Chapter Sixty-One: Seemingly With a Request

Inside room 306 on the third floor of the Sky-Sea Hotel's Seventh Branch, Chang Nian sat on the edge of the sofa with her knees pulled up to her chest, gazing at the man standing before her.

Tong Guan had been pacing back and forth across the room for twenty minutes, his expression dark and heavy, completely silent.

Chang Nian felt somewhat restless from his endless pacing, yet looking at that familiar face, she found it difficult to say much.

At this moment, Tong Guan's mind was in turmoil. He had long since concluded that Ji Li overlapped with his impression of the leader in the black robe; now, that suspicion seemed all but confirmed!

"It has to be him!"

"Twenty years ago, on that night, he was the leader of the four who broke into my home and took my parents away!"

After a long while, Tong Guan suddenly shed all his burdens, let out a long sigh, and sat down hard on the floor.

He thought once again of his past self. When he was eight years old, his parents were forcibly snatched away right before his eyes by unknown figures, and their whereabouts remained unknown to this day.

Over the years, he had lived as a dependent under his uncle's roof, yet he had never given up searching for the origin of that tragedy.

His ancestral home was in Shanhming City, not far from the neighboring metropolis of Luhai City, but he had never found any meaningful leads.

Until an organization calling itself the "Suicide Club" proactively approached him and provided him with a photograph.

That photograph was old, clearly not taken recently, and the figure captured in the frame was none other than the man bearing a striking resemblance to Ji Li, digging graves within a cemetery.

However, just as Tong Guan and Chang Nian rushed to the graveyard, they were forcibly recruited by the cross-city Sky-Sea Hotel and thrust into the Eleventh Branch.

The trail ended right there, but the moment Tong Guan laid eyes on Ji Li, everything suddenly became clear.

He had fallen deep into a massive chess game. The players controlling this board were many:

The Sky-Sea Hotel, the Suicide Club, his parents, and Ji Li—four factions, perhaps even more.

And he, Tong Guan, was merely a chess piece. Through his long and arduous experiences of completing missions, he gradually rediscovered his original resolve.

Even as a chess piece, one must understand the purpose of a chess piece.

To survive and uncover the truth, he had to keep pushing forward through mission after mission; otherwise, he would never earn the right to know the truth.

Nearby, Chang Nian looked at the absent-minded Tong Guan, feeling a pang of sympathy in her heart. She knew what her husband had been chasing all these years.

She walked over slowly, chose not to pull Tong Guan to his feet, but instead sat beside him on the floor, whispering softly:

"The possibility that Ji Li is the leader in the black robe is growing higher by the day, but for now, his background seems far too simplistic."

"This man has no past history, no household registration, no relatives or family—he appeared out of nowhere, as if materialized from thin air."

Tong Guan nodded slightly and continued, "And precisely because of that, he is all the more complicated!"

Hearing this, Chang Nian took the initiative to slide her palm into Tong Guan's hand, speaking in a gentle tone:

"Don't be impatient. We have successfully approached Ji Li; we just need time to patiently wait for the right opportunity."

"We are already close enough to the truth. What we must do now is buy time and accumulate achievements, which means we must throw ourselves completely into surviving more missions!"

Tong Guan's eyebrows twitched. Prompted by Chang Nian's reminder, he suddenly recalled a crucial piece of news.

He reached into his breast pocket, pulled out his phone, opened a call log on the screen, and pointed to it as he said:

"This was sent by Guan Qi, who has already arrived at the Fifth Branch. The Fifth Branch is far more formidable than our Seventh Branch, or even the Eleventh Branch—they are already approaching the level of a Three-Star Hotel!"

"And Guan Qi revealed a major piece of intelligence to me, one that concerns the 'welfare' rules of Two-Star Hotels!"

Chang Nian frowned, glanced at the call log, fell silent for a moment, and then asked:

"Li Guan Qi was on par with you in almost every aspect among our former companions. His character leans toward that of a gentleman, so his information shouldn't be wrong."

"At the time, we disbanded right after completing the promotion mission to Two-Star, and the hotel explicitly stated that the welfare rules would only be revealed after the first mission following the Two-Star milestone."

"Judging by how Li Guan Qi seems to have found powerful backing over there and managed to survive until now in tasks nearing Three-Star difficulty, his gains must be immense!"

Tong Guan blinked, a trace of joy flashing in his eyes. He chuckled softly:

"And you would never guess—the welfare of the Two-Star tier is utterly subversive!"

...

Ji Li had spent the entire day down in the lobby on the first floor. The ashtray on the table was already crammed with the stubs of extinguished cigarettes.

The words spoken earlier by his second personality echoed constantly within his mind. In all honesty, if he searched his heart.

Among all the people around him, the only one he could truly rely upon was his second personality.

That soul had accompanied him the longest and had shared the most experiences. Although he disliked that persona's temper, disposition, and manner of speaking, it was the entity that had stayed by Ji Li's side through long, desolate times.

Although the third personality's abilities surpassed his own by several margins, Ji Li did not place heavy reliance on it; on the contrary, he held a much higher degree of favor toward the second personality.

The smarter and more ambitious a person was, the harder they were to control.

Through their recent communications, he had roughly grasped the second personality's current condition.

In truth, ever since the last mission, the second personality's state had taken a turn for the worse. This was closely tied to the awakening of that gray soul, which also allowed Ji Li to pinpoint the exact time this ticking time bomb had been planted.

Nowadays, out of twenty-four hours in a day, the second personality only had less than an hour of lucid time.

He was like an elderly man in his twilight years, his vitality and mental energy completely exhausted, forced to rely on prolonged sleep to gather even a shred of strength.

If Ji Li were to die again in the near future, it would very likely trigger the complete annihilation of the second personality.

And the consequences wouldn't stop there. Ji Li raised a hand to brush against his brow; his pupils, now mottled with gray and black, hinted that once the second personality perished, things would spiral entirely out of control.

His status as the primary personality would plummet instantly.

The second and third personalities were Ji Li's two arms; if either were broken, he would stand isolated and helpless.

During this period, the third personality had also fully recounted the origin and emergence of the fourth personality to Ji Li, making it clear that he intended to mend their relationship.

Although Ji Li had already begun to harbor deep guards against the third personality, for now, his only remaining safety net was still this very entity.

While he could not rely on him entirely, he believed that given the third personality's intelligence, he would surely understand the principle of the lips and teeth—that if one falls, the other is endangered.

After a whole day of internal deliberation, the hidden dangers within Ji Li's body had been mostly neutralized.

The primary personality, Number Two, and Number Three had confirmed they were on the same side, remaining constantly vigilant against the fourth personality while doing everything in their power to prevent Ji Li from dying again.

After a long while, as darkness gradually fell and Ji Li listened to the cold wind howling outside, he reached out to light yet another cigarette.

At that exact moment, a series of footsteps sounded behind him—heavy and sluggish, signaling that whoever was approaching carried a mountain of worries and struggled to utter a plea for help to Ji Li.

Ji Li frowned. With a cigarette pinched between his fingertips, he turned slowly, fixing his gaze upon the figure behind him.

Standing in the shadows, Yu Guo, who had struggled and hesitated for an entire day, finally stepped forward with a heart full of heavy thoughts, gazing across the empty space to meet Ji Li's eyes.