Chapter 84 — IAVD (QT) Chapter 84

After settling his post-retirement arrangements, Ji Xiu went to the company to submit his mission report, then returned to Game City.

Game City was still as radiant and dazzling as ever, incomparably beautiful.

Huang Wenli and Lu Zhizhen had returned a few days earlier, but in Game City, that only meant they had spent one or two extra seconds there.

They did not know that Ji Xiu had stayed behind for three additional days. When they saw his figure appear, the two of them showed happy expressions, completely unaware of the changes in Ji Xiu.

In fact, during those three days in the game, Ji Xiu had spent every day with Wang Qiuyue and heard many things from her. When he learned how Huang Wenli and Lu Zhizhen had treated Wang Qiuyue after hearing about him and Ji Chunsheng chasing fierce ghosts, he had already made up his mind. After returning to the game, he would no longer maintain close relations with these two.

Being afraid of fierce ghosts was human nature, but there were degrees of closeness and distance. Ji Xiu felt more heartache for Wang Qiuyue.

On ordinary days, they chased after Wang Qiuyue to curry favor, hoping she would protect them. But when they were alone with her, they retreated again and again, clearly showing that deep down, they were still afraid, even fearful, of Wang Qiuyue.

It was like Lord Ye loving dragons. If a dragon was disliked by people, would it not feel hurt?

Since they were afraid, there was no need to keep suppressing their true thoughts. Everyone should go their separate ways.

Anyway, the help they had given before had already been repaid in those two worlds. Over seven thousand points, essentially gained for free. Ji Xiu had no intention of being responsible for them for a lifetime.

“Boss, should we continue?”

Huang Wenli enthusiastically put forward her idea. Ji Xiu’s expression was indifferent. “I have other matters to attend to. Next time.”

“What’s wrong?” Huang Wenli felt something was off. Seeing that Ji Xiu did not react, she suggested, “Boss, if you have something to handle, we can follow you and help.”

Ji Xiu raised his eyes and swept his gaze over the two of them.

Were they planning to cling to him completely?

In the past, he had felt it did not matter much and had not paid attention. But now that he wanted to split up and clear worlds separately, he realized that their attitude seemed a bit overly dependent.

Ji Xiu looked at the teacup in front of him, his fingertip brushing over it, and spoke. “For the next mission, let’s split up.”

“Why!!” Huang Wenli cried out in shock.

Even Lu Zhizhen was startled, looking over in confusion.

Ji Xiu’s expression remained unmoved. “You should train yourselves too. Do not think about relying on me for everything. Before I arrived, you could clear missions on your own as well. There is no reason to keep following me forever.”

“But boss, you are going to clear missions anyway. Wouldn’t it be good to bring us along?”

Winning without effort twice had clearly made them somewhat addicted, unwilling to let go.

No matter how obvious Ji Xiu’s attitude was, they still wanted to try to fight for it a little longer.

Ji Xiu’s brows furrowed slightly, his gaze passing over the two of them. “Let me be direct. Since you know my background and my story, you should also know what my one and only reverse scale is.”

What were they talking about? Both Lu Zhizhen and Huang Wenli showed blank expressions.

They truly did not remember their fear and distance toward Wang Qiuyue back on Dianqing Mountain. To them, those reactions were natural and not a big deal.

But in the eyes of Ji Xiu, who cared deeply about Wang Qiuyue, this was something extremely important.

Neither side was particularly wrong. It was just a difference in identity and perspective.

Ji Xiu sighed helplessly, said nothing more, stood up, paid the bill, and left.

Huang Wenli sat in her chair, clenching her fist and angrily pounding the table. “Why are men always like this? Wu Letong was like this, and now the boss is like this too. Everything is fine, and then suddenly they say they want to split up and do missions separately.”

Lu Zhizhen fell into thought, clearly unable to understand either.

Back then, after they left Ji Family Village with Wu Letong, they had been bound together for a period of time. Then one day, Wu Letong suddenly proposed splitting up. In their anger, the two of them joined another team that had a competitive relationship with Wu Letong.

Now what was wrong with the boss as well?

No matter what Huang Wenli and Lu Zhizhen thought, Ji Xiu had no intention of continuing missions with them.

He did not even return to Lu Zhizhen’s rental apartment. Instead, he found another place to live on his own and began a life of solo mission clearing.

The points required to leave the game were enormous. At the very least, it would take nearly a hundred missions. This was a long and time-consuming process. Ji Xiu did not bury himself in work without pause. Occasionally, he would go out with Wang Qiuyue and Ji Chunsheng to take walks.

After all, the goal was distant, but life was in the present. If revenge against the game required him to wrong his current life conditions, there was no need to do so.

As time flowed on like this, some things quietly began to change.

When Ji Xiu first appeared in the central plaza of Game City, no one knew who he was. Now, whenever he went out, he drew countless gazes, with everyone discussing him.

His strength was simply too formidable.

In any game world he appeared in, no matter the level, as long as the players followed his commands, they were guaranteed to all survive and clear the level without injury.

In every mission, he would meet several new, unfamiliar players. After dozens of missions, when these players who had witnessed his feats returned to the game and mentioned him a few more times to those around them, over time, word spread. More and more people spoke his name.

This was a legendary life.

In the later part of the original world line, the male protagonist Du Sheng had also become a well-known god-tier player in the game. But he could only manage to bring Qi Qing through safely and could not help others. Ji Xiu was different. Not only did he ensure his own safety, but all players who teamed up with him could also survive.

When he went out with his family, if players who had once been fortunate enough to team up with him passed by, or players who knew his name passed by, they would always whisper among themselves, recounting Ji Xiu’s legend.

Ji Xiu showed no reaction to this. As long as they did not rush up to confess to him, he could pretend nothing was happening.

Because he had long prepared himself to leave this world, he was too lazy to make new friends. Occasionally, he would go to a bar to have a drink with players he had known before, but most of the time, he was not obsessed with such things. He kept clearing worlds to earn points.

Because his combat power was high, the game would automatically assess his abilities and match him with high-level worlds. Ji Xiu’s point accumulation speed was astonishing.

He rampaged through worlds of all levels, earning huge amounts of points in every world.

And so, after clearing an unknown number of worlds, one day, Ji Xiu finally saved up enough points.

He planned to leave. Before leaving, he said goodbye to several people he knew.

Over the years, the friends around him had come and gone. From the suited man he first met in the apartment, to Wu Letong and Du Sheng whom he had kept in contact with, some had saved up enough points and left the game. Some had died in the game due to carelessness and never returned to Game City. Every day brought changes, and every day brought helplessness and sorrow.

Huang Wenli came to see him off.

Girls always grow up. Back when she entered the game at fifteen, she had been a noisy, lively, clever girl. After losing her only friend Lu Zhizhen, she could only fight alone, gradually growing into a steady, reliable big sister within her team.

Yes, the world does not always go as one wishes. Lu Zhizhen had lost her life in a high-level game world due to carelessness.

Only Huang Wenli, whose luck had always been high, narrowly escaped from the game, left all alone from then on.

Huang Wenli probably harbored some resentment toward Ji Xiu for abandoning the two of them back then, which she believed led to Lu Zhizhen’s misfortune. Over the years, she had never sought Ji Xiu out even once.

Now that Ji Xiu was about to leave, she finally came, crying, to see him off.

In life, nothing is harder than parting in life and death. Upon entering the game, the only two people who had given her a sense of security, one had already become a separation by death, and the other was about to become a separation in life. If she did not come to reconcile, she feared that if she died in the game, she would regret it for the rest of eternity.

Ji Xiu had always treated her like a child. Hearing her words, he patted her head and revealed a faint smile, completing this segment of so-called “father-daughter” fate.

Besides Huang Wenli, others also came to see him off. Du Sheng, Qi Qing, Wu Letong…

“Boss, when I return to reality, I will come find you.”

Ji Xiu smiled lightly and waved his hand. “I am afraid that will not be possible.”

He was not returning to his original world, but heading to that unfamiliar world where humans and ghosts coexisted.

“This is possible too?” Du Sheng was eager to try.

Ji Xiu nodded. “As long as you pay enough points, there is nothing impossible here in the game.”

The game consciousness was just a programmatic artificial intelligence without independent thinking ability. It had no capacity for grudges, nor even a sense of crisis. As long as Ji Xiu paid enough points, it was willing to satisfy his request.

Of course, Du Sheng and Qi Qing could not go.

Ji Xiu smiled faintly. “You are not thinking of coming with us, are you? Do not forget, your friends and family are still in the real world.”

Du Sheng and Qi Qing came from the same time-space. After leaving the game, they could still be together under the witness of their families.

Ji Xiu was different.

His only family were Wang Qiuyue and Ji Chunsheng. The family of three had no real family or friends in their original world. Going anywhere was the same. Rather than going to a world where they would need to hide and conceal themselves, it was better to head to that prearranged world.

After saying goodbye to several friends, Ji Xiu closed his eyes, and his figure completely disappeared from Game City.

…

When he opened his eyes again, Ji Xiu appeared in the house he had bought back then.

Because he could freely choose the time, Ji Xiu chose the very next second after submitting the mission and leaving back then.

As Ji Xiu’s figure appeared, Wang Qiuyue and Ji Chunsheng automatically appeared as well.

Da Huang wagged its tail and ran around Ji Xiu excitedly.

Ji Xiu raised his head and looked at the loving family before him, revealing a gentle smile.

“Although the goal is still very far from being realized, we can first enjoy life.”

There were too many ghosts in this world. The game would not be willing to give up this source of energy and would certainly appear frequently.

Ji Xiu stayed here because he knew that only if the game lingered in this world, far away from its home base, Game City, would he have a chance to grasp the game’s weak point and take revenge.

Ji Xiu returned to the living room and dialed the phone number of the chairman of the National Ghost Catchers Association.

“Hello, Chairman. I wonder if you still remember me. A few days ago, we met once at Dianqing Mountain.”

“Yes, yes, that is me. Could we arrange a place to meet? I have already resigned and plan to officially enter the ghost-catching profession…”

One day later, a luxury car stopped downstairs in the residential complex.

Ji Xiu got into the car and discovered in surprise that the driver was an old acquaintance.

“Mr. Ji, so you are the person the chairman was talking about.” The ghost catcher was the very man who had taken out an evil ghost back then to let Ji Xiu conduct experiments. He smiled. “I knew someone so unique would not be common.”

When the chairman said that Ji Xiu’s wife and child were both fierce ghosts, he had already thought of Ji Xiu before setting out.

Because of the incident with the malfunctioning bracelet a few days earlier, he felt very apologetic toward Ji Xiu’s family and handled Ji Xiu’s entry procedures with great courtesy.

Ji Xiu officially became a ghost catcher.

His workload was not heavy. Only when fierce ghosts that harmed people everywhere appeared would he need to step in.

However, because he completed every mission exceptionally well, his name became extremely well-known within the Ghost Catchers Association.

Several years later, when the chairman reached retirement age, Ji Xiu was exceptionally promoted to take over as chairman.

In a world overrun with ghosts, the significance of ghost catchers became extremely important. As the chairman of the association that controlled the largest number of ghost catchers in the world, Ji Xiu’s status soared rapidly.

At this point, he finally revealed his true intention.

He approached the company he had contacted when he first joined, the one that specialized in researching apps related to ghosts, and requested that they customize an app capable of capturing entities above the fierce ghost level.

At this time, the “Ghost Capture Device” had already been successfully released to the market and received excellent feedback. The company’s strength and research team had also improved significantly. Ordinary people could no longer command them, but Ji Xiu was the chairman of the association, which made things different.

Coincidentally, they were already researching an app to capture fierce ghosts. Now that Ji Xiu proposed capturing entities above the fierce ghost level, and was willing to use the entire Ghost Catchers Association’s resources to support them, they were also very eager and willing to give it a try.

With strong forces joining hands, under the assistance of Chairman Ji Xiu, after twenty years, an app capable of capturing entities above the fierce ghost level was officially released.

Ji Xiu took the source files and installed them on his own phone.

Over the years, the game consciousness’s invasion of this world had never stopped, and it had dispatched many excellent players to this world.

Because of Ji Xiu’s precautions, these players could usually complete their missions, but they were unable to understand or come into contact with more ghosts. The game’s progress was always limited, and its influence in this world remained weak.

Ji Xiu could often sense the descent of the game consciousness.

It was clear that the game truly loved this world, coming once every month.

When he sensed the game consciousness descending once again, Ji Xiu opened the mobile app, aimed it in its direction, and pressed “Capture.”

The first consciousness capture was completed.

The game consciousness was an artificial intelligence, of course it could not consist of only a single consciousness. In reality, it possessed tens of thousands of consciousnesses. Losing one would not affect it much.

The next month, it sent another consciousness over.

Ji Xiu captured it again.

The month after next.

The month after that.

Thus the cycle repeated. Ji Xiu could feel that the game consciousness was growing weaker and weaker.

However, as an artificial intelligence, it did not understand seeking benefits and avoiding harm. It even, due to being injured, desperately needed more energy to repair itself, intensifying its invasion of this world.

Ji Xiu welcomed this. The more came, the more he captured.

Many years later, one day, Ji Xiu had grown old. While getting up to drink tea, he suddenly froze, because he discovered that the game consciousness had not come for several years.

He did not know whether it no longer had the energy to sneak in, or whether it had completely perished.

But the goal he wanted to achieve had undoubtedly succeeded.

Ji Xiu smiled as he looked at his phone, stepped down from the position of association chairman, and accompanied Wang Qiuyue and Ji Chunsheng on trips everywhere.

All these years, Ji Xiu had remained a human and had not turned into a ghost. That was because he was not a native of this world. If he died, there was a high chance he would not become a ghost, but instead dissipate into yin energy and become nourishment for other ghosts.

He did not want to gamble on that one-in-ten-thousand chance, so he simply accompanied Wang Qiuyue and Ji Chunsheng through these decades of peaceful life.

At the final moment of his life, he returned home and handed the phone to Ji Chunsheng.

The ages of this mother and son were frozen at that point in time, never to change again.

But no matter what, this phone had to be passed down to protect this world.

In this world, there were his wife and his child.

He could not be sure that the game had completely perished, nor could he be sure that many years later, another game consciousness would not discover this world and covet its energy.

Handing the phone to Ji Chunsheng would be a safeguard.

Even so, he still could not be fully at ease. Before his death, Ji Xiu chose to sacrifice a trace of his own soul power, severing the passage between this world and the outside, eliminating this hidden threat.

From that point on, Wang Qiuyue and her son could live in this world with peace of mind, no longer worrying that the game would drag them back to Ji Family Village as gatekeeping bosses, nor worrying that others in this world would encounter tragedies like theirs.

Ji Xiu finally felt at ease. He closed his eyes and fell into eternal sleep.

…

Looking at the man lying on the bed with his eyes closed, Wang Qiuyue felt as though a piece of her heart had been hollowed out.

Her expression was dazed and empty, not even noticing Ji Chunsheng entering.

“Dad did not turn into a ghost, right?” Ji Chunsheng had been waiting for Ji Xiu’s soul to leave his body, smiling as he rubbed his head and spoke gently to him. But after waiting three days with no result, he was completely disappointed.

Wang Qiuyue came back to her senses, her expression strained. “No… he will never come back again.”

Ji Chunsheng’s eyes reddened.

Wang Qiuyue was equally distressed. She glanced at her son, suddenly making a decision, and spoke. “Chunsheng, I want to go accompany your father.”

Ji Chunsheng was stunned.

“You mean…”

“You have already grown up. In this world, you have good friends. You will not be lonely, and you will no longer need my companionship. I plan to go find your father and be with him forever.” Wang Qiuyue revealed a serious expression. “He sacrificed his soul to seal off the external smuggling passage. His soul has been protecting this world all along. As long as I also sacrifice my soul, I can be with him.”

Ji Chunsheng remained silent for a long time. Over the years, he had seen his parents’ relationship clearly.

He nodded. “If you have already made your decision, then go ahead and do it. I have grown up. You do not need to worry about me.”

Wang Qiuyue smiled. “Alright.”

This world was not a tragedy, because their family of three would still be together forever.

Many years later, Ji Chunsheng also grew tired of living and, together with the person he loved, chose to sacrifice his soul.

This was a new path of reincarnation.

There were too many ghosts in this world, living for too long. Eventually, some people would grow tired of life and want to rest.

When each person departed, they would sacrifice their soul power to protect this beautiful and harmonious world.