Card Room

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou returned to their rooms at 3 o'clock in the morning. They slept separately and rested. It was Thursday and the two of them slept until noon. At lunch, they met Shao Qingge again. Shao Qingge's eyes narrowed and he joked, "Last night, did the two of you have no rest? What did you do to stay up all night?"

This time, they went to the bar to explore so Yu Hanjiang didn't feel guilty. He answered in a straightforward manner, "Last night, we went to the seaside bar and only came back to our room at 3 o'clock. We also met an acquaintance at the bar."

It was known that the two of them went to the bar but Shao Qingge hadn't expected them to return to the hotel so late. He immediately put away his smile and asked in a low voice, "What's going on? Who did you meet?"

Xiao Lou wondered, "Do you remember the masked man we met in 4 of Spades?"

As early as 3 of Spades, Shao Qingge and Ye Qi had worked together with Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou. Shao Qingge and Ye Qi formed a team afterwards and they promised to meet again in 4 of Spades. In Liuxi Village, they first met Liu Qiao at the mountain temple and Long Sen and Qu Wanyue outside the village…

The masked man didn't partner with them but there was temporary cooperation.

Ye Qi thought carefully. "I remember him. At that time, we had found most of the gems. He used the technique of fetching objects from the air to take the gems in our hands. We thought he wanted to grab the gems but he said he wanted to cooperate."

There were quite a few people who passed Liuxi Village in the end but everyone had a deep impression of this masked man. After all, the other challengers showed their true faces while he mysteriously wore a silver mask to hide his identity. When speaking, his voice was soft but not feminine. It was quite easy to recognize him…

Shao Qingge answered, "I remember that he went to the City of the Sun after passing the fourth level?"

Xiao Lou nodded. "We met him at the bar last night but he didn't know us at all. Moreover, according to the information from Mr Tang, he has opened that bar in the City of the Sun for half a year and couldn't have appeared in 4 of Spades a month ago. Our guess is that he has a twin brother and the person we met should be his twin."

Shao Qingge and Ye Qi exchanged looks. Ye Qi scratched his head. "Are you sure they are twins? What if they are just wearing the same mask?"

Yu Hanjiang was very confident in his ability to recognize people. "Different people wearing the same mask won't look similar. In addition, his mask still reveals his eyes and lips. These features are similar to the masked man we saw in Liuxi Village."

Ye Qi heard up to here and couldn't help wondering, "If the twins came to this world at the same time, they should've found each other with the contract after passing through 2 of Clubs and formed a team to do the tasks. How come one of them came to the main city half a year ago and the other is still in the novice secret room of 4 of Hearts… unless they didn't die at the same time?"

Yu Hanjiang told them, "We feel this matter is strange so after discussing it with Xiao Lou, I have decided to tell everyone that if you meet this person in the future, you should be careful. It isn't clear if he is an enemy or a friend."

Ye Qi and Shao Qingge both nodded to show their understanding.

After the meal, Xiao Lou went to Old Mo again and asked if he had heard anything about &#k2018;White Fox’ or twins. Old Man answered, “White Fox is very famous in the challengers forum and I saw him post some tips. He is just very secretive. I have never seen him in person or heard that he has a twin brother.”

Both Tang Ci's Intelligence Bureau and Old Mo's network couldn't confirm the identity of this White Fox. Xiao Lou had to put it aside for the time being.

There was still no news from Brother Jiu. A day passed and everyone was very worried.

On midnight of Friday night, all challengers in the main cities would be forced into the World Weekly secret room.

Previously in order to avoid the World Weekly, they had done as Brother Jiu advised and drew a card before midnight on Friday night to enter a secret room. Now all the A-grade secret rooms were cleared and they should gather together. They would be a 12 person team for the first time and people were both looking forward to it and feeling worried.

At 11 o'clock on Friday night, Xiao Lou asked in the group chat: [Is everyone ready?]

Tang Ci typed: [Ready.]

Gui Yuanzhang and Chu Huaying simply sent short words. [Yes.]

[Wait for it to be midnight.]

Lu Jiuchuan wasn't in the group and Yu Hanjiang was a bit worried. [Where is Brother Jiu?]

Tang Ci said: [He should be at the dinner and it isn't convenient for him to contact us. At midnight, we will use the contract to forcefully pull him in.]

***

At this time, the Ronghua Building in the City of the Sun, the presidential suite on the top floor. Several people were eating fruits and playing cards, including Luo Yan who had her concert just two days ago.

She dressed differently from her usual cold, goddess style. Today's Luo Yan wore a fiery red low-cut dress with curly maroon hair, revealing her beautiful figure. Her dress revealed most of her shoulders, displaying the black totem tattoo on her scapula. Everyone here was a hunter. Lu Jiuchuan also had realistic tattoos on his body and none of them shied away from it.

The table was playing Texas hold'em. Luo Yan got a full house and won the game. She took all the chips on the table and said, "I'm sorry, I won again."

Lu Jiuchuan sat next to her and smiled in a gentlemanly manner. "Miss Luo, you are really lucky today."

Luo Yan turned to him with a smile. "Mr Chen's luck also isn't bad. You might not have won but you didn't lose much." She meaningfully scanned the gold coins in front of Lu Jiuchuan. "It is like you are deliberately controlling your chips so that you don't lose or win."

Lu Jiuchuan chuckled. "Miss Luo is overestimating me. How can there be such a thing."

There was a smile on Luo Yan's face as she leaned toward Lu Jiuchuan's ear. "I remember that Mr Chen used to go in and out of the casino in the City of the Moon. How come your playing skills are so strange after I haven't seen you for a while?"

Lu Jiuchuan said helplessly, "Perhaps my luck with cards is bad today."

The moment he finished speaking, he felt something cold on his chest. Lu Jiuchuan lowered his head. He didn't know where Luo Yan grabbed it from, but a gun was currently pointing at his heart.

The smile on the woman's face became gentler. "I heard rumors that the challengers have a lot of cards that can disguise their appearance, such as the S-grade special effects card, Mask. This card acts like a transparent layer that can change your appearance arbitrarily after wearing it. Mr Chen, have you heard of it?"

Lu Jiuchuan's back went cold. He was currently using the Mask card to change his face, posing as a high level member of the Hunters League called Chen Wenbo.

In order to participate in this meal, he privately investigated Chen Wenbo for a long time to find out his habits. The last World Weekly secret room happened to be a Spades room with a disaster-like world. Many hunters were dispatched. Lu Jiuchuan followed Mr Chen into the World Weekly and cooperated with Chu Huaying to kill him. Then he pretended to be Chen Wenbo to participate in this dinner.

After the dinner, he stayed to accompany these people to play cards and to hear what they talked about. Where did he reveal himself to Luo Yan?

Lu Jiuchuan's heart was full of shock but he pretended to be calm as he smiled, "I haven't heard of the card that Miss Luo mentioned. I am ignorant."

"You haven't heard of it?" Luo Yan stepped back and stared coldly into Lu Jiuchuan's eyes. "Aren't you using it right now?"

"……"

The next second, Lu Jiuchuan grabbed her wrist and twisted it in the opposite direction. Then his body crouched down and he slid quickly under the table! At almost the same time, Luo Yan pulled the trigger. The silenced gun made no sound as a bullet burst out and embedded itself in the wall behind where Lu Jiuchuan had just been.

Lu Jiuchuan's expression changed sharply.

Luo Yan ordered, "Kill him!"

The people playing cards heard this, simultaneously picked up their guns and shot at Lu Jiuchuan. The densely fired bullets formed a net that covered heaven and earth. Lu Jiuchuan couldn't avoid them all. As he was dodging, his shoulder was hit by a bullet and his white shirt was immediately stained red with blood.

Lu Jiuchuan rolled on the ground and quickly hid behind a stone pillar. The sound of their slowly approaching footsteps was heard in his ears as a sharp pain came from his shoulder. Lu Jiuchuan glanced at the window next to him and quickly flashed over. His feet smashed into the window glass as he decisively jumped out the window.

This was the highest floor of the hotel. It was the 68th floor and the fall would definitely kill him!

However, the moment Lu Jiuchuan jumped out the window, a giant bird made of burning flames spread open its wings and steadily caught him. Lu Jiuchuan sat on its body and the big bird screamed sharply before flying high. It was like fire moving through the night sky, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

A man slowly came out of an inner room and spoke coldly, "He really is Lu Jiuchuan, the owner of the S-grade summoned beast, Vermilion Bird. The group of people he initially led killed hundreds of our elites."

Luo Yan's expression was ugly. "Lu Jiuchuan? Wasn't he eliminated early on?"

The man went to the broken window and looked at the flames flashing like a shooting star in the distance. He picked up a piece of glass, held it to his nose and sniffed at the blood. Then his eyes narrowed as he said, "Lu Jiuchuan unexpectedly survived the S-grade Nightmare Room."

The other people heard this and looked at each other.

The man ordered, "Immediately track him. His companions also might be alive. This time, we can't let any of them go."

My sleeping schedule has been really out of whack lately for some reason (probably stress). No matter how hard I try, I've only been getting 2/3 hours of sleep before waking up and trying to fall back asleep again. Due to that I've honestly had no energy to do anything and I've been getting constant headaches.

In order to try and restore my sleep schedule, I've decided to stop updating as much for a month and try to relax more. After this chapter, I will update it at one chapter a week for a month.

Proofreader: Fictional Reality & Paranoid Kitten