Chapter 720: Cracks Appear
Before the dead man’s teammates could even speak, Brother Gu Yu continued loudly, “Listen up—every place has its own rules.”
The onlookers listened quietly, but I could distinctly smell the fear in Brother Gu Yu’s scent.
It seemed that this time, not even my “Sword” was confident it could convince these people.
“You beg a hero when you need him, and want to kill him when you don’t. Nothing in this world comes that cheap. He is not your tool.” Brother Gu Yu’s voice rang out, stirring the hearts of the crowd. “There are thousands of people living in this building right now. Any one of them could be the thief who stole those ‘Jades.’ If you insist on killing the hero here and now, then no one will be left to sniff out your scents in the future. Have you really thought this through?”
It sounded like Brother Gu Yu was negotiating, but to me, it felt more like a threat.
He was using my life to drive these people away. That was far too dangerous.
If the negotiation failed, they wouldn’t just tear me apart—they’d tear him apart too.
“But our ‘Jades’ are gone!” one of the brothers said. “Our ‘Jades’ disappeared! We were so close to getting out!”
“If they disappeared, why aren’t you looking for them?” Brother Gu Yu asked coldly. “Did you ever ask the hero to watch over your ‘Jades’?”
“What…?”
“Who’s the real child here—you or the hero?” Brother Gu Yu’s voice grew angrier, and I could even sense a faint killing intent radiating from him. “He has to check every day whether you’ve awakened. He gives up his own food for you. Now you want him to take responsibility for losing your things? Next, do you expect him to dress you and wipe your backsides? Who’s the child here?! Do you need to kneel down and call him ‘Daddy’?”
His forceful words struck the hearts of the onlookers like heavy blows. Their faces turned extremely ugly.
By now, I understood these people. Even though they had no scent, they would often change their scent in response to something someone said.
“But we… trusted him so much…”
“Trust him? Then why are you grabbing him by the collar?!” Brother Gu Yu demanded loudly. “Today you lose your ‘Jades’ and come to interrogate him. Tomorrow you lose a game and come to interrogate him. Every time you run into trouble, you come to interrogate him. The hero has given you everything he has—and this is how you repay him?!”
He then turned to face all the onlookers. “Judge for yourselves. Can one person keep watch over all of you? Hasn’t the hero done enough?”
Even though everyone’s scent was following Brother Gu Yu’s lead, I knew something was wrong. Because the person who stole those ‘Jades’ was Brother Gu Yu himself.
“Then… then…” That person’s eyes darted around for a long time before he finally spoke. “Then Gu Yu… go find them for us! You found fifty thousand ‘Jades’ last time—you can do it again!”
“No. On the contrary.” Brother Gu Yu shook his head. “This time, not only will I not help you search, but I’m going to set a rule here. Since your team lost the ‘Jades’ the hero distributed to you and tried to frame him for it, I order you to find the missing fifty thousand ‘Jades’ within two days to make up for your crime. Otherwise, you will be dealt with according to the ‘Family Rules.’”
“What…?” Everyone in that team stared wide-eyed. “If we could find them… why would we come to the hero?”
“So you know you can’t find them, don’t you?” Brother Gu Yu sneered. “But ‘Family Rules are Family Rules.’ The hero allocated all the Jades to you. You failed to keep them safe.”
I could feel that Brother Gu Yu was winning. He was “leading” everyone’s scent.
“That’s right…” Gradually, someone began to say, “Why didn’t our ‘Jades’ go missing?”
“Exactly. Our ‘Jades’ are all still here!”
Everyone was chattering away, changing the atmosphere in the room, and the members of that team were panicking.
Just then, Sister Siwei ran in. She took one look at the scene, first picked up my “Crown” from the ground and put it on my head, then urgently asked what had happened.
“So that’s how it is…?” Sister Siwei suddenly turned her head and said, “You did this on purpose?”
“What do you mean, on purpose…?”
“You’re trying to ‘usurp the throne’…?” Sister Siwei asked in a low voice. “Did you hide the ‘Jades’ yourselves and then frame the hero?”
The expressions on those brothers’ faces turned even more panicked than before. Their scents were chaotic. Brother Gu Yu and Sister Siwei had won completely.
“We didn’t…!”
“No? Then choose for yourselves.” Sister Siwei said. “Do you want two days to find those ‘Jades,’ or be punished for ‘usurpation’ right now?”
Upon hearing this question, those brothers had no choice left. They could only agree to spend two days looking for the lost “Jades.”
After the crowd dispersed, the three of us returned to my room and locked the door. I had too many questions.
“Brother Gu Yu… you…” I hesitated. “Did you hide their ‘Jades’ again?”
Sister Siwei also looked at Brother Gu Yu with a strange expression.
“Of course,” Brother Gu Yu said. “I’ve said it before—no one can be allowed to collect the full amount. Otherwise, we’ll all be in danger. So I’m protecting this place. It’s a pity I can’t find like-minded friends in this city, or I would form a team to protect this place together.”
“A team…?” Sister Siwei was taken aback. “You form a team to deliberately prevent others from collecting ‘Jades,’ and you call it ‘protecting this place’… That sounds a bit strange.”
“But…” I also felt something was off. “Brother Gu Yu, just like you said, if someone collects the full amount, some unforeseen disaster will happen, and we’ll all die. But based on what Sister ‘Executioner’ told me back then… if we want to cure everyone’s ‘illness,’ we have to kill them. Could this be an opportunity?”
“No, we can’t predict what kind of disaster will occur, let alone the consequences of that disaster,” Brother Gu Yu said. “We only know that things will start over. But what if someone like Wancai starts over too? What if we lose our memories? Do you want to go through all the suffering you endured in those years all over again?”
The moment I heard that Uncle Wan might come back to life, remembering the way he used to smile at me back then, my entire body broke out in goosebumps.
“So I made an example of them today,” Brother Gu Yu said. “But the situation is still dangerous. I can’t use this trick many more times.”