Absolute Death Game

Chapter 156 - 138: Zhang Yaoyang’s Opportunity

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The Demon Clan presence within this camp was clearly not their entire military force, at most it was just a frontline camp, because according to the intelligence from the Vermilion Bird Group, the entrance to the Teleportation Portal of the Devil Realm was situated deep within the Dark Forest, inside a heavily guarded Demon Clan camp resembling a small fortress.

Compared to that, this camp was quite rudimentary, but since there were already so many members of the Demon Clan here, one could only imagine what the scene must be like in the military encampment deep within the Dark Forest—probably enough to almost rival the force needed to take down Nine Dragons City.

The two didn’t dare linger and planned to retreat immediately.

To return, they naturally couldn’t just walk back; the entrance to the Demon Clan’s main camp was ahead, and there were undoubtedly sentries like the prior Shadow Hunters all around, making walking back tantamount to a suicide mission. Fortunately, both of their mana had fully recovered over the course of time, allowing them to use Earth Escape to make their way back.

"Hold on, let me take a few photos first," said Xiao Buli as he took out his phone and snapped a few pictures of the screen, then the two prepared to retreat. Xiao Buli calculated the direction back to camp and then burrowed into the ground, the pair slowly moving towards Thousand Pines Town.

Tunneling underground wasn’t a smooth process either; various obstructions often forced them to change direction, and to avoid getting lost, every ten minutes or so they had to surface to check their bearings. This was risky, and once when they emerged, they came up right behind a Demon Clan patrol soldier.

Thankfully, Xiao Buli reacted quickly and immediately dove back underground before being detected.

After approximately an hour of this start-and-stop progress, the two finally left the danger zone and arrived back on the surface, hurrying towards Thousand Pines Town.

"Thank heavens, we’re finally safe," they sighed in relief upon seeing the military camp outside Thousand Pines Town.

Half begging, half threatening, Du Yibo said, "Old Xiao, do me a favor, keep your mouth shut when we get back, alright? Don’t spread anything about me." By "his business," Du Yibo meant both his abilities and the matter of the statue—should someone on their side learn about it, what would happen if he were forced to hand it over?

"Don’t worry, I don’t have the time for tattling," Xiao Buli assured him.

As they talked, the two arrived at the entrance of the camp and discovered the others had already returned.

"Finally, you two are here. Now that everyone’s back, let’s go turn in the mission," came the call.

Although they had been chased for most of the day and had lost one of their number, the mission was ultimately completed as they found An Shixiong (General Huwei) and handed in the task.

An Shixiong (General Huwei): "What, my advance team has been wiped out? These demons are accursed. This won’t do; we must conduct a thorough investigation. The enemy must have a camp nearby, otherwise they couldn’t have annihilated my men so effortlessly. Would you Righteous Warriors be willing to undertake this mission?"

System prompt: You have triggered the mission ’Thorough Investigation’; do you accept? Yes/No.

Zhang Yaoyang said, "Let’s all accept the mission."

After accepting the mission, however, he didn’t rush everyone to start it. "Enjoy some free time for now, don’t rush into the mission; I need to take care of Zhao Yixin’s situation first."

As he spoke, Zhang Yaoyang logged out of the game and left the gaming room.

Xiao Buli silently followed him out.

"Just a moment, leader, I have some information that I need to report to you about the Demon Clan. I think I’ve found the camp that took out the Golden Dragon Legion’s advance team," Xiao Buli said.

After a moment’s hesitation, Zhang Yaoyang responded, "Why didn’t you say so earlier?"

"I was afraid it would affect the smooth progress of the ’Pioneer Corps’."

By ’Pioneer Corps,’ he was referring to the operational codename for the morning’s actions. With a newfound understanding, Zhang Yaoyang gestured Xiao Buli over, and the two stepped into the restroom where Xiao Buli immediately took out his phone and showed Zhang Yaoyang the photos he had taken. Zhang Yaoyang frowned upon seeing them.

"We can’t let the higher-ups know about this," he said. "If they do, they might cancel our dungeon raid plans, and then we’d be unable to proceed with our mission."

Xiao Buli understood as well; in fact, he too did not wish for the higher-ups to find out, but could they possibly keep it from them?

"If I’m not mistaken, they might already know," he said.

Seeing Zhang Yaoyang’s puzzled look, Xiao Buli recounted Manager Qin’s previous attempt to acquire his subordinate.

"I’ve long suspected that the higher-ups have more than one way of surveilling us. There could be built-in surveillance devices in our computers, and our gameplay might be getting recorded. Otherwise, how would they know about my subordinate?"

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Zhang Yaoyang shook his head, "That’s highly unlikely. If that were the case, many things wouldn’t make sense, and our situation would have likely been exposed by now. But you’re right, we are indeed being watched. Although I can’t be certain whether it’s due to a spy or some other means, it’s probably very difficult to keep this under wraps."

Xiao Buli sighed upon seeing him deep in thought, "Anyway, I’ve given you the thing. Whether you report it or not is not my problem anymore. If you choose to hide it, as long as the higher-ups don’t ask, I won’t say anything. But if they do ask, I can only point the finger at you."

Zhang Yaoyang nodded, appreciating that Xiao Buli had done all he could, "I’ll consider it carefully."

"Then I’ll take my leave first." Having said that, Xiao Buli departed, leaving Zhang Yaoyang immersed in his thoughts. After a while, he finally gritted his teeth, checked the photos that Xiao Buli had sent him on his phone, and deleted all the clear ones, keeping only three blurry images. Then, he turned and walked out of the restroom.

He knocked on the door and entered Qin Shimoon’s office, getting straight to the point, "Manager Qin, I need to report something to you."

After saying that, he relayed Xiao Buli’s discovery, but he deliberately downplayed the number of Demon Clan members and the size of their camp, and then handed over those three photos to Qin Shimoon.

Qin Shimoon frowned. A Demon Clan camp? That sounded dangerous. But why were the photos so blurry? Even for an amateur, such poor photography was hard to excuse, and there was an unmistakable vagueness in Zhang Yaoyang’s words.

She looked up at Zhang Yaoyang and caught a glimpse of expectation and tension in his eyes. Suddenly, she understood something and laughed.

Feigning nonchalance, she said, "I understand. I’ll report this to the higher-ups. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, so it probably won’t affect the upcoming Pioneer Corps operation."

Zhang Yaoyang was inwardly delighted but tried not to show it. He also mentioned Zhao Yixin’s issue, and this time, Qin Shimoon was not as critical and readily agreed to provide an additional two hundred thousand copies of the Pioneer Corps subsidy for Zhao Yixin.

After Zhang Yaoyang left, Qin Shimoon hesitated over those three photos, deleted the two that seemed more threatening, and printed out the remaining one.

Looking at the blurry image of the Demon Clan in the photo, Qin Shimoon’s face revealed a cold smile as she walked toward the elevator with the photo in hand.

As a senior executive of the company, Qin Shimoon had free access to all areas, including the top floor. When she entered Dugu Han’s office, she frowned immediately. There sat Dugu Han on his leather office chair, cuddling with his voluptuous secretary, hands roaming inside the woman’s blouse; they were almost at the point of undressing each other.

She cleared her throat with a "Hmm!" Dugu Han wasn’t very alarmed when he saw her, instead saying with a playful laugh, "Don’t worry, Manager Qin, you’re next." As he spoke, he boldly kneaded a few times, eliciting a series of soft moans from the woman in his arms, "You’re bad, I won’t come to you again."

The secretary, still possessing some sense of decency, struggled out of Dugu Han’s lascivious grasp and straightened her disheveled clothes, blushing as she walked past Qin Shimoon.

Dugu Han, his interest waning, adjusted his tie, showing annoyance at being interrupted, "What’s the matter?" he asked, impatiently.

Qin Shimoon bristled inwardly, this guy was becoming more disrespectful by the day. However, considering her purpose for coming, she handed over the photo.

The image was blurry, only faintly displaying a camp and a few figures of the Demon Clan.

"What’s this?" asked Dugu Han, confused.

"It was discovered by the Pioneer Corps during their daily quest today. They even lost a person for this. It seems to be a Demon Clan camp with a large number of Demon Clan members, including a boss with a golden name tag."

"Abyssal Flame Demon Lord?"

Seeing Qin Shimoon nod, Dugu Han immediately became excited, "That’s fantastic! It’s tough to deal with it inside the copy, but now that it’s out, there’s nothing to fear. Summon the entire White Tiger Group, and draw a few more from the Vermilion Bird Group or Black Tortoise Group to form a full forty-man team. We can overwhelm it with numbers!"

But Qin Shimoon said with uncertainty, "However, there are other Demon Clan members in the camp besides the boss. I’m afraid it won’t be that easy."

"Eh, they’re just Minor Monsters, how troublesome can they be? You don’t understand the game, so don’t overthink it. What’s the exact number?" he asked.

Qin Shimoon still spoke uncertainly, "It seems there should be quite a few."

How many is ’quite a few’? Perhaps no one could answer that with precision. A few dozen might qualify as quite a few, and so could several hundred. But what if it were several thousand? Coupled with phrases like ’it seems’ or ’possibly,’ Dugu Han suddenly got the wrong impression, thinking Qin Shimoon was just trying to make excuses for those people.

"No need to discuss further. It can’t be that many. Just have them clear the Minor Monsters before engaging the boss, and that settles it." After he said this, he abruptly drained a glass of red wine, sending off Qin Shimoon with a dismissive gesture. With a dark expression on her face, Qin Shimoon walked out the door, but as she turned away, a hint of mockery crept into the corner of her mouth.

(Zhang Yaoyang, oh Zhang Yaoyang, I’ve given you this push, now it’s up to you to seize the opportunity.) (