Chapter 124: Starting Over with a New Account

As the meeting entered its latter half, taking advantage of a moment when no one was paying attention, Wen Nan quietly whispered a few words to his junior apprentice sister before slipping out hastily through the door. They made their way to the top floor’s tea room and then into the cramped storage closet next to it—the very tiny space where the junior sister had previously hidden him.

A few minutes later, Yu Shujun arrived. Pushing open the door and glancing inside the narrow space, barely large enough to hold two adult men, his eyes filled with reluctance. “We really have to discuss this in a place like this?”

Wen Nan raised an eyebrow lightly. “You are the master; am I the master?”

Yu Shujun had no retort. After confirming no NPCs were nearby, he closed the door behind him, lowered his gaze, and submitted a video recording to Wen Nan’s system. “This is the complete itinerary of Yang Mingzhong during the time I tracked him, including every NPC, character, and player he contacted or spoke with, as well as the equipment found. I've marked all corresponding information on the adjacent floor plan.”

After a brief pause, Yu Shujun added coldly, “Please review it, Master.”

He then stepped back half a pace, leaning his back against the door, standing straight up to maximize the distance between them.

Of course, given the cramped confines of the storage room, no matter how far apart they tried to stand, Wen Nan could easily brush Yu Shujun with his elbow.

Although he didn’t understand why two men being in the same room would be such a sensitive matter, Wen Nan felt no obligation to cater to Yu Shujun’s discomfort. On the contrary, seeing Yu Shujun visibly uneasy amused him greatly.

Pulling out a cardboard box from beside him, Wen Nan spread his legs and sat astride it with a bold, cavalier air, resting his arm on another box next to Yu Shujun. Leaning back, he began rapidly flipping through the video and map before him.

As Yu Shujun’s arm and knee gradually pressed closer to Wen Nan’s chest and thigh, his posture stiffened even more. Taking a deep breath, he wished he could meld into the door panel itself.

Wen Nan flipped through the records of Yang Mingzhong with growing interest, quickly grasping what Yu Shujun meant by “there’s a problem.”

From the video footage and map annotations, Yang Mingzhong moved slowly, not like someone rushing to complete a quest but rather someone leisurely enjoying life.

He often lingered for long stretches in one spot, sitting alone lost in thought, smoking a cigarette, having a drink, or simply doing nothing at all—just sitting quietly on the roadside steps, watching two cats fight.

Yet, aside from these idle moments, every place he had searched—from a trash can beside an office floor cubicle, to beneath an electric bike tire in the company’s backyard parking shed, to a food stall sign hanging above a cafeteria window—each location yielded different levels of item drops.

“The efficiency of his map scanning is impressive.”

Not just impressive—it was near flawless.

This method of map scanning didn’t resemble the way ordinary players explored and discovered information. Rather, it was as if he had already obtained the walkthrough answers and was acting with full knowledge.

“...A second playthrough?”

Wen Nan murmured his suspicion.

Yu Shujun was not surprised Wen Nan had figured it out so quickly. “I think so, Master.”

After a moment’s pause, Yu Shujun went on to share his theory openly:

“Yang Mingzhong’s player level is very low, and his equipment and assets are scarce. Clearly, he didn’t use a resurrection card.” He thought for a moment, then added, “There are only three resurrection cards in the entire game world. Two are held by the leaders of the six major guilds, and the remaining one is definitely not in his possession.”

“If he had hidden his original player information or created an associated alt account, his main account and all related accounts would share community and guild information. The main and alt accounts cannot join two different guilds separately. Since he successfully joined your guild, that means he had never been a member of any guild before.”

“Hidden player information and creating associated alt accounts are both privileges reserved for Gold rank players.”

“If a high-level Gold rank player has never joined any guild and remains a free agent, the game system automatically assigns the player an exclusive guild.”

“So if either of those two cases were true, he wouldn’t have been able to join the ‘Sure Win’ guild smoothly.”

“That leaves only one possibility—Yang Mingzhong has preserved his game qualification by deleting his account and starting anew.”

“Deleting and restarting?” Wen Nan knew this was a common practice in single-player games in the real world, but in a world like this... “Isn’t that too costly?”

Yu Shujun nodded. “All levels, attributes, equipment, items, assets, and community connections of the original account reset to zero. But that’s not even the biggest price.”

“I’ve heard that voluntary account deletion by a player has a high chance of causing random memory loss, and there’s even a certain chance the player might vanish completely from the game world.”

After thinking a moment, Yu Shujun added, “However, the item allowing account deletion and restart is not hard to obtain. Even players of low Silver rank can acquire it.”

Silver rank? Such a low level?

Wen Nan glanced silently at his own Bronze rank but didn’t respond. Instead, he changed the subject. “If they are willing to take such a huge risk to start over, what could they be after?”

Yu Shujun shrugged. “Human nature is inscrutable. I’ve never understood it. On this matter, I fear I’m powerless, Master.”

“Oh?” Wen Nan teased. “When you were stirring trouble in my backyard before, didn’t you understand how the CPU works?”

Yu Shujun’s face remained cold. “Players are players; characters are characters. To me, they are completely different.”

“Fine,” Wen Nan said with a sigh and rubbed his nearly calloused ears, then stood up. “I’ll go meet him myself.”

The storage room was so cramped that Wen Nan’s casual movement accidentally brushed his elbow against Yu Shujun’s chest. It felt soft and noticeably sizable.

Wen Nan’s arm froze in place.

Wearing a fake chest pad? That’s quite a generous padding. Are male cross-dressers really this dedicated nowadays?

Yu Shujun felt increasingly uncomfortable under Wen Nan’s scrutinizing gaze and promptly pushed open the door. “He’s been sitting inside the café next to the activation point from last time for quite a while. I’ll lead you there, Master.”

...

Opposite the north gate of the Eileen Group, inside a café.

Yang Mingzhong sat alone by the window, holding a cup of coffee and a magazine he had casually taken from the nearby bookshelf, passing the time.

Wen Nan and Yu Shujun entered the café silently.

The clerk behind the counter was about to greet them with “Welcome,” but Yu Shujun signaled for silence.

The clerk nodded immediately, mouthing to Yu Shujun, “I’m watching him for you. He’s been there the whole time, hasn’t moved.”

Wen Nan looked at Yu Shujun. “You had an NPC watch him?”

Yu Shujun retorted, “Can’t an NPC help?”

Wen Nan shook his head, said nothing more, and walked straight to the table by the window.

Yang Mingzhong looked up, recognized them, and stood. “Guild Leader? What a coincidence to meet you here again.”

Wen Nan smiled. “What made you want to come here and have coffee alone?”

9527: [Your mind-reading skill has activated, stacking the ‘Tears of the Artifact’ item effect for a total duration of 30 minutes.]

(The chapter ends)