long time, Li Si finally asked: "Is what you're saying really true? Or are you making things up?"

Judging from the previous chat records, both Li Si and Zhang San had received the letters. It seemed that what Little Duck said made him feel rather scared.

Nan Gengchen asked, "Brother Chen, should we answer to dispel their doubts?"

Qing Chen shook his head. "No, wait a little longer."

"Wait? For what?" Nan Gengchen wondered.

"Wait for another person to confirm our statement," answered Qing Chen with a smile.

At this time, Liu Dezhu suddenly broke his silence: "It's true!!! There's a huge mysterious organisation behind this person, and as a victim of the Laojun Mountain kidnapping, I've also suffered deeply from their actions!!! I really abhor this kind of evil organisation, so if anyone has any clues about them, please tell me immediately!!!"

Nan Gengchen: "..."

The other members of the group chat were silently thinking that this information should be true. Liu Dezhu had a verified account and an extraordinary status in the Inner World, so naturally, the words that came out of his mouth had significantly more power of persuasion.

Moreover, seeing the series of exclamation marks Liu Dezhu had punched out, they could feel his indescribable anger even through the screen.

In fact, every line Liu Dezhu had just typed out was his real, genuine feelings. Those letters had truly devastated his well-being.

Other people were at most spooked out by the letters, but he had to cut himself and use his own blood to reply to them.

Last night, he had roughly counted the number of replies. If that person wanted to continue talking with his boss, then he would have to withdraw 300cc of blood every month to relay their conversation!

"Wait, by muddying the water, does the boss plan on borrowing the power of this group chat to find the owner of the Devil Stamp Post? And then cut the mastermind behind the scenes?!" Liu Dezhu thought to himself.

At this moment, Qing Chen was silently observing the reactions of all the people in the group chat. He had achieved what he set out to do:

Turn the owner of the Devil Stamp Post into a public enemy!

Yangyang laughed, "Interesting. If you're not sure whether you can defeat the enemy, then you can go find a few more enemies for this enemy."

Qing Chen replied, "I'll go text the boss. I'm going to tell him that the mission has been completed."

As he spoke, he went back to the toilet and sent a message to Liu Dezhu: "Good job."

Upon receiving the message, Liu Dezhu was excited beyond belief. The boss actually praised him!

And a strange thing occurred—the fire in his heart that had been gradually dissipating was unexpectedly revived vigorously at this moment!

Liu Dezhu's eyes lit up. He didn't expect the boss' compliment to have such an effect: "Boss, can you praise me a few more times?"

As Qing Chen looked at the message, he began to wonder if there was something wrong with this guy.

The next moment, a letter suddenly appeared next to Liu Dezhu's pillow.

In a process that looked extremely creepy, the envelope slowly emerged from thin air.

Liu Dezhu opened the letter and reported to Qing Chen: "Boss, that person just sent me a letter: 'You actually want to make everyone treat me as an enemy, interesting, hehe.'"

Qing Chen wasn't the slightest bit surprised when he saw the content of the letter. He Xiaoxiao's establishment of a group chat was such a big event, how could that person not know about it? So from the beginning, Qing Chen was sure that he must've planted a spy in the group chat. Perhaps, even he himself might also be in the group chat.

Qing Chen texted: "Write back to him: Why don't you dare to come out and defend yourself? Hehe."

The owner replied: "And let you know what my username is? Hehe."

Liu Dezhu asked: "Boss, how should I reply to him?"

Qing Chen: "Hehe."

In the dark night, in front of a huge floor-to-ceiling window, as the thin figure looked at the single 'hehe' on the letter he had just received, he suddenly felt a little disgusted by that word...

Translator: Zee