No Anomalies Found

Having realized this, Cheng Shuili became even more confused.

She could essentially be said to be in control of half the world, if not the whole thing, couldn't she?

Black Feather was currently at the peak of its popularity; who would use such crude tactics to deal with her, the leader of Black Feather?

Are they crazy?!

Furthermore, as it stands, this thing definitely could not cause any actual harm.

Just as Su Rui said, this was purely a scare tactic.

As soon as this thought crossed her mind, another one emerged.

Cheng Shuili frowned in thought. Could it be the leaders who left while discussing cooperation today?

Would they really be foolish enough to go to such lengths?

The fact that Cheng Shuili thought of them immediately showed that if they made a move now, it would be far too obvious.

Besides... those people likely lacked the courage to move against Black Feather.

At the very least, they wouldn't have the guts until they had secured the backing of forces in other sub-regions.

Cheng Shuili temporarily pushed those suspicions aside.

The motive was questionable, but the threat itself was real.

Whether it was a genuine monster or a simple scare tactic, it had happened, and someone was indeed pulling strings behind the scenes.

That meant she had to investigate!

No matter who it was, she would drag them out into the light!

Su Rui had been quite shaken by the sudden incident, but Cheng Shuili’s declaration that "we will investigate" acted like an adrenaline shot, gradually calming her panicked heart.

She took a deep breath, and the steady composure of a veteran driver returned.

"Investigate! We must get to the bottom of this!" Su Rui gritted her teeth, her eyes sharpening again. "Daring to pull this on me on the highway? Whether it’s human or ghost, if I don't drag them out, I’ve wasted my time gripping this steering wheel!"

"Good!" Cheng Shuili gave her an approving look.

That said, Su Rui had truly been rattled, and with it being nearly eight o'clock, it was indeed not the right time to continue the journey.

Cheng Shuili allowed Su Rui to clock off early, and when she heard that her work for the day was finished, the smile on her face finally became sincere.

She stood up, waved at Cheng Shuili, and without saying a word, headed back to her territory in a clean and decisive manner.

Cheng Shuili: "..."

It's just clocking off, isn't it? Why so happy?

Cheng Shuili had completely forgotten the feeling of finally finishing a hard day's work as an employee.

However, she was different from her own former bosses; seeing Su Rui so happy, she couldn't help but smile along.

The sunset sank completely below the horizon, the sky was dyed a deep purplish-blue, and the first chill of the night quietly permeated the air.

The highway seemed to have been muted in an instant. Everything around them froze and then gradually blurred. Countless monsters crawled out from unknown places, swarming in a dense mass, only to be blocked by the protective barrier. They could only pace and roar in vain, drumming scalp-numbing, grinding sounds against the vehicle's exterior.

Night was the world's most authentic face.

Cheng Shuili was already long accustomed to it.

She turned off the overly bright roof lights, leaving only the necessary interior lighting, allowing the vehicle to blend into the deepening darkness surrounded by monsters.

Cheng Shuili didn't wash up immediately. Instead, she walked straight to the sofa, found a comfortable position to lie down, and then opened her private messages.

【Angry Crow Takes Flight】: Is Xinxue there?

According to her routine, she should have just woken up, so she could likely be reached.

A moment later, a voice message was returned.

Xinxue’s slightly lazy yet clear voice came through, with the light clinking of bowls and chopsticks in the background.

It was dinner time, but since the afternoon meal had ended so late, Cheng Shuili wasn't hungry at all.

"I'm here, Boss. I just started eating with Wanyi and the others, and then Su Rui mentioned some strange things. What's going on?"

Cheng Shuili concisely recounted Su Rui's description.

A soft clatter of chopsticks being set down came from the other end of the communication, and Xinxue's voice became serious, tinged with surprise: "A gray-white faceless humanoid that dissipates after touching the vehicle? That sounds so wicked. If you hadn't told me yourself, Boss, I definitely wouldn't have believed it."

Cheng Shuili agreed: "If Su Rui hadn't seen it with her own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it either. Have you heard of anything similar?"

Xinxue was in contact with many people and was better informed than she was.

With the problem laid out, Xinxue searched her mind thoroughly but couldn't come up with anything similar.

She hadn't even seen any items that could cause such a result.

After Xinxue spoke the truth, Cheng Shuili wasn't surprised.

It was true that Xinxue was well-informed, but it was impossible for her to know everything.

However, the matter was indeed suspicious. After a moment of thought, Cheng Shuili changed her approach, opened her private messages, and contacted several Black Feather members capable of gathering intelligence, instructing them to investigate the small factions that had left early.

These members were receiving a task personally assigned by their leader for the first time, and they were all fired up, patting their chests and guaranteeing they would handle the matter brilliantly.

"Don't worry, Boss! I guarantee I'll figure out their underwear—no, I mean, I'll figure out their movements clearly!"

"Exactly! Whoever dares to play dirty with our Black Feather is tired of living!"

Cheng Shuili was left between laughter and tears by their enthusiasm, but she still warned them sternly: "Be careful, stay low-key, and focus on observation rather than conflict. Report any anomalies immediately."

"Understood!" everyone replied in unison, their voices filled with uncontrollable excitement and gravity.

After arranging the initial investigation, Cheng Shuili temporarily put the matter aside.

She knew it couldn't be rushed; both intelligence gathering and analysis required time.

If it didn't happen again, that would be fine, but if it did...

Would that be a good thing?

Cheng Shuili thought for a moment, changed her posture, and opened the regional channel to relax for a while.

The most significant change after the server merge was the abundance of entertainment options. With more people, the competition had become much fiercer.

It wasn't just novels and comics anymore; even television dramas were being filmed.

However, because the system-provided perspective was singular, these dramas were also from a single viewpoint.

But as long as the subject matter was good enough, who could say it wasn't entertaining?

Cheng Shuili had recently become addicted to one such drama. Since it was pay-per-episode, she had anonymously gifted the creator quite a bit of basic material.

Leisurely and happy times always passed in the blink of an eye.

The sky brightened again; it was the fifth day of the week, the day the system had set for the full-server link test.

The connection test was scheduled for exactly 12:00 PM and would last for 10 minutes.

The news was announced via a pop-up window early in the morning. As soon as the news broke, the regional channel boiled over, with almost everyone discussing the grand spectacle after the merge:

"Great! After the merge, there will be a sense of freshness, and we won't have to face this same group of people fighting all day."

"Is the person above brainless? The pressure will be even greater after the merge!"

"What pressure? I think Dragon Country is the strongest right now!"

"Isn't the strongest supposed to be Black Feather and those few big shots? Are we, the ordinary players, not just cannon fodder?"

Cheng Shuili closed the regional channel, noncommittal about the messy arguments.

She looked at the reports sent back by the Black Feather members she had dispatched last night; almost all of them contained the same four significant words—no anomalies found.

Even Ghost and the others had done nothing but mundane tasks after leaving the conference room, with no suspicious transaction records whatsoever.

After returning, they had either reinforced their defenses or tallied their supplies, maintaining a posture of preparing for the turmoil after the merge, but never actively provoking trouble.

Cheng Shuili estimated that it really wasn't them.

But if she excluded these guys who were the most suspicious but also the most cowardly, who else could it be?

Forces from other regions?

Scaring people with such childish methods across the regional barrier?

Not to mention that the cost and purpose were completely disproportionate, what about the benefits?

What were they after?

Cheng Shuili pondered for a while and simply ruled out this option.

And after excluding everything else... a name suddenly appeared in Cheng Shuili's mind.

Rat King!

He possessed the motive, the ability, and the timing.

Back at the beastman town, she had completed the contract in a near-crushing manner, not only taking away a portion of the military factory's profits but also, in full view of everyone, completely shaking the Rat King's prestige in the town through a clean plague eradication.

Such humiliation and substantive loss were enough to make that narrow-minded Rat King hold a grudge.

He had the motive for revenge.

And the ability...

The Rat King was the actual controller of the beastman town, with a deep foundation, and it was entirely possible that he held some strange items or methods unknown to players.

Moreover, that gray-white humanoid had appeared from the side of the road!

This entry method was exactly the same as those beastmen.

As Cheng Shuili was thinking, she felt the vehicle suddenly jolt, followed by an emergency brake!

She immediately got up, and when she reached the driver's cab, she was met with Su Rui's pale, frightened face.

"Ahead... ahead on the side of the road!" Su Rui pointed outside the windshield, her voice trembling with lingering fear. "It suddenly darted out! Gray-white, just like the one last night!"

Cheng Shuili immediately looked in the direction she was pointing.

By the sparse, twisted bushes on the roadside, a gray-white humanoid figure with constantly fluctuating edges was slowly standing upright.

Its faceless face turned slightly, seemingly looking toward the vehicle, and then it raised an arm, which was equally blurred, pointing straight at the vehicle!

It was still silent.

There was no roaring, no attack motion, just standing there eerily and pointing at them.

Then, under Cheng Shuili's cold gaze and Su Rui's tense, bated breath, the humanoid began to dissipate into wisps of gray-white smoke, starting from its fingertips, just like last night, vanishing into the cool air of the early morning.

A few seconds later, the spot was empty, as if everything just now had been a hallucination.

But both of them knew that it was definitely not a hallucination.

"It... it pointed at us?" Su Rui swallowed, her voice dry.

Cheng Shuili's eyes were sharp, staring tightly at the spot where the humanoid had dissipated, and she quickly scanned the surrounding environment.

The day was bright, and the scene on the highway was clearly visible. Aside from their vehicle and a supply crate not far away, there were no anomalies.

"It is marking, or rather... confirming," Cheng Shuili's voice was very cold. "Last night was a scare, today is a clear pointing. Someone is using this method to tell us that they have targeted us."

"Targeted us?" Su Rui's voice trembled. Before she could finish speaking, her pupils dilated again, and she pointed in one direction. "B-Boss, look."

Cheng Shuili looked in the direction she pointed. Behind the air wall on the side of the road, a squad of neatly postured mouse-race guards wearing leather armor was advancing toward Cheng Shuili's vehicle at a leisurely pace.

They were well-equipped and moved in perfect unison; they were clearly the Rat King's personal guards.

The lead mouse guard captain wore exquisite scale armor, his eyes sharp. Through the reflective glass window, his gaze locked precisely onto Cheng Shuili's face.

The corners of his mouth seemed to carry a trace of a faint, mocking smirk, as if he were enjoying a good show.

However, Cheng Shuili's expression seemed to exceed his expectations, and that smirk immediately vanished. It took a good while before he moved his offensive gaze away.

Afterward, he stopped, raised a hand, and the mouse guard squad behind him stopped in unison.

The mouse guard captain's action seemed like a signal. The mouse guard squad behind him split neatly from the middle, as if they had rehearsed it a thousand times, clearing a path.

At the end of the path, the edge of the air wall seemed to ripple slightly, like water waves.

Immediately following this, a short figure wearing a heavy dark purple cloak with gold trim, leaning on a gorgeous staff topped with a dark gem, slowly stepped out from the distorted light and shadow.

It was the Rat King!

He didn't cross the air wall completely, just standing at the boundary between the beastman territory and the invisible barrier of the player's highway, smiling slightly at Cheng Shuili before stepping forward.

With this step, he formally entered the highway area.

The Rat King's small body looked even more treacherous against the backdrop of his large cloak, and the dark light at the tip of the gem staff in his hand seemed even more pronounced.

Seeing that it was him, Cheng Shuili got out of the vehicle without hesitation.

But aside from getting out, she didn't take another step forward, and the Rat King stopped tacitly, about ten meters away from the vehicle.

This distance was neither too far nor too close, remaining outside the safety range while allowing both parties to clearly see each other's expressions.

Under the gorgeous cloak, the Rat King's eyes flickered, his gaze falling straight on Cheng Shuili's face.

The smile on his face didn't broaden; instead, it carried a deliberately maintained restraint befitting a superior, along with a trace of undisguisable resentment.

"Little friend," he spoke, his voice dry and hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing, "I have come to personally deliver the things we agreed upon."

Cheng Shuili twitched the corners of her mouth. She had seen the Rat King many times, but this was the first time he had made such a grand entrance.

And... the mouse guard captain's expression—wasn't he just hoping to see terror on her face?

Being so clear about what happened before they appeared, it was already self-evident who had done this.

Cheng Shuili raised her eyes, looking back into the Rat King's eyes, her tone flat and waveless, without a hint of emotion: "The Rat King personally escorting it, what a grand display. It seems this batch of goods is extraordinary?"

She didn't mention the gray-white humanoid, nor did she show any fear, simply steering the topic back to the transaction itself, as if the eerie figure had never appeared.

She didn't even show a hint of losing her composure.