Chapter 61: Is This You in the Photo?
Bagaros Base.
More than twenty burly men with hostile intent surrounded the five members of Sword Qi Soaring.
The room was filled with a chillingly murderous atmosphere, yet those surrounded, including Sword Qi Soaring, seemed unaware.
They removed the hoods they had worn while being escorted in, showing no signs of nervousness.
【If it weren’t for the intel we got from Bai Fu, who would’ve known this place was actually a secret base of the Truth Society.】
【Seriously, this game is insane—even the AI of these minor NPCs is on par with main story characters. Good thing we’re genuinely here to pledge allegiance and not as undercover agents, or else we would’ve been exposed in no time.】
Kobold couldn’t help but comment in the team chat.
【Smart is good. The smarter they are, the more they’ll understand our value. Wonder how much Truth Society Faction Reputation we’ll earn this time.】
Sword Qi Soaring replied.
Faction Reputation determined how much players could access within a faction.
Sword Qi Soaring had gone through a lot just to get to the Truth Society.
Naturally, he hoped to secure a decent position right from the start and directly participate in the main storyline of the Truth Society, rather than waste time doing menial quests like regular players to slowly accumulate reputation.
He was quite confident in this regard.
He had brought news of the Gene Primordials’ movements to the Truth Society.
While not exactly a grand gesture of merit, it was still a timely gift. If the Truth Society didn’t reward him generously, that would really be unreasonable.
Just imagining it made him thrilled.
It was still the early phase of the game. While most players—including some professional gamers and large guilds—were still exploring, they had already soared ahead, monopolizing a faction’s main questline.
Even if their combat strength didn’t contribute much, since there were no other players competing, they could claim all the rewards from the mission’s prize pool.
These rewards alone would let them outpace the rest of the players by a huge margin in version 1.0.
Hehe, once the next version's leaderboard and arena went live, it would be Iron Rain Guild’s time to reap the harvest!
As Sword Qi Soaring was secretly gloating, the group of burly men around them started to stir.
He quickly turned around to see the room’s main door being pushed open. A few muscular men entered from outside.
“Lieutenant Qian, it’s them. They said they want to join us, so I brought them here.”
One of the burly men in the room called out to the leading Lieutenant Qian.
Lieutenant Qian said expressionlessly, “You don’t seem afraid at all?”
Sword Qi Soaring stood tall and firm. “We came to join the Truth Society with absolute sincerity, not as spies. What’s there to fear!”
Lieutenant Qian was noncommittal. “Why do you want to join the Truth Society?”
“Because of hatred!”
Sword Qi Soaring immediately stood up.
In front of everyone, he loudly denounced the persecution he had suffered at the hands of the Gene Primordials. His voice choked with emotion as he nearly burst into tears.
“Those bastards of the Gene Primordials are nothing but hypocrites. I want to tear them apart with my own hands. But we’re too weak, we have no power. Looking across all of Origin Star, only you, the Truth Society, can help us. As long as we can destroy the Gene Primordials, we’ll do whatever you ask!”
Kobold followed up, “To show our sincerity, we specifically brought intel on the Gene Primordials this time. Right now, their people are hiding near that settlement to the south. If you don’t believe us, send someone to investigate.”
Lieutenant Qian waved his hand. “Send someone to check it out.”
He didn’t say anything more, and the room returned to silence.
Sword Qi Soaring let out a long sigh of relief.
As long as Lieutenant Qian was willing to listen to him, the biggest obstacle to joining the Truth Society was now behind them.
Just as he had said earlier, he had come with genuine intentions to join the Truth Society.
All that remained was to wait for this confrontation to end, and then he could happily grind rewards in the Gene Primordials' territory.
With that thought, Sword Qi Soaring opened his friends list and found a player named 【Black Bastard】.
Black Bastard was the guild leader of another well-known guild, 【Hall of Loyalty and Righteousness】, and an old rival of his. In the previous game, Iron Rain Guild and Hall of Loyalty and Righteousness had belonged to different factions, and the latter often steamrolled the former, almost driving him mad.
【Hey Black Bro, what you up to lately?】
【F*ck!】
Black Bastard’s reply came swiftly.
【Sword Qi Soaring, are you here to show off now? Don’t get cocky just because you happened to spawn at the Abandoned Cooling Plant and got early access to Bai Fu. The game just launched! Who’s to say others won’t get Bai Fu’s hidden quest later too!】
He’s panicking, he’s totally panicking!
Sword Qi Soaring nearly died laughing. That Black Bastard really thought he came to flaunt his connection with Bai Fu.
So superficial!
You guys go fight over Bai Fu’s quest with the other players, I’m done playing with you.
【No, I’m not here to talk about Bai Fu today. You better keep your eyes on the leaderboard and the arena that’ll open next version—there’s a big surprise.】
Black Bastard was confused and sent several question marks in a row.
Sword Qi Soaring couldn’t be bothered to reply and simply closed the chat window with Black Bastard.
Drop the bait and run—damn, that felt good!
Then he messaged several players from rival guilds, sending them similar messages before ghosting them too.
“Now that felt great.”
Sword Qi Soaring resumed calmly waiting for news from Lieutenant Qian. Before long, someone else walked in from outside.
“Lord Guido.”
Sword Qi Soaring’s eyes lit up.
The Truth Society was efficient—how could they have investigated this fast?
Guido stood by the door for a while. He had originally come just to observe, but the moment his eyes landed on 【Kobold】 and 【Wolong Fengchu】, he suddenly froze.
Why did these two faces look so familiar?
He hurriedly pulled out the document he had just been reviewing.
The more he read, the more his expression turned strange.
Weren’t these the two who had been slandering the Truth Society like crazy on camera?
Wait a second—the document said Wolong Fengchu was already dead. Why was he here now? Could he have some kind of special ability?
Guido’s mind exploded—he got it!
No wonder Wolong Fengchu dared to follow that assassin, and no wonder Bai Fu knew that Li Cheng was an undercover agent!
He quickly leaned over to Lieutenant Qian and shared his discovery.
Seeing the two of them whispering, Sword Qi Soaring said, “Lieutenant Qian, you believe me now, right? This time, I didn’t just bring intelligence on the Gene Primordials, I also brought information on Bai Fu—the white-haired woman who disrupted your plan at the Abandoned Cooling Plant.”
“Bai Fu, huh.” Lieutenant Qian suddenly smiled. “Arrest them all!”
【Lieutenant Qian's Favorability toward you -60】
Huh?
Sword Qi Soaring and his team, who had just been grinning, were all stunned.
What the hell? Why did the favorability drop so drastically? Wait a minute, bro, this is not the time to joke around!
As the surrounding Truth Society mobs closed in, Sword Qi Soaring shouted.
“We came here to join you—what are you doing?!”
But Lieutenant Qian and Guido acted like they hadn’t heard him.
Since they said nothing, the Truth Society mobs didn’t stop. Very soon, they had pressed down on the shoulders of Sword Qi Soaring and the others.
Sword Qi Soaring panicked and couldn’t help but struggle and shout, “Are you insane? I trusted you people, believed you were the only hope against the Gene Primordials, and brought you intel—this is how you treat those who come to join you? This will chill the hearts of everyone loyal to the Truth Society!”
Kobold followed up, crying injustice, “This kind of behavior will bring your own downfall!”
At that moment, Guido stepped forward, shoved his terminal right in front of Kobold’s face.
“Is this you in the photo?”
Photo?
All five players turned their eyes to the terminal. On the screen was clearly Kobold’s face.
Kobold gulped, suddenly feeling a bad premonition. He denied it, “Nope.”
“You trying to fool ghosts now?!”
Guido brought up a photo of Wolong Fengchu next.
“Join the Truth Society sincerely? You two are Bai Fu’s lapdogs. Weren’t you just arrogantly proclaiming that anyone who messes with Bai Fu won’t be saved by heaven or earth?”
Son of a—
The faces of Sword Qi Soaring and the others turned green.
No matter how they calculated, they hadn’t expected that the things they said to quickly gain Bai Fu’s Favorability would fall into the hands of the Truth Society.
“You’re from tie_yu Guild, aren’t you? I want to see how your tie_yu Guild plans to take us down!”
Guido was absolutely furious.
He didn’t have the confidence to defeat Bai Fu, but if he couldn’t handle Bai Fu, could he not deal with Bai Fu’s dogs?
Kobold blurted out, “Where did you get that photo?”
Guido sneered, “After Lynn was unsealed, Li Cheng immediately sent back the video footage from that night. I used to think he got exposed because he was too stupid to stay undercover, but now it seems he’s not only not stupid—he actually made a major contribution. If he hadn’t sent back that video, we really might have been fooled by you today!”
What? Li Cheng was a Truth Society spy?
Sword Qi Soaring was petrified on the spot.
This was the first time he had heard such a thing. Division Four had always kept this kind of intel sealed tight, and even Bai Fu had never mentioned it to him before. He didn’t even know those assassins were connected to the Truth Society.
If he’d known earlier that Li Cheng was a Truth Society spy, why would he have gone to such lengths to find this Bagaros Base?
But that wasn’t even the worst part. From Guido’s words, it was clear that Li Cheng’s exposure was all thanks to their “brilliant” actions.
Screwed!
Not long ago, he was still showing off in front of Black Bastard and the others, cryptically telling them to keep an eye on the upcoming leaderboard and arena.
And now?
Forget monopolizing Truth Society quests—they were about to be marked as kill-on-sight by the Truth Society. Once the leaderboard and arena opened, Black Bastard and the others would definitely show up to mock him to hell and back.
Why stick around on Earth? Might as well hop on a rocket and launch himself outta here.
“It’s a misunderstanding, all a big misunderstanding, really.”
Sword Qi Soaring’s brain was about to explode.
Seeing Guido and Lieutenant Qian’s faces growing darker, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and pointed at Kobold and Wolong Fengchu.
“They tricked me too! They told me they hated the Gene Primordials just like I do, and I believed them, so I brought them here. Who knew they were Bai Fu’s lapdogs!”
The other two players quickly echoed him.
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll kill the two of them right now.”
Sword Qi Soaring made a show of getting ready to punch Kobold and Wolong Fengchu.
Guido and Lieutenant Qian exchanged glances. At this point, they couldn’t be sure whether Sword Qi Soaring was in on it with the other two or not—but they did remember something he said earlier.
“You said before, as long as it helps destroy the Gene Primordials, we could ask you to do anything, right?”
Sword Qi Soaring nodded like a chicken pecking rice. Finally, he was off the hook.
Lieutenant Qian waved his hand grandly. “Sorting this out is too much trouble. Send them all to Dr. Luo.”
Dr. Luo?
Sword Qi Soaring quickly understood what Lieutenant Qian was up to.
As soon as they arrived at Dr. Luo’s lab, they were immediately strapped to hospital beds. Dr. Luo came up and gave him an injection of a weakening agent, then started touching him all over.
“You’re very well-developed. These muscles are nicely defined.”
Sword Qi Soaring was terrified stiff.
It’s over—it’s all over. He’s not clean anymore!
“What the hell are you doing?!”
Dr. Luo chuckled creepily, “Of course I’m making you my experimental subjects. It’s not easy finding such strong test bodies like you. Don’t worry—with your help, I’ll do everything I can to develop the perfect APT-011 Evolution Potion. With it, the Truth Society’s power will skyrocket. In the future, we’ll definitely eliminate the Gene Primordials and honor your heroic spirits in heaven!”
I’ll give you a hammer in heaven!
He came to monopolize Truth Society quests, but now he was a research specimen. Who knew how long this experiment would last? He couldn’t even kill himself now. If it went on for a month—or worse, a year—his account would be completely ruined, and he’d have no choice but to delete it and start over.
He had worked so hard to cling to Bai Fu’s thigh and catch up, becoming one of the top players on Origin Star. If he had to delete and reroll now, what was even the point?
Sword Qi Soaring was about to crack.
“Let me go, please! Hell, just kill me, I’m begging you! Bro, I’ll call you bro, okay?”
Dr. Luo adjusted his glasses. “Kill you? No way. How could I bear to do that?”
“Screw you, you quack! Damn Truth Society scum! I’ll never forgive you!”
And just like that, the lab was filled with a passionate quintet of screaming.
Now Sword Qi Soaring only felt deep regret.
Was hugging Bai Fu’s thigh not good enough? Why did he have to get clever and join the Truth Society?
People say Nezha has three heads and six arms—well, he had one head and two arms!
After thinking it through, Sword Qi Soaring could only come up with one last option. He quickly opened his friends list and contacted Excavation‑Princess.