Chapter 826: Encounter

Inside the lobby of Cangqiong Game Company, people in bizarre costumes came and went, their expressions relatively serious and stiff, with little interaction among them, as if dutifully playing their roles.

“Professional-level cosplayers…” Nan Gong Chong’s mindset had already turned to self-abandonment as he looked around, sincerely sighing.

Since he was accompanied by a real “boss” he could not resist, someone who could shape him however he pleased, Nan Gong Chong decided to find some enjoyment in his misery and “enjoy life.”

The receptionist wore a dark business suit with a sweet smile. Seeing the two approach, she politely asked about their purpose.

“You actually dared to mysteriously ban my account! I won’t leave until this is resolved!” Meng Qi mentally rehearsed a dialogue. In his previous life, when playing games, a buddy who lived near the game company headquarters had the guts to confront them directly whenever an issue arose, always getting a satisfactory resolution, which had made Meng Qi envious. Naturally, with his current identity, he should respond: “I want to see the head of the core team, I want to meet the chairman, I want a higher status in the game, I want to replace Heishan Laoyao as the final boss!”

It was believed that no game company in the world had ever encountered such a situation…

Nan Gong Chong quickly reported his uncle’s name and employee number, asking the receptionist to help wake him up.

The receptionist smiled and said, “Please wait a moment, I’ll go wake Mr. Wu up.”

She dialed the phone to Mr. Wu’s rest room, but no one answered.

“Mr. Wu might be sleeping too deeply. I’ll go in and wake him up directly,” the receptionist told Meng Qi and Nan Gong Chong.

As soon as she turned around, Meng Qi followed behind with his hands behind his back. Nan Gong Chong, confused, hurried after them. To his surprise, the receptionist didn’t seem to mind their following at all. After all, other than Cangqiong’s own employees, no one else was allowed in; it was a rule to protect commercial secrets!

The receptionist hurried forward and soon reached the elevator, swiping her employee card to activate it.

Nan Gong Chong instinctively stopped, watching her enter.

At that moment, he felt someone pulling him, and he involuntarily followed into the elevator.

“This is off-limits…” Nan Gong Chong began in terror.

He had once read reports about a fan sneaking into Cangqiong Game Company secretly, only to be scanned and locked down by various devices inside the elevator, triggering numerous weapons and dying a gruesome death.

Before he could finish speaking, he felt a tingling sensation on his skin, as if covered by an invisible layer of electricity, forming a strange magnetic field that distorted external observation.

The elevator doors closed and began ascending, without alarms, lasers, or energy guns.

“Is this possible…” He turned in astonishment, gazing at those slightly weathered eyes and the composed, carefree figure, noticing how the receptionist completely disregarded their peculiar state. His heart suddenly stirred, and he murmured softly, “Senior, did you also interfere with the unanswered phone call?”

After playing the Heishan Laoyao game for a while, Nan Gong Chong occasionally spoke in an archaic style, a habit that became even more pronounced when interacting with Meng Qi, the “hidden boss” from the game.

“Hmm,” Meng Qi nodded slightly without elaborating. Yuanxin Seal could function at seventy to eighty percent efficiency even without a physical body. His current body was an energy form composed of electricity, naturally generating a magnetic field. Dealing with telephones, elevators, and various monitoring and scanning devices was effortless.

Nan Gong Chong shivered slightly, feeling a mix of excitement and fear—excitement from doing something forbidden, but more prominently, fear of infiltrating Cangqiong Game Company and fear of the man in the green robe before him.

Although he had emerged from the game, wherever he went, it seemed he was still a truly terrifying figure!

He had casually entered a place more heavily guarded than a police station, treating it as his home!

The elevator stopped at the twenty-ninth floor, where core team members rested. Each had a private room, and the unmarried ones even treated it as home.

Leaving the elevator, they faced a wall made of thick, dark metal, its surface flowing with a cold sheen, giving the impression of extreme hardness.

In the middle of the wall was an inward-opening passage, with identical walls on both sides, but covered with dense, eye-sized black holes.

“High-energy lasers will shoot from both sides…” Nan Gong Chong blurted out, recalling something his uncle had mentioned.

The receptionist swiped her employee card again and stepped into the laser passage. Then Nan Gong Chong saw the “boss” follow without hesitation.

No lasers fired.

Nan Gong Chong swallowed hard, trembling as he stepped forward, his mind filled with images of his gruesome death.

His right foot touched the ground—nothing happened, except for a slight tingling sensation on his skin.

“Completely ineffective. What a terrifying guy!” Nan Gong Chong glanced at Meng Qi’s back, his eyes filled with shock and fear, a deep admiration arising. Was this truly a martial arts master?

A sudden heat surged within him. If he could really obtain a cultivable martial arts manual from this person, he would become an urban legend!

But the problem was, Cangtian Sect was neither purely good nor evil; its leader might not necessarily keep his promises.

“He’s a Grandmaster; he still cares about his reputation!” Nan Gong Chong encouraged himself.

After passing the laser passage, they reached a glass door ahead, flanked by internal security personnel carrying energy guns. They were over two meters tall, their bodies perfectly balanced between strength and agility, with metal exoskeletons installed on their limbs and spines, clearly human weapons.

“Body modifications and exoskeletons—battle machines created with heavy investment…” Nan Gong Chong instinctively felt fear again.

However, the two guards merely nodded at the receptionist, asking her to present her employee card and fill in the reason for entry, completely ignoring Meng Qi and Nan Gong Chong behind her, as if there was only a patch of air there.

The glass door opened slightly, and the receptionist quickly passed through. At that moment, Nan Gong Chong felt himself transformed into the wind, instantly slipping inside.

Before Nan Gong Chong could recover, he shivered. The air behind the door was much colder, and even with all the lights on, it felt dim.

As they moved forward, he noticed the green-robed boss looking around with great interest, seemingly fascinated by the place that had “created him.”

Before long, the receptionist stopped at a room door and took out the access card Mr. Wu had given Nan Gong Chong in advance.

The door slid backward, and the receptionist saw Mr. Wu Youming lying on the sofa, his face pale and lifeless.

“Uncle…” Nan Gong Chong’s eyes widened, but he couldn’t shout out, as his mouth refused to open, only making muffled sounds in his throat.

“Let’s see first,” Meng Qi stopped at the doorway without rashly entering, even slightly hiding in the shadows.

Nan Gong Chong felt both grief and confusion. At that moment, he noticed the receptionist showed no surprise or panic, calmly dialing a phone.

“Dr. Wu’s time is up again,” the receptionist reported.

“Time is up again?” Nan Gong Chong was completely bewildered.

“Received. Please step back,” a voice devoid of human emotion came through the phone.

As the receptionist stepped back, dozens of silver-gray threads, as if alive, spread out and bound Wu Youming’s entire body, lifting him into the air.

A flash of electricity, and his body was instantly torn into pieces, becoming chunks of flesh.

Immediately, the flesh chunks wriggled and gathered, reassembling gradually into Wu Youming’s original body, but now exuding fresh vitality!

Then, a helmet descended, radiating Wu Youming’s aura, seemingly retaining his consciousness, before covering his head.

The helmet rose, the silver-gray threads retreated, and Wu Youming landed back on the sofa, slowly opening his eyes, scratching the back of his head, and smiling bitterly at the receptionist, “Sorry, I slept too deeply again; I’ve troubled you.”

Nan Gong Chong’s mouth slowly opened into an “O,” his entire body chilled, as if submerged in an ice cellar, overwhelmed by unprecedented fear and confusion.

The game boss could come from the game into reality, and his uncle could be revived through the “game device”—was this still a normal world?

Was this still his uncle?

“When you play the game, you can directly reorganize matter and form a body based on connection and consciousness. Here, with all the necessary materials available, similar things can naturally happen. What’s strange about that?” At that moment, he heard the “hidden boss” speak calmly in his ear, “However, this level of reorganization conflicts with the Yuan Shen, so it can’t last long, and he has no Yuan Shen inside, only residual consciousness…”

Nan Gong Chong listened with wide eyes. He actually knew so much? Was he just a boss from the game? And he spoke of the game world as if it were real!

After everything calmed down, Meng Qi stepped out of the shadows and entered the room. Witnessing this was worth the trip. After learning more from Wu Youming, he would decide whether to launch a full-scale assault here!

Wu Youming showed no “surprise” at Nan Gong Chong and Meng Qi’s arrival: “What’s wrong with Chong’er?”

“Uncle, I got too addicted to the game last night and had hallucinations, so I made a false report. My parents are on a business trip, so I had to ask you to come to the police station with me and then accompany me to the psychiatric department at the city hospital,” Nan Gong Chong said, using the prepared excuse.

Wu Youming showed no suspicion, stood up, put on his coat, expressed some concern, and followed Meng Qi and Nan Gong Chong out.

After exiting the glass doors, Nan Gong Chong finally exhaled in relief. For the boss, this trip was easy and relaxed, but for himself, it was filled with worry and fear.

At that moment, the elevator opposite the laser passage opened silently, and a strangely dressed woman stepped out.

She wore a black imperial robe embroidered with a majestic phoenix. Except for her large, bright eyes, her features were ordinary, but she exuded a noble and commanding aura, making her overall presence vivid and charming, with every move radiating control over everything.

“Empress!” Nan Gong Chong blurted out. The cosplay was so realistic! Good looks were easy to find, but such an aura was hard to imitate!

Suddenly, he saw the Empress stop in her tracks, and the mysterious man before him also came to a halt. Sparks of electricity crackled in the void between them.

“Empress!” Meng Qi and the other sensed each other’s powerful Yuan Shen and relatively weak physical bodies upon colliding with their qi.

A real Empress! This place was no longer suitable for staying!

As this thought arose, the Empress bent forward, taking a step to close the distance.

But at that moment, she suddenly felt the qi entangling her and the other person vanish.

Meng Qi’s left hand grasped, seizing Wu Youming and Nan Gong Chong. His right foot flexed, forcefully kicking out. With a “pah!” sound, the dark metal wall dented deeply, nearly breaking.

Before the Empress and the guards behind her could rush forward, his right hand plunged into the wall, grabbing the wires!

Zzzt!

The entire building’s lights went out, including the backups, seemingly short-circuited.

In the darkness, the Empress felt the other party disappear, unable to lock onto him in time, while the laser passage completely lost its function.

…

Darkness enveloped the entire Cangqiong Game Company, but Meng Qi, having escaped the Empress, stealthily exited this floor unnoticed.

“What should we do? What should we do? We’ve been discovered!” Nan Gong Chong was extremely flustered.

“It depends on how much Dr. Wu knows,” Meng Qi turned his head to look at Wu Youming.

Wu Youming’s face turned pale, stammering without speaking.

Nan Gong Chong hurriedly asked, “Why aren’t you worried at all?”

“Why should I be worried? I can always return to the ‘game world’ anytime. It’s you who will suffer more,” Meng Qi said, looking at Wu Youming with a smile, calm and unhurried.

I can not only return to the Heishan Laoyao world anytime, but also abort the mission and retreat to the main world. If you have the ability, come and find me in the Six Realms!

Nan Gong Chong’s face turned pale again, while Wu Youming’s expression kept changing.