Leaving the GM's pitifully sparse dormitory, Yue Shi returned to the Temple.
He maintained his hidden state, reducing his presence to the absolute minimum while calmly screening his targets.
He was looking for lone managers walking by themselves.
Soon, Yue Shi spotted a female GM clad in silver light armor with translucent wings of light on her back.
She was standing alone at the edge of a viewing platform, staring blankly at the sea of clouds below.
Yue Shi silently approached within three meters of her. The space rippled slightly, dragging her into an extra-dimensional space.
The female GM felt her vision blur, followed by a momentary sensation of weightlessness, before she plummeted from the platform into a chaotic void.
Before she could scream, a crushing pressure pinned her in place.
Yue Shi's voice rang out, questioning her about the Temple, the Sovereign, the points system, and the structure of the managers.
Although the previous GM had been quite detailed, his words weren't necessarily trustworthy.
What if he had hidden key information, told a montage of lies, or if what he knew was simply false?
He needed to find other GMs to cross-reference and verify the information.
The interrogation was fast and efficient. Yue Shi's questions were direct, and combined with his hypnotic whispers, the female GM proved to be very sensible.
She quickly divulged the common knowledge of life in the Temple.
Points were hard to earn, high-level missions were too dangerous to touch, and daily missions were tedious. Living here was no different from being in prison.
As for other secrets? She shook her head blankly. She was only a low-level manager with minimal authority; she had no access to such things.
Yue Shi obtained information that was largely the same as what the first GM had told him.
His second target was a warrior carrying a giant hammer, who was practicing his swings in a secluded corridor.
The process was the same: a silent drag into the extra-dimensional space followed by an interrogation.
The result was similar. He knew very little and did nothing but complain about not having enough points and how terrible the living conditions in the Temple were.
A third, a fourth... Yue Shi wandered through the Temple, specifically targeting lone managers.
After he finished questioning them, he didn't release them. Instead, he kept them locked away to be dealt with later.
Strangely, after capturing five or six people in a row, the information he gathered remained purely surface-level.
These low-level managers were essentially oblivious to the deep operational mechanisms of the Temple or the Sovereign of the Supernatural Game Show.
Their understanding seemed confined to a fixed framework; they actually knew less than the first GM he had captured.
However, it seemed the first GM hadn't lied to him.
The fifth GM he caught was a person dressed like an elf.
Yue Shi asked directly, "Are there many low-level managers like you in the Temple? Are mid and high-level managers rare?"
The captured Elf GM nodded nervously.
"Y-yeth."
"Most of us are low-level managers responsible for daily maintenance and low-risk missions."
"Mid-level managers rarely show their faces. They're in charge of supervising more important areas or leading teams on bounties."
"As for high-level managers, I've only seen them from a distance during collective announcements or major ceremonies. I don't even know what they actually look like."
Yue Shi pressed further, "How long have you been a manager?"
"Five months," the Elf GM answered honestly.
"Who is the most senior manager here? How long have they been in service?"
The Elf GM thought for a moment and said uncertainly, "I'm not sure who's the oldest. Everyone I've come into contact with is a newcomer with less than a year of tenure."
As he spoke, a hint of confusion appeared on his face, as if he had never deeply considered this question before.
With such a massive player base, the replenishment rate for new managers wasn't slow.
The Supernatural Game Show had existed for many years. Theoretically, there should be a vast number of managers.
Yet the current Temple was quite empty, mostly populated by rookies with less than a year of experience.
Where had the previous managers gone?
Dark suspicions began to take root in his mind.
If the Elf GM could think of it, Yue Shi naturally could as well.
In an instant, Yue Shi's imagination ran wild.
Human farms, warnings against ascension, periodic harvesting of the crop...
Previously, he had relied on instinct to poison and devour that dragon.
This Supernatural Game Show was grand in scale; its Sovereign must be someone extraordinary.
If I could eat them...
A flicker of heat flashed through Yue Shi's heart.
"Everything good in this world should belong to me."
He temporarily suppressed the urge to go on a killing spree.
There was no rush.
The Sea God had practically jumped into the line of fire, seeking his own death by swallowing poison.
The authority of the Far Side of the Moon was far less gentle than that of the front side.
Eating a fully activated source of extreme evil raw would result in being counter-contaminated within minutes.
But this place was different. The Sovereign of the Supernatural Game Show was hidden far too deeply.
Yue Shi still didn't even know the other party's name.
Acting rashly would only alert them. If the opponent saw things going south and fled, it would be difficult to find them again.
It was also possible that the opponent was exceptionally powerful, in which case it would be Yue Shi who would have to run.
Therefore, he had to first determine their exact location and state of existence.
Yue Shi planned to find the highest-ranking manager first.
That person would likely be the one closest to the Sovereign, their spokesperson, or perhaps even their avatar.
His subsequent movements became even more cautious.
Yue Shi crept toward the core area of the Temple while continuing to look for lone targets.
He captured three more managers in succession, but the results were still lackluster—all were low-level personnel.
Just as he was about to interrogate his latest catch—an exceptionally weak manager wearing a cat-ear headband—things changed.
After being dragged into the extra-dimensional space, this Cat-ear GM didn't panic like the others.
He froze for a moment, then his eyes darted around, taking in the completely foreign environment.
He couldn't see Yue Shi, but he understood his situation.
Furthermore, he could feel that his connection to the Supernatural Game Show had been severed.
"Are you an intruder?"
The Cat-ear GM's voice trembled slightly, carrying both fear and a hint of excitement.
"Yes."
Yue Shi didn't reveal himself; his voice simply echoed through the space.
"Don't kill me! Don't hit me either!"
"I'll cooperate! I'll do whatever you want!"
The Cat-ear GM shouted immediately, tucking his stomach and sticking out his chest as he raised his hands in a surrender pose. His expression was affected and slightly exaggerated.
"Oh? It's rare to find someone so sensible. How exactly can you cooperate?"
Yue Shi's voice remained devoid of emotion.
The Cat-ear GM giggled. "Actually, we're not on opposite sides. You're an intruder, and I'm a renegade of the Temple."
Yue Shi was puzzled. "A renegade? Aren't they all hiding in game instances? Why are you wandering around the Temple?"
The Cat-ear GM blinked. "You even know about that?"
"Renegade managers can bypass the Temple's detection and slip into game instances to live as NPCs."
"The Temple has been hunting them, but many instances are complex with massive amounts of data. Finding them is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"The renegades are living the good life and have long since begun reverse-infiltrating. After all, nobody likes this kind of life in the Temple."
"I'm one of those who was turned."
Yue Shi fell silent for a moment.
An undercover agent?
Most likely a double agent trying to benefit from both sides.
However, renegade managers could evade the Temple's mechanisms, meaning they must have a deeper understanding of the Temple's surveillance and rule loopholes.
They might know more about the Supernatural Game Show's true nature than these muddled low-level managers.
"Where is the renegade managers' hideout?" Yue Shi asked.
The Cat-ear GM said hurriedly, "With my awkward status, how could I be qualified to know that?"
"However, I have a rough idea of which types of instances they usually like to hide in."
"Instances with stable rules, many NPCs, and sufficient survival supplies are their favorite hiding spots."
"I suspect they have some kind of secret communication channel between them."
"By the way, as an intruder, why are you looking for renegade managers?" the Cat-ear GM asked curiously.
"Don't ask what you shouldn't. People who know too much die quickly," Yue Shi said coldly.
"Alright, I won't ask," the Cat-ear GM said, shrugging with an air of indifference.
"You want me to take you to them? No problem."
"I can lead the way to the vicinity of the most likely game instance areas."
"I can't guarantee we'll find them, but the probability is much higher than if you searched randomly."
"I'm doing you such a huge favor, surely you'll give me something in return?" the Cat-ear GM's eyes sparkled as he tested the waters.
"You'll have your reward afterward," Yue Shi's voice was aloof.
"I don't fall for empty promises," the Cat-ear GM reflexively haggled, only to regret it the moment the words left his mouth.
As expected.
Slap! Slap! Slap!
A sharp pain bloomed on his face.
"You don't want promises? Then have some slaps!"
"You piece of trash, you're already a prisoner and you're still trying to haggle? Why don't you ask for a bicycle while you're at it?"
"I actually quite like bicycles," the Cat-ear GM said aggrievedly.
Yue Shi looked at the clown in front of him, speechless.
Renegades? Perhaps they could provide a breakthrough.
"Lead the way. Don't try any tricks."
"Your life is worthless right now, but your usefulness as a guide compensates for that."
Yue Shi's voice was icy and brooks no argument.
The Cat-ear GM trembled and nodded like a chicken pecking at grain.
"Understood, understood! I'll take you there right now!"
Using the Cat-ear GM as a shield, Yue Shi passed through the Temple's official channels toward a hidden area within the countless bubbles.
Eventually, Yue Shi arrived at a relatively bright area.
The bubbles here were mostly warm-toned, and the light patterns flowing on their surfaces appeared more stable.
"It's this area. Those renegade managers might be hiding in these kinds of newbie instances."
"But as for which specific bubble, I really don't know. They don't necessarily huddle together; they're likely scattered across many different instances."
The Cat-ear GM explained.
"I see."
Now that he had narrowed down the general area, Yue Shi no longer needed the Cat-ear GM to lead the way and promptly locked him in the extra-dimensional space.
Yue Shi searched patiently, invading one target instance after another.
The renegades were hidden very deeply.
The number of surrounding bubbles was vast and their structures complex. With so many NPCs inside, they weren't easy to find.
During his search, Yue Shi entered a bubble with a dark gold exterior.
The scene before him made him pause for a moment.
There were no monsters, no players, and no NPCs.
Only books.
Endless books.
It was a library so vast it defied imagination.
Yue Shi appeared on a central corridor of one of the floors.
Looking left and right, the bookshelves were thousands of meters high, reaching toward the heavens and extending infinitely into the distance.
The shelves were packed with books of various materials: heavy tomes, parchment scrolls, bamboo slips, stone tablets, and metal plates.
Yue Shi remained hidden, his gaze sweeping over the books on either side. The scripts were varied.
He recognized them all.
"Are these all history books?"
He randomly pulled one from a shelf.
It was the history of a previous era.
The book had no listed author. It recorded the rise and fall of a small nation.
The content was very detailed, recording even minor events.
From royal lineages, legal changes, agricultural harvests, and trade routes to culture, art, and folk customs—it even recorded a minor riot caused by a drought in a certain region during a specific month of a certain year.
The narrative style was extremely objective, with almost no trace of the writer's personal emotions or bias.
The final pages described the end of this small nation.
Transcendents from several large nations had fought a chaotic war, and the small nation was caught in the crossfire. Its territory collapsed, and its civilization was erased.
Only a few members of the domestic elite heard the news in advance, transferred their assets, and fled to other countries.
The vast majority of the common people all died.
Yue Shi quickly flipped through several neighboring books; the contents were largely similar.
They were all historical records of different nations from the previous era.
These nations had all vanished into history, leaving essentially nothing behind.
And the reason for their destruction was strikingly consistent.
A great war between transcendents.
In the real world, there was absolutely no record of this event.
"Are you very interested in the history of the previous era?"
A voice suddenly came from behind him.
The voice was peculiar—neither male nor female, with a steady tone devoid of any inflection.
Yue Shi slowly turned around.
About five meters behind him stood a strange man.
He wore an exaggerated outfit—a deep blue robe that made him look like a wizard.
But his face had no features!
Where the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears should have been, there was only skin. His entire face was a smooth, flat surface.
"You can actually see me?" Yue Shi's teasing voice echoed through the library.
The Faceless Man faced the book in Yue Shi's hand. His smooth face showed no expression as his genderless voice spoke again.
"That history book is floating right there in plain sight, and the pages are turning on their own."
"You're being so obvious about it. Even if I wanted to pretend I didn't see you, I couldn't."
He paused, turning his face toward Yue Shi's position, even though there was nothing there.
"Hahaha!" Yue Shi laughed and deactivated his hidden state.
"You are a renegade GM." He spoke with certainty, without a hint of doubt.
The Faceless Man stood still. After a moment, he nodded.
"To think you'd dare to approach me voluntarily."
Yue Shi's laughter vanished, his tone suddenly turning cold.
The Faceless Man instinctively took half a step back. From just a few lines of dialogue, he could vaguely sense that the person before him was somewhat mercurial.
Despite being so good-looking, he was shrouded in a sinister, ghostly aura that made one feel instinctive revulsion and unable to feel any sense of closeness.
Nevertheless, the Faceless Man replied politely:
"It is the guidance of destiny."
"???" Yue Shi was completely baffled.
Had he run into some kind of mystic?
Rate on N.U.
