16 Facing the troubles ahead

In a small office cubicle, a young man was reading through his emails with a computer, he was trying to digest how to learn more about buying and selling online including trading options when he was called by a colleague.

"Fu Shen, the boss is calling for you in his office." an intern said.

"Sure, I'll be there in a few minutes." he said as he locked his computer and went straight to the office.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Come in, Fu Shen" a reply sounded out from the inside.

As soon as Fu Shen entered the door he was greeted by his superior who seated behind an executive table. With a smile he was gestured to sit in the couch.

"Chief Zhao's secretary called in earlier and they wish to transfer you to Beijing for a special assignment." the middle aged man who wore a white collared long sleeve said as he slowly stood up.

"B-boss Xiong Man, did they inform you what they want me to do?... S-Sir, what happened at Zhang Shan's apartment has nothing to do with me." Fu Shen asked nervously.

Walking toward the large window pane, Xiong Man approached it and then stopped as he stared at the scenic view of the bustling street outside.

"Knowing Chief Zhao, if he did think that it was your fault... You wouldn't be sitting in that chair right now... You'd already be floating in the river as feed to the fish..." he said in a solemn but cold tone.

"Although his secretary didn't say anything much, I believe he needs you there to do additional "technical support"." he added as he turned and looked sternly at Fu Shen.

"W-when do I leave?" Fu Shen asked.

"Your airline tickets are on the table... make sure not to make me lose face this time." Xiong Man said as he turned back to look at the streets.

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

Fu Shen stood up and grabbed the tickets, after which he bade farewell to Xiong Man and bowed before leaving the room.

As Xiong Man was looking at the streets, he said to himself. "It seems the secret will be out earlier than expected... It may be time to change allegiance at this point." he murmured while tilting his head downwards and shaking in lamentation.

Fu Shen on the other hand took out a picture of a girl in her early childhood from his wallet as he left the office building. standing on the streets, he gave it a look and said "Qin-er, it seems being a good provider is accompanied by unclean hands."

After pausing for a while, he took a taxi and left towards the airport.

.....

Disguised as random strangers Ye Qing, Ye Qian and Lan Ranyan met back at the pub and had already started drinking.

"That d-damn coward, *hic* h-he's been online for two days now and s-still he hasn't shown up *hic* in front of the t-teleporter..." Lan Ranyan said as she gritted her teeth with anger and then drank from her glass mug groggily, she was slumped on the wooden table like drunk old man.

"Elder Sister Ran, I don't think that's the case, could it be possible that the game developers blocked him from leaving the begginers area? and why couldn't we even send him any private message?" Ye Qian asked while she muched on a few delicacies on the table seemingly unaffected by how Lan Ranyang looked.

"I don't think that's possible, I saw it with my own eyes as soon as his online status indicator went on, but still he didn't reappear." Ye Qing answered after downing a mug of liqour and lazily leaned on the chair.

Lan Ranyan nodded as she said "Right, I'm not sure w-what happened to him. *hic* The game developers could only force p-players to go offline but they couldn't hold someone in one p-place like a jail, *hic* it doesn't make sense h-how he didn't show up at all."

"Do we have to wait for a few more days?" Ye Qian asked further

Before she could get an answer, three armored men, dressed like mercenaries each one wearing different emblems - a black wolf, a red crow and a blue ox, approached their table.

"Snow Queen... Juggernaut... the Guild Alliance requests your presence." a stout muscled man with the ox emblem started to talk brashly.

Lan Ranyang asked in a cold tone without turning her head "T-tell me Jural.... *hic* how you knew we were h-here?"

Jural answered, "The bartender..."

*Swish*

*BRAAAAKKKAAAASSSSHHHH*

Before Jural could finish, Lan Ranyan stood up and threw the glass she's holding in the direction of the bartender's head , causing the guy to fall and bleed profusely, expectedly knocking him out cold without giving him a chance to even whimper in pain.

The owner of the pub saw the commotion and approached Ye Qing, Ye Qing gave the owner a few hundred Selas to compensate while the owner kept bowing down to apologize as well.

Seeing this scene the three mercenaries moved back a bit from Lan Ranyang as she they saw the "crazy woman" swaying as she tried keep her balance from falling over as she turned around in their direction.

"Drumma!" *hic* Lan Ranyang said as a yellow aura engulfed her.

After the aura subsided, Lan Ranyang looked sober as if she was never drunk.

"Sorry that you had to see that..." she smiled sweetly as if what happened earlier had nothing to do with her.

"....."

"It's just that..." she continued smiling then her eyes suddenly went blank as her face and voice turned icily cold "one... I hate people blabbering my whereabouts... two... people who try to sneak behind my back... and three.... people who come without gifts..." and as he finished her statement, two blue glowing orbs of frost appeared on both of her hands.

The two mercenaries looked horrified and seemed to be ready to run away in a moments notice. While Jural keeping his wits with him, bowed and stammered while shaking as he reached to his pocket... "I-I'm sorry to d-disturb you my Queen of frostiness... The G-guild Leaders would just like to t-talk to you in regards to the r-recent run-in that you had with the "pantheon".... L-look, I brought you g-gifts as well..."

Jural ended up kneeling and rasing both of his hands carrying a heavy pouch in between as if offering to a God. When his associates kneeled down as well.

In his mind, Jural now understood why the guilds sent them instead of their members to look for these two. They even gave him 3000 Selas for it. As it turns out, they wouldn't actually get any of it except the reward of staying alive.

As Lan Ranyang saw this, she lightly tapped the pouch and slit a small opening. From the tear, out came a few coins, in which some rolled to the floor. Seeing this, her countenance changed for the better as she grabbed hold of the pouch and tossed it to Ye Qian.

"When and We're is the meet?" she said sweetly "...by the way.... I like your kind of people! Very straight and direct!" she added.

"T-they hoped to meet you at the "La Nara" Inn at the crossing of Rocas and Teldon road at dusk" he said.

"Great!" she said sweetly

"Now scram!" her tone suddenly changed to a higher and colder pitch.

The three mercenaries scrambled and race as to who gets to go out the door first.

"Are we going?" Ye Qing asked.

Lan Ranyan looked at him and said in a-matter-of-factly tone "Of course, we gladly accepted their gift right?"

....

Two silhouettes stopped after reaching the outskirts of the forest, the reason they ceased their advance was due to a settlement they saw in the horizon.

"It seems that there's a village there, let's try to quietly move towards it and check it out first before deciding what to do." Zhang Shan said as he held Titiana's hand.

"Uhn" Titiana nodded. "I think that approaching in the open may cause a ruckus given our appearance" she said in approval.

The pair decided to wait until it get's dark before proceeding. As they had nothing to do, Zhang Shan tried to check and see if he can log off.

As he summoned the interface in his mind the log-off button was still there, however, whatever he tried to do in order to activate it, there was no response at all. Seeing that his actions will get him nowhere, he opened his eyes and sighed. Titiana noticed this and asked.

"What's bothering you Zhang Shan?" she asked sweetly and in a comforting manner.

"Nothing really" he said, "It's just that, everything went so fast, a few days ago I was in my apartment and now I'm going to be a father..." he said.

"I see, don't worry, I'll take care of you and our children." she said comfortingly as she went nearer and placed her arms around his shoulders.

Then she asked seductively while nibbling at his ears... "Would you like another go?"

*Cccccrrrrrraaaaaccckkkk*

Poor Zhang Shan, as his rational state of mind cracked and crumbled. His instincts overcame as he jumped at Titiana and started undressing her.

"...."

"Ahhh!"

*Pak* *Pak**Pak*

"Ahhhh!"

*Pak**Pak**Pak**Pak*

"...."

The two rabbits kept at it until dusk arrived, Zhang Shan made sure to pull out whenever he needs to explode.

In truth, during theirjourney, before reaching the precipice of the settlement, Titiana learned a few things in order to trigger him into action. Zhang Shan noticed that every time this happens, his Carnality Status would spike up from 0% to 100% while everytime he shoots out his essence, his wisdom would drop by 10-50 points while his procreation rate would drop by 10% to 50% at the same time.

It seems that this two stats are inter-related. What really worries him is that if his wisdom stat would drop to 0, would he become a drooling idiot or a mindless f*ck machine. However, he always forgets this problem once Titiana makes her unstoppable advances.

....

Professor Xuan Ye entered a laboratory hall as large as a soccer stadium. Almost a hundred or so scientists of different fields were all around the place and the place was furnished with quantum computers laboratory equipment, IFDVR capsules and a few large odd looking machines .

Looking around, one would notice that there are different types of scientists and engineers which can be identified with their colored arm bands. Some wore laboratory gowns while others wore hazmat suits. Private security personnel dressed in military fatigues, were scattered around the area, standing guard.

This hall was called the "Hot Room". Currently located nine stories below the ground inside a secret facility.

As soon as Professor Xuan Ye stepped out of the elevator, a few scientist were waiting for him. These scientist were heads of their respective departments.

They bowed politely and followed the professor into a separate office room with transparent glass walls.

"I need your reports, don't worry as this is a safe place." Professor Xuan Ye said to break the tension.

"Professor, the Metallurgy department has confirmed that the ores we received are of a different element, they can also assure that these things are harder than the known elements that we currently have." One scientest reported.

"The Genetics team have reported a new gene and race being registered on the database. but have yet to release the information due to it's sensitivity." another one stated.

"Professor, Yue Jing has sent an encrypted message that mentioned Titiana's and Zhang Shan being online." added another scientist at the back row.

When everyone heard this, they all looked at him with a bewildered look.

Professor Xuan Ye broke the silence as he said. "It seems our gamble has won..."

"Have the Metallurgy department provide the report to Chairman Gao, we need to keep the board of directors and our investors satisfied. Tell the IFDVR development crew to meet me later, we'll check the progress of the newer units... Send the gene report to my email and tell Yue Jing to delay the information from being discovered by Vice-Chief Liu. Ask her to try and communicate with the two... Also, keep an eye out for any new employees, I'm expecting Chief Zhao to move his pieces by this time." he added

A few more scientists provided updates and reports from their respective departments in which the professor gave directions and orders on what to do next. After the small meeting concluded the other scientists bowed as they left the room.

Alone in the room, Professor Xuan Ye looked atbthe glass wall overseeing the whole stadium as he murmured.

"Greed is the bane of man... As seekers of knowledge, we must safe guard what is pure..."

After which, he went to his desk and started to pack three processors and GAIA modules into separate packages.

After which he printed out three addresses and names.

On the labels where three names.

Ye Qing, Ye Qian and Lan Ranyang.