Chapter 36: Reality

The noodle shop owner gave Bai Liu two one-dollar coins, which he put into his old wallet. After a long hesitation, the kind-faced noodle shop owner gave Bai Liu the couple's phone number and address, saying in a sighing tone that if you can help, do so, as it is not easy to live.

It was drizzling when Bai Liu left the noodle shop, and with a plain black umbrella, he took a bus in between to the cemetery the noodle shop owner said he would visit, and in the silence of the gravestones, he soon found the parents who had appeared on television.

They stood in front of their daughter's tombstone without umbrellas, red-eyed and drenched in the rain, the only umbrella they had in their hands placed over a black and white photograph of a smiling and happy Guoguo on the tombstone.

"You are ...... Bai Liu ?" The mother's voice was coarse and muffled from crying all morning, and she looked at Bai Liu with a hostile look in her eyes, "You called to say you had a way to bring Li Gou to justice? What did you have in mind? Or what do you want? Money?"

Bai Liu smiled in the rain, the mist haloing his face with a strange sense of holiness, "I've come to make a deal with you, but I don't want money."

------

This is probably the first time in Bai Liu's life that he has said something like [I don't want money].

He said, "I will help you to fulfil your wishes and help you to dismember Li Gou while you sell your souls to me."

The mother snorted predictably, "Soul, another liar."

She turned her head indifferently and looked at the black and white photograph of Guoguo on the headstone, her eyes flushed again.

The father gave Bai Liu a wary look, as they had sought help from many people over the years because of the Guoguo affair, and had tried all sorts of ways and means, and had come across many different kinds of scammers.

When they came to see the man who could supposedly bring retribution to Li Gou, they were prepared for him to be a con man, but they were prepared to take their chances.

This is simply playing with their emotions now.

The father warned in a cold voice: "Liar, get out!"

Bai Liu squatted down on one knee, unmoved, and looked flatly at Guoguo on the tombstone photo, reading: " Li Gou, aged 47, killed Liu Guoguo, a schoolgirl, at the entrance of Ma family Lane a few months ago, and was tried in prison and sentenced to death for the seriousness of the circumstances. The case was reopened a week ago after all the evidence and all documents related to the evidence suddenly disappeared and the people involved had vague memories of not remembering whether they had seen the evidence or not."

Hearing these facts, Liu Guoguo's parents' eyes became filled with resentment, both of them clenching their teeth and fists as they looked fiercely at Bai Liu.

Bai Liu continued calmly, as if he hadn't noticed that the two men were already enraged by his account of the facts and ready to beat themselves up, "If I'm not mistaken, this Li Gou has said before that he would definitely get out of jail without charge and that the evidence would disappear."

"How do you know?" The mother looked at Bai Liu in disbelief.

They kept a close eye on Li Gou's reactions in prison, where he had been violent and crazy when he was first incarcerated, and where he had been shouting and screaming about revenge when he knew he was likely to be sentenced to death.

In the last week or two, Li Gou would even hum a song in a good mood and say that sooner or later he would get out of this hellhole, that all the evidence would disappear, that God would not wrong the good guys and so on.

It seemed that she had expected to be released from prison, which is why she suspected that someone was harbouring the brute.

"Well, you can understand that this Li Gou made a deal with some kind of devil and sold his soul so that he could erase the evidence without knowing it." Bai Liu propped himself up on his knees as he leveled his eyes at the hesitant and apprehensive parents who were sizing him up, "I'm sort of here to take business with this demon, I guess."

Liu Guoguo's parents look at Bai Liu with suspicion, as if they do not believe him, but they look at him with a look of desperation and hope.

It is also true that a well-informed person could have inquired about these things about Li Gou, and it cannot be ruled out that Bai Liu was a fraud who knew something and came to scam them.

But they have really used all the means available to them, even asking a Daxian to perform a superstition on Guoguo, something they would have previously laughed at as a feudal superstition, and they have done it several times.

"What are your conditions?" Liu Guoguo's mother asked cautiously, "Is it for money, but we don't have much left."

Bai Liu smiles: "I told you from the beginning, I don't want money, I want the right to your soul debt, intact."

He's just curious what would happen to the system if he preemptively acquired these [player] souls before you guys got into [the game]?

Will it have a higher level of access to these players than the system in [the game]?

If Bai Liu has a higher soul authority than [the system] has over the parents, can he manipulate the parents' system by manipulating the parents'? And ultimately, to dominate the system?

Bai Liu likes money, but hates to be ridden over to earn it. This gives him the stifling feeling of being the bottom social animal in a company, so he wants to try to see if he can in turn dominate the system and have supreme authority.

As if sensing Bai Liu's dangerous thoughts, the coin on Bai Liu's chest began to glow and the alarm of a bad current signal sounded in his ears.

[System Warning: Zillah - Player Bai Liu - Zillah - is forbidden to preemptively acquire a reserve player's soul debt rights! Player Bai Liu is forbidden to trade with non-players outside of the game!

[System Warning: About to -Zilla- block player Bai Liu's old wallet skill!

Bai Liu sighs regretfully, can't you really grab the soul of a [reserve player] that [the game] has taken a liking to while the [real world] is being monitored by [the game] ......

It's also true that [the game] wouldn't allow players with higher privileges than it, and if Bai Liu was the game designer, he would have stopped it, but Bai Liu tried it anyway, and it didn't work.

Bai Liu was about to give up when the fish scales hanging from his chest began to slowly grow and wrap around the coin.

The cool scales wrapped around the hot coin, which cooled instantly, and the system emitted a current of electricity that sounded as if it were screaming.

[Warning - Zizi - Invasion by anomalous data in fish scale - Invasion by bug data - Underway Clearing anomalous data - Anomalous data clearing failed - Overrun by anomalous data - Zizzy Zizzy]

After a jumble of electrical currents, a new, cold and magnetic electronic male voice rang out.

[System: Hello Bai Liu, do you use your personal skills?

The voice Bai Liu raised his eyebrows subtly, his system voice, became a bit subtle and familiar, although still with an electronic inorganic quality, but several degrees colder than the previous system's voice, but also very good, Bai Liu thought this voice, a bit like the NPC he met [Siren King]'s voice... ...

Bai Liu laughs: [of course use]

Liu Guoguo's parents could not understand some of Bai Liu's words and they hesitated, but they really had no other choice.

Even if Bai Liu is a fraud, a pyramid scheme to trick them, please give them, please give Guoguo, some hope! Even if it's not true!

The mother was the first to break down, covering her face and falling to her knees as she tearfully said, "If you can get Li Gou killed, you can have anything you want! Take it all! I'll give you all the money I have!"

This is to treat Bai Liu like a triad.

Bai Liu hooked his lips and smiled, "No, I won't ask for a penny of your money, on the contrary, I will give you yours."

He took the two coins the noodle shop owner had given him in change from his old wallet, spread them out on the palm of his hand and handed them over.

Bai Liu lowered his eyes, "I will buy your souls for a dollar, will you make this bargain with me?"

The mother gritted her teeth and took the coin, while the father took it from Bai Liu's hand after a few seconds of hesitation.

"Willingly."

No matter what this man does, if he is willing to help them avenge Guoguo, they are willing to give it a try, even if he is a psychopath who talks nonsense.

[System Alert: Player Bai Liu used 2 RMB to purchase the souls of Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua respectively]

[System Alert: Player Bai Liu is the preferred purchaser of Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua and has the highest authority to transfer the right to sell Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua's soul debt in part]

After Xiang Chunhua said those words, there was a strange steaming sensation in her body, as if something heavy had been withdrawn from her tired shell and stored in a different place.

She looked at the smiling young man in front of her with a sense of trust and sincerity that she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Xiang Chunhua asked in a daze, "Your name is Bai Liu, isn't it? What do you do? Where are we going to find you?"

"I'm unemployed and a poor wanderer." Bai Liu looked down at an extra brand new coin in his wallet, "You will find me in a game, and hopefully you made it through the first game alive when I see you."

On the coin, Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu are standing beside the tombstone, left and right, with tear-stained faces of despair, each placing a hand on the top of the tombstone and gently stroking it as if they were stroking the top of their child's head, while on the tombstone Liu Guoguo is covered by an umbrella to protect him from the rain, his face smiling like a flower, with [2 Yuan] written on the bottom right of the coin and [Soul Coin] on the back. The coin is followed by a small line [not issued by the system bank, highest authority does not belong to the system, belongs to the owner Bai Liu].

Bai Liu's mouth curves slightly.

[Hey, new system, well done]

System silent for two seconds: [Thanks for the compliment]

The fish scales wrapped around the coin on Bai Liu's chest warmed slightly before returning to coldness.

------

With less than two days to go before the system's mandatory once-a-week game countdown, Bai Liu is ready to get into the game.

He finished up his things, messaged Muke that he was going into the game, and then called Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu, but there was no answer several times. The two would have gone into the game and fallen asleep.

Bai Liu took a shower, changed into his favourite cosy clown's night cap with pompoms and Benny's pyjamas, covered himself with the duvet with his chest, held the coin on his chest in his hand and mumbled twice in his mind.

[Login to the game

[System: Is player Bai Liu confirmed to be logged into the game?

Bai Liu closes his eyes: [confirmed

[System: being accessed at ......]

[Wait! Bai Liu suddenly opened his eyes again, got up violently to go to the toilet, and turned off the electricity, gas and water valves in the house, before lying back down satisfied, [Now start logging in, or I'll waste money by leaving these valves open while I'm asleep and leaking some water, electricity and gas]

[System: ......]

[System: Login to the game now ......]

Bai Liu fell into a swirling black sleep, and when he awoke again he was standing in a hall full of people.

[System: Since the player Bai Liu has a small amount of popularity, can you move some of the appearance values to hide your identity?

[You can also transfer appearance data? Bai Liu became interested, [Can I design my own appearance?

He's quite good at pinching and drawing faces.

[System: Yes, you can enter the independent face pinching program, you need to pay 300 points, player Bai Liu whether to pay?

[You have to pay for it, right? Bai Liu quickly gave up, [then you can do whatever you want for free]

[System: Enter the random face mobilization program - pupil colour change (black → blue), hair colour change (black → seven colors), lip colour (flesh colour → black) ......]

Bai Liu anticipated that his face would not look too good when he was toned down for free, so he accepted his offbeat, killer look with open arms.

He can't see what he looks like anyway, and it's only other people's eyes that are hot, so Bai Liu is fine with that.