After an Infinite Flow Player Retires

The shadow ghost was startled. It turned and looked back.A slender young man stood against the light, the sky behind him an ominous dark red.“Where’s Ji Xuan?” He asked.“…...King?” The shadow ghost was stunned for a moment. It raised its shadowy hand and scratched its head, “Actually, I……”Before it could finish speaking, the young man had walked over.His face was still the same as before but his eyes were scarlet-red, just like the Ghost King’s.The shadow ghost, “!”It suddenly widened its eyes and stammered, “A-A’Ye, you…….”At this moment, a gap opened in their air not far away from them.A ghost slowly materialised and bowed deeply at Ye Jia. It spoke respectfully:“G-greetings.”Ye Jia lazily made a sound of acknowledgement, “What is it?”“Mother is waiting at the city centre.”Ye Jia frowned. A vague guess formed in his heart.Back at the Bureau’s headquarters, Mother had told him that they will talk about it later.Could Ji Xuan be with Mother right now?He raised his eyes and took in the fearful fierce ghost before him and said lightly, “I understand.”The fierce ghost bowed deeply to Ye Jia again and then disappeared.The shadow ghost stood frozen in place. Its blurred face appeared somewhat dumbfounded.That fierce ghost……..It recognised it.It was one that was at least A-Level in rank and can even compete against many of the S-Level ghosts in fights. But for it to actually bow its head……And…..The shadow ghost stiffly turned to look at A’Ye who was standing next to it.The other party was still staring thoughtfully in the direction where the fierce ghost had just disappeared with his scarlet eyes slightly narrowed, giving off an oppressive air.That eye colour was one only direct descendants would have.And so far, there are only two people who can be regarded as Mother’s direct descendants. One was King and the other….The shadow ghost slowly opened its mouth and stared at the young man before it in disbelief. It stammered endlessly, “Y-y-y-you………”Ye Jia was completely unaware of its complicated emotions.He waved at the shadow ghost, “I’m heading off first.”The slender young man turned around and a scarlet opening appeared in the air before him. Powerful energy belonging to a direct descendant poured out from the ghost domain. As soon as he stepped in, his figure was swallowed up by the opening and he soon disappeared before the shadow ghost.The streets became quiet again.The shadow ghost: “………..”It slowly crouched down onto the floor and grabbed its head.In the deserted ruins, a cry of despair sounded:“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”I-its worldviews……..Has collapsed!!.“Are you sure?”Wu Su’s expression was serious as he asked this.“…...Yes.” The employee standing before him had an equally serious expression. His brows were furrowed and he looked very troubled.He slowly took in a breath and said with difficulty, as if every word was squeezed out from between his teeth, “This is…..news we received from the capital.”“Are the casualties……...serious?” Wu Su’s voice was extremely suppressed.“Very serious.” That employee forced a smile, “But, the only good news is that after finding out that something was wrong, the rest of the people evacuated and we were at least….able to preserve some lives.”“Where are they now?”“In an underground shelter near the capital.” The other party replied, “They are now treating the injured and recuperating from the attack.”Wu Su asked, “And the main headquarters? How is it there?”“It has already been taken over by the fierce ghosts. The surroundings are covered by a thick layer of yin energy and our intelligence personnel are unable to enter. But…..” The employee hesitated for a moment and didn’t know if he should continue.“But?” Wu Su frowned.“But…..” The other party took a deep breath and said, “It seems that someone witnessed on the day of the attack; Ace…...appeared nearby.”Wu Su was shocked, “……..Ace?”He gritted his teeth, “Is this source reliable?”“Yes.”The employee left the office.Following the attack on the headquarters, the members of the Bureau in each city had all evacuated and moved into secret shelters.M City had already been taken over so the members of M City’s Bureau had been forced to merge with a branch in a neighbouring city and withdraw together to hide in a shelter just outside of M City. The number of employees in the two Bureaus wasn’t small, making the place a bit of a tight squeeze.Wu Su’s current office was about a third of what it used to be.Messy documents sat piled up on the dirty and wet concrete floors and a small wooden table sat in the centre of the room. Except for all kinds of radios and electrical devices enabling satellite communications, there was basically nothing else here.Wu Su slowly took in a deep breath. His brows were furrowed with anxiety. He habitually raised his hand and stroked his beard.During this time, his beard had been almost rendered bald from all the touching. It looked very pitiful.Ace…….He had never thought that he would have already encountered Ace’s real identity in the real world ---- That lazy logistics employee who never seemed to be motivated was actually the legendary uncrowned king in the game, the one at the top of the leader board no one could surpass. Wu Su could still remember the day he met Ace for the first time. When he drove out, he happened to see Ye Jia who was waiting for the bus…..Now that he thought about it, it was quite an unusual coincidence.But before he could recover from the shock of this information, what happened next left him unable to see straight.The only player who managed to clear the game, the hope of mankind in this fight against the ghosts…...had become their enemy.The scene of the cold and bright blade piercing into the young woman’s thin chest seemed to be branded onto his retina. As long as Wu Su closed his eyes, he could see Wei Yuechu’s look of surprise as scarlet blood bloomed on her chest. That image constantly tormented him over and over again.Wu Su originally thought that he had grown accustomed to his companions leaving him after all this time.But for some reason, a dull pain still continued to linger in his chest, refusing to fade away.The respect he had towards Ace, the pain of his companions departure, the hatred towards the murderer; all those feelings weighed heavily on his shoulders, mixing into a complex mixture of emotions. He almost couldn’t breathe.Wu Su lowered his head and buried his face into his hands. He fell into a long silence.Suddenly, the door to the office was pushed open.Blast rushed in with Chen Qingye helplessly following behind him.Wu Su, who was startled, looked up.“Sorry.” Chen Qingye smiled at Wu Su but his expression didn’t show any signs of apology, “We heard some rumours. What happened at the capital?”Blast pulled out a chair with a dark expression and sat down.Wu Su sighed.He originally didn’t think he would be able to hide the truth from these two people so he told them what happened at the main headquarters ----- Including the eyewitness testimony about Ace’s possible involvement.Chen Qingye’s expression gradually grew solemn, “So you're saying that you suspect that Ace has something to do with the slaughtering at the main headquarters?”Wu Su shrugged. He looked tired, “I don’t know, but……….”The evidence is saying this.He couldn’t help but ask, “Did you notice anything strange before this?”“You mean Ace?” Chen Qingye shook his head, “If you’re trying to ask if we noticed anything strange with Ace, then I can only say no.”He added, “Even now, I don’t think Ace was a spy for the ghosts.”Since the beginning, everything the other person had done was for the sake of mankind. From the tasks Mother had assigned to the fierce ghosts, to discovering that M City was the actual door, without Ye Jia, it would’ve been impossible for them to discover this truth.But Wu Su wasn’t involved in these investigations so it was understandable for him to think this.Chen Qingye turned towards Wu Su, “Do you think a human who is on Mother’s side would go out of his way to break open the wall to allow you to rescue the M City residents before entering M City?”Wu Su gritted his teeth and nodded, “You’re right.”During the past few days, the rumours circulating around had made him waver.But what Chen Qingye said was right. Wu Su was unable to refute it.“Plus…..” Chen Qingye pushed up his glasses, the eyes behind the lenses narrowing slightly, “I’m not sure if you noticed it at the time but there was blood on Ace’s shirt.”Wu Su was surprised.Although it was still daytime at the time, the sky had been completely covered by dark clouds, only allowing red rays of light to filter through.He stood furthest away so he naturally didn’t pay attention to the condition of Ye Jia’s shirt.Chen Qingye concluded with confidence, “Ace and Mother have exchanged hands.”Wu Su was stunned.He then heard Chen Qingye say, “I suspect Mother may have done something that allowed her to control Ace. That’s why he’s now……”Before he could finish speaking, Blast who had been sitting on the side with a dark expression wordlessly stood up.The metal chair leg rubbed against the concrete floor, letting out a sharp, uncomfortable screech.He said through gritted teeth, “I don’t believe it.”The two before him were stunned.Chen Qingye furrowed his brow, “What?”Blast’s red hair was basically the only bright coloured object in the room. The muscles on his face were tense and his dark eyes flashed a fiery light, as if he was about to burn everything before him into ashes with just his eyes. He looked at the two people before him defiantly, as if he wanted to challenge them.“I. Don’t. Believe. It.”He said fiercely, “Wei Yuechu isn’t dead.”The room was completely silent. The three of them looked at each other.“Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?! Ace is a liar!” Blast’s voice rose uncontrollably and he continued viciously, “I don’t believe Maid that evil woman is dead, do you understand?!”Wu Su stood up, wanting to appease the other party.“But you saw it too the other day…….”Everyone who knows about Ace’s weapon would know that there had never been anyone who had survived its attacks. They had even seen the tip of it pierce into her with their own eyes ----- No one could survive something like this. Not even Maid.But ------- They also wanted to hope for that small possibility.But, with the passage of time, especially with the eyewitness testimonies about the main headquarters, that originally small possibility grew smaller and smaller.The sooner one accepts it, the better. It would be better than indulging in false hopes and praying for a chance of a reversal.Blast stubbornly insisted, “I don’t believe it.”He seemed very firm about this, “Ace is a liar. I’ve said before that I will never believe in him again.”Blast firmly, “That’s why, I also don’t believe he had a change of mind and changed sides!”Chen Qingye pushed up his glasses and broke the tense atmosphere, “In fact, although I similarly think that the possibility of this happening is very slim…...it is something that cannot be ruled out.”Wu Su was stunned, “Why do you say that?”“We still haven’t found Wei Yuechu’s body, no?” Chen Qingye asked.Wu Su fell into deep thought.Indeed.But this wasn’t because they didn’t want to look for it. It was because they didn’t have the chance to.That day after Ye Jia left, they had to hastily evacuate all the civilians and wounded employees and they didn’t have the time to send people to search for her body.Wu Su expressed his thoughts.Chen Qingye nodded thoughtfully, “That is true.”He thought about it and then concluded, “Well then, I believe we should prepare ourselves for two scenarios.”“What?” Wu Su asked.“Firstly, we must treat Ace as our enemy. The other party is very strong so if we take him too lightly, we might suffer from huge losses.” Chen Qingye explained in a well-thought out manner, “Secondly, we must also consider the possibility that he is controlled by Mother. So under the premise of the first point, when we interact with him, we must look for any signs of him possibly being controlled…..After all, if Ace returns to us, he would be a very reliable force.”“Finally,” Chen Qingye turned to look at Blast who was still sporting a dark expression:“Although I agree with you that the possibility of him deceiving us cannot be ruled out, the probability of it is too low and it’s also too ideal of a situation. I don’t recommend wasting effort thinking in that direction……”Blast was dissatisfied, “But……”Chen Qingye calmly interrupted him, “Except for you.”Blast was stunned.Chen Qingye said, “You can head to M City to look for Wei Yuechu’s body to verify your conjecture, but it’s too dangerous there for the members of the combat department to go too. Manpower is precious and we cannot lose them just because of a guess of yours.”Blast became spirited. Even the red hair on his head looked like it was filled with energy:“No problem!”“But I have a condition.” Chen Qingye added.“What condition?” Blast looked confident.Chen Qingye asked, “Do you know what it means if you fail?”“What?” Blast didn’t seem to understand.Wu Su interjected. His voice sounded particularly solemn, “Wei Yuechu is already dead.”Blast was shocked. His expression fell again.Chen Qingye mercilessly added more damage, “And she was killed by Ace himself.”Blast’s expression sank even further. The hands hanging by his side slowly clenched into fists and his knuckles turned white from the force.“So, my condition is that if you fail,” Chen Qingye looked at the young man before him and enunciated each word with emphasis:“Don’t impulsively seek Ace for revenge.”A long time later.“…….Okay.” Blast forced out..M City’s city centre had long been shrouded in thick yin energy and the smell of blood. It was almost impossible for one to see the sky’s true colour.The grounds were cracked open, the buildings had fallen, everywhere was in ruins.Between the ruins and cracks, flesh could be seen squirming around underneath.Pale corpses piled up in the streets.They seemed to have been brought over from other cities. Some were already rotting while others were still fresh.They were stacked together like they weren’t important as they released a foul odour.Ye Jia slowly walked down the street.He raised his head and took in the strangely shaped building not far away.Huge stone pieces and cracked slabs of cement were stacked together with twisted steel bars sticking out of it, reaching towards the scarlet sky. It looked much like a twisted monster.Ye Jia retracted his gaze and walked towards the building.The young man’s slender and straight figure was slowly swallowed up by an opening in the building.The further he went, the stronger the smell grew.Under the building’s ground, scarlet flesh could be seen rising and falling and a corpse with missing limbs could be faintly seen within the masses of flesh.Ye Jia saw in a glance Ji Xuan standing not far ahead as well as Mother who was standing on the flesh that almost filled the room.Mother lowered her eyes to look at them. There was a faint smile on that face that Ye Jia was particularly familiar with, but it contained no traces of warmth, only emptiness that made one feel a chill run through them.Ji Xuan looked over at Ye Jia. His thin and sharp lips were slightly raised as his scarlet eyes flashed a strange light:“Gege, you’re here.”He quickly walked over.Ji Xuan stretched out both his arms and intimately held the young man’s waist, pressing their two bodies tightly together. He lowered his head and lightly kissed the other person’s cheek, “I missed you so much.”Ye Jia remained calm. The corners of his lips rose to form a smile and he hugged the other party back:“I have only been away for a short while.”Ji Xuan bit the tip of the young man’s ear and said vaguely, “Too long.”His voice was very low, sounding almost coquettish, and it also carried strong possessiveness:“I can’t live without you, gege.”Ye Jia whose ear was bitten just now stiffened slightly, “…….”Hey.You’re having too much fun with this.Not far away, the slender woman slowly walked down the mass of flesh in the air.Those eyes that seemed like they were looking at the world’s deepest and darkest evil thoughts stopped on the two people before her but her face still carried a loving and affectionate expression. She looked towards Ji Xuan and asked softly:“Looks like you got what you wanted, yes?”JI Xuan smiled and tightened his grip around Ye Jia’s waist. As he held him firmly in his arms, happiness and contentment shone in his eyes. He looked like a child who finally got their hands on their favourite toy, as if they had finally got their whole world:“Yes.”He turned and bent down to kiss Ye Jia. His words contained joy:“It’s all thanks to Mother.”Ye Jia could see Mother’s expression stiffen briefly.He relaxed his body and leaned into Ji Xuan’s embrace, his eyes narrowing slightly as a thoughtful light flashed through them.Looks like his guess was correct.Mother is very against her two direct descendants getting together.Or more precisely…...She is afraid.Ji Xuan looked over at Mother, “You won’t make us break up, will you?”Mother replied with a laugh, “Of course not.”She raised her hand at Ji Xuan, “After all, I promised you, didn’t I?”“Yes.” Ji Xuan bent down and kissed the back of the other party’s pale hand. A smile still lingered on his lips, “I am very grateful”.------ From the very beginning, he had received Mother’s promise.Whether it was in the game or after leaving the game, Mother had promised to give him the same reward ------To be with Ye Jia forever.“But……” Mother withdrew her hand and revealed a troubled look, “You two should have also noticed that I have in fact not yet completely entered the real world, no?”Ye Jia’s was internally a little startled.When he noticed that the flesh scattered in the city couldn’t be recovered into her body, he had a guess like this --- Because of some kind of obstacle, although Mother can now have access to the real world, a certain condition has not been met yet, and that was why her original body continued to writhe around under M City and that was also why she had proposed that one month deadline.But what Ye Jia didn’t expect was that the other party would talk about this matter before him without any scruples.What did she want?He then heard Mother continue, “As long as this period of time passes, this whole world will be ours. At that time, even if they don’t want to, humans will have to submit to us and become our food and bait. We will soon have complete control of the world. And as for you two…. You’re both my favourite children and will naturally receive the best reward in this world. At that time, I will be able to completely fulfil my promise to you.”She looked at Ji Xuan, “-----To be together forever.”Mother said, “In order to achieve this goal, I need you to help with some things.”She asked kindly, “Could you help me with this?Ye Jia looked at the woman whose eyes were filled with malice and smiled, “Of course.”.Half an hour later, Ji Xuan and Ye Jia left Mother’s place.After feeling of being watched disappeared, Ye Jia unhappily moved his shoulders and patted Ji Xuan’s arm that was still tightly wrapped around his waist:“Hey, you’ve had enough yet?”Unexpectedly, the other party didn’t let go. He instead tightened his grip even more and said coquettishly.“No.”Ye Jia, “……..”He rolled his eyes and got ready to forcefully pry Ji Xuan’s hand off.But before Ye Jia could exert force, he felt the other party suddenly come close to his ear and speak with a deliberately suppressed voice that carried an ambiguous smile, “Destroy or be destroyed, eat or be eaten?”Ye Jia’s eyes widened in shock. His entire body froze.Wait a minute……Wasn’t…….wasn’t that e-x-a-c-t-l-y what he said to Mother back at the main headquarters?How did Ji Xuan know?His mind went blank for a moment.Ye Jia remembered that the next words he said after that was……The next second, he felt the other person lean over and a cold and wet tongue gently licked his earlobe. Completely in contrast to that dominating action, the other party’s voice sounded particularly aggrieved:“Gege, why didn’t you confess in front of me?”