Troublemakers

As soon as the words left her lips, the group led by Leaping Hamster sank completely into the ground and vanished.

The ground where they had stood returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.

A deathly silence fell over the plaza. The crowd finally realized that the person before them held absolute authority within this area.

Among the onlookers, several players who were clearly from other grand regions had ugly expressions on their faces. Too shocked by the sight to believe it, they opened their private chat pages to check the avatars of those few individuals.

They were gray.

They were truly dead.

Within this safe zone, Crow didn't even need to lift a finger to take someone's life?!

The first reaction of these people was: if this is the case, who would dare to enter the safe zone?

This isn't a joke, is it?

If one's life could be taken at any moment... wouldn't players be no different from ants in the eyes of the safe zone owner? She could crush them with a flick of her finger.

Restrictions... of course, there were some.

Cheng Shuili just hadn't shown them.

After all, she was currently establishing her authority. To put it more vulgarly, she was posturing. Since she was already doing it, Cheng Shuili was naturally going to make it a grand performance.

Guests of a safe zone are, after all, guests. As the 'host,' the leader generally cannot attack guests.

But the rules are not set in stone.

When a guest insults the host or even attempts to attack the host, the host gains the right to take action.

As for how to 'punish' the guest, that is the host's prerogative.

This rule served as a reminder to Cheng Shuili as well—in the future, when visiting places like the beastman town, she must never easily insult the Rat King.

At the same time, seeing this rule made her understand why the monster merchant was so terrified of the Rat King.

Calling it a 'black rat' every other sentence was essentially handing the Rat King an opportunity to punish it, wasn't it?

Returning to the present, Cheng Shuili scanned the faces of the crowd watching the spectacle, memorizing the ones with unusual expressions.

Before coming out, she had instructed 001 to record the IDs of these individuals.

001 always diligently carried out tasks entrusted by its boss!

But because they were not in the same grand region and lacked a regional channel or powerful auxiliary functions, all 001 could obtain were their IDs.

For Cheng Shuili, an ID was enough.

She had always held grudges; she took revenge whenever she could, and kept a record of everything she couldn't.

The puppet incident still hadn't reached a conclusion, and now the safe zone was being targeted by people from other grand regions.

Cheng Shuili was genuinely curious: where did these people get so many items to contact players in her partition?

Furthermore, why were there so many turncoats within her own partition?

As this thought surfaced, Cheng Shuili pushed it back down.

The world had indeed changed; the term 'turncoat' was now an absurdity.

It was just a pity about those rows of names on the Dragon Country grand region leaderboard...

Opportunities to boost morale were rare, and the Dragon Country officials had not missed a single one. Compared to that, the behavior of these people was truly disheartening.

Cheng Shuili intended to detain them. Once night fell, the safe zone would close, and these people would be forced back to their vehicles.

To resolve the matter, she had to act now.

Cheng Shuili hooked the corners of her lips into a faint arc, her gaze precisely locking onto the few players in the crowd whose expressions were shifting.

"Seen enough?" Her voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone's ears. "Is the show entertaining?"

To normal players, these words meant nothing and were even a bit confusing, but the few players who already had guilty consciences stiffened. They instinctively tried to step back, only to find their feet stuck to the ground, unable to move.

The surrounding players immediately noticed the anomaly, and the crowd quickly dispersed, isolating them.

"Angry Crow Takes Flight?" A tall man tried to remain calm. He seemed to be speaking Chinese, but the accent was strange. To Cheng Shuili, it would have been better if he had just spoken his native language and let the system translate it for her.

His Adam's apple trembled, and his lowered hand clenched into a fist. "What do you mean by this? Are people not allowed to stay in the safe zone?"

"Staying is certainly fine," Cheng Shuili approached leisurely, "but coming to my territory to run wild is a different matter."

The group's expressions changed drastically.

"What nonsense are you spouting!"

"We didn't do anything!"

"People from Dragon Country..." The last one had a gloomy expression and a mocking tone. "Do you just love to frame people without cause like this?"

He was surrounded by people from Dragon Country. Previously, it had just been a dispute between this group and Crow, but once he said that, he dragged all the Dragon Country people into it.

Even a clay figure has a temper, let alone the fact that this was considered the home turf of the Dragon Country.

A voice suddenly popped up from the crowd of onlookers: "What is this bastard saying?"

This sentence was like a bugle call, and others glared at them in anger.

"How dare you be so arrogant on our turf?"

"Boss Crow, get him!"

Cheng Shuili, however, suddenly smiled.

She raised her hand, signaling for everyone to be quiet.

This was Angry Crow Takes Flight. Every person from the Dragon Country knew the reputation of this top-ranked player, so they naturally gave her face.

Thus, the indignant crowd quieted down one after another, their gazes fixed unwaveringly on Cheng Shuili.

Cheng Shuili squinted and smiled with a wicked glint. She simply displayed the rule, enlarging the screen to ensure everyone could see it.

The crowd was puzzled at first, but after clearly reading the text, they began to discuss it animatedly.

"What does this mean?"

"So in the safe zone, the leader can only attack players who have malicious intent?"

"In other words, these people really had malicious intent?!"

Once this conclusion was reached, the backs of those Dragon Country players immediately straightened.

"This rule is quite interesting! The leader can clearly see who has hostility, so it's obvious who the problem is!"

"So!" One person in the crowd had eyes shining with excitement and said loudly: "Since Boss Crow can attack them, it means they really are the problem!"

Seeing someone state the truth, the smile on Cheng Shuili's face naturally widened.

The player who had spoken provocatively tried to argue back: "Are you kidding?! You are the only leader of this safe zone right now. You say this is the rule, so it's the rule? On what basis?!"

This sounded reasonable at first glance, but a moment's thought revealed the flaw.

"What kind of place do you think this is? Boss Crow has already brought out the screenshot! Do you think this is the old world where you could Photoshop something to fool people?!"

"Exactly! Have you no shame left?! You're at death's door and still talking tough? Boss Crow, vent our frustration for us!"

"Vent our frustration for us!!"

This call was soon echoed by everyone, scaring the few people from other partitions into trembling. One of them, who was noticeably smaller in stature, began to shake so violently it looked like he was about to wet himself in the next second.

Cheng Shuili hadn't expected this situation.

She had disciplined people many times before, but this was the first time she had seen such unanimous public support.

It wasn't early anymore. Cheng Shuili had controlled them first without acting immediately precisely to show off this rule.

In this way, players would all understand that as long as their behavior and speech were proper, the safe zone would remain the safest place, and they wouldn't be afraid to enter it.

The remaining tasks were not suitable to be done in front of others.

Cheng Shuili sent a message calling Ailin to bring a few people over to take these individuals away for interrogation. Even if she could only get one ID of the person behind the scenes, it would be enough for Cheng Shuili.

In this hellhole, an ID was just like an identity card. Didn't those players find her partition because the system had announced her ID to the entire server?

Ailin and the others arrived quickly. The few people she brought were all from Black Feather, and they looked like they had been carefully selected—each one burly and broad-shouldered, with muscles on their arms jumping every time they exerted force, which made Cheng Shuili's face darken.

Did this girl have some misunderstanding of the word 'interrogation'?

Ailin, however, leaned in with a look that sought praise, lowering her voice: "Boss, how's that? I specifically picked the strongest ones in our faction! This was Xinxue's idea, saying that since there are many people here, we should show off Black Feather's muscles to these people."

The few burly men who caught Cheng Shuili's gaze cooperated by puffing out their chests, their muscles bulging.

Just kidding! This was the boss!

Opportunities to show off in front of the boss and so many others were rare; they were all very enthusiastic.

Cheng Shuili now wished she could find a hole to crawl into.

Embarrassing!

Truly embarrassing!

She could even hear people in the crowd starting to discuss, asking things like, "Are all the players in Black Feather this muscular?"

"Is this a muscle-based faction?"

"Seeing this makes me want to join Black Feather too. It's making me jealous."

This was said by a fair-skinned male player, which scared the other male players standing beside him into scattering back a circle.

Cheng Shuili hadn't expected to see such a dramatic turn of events.

But whether it was dramatic or not didn't matter now. If she didn't take these people away, the players staring at these muscle-bound men would start reaching out to touch them.

This was definitely not a broadcastable plot!

"Very good." Cheng Shuili rubbed her forehead. "Take them away first, don't scare the other players."

When those players from other grand regions saw this group of hulking men, their legs went soft, and they were practically dragged away by the scruffs of their necks.

The onlookers from the Dragon Country cheered when they saw this:

"That's exactly how they should be treated!"

"Let's see if they dare to run wild on our turf again!"

Cheng Shuili turned to the crowd and said loudly: "Today's events end here. Everyone knows the rules of the safe zone; as long as you follow the rules, this is the safest place."

Cheers rang out once more.

Amidst the grateful gazes of the crowd, Cheng Shuili quietly withdrew.

Returning to the banquet, the food had been mostly eaten.

But Wanyi, thinking of the boss, had specifically taken a plate and saved a little bit of everything for Cheng Shuili. Otherwise, given how these people were eating, Cheng Shuili wouldn't have had any food left tonight.

She picked up her chopsticks and ate a few hurried bites. She had just tasted the flavor when Ailin ran in excitedly: "Boss! We got it out!"

The Black Feather members still sitting around pricked up their ears.

Cheng Shuili signaled for Ailin to sit down: "Tell me slowly."

Ailin first shook her head, showing a bit of disdain with a cocky look, and sighed: "The mouth was too soft; it couldn't take a beating at all."

This demeanor was so much like Xinxue that Cheng Shuili couldn't help but glance at her.

It would have been better if she hadn't looked; comparing them like this, they were truly identical.

Xinxue was wiping her mouth in a leisurely manner. Noticing Cheng Shuili's gaze, she blinked innocently: "Boss, I didn't teach her anything."

But Ailin had learned everything thoroughly!

The atmosphere at the dining table was a bit subtle. Ailin realized she had gotten carried away, quickly composed her expression, and lowered her voice:

"The leader confessed that the one who ordered them was the top-ranked player of their partition. They must have signed a transaction contract, so the ID couldn't be revealed. However, I did manage to get the partition out of them—it's the White Eagle Federation Partition 1!"

"As for other things," she made a throat-slitting gesture, her expression turning serious, "the moment they tried to spit out even a single word, the system dealt with them."

Cheng Shuili was not surprised by this result and asked calmly: "They're gone?"

"Gone."

The people at the dining table didn't react much to this answer. They had all fought their way through life and death; none of them would have any response to the news of an enemy's death.

Xinxue, however, frowned and thought for a moment. She opened her private chat page and sent some message. After a short while, she closed the page and said: "The top-ranked player of White Eagle Federation Partition 1, his real name is Jack Flood, and his ID is Handsome White Eagle. It just so happens that we interviewed someone from the White Eagle Federation today; this person is very famous in their partition and should be the top-ranked player of their grand region."

Hearing this, Jiang Tang, who was on the side, finally realized: "Boss, you've been targeted by another top-ranked player!"

This conclusion was reached too easily, making it seem like Jiang Tang's intelligence wasn't very high.

But everyone was used to it long ago, so no one said anything more.

The few who had followed Cheng Shuili since the beginning were calmer, even linking today's event to the assassination attempt in the dungeon before: "That assassination attempt on the boss by Fengyun Tianxia in the dungeon last time—couldn't it also be related to this person?"

"Is he just idle with nothing to do?" Jiang Tang truly couldn't understand. "Why stretch his hand so far, coming all the way across a grand region just to cause trouble for our boss?"

Wanyi, however, was not surprised. She turned to look at the calm-faced Cheng Shuili, withdrew her gaze, and said: "Our boss is too dazzling. In the hearts of those narrow-minded people, isn't she just a thorn in their side?"

Cheng Shuili listened to the discussion, her expression remaining calm.

She picked up a piece of braised pork that Wanyi had specifically saved, savored it carefully, and then spoke: "Wanyi is right. There is too much hatred for no reason; one can't blame oneself for being excellent, can one?"

This was a bit amusing, and the atmosphere at the dining table lightened up quite a bit.

Xinxue was thoughtful: "Boss, should I go investigate this Jack's background?"

"Not for now." Cheng Shuili waved her hand. "But I am very curious about one thing: how did he accurately find the players in our partition to use for his own purposes?"

Cheng Shuili had one more doubt she hadn't voiced.

Why weren't there so many of them at the beastman town and the trading post?

Besides the fact that entering those places was too random, there must be another reason, because Cheng Shuili had never seen players from other partitions in those places.