After AFK for five years, I returned to be number one in the entire server.

Lin was alone in his room, lying flat on the tatami mat.

He clasped his hands behind his head, staring at the wooden ceiling above him, stained with dark yellow water, his gaze lingering.

To be honest, Lin Ye still hasn't figured out how to start a conversation with Gu Qingxin if he actually meets her, or what attitude he should have towards her.

He had already made a promise to Shen Yi.

But the colorful wedding scene in that ancient castle, and the image of Gu Qingxin standing beside him in her wedding dress, kept flashing through his mind these past few days.

If all those scenes actually happened in Star Abyss, can we take the events in the game as fact?

Does this mean that during that forgotten period, I also made her some kind of promise?

Lin Ye frowned slightly, perhaps things weren't as complicated as he thought.

In Star Abyss, players often encounter all sorts of bizarre rules in order to survive or complete a certain mission.

Those seemingly grand wedding scenes may just be a necessary ritual to complete a mission, or a plot segment of a special bond quest, and do not involve personal emotions.

Lin also recalled the days when she and Gu Qingxin were neighbors in Ningchuan. That night, Gu Qingxin started a small fire while cooking in the kitchen, and Shen Yi invited her to have dinner together.

When I took her home, she specifically praised Shen Yi and earnestly told me to cherish Shen Yi.

If the wedding in "Star Abyss" truly contained feelings between a man and a woman, no matter how gentle and mild-mannered Gu Qingxin's personality was, she wouldn't have acted this way when she saw herself living with another girl and even preparing to get married.

Furthermore, in their subsequent daily interactions, Lin did not clearly sense any woman's affection for a man in Gu Qingxin.

Sometimes when he went out with Shen Yi, Shen Yi would naturally take his arm or lean affectionately against him, and they would happen to run into Gu Qingxin in the stairwell.

She simply watched them quietly, a serene smile in her eyes.

The feeling she evokes is less like a wife and more like an older sister.

However, in Lin Ye's heart, he never regarded Gu Qingxin as his older sister.

This is purely due to his personality; he is neither used to sudden warmth nor likes to establish seniority or make arbitrary claims of kinship in interpersonal relationships.

The next day, in the evening.

A gentle knock came at the wooden door of the small hotel. Standing outside was Zhong Ping, who had put away his umbrella. His expression was much more complicated than when he had brought the three of them over the night before.

Upon entering the room, Zhong Ping looked at the three people sitting cross-legged on the tatami mat.

"I have bad news and good news."

"Stop beating around the bush, just say what you want to say. I'm about to get moldy after a day in this shabby hotel." Song Jing stretched.

Zhong Ping: "The bad news is that Commissioner Gu still hasn't contacted me."

This result was within Zhao Qishan's expectations: "And the good news?"

"The good news is that about half an hour ago, the Queen Mother of the West contacted me through an encrypted frequency band." Zhong Ping's tone became serious.

When the Queen Mother of the West was mentioned, Zhao Qishan and Song Jing put away their casual attitude.

Zhong Ping said, "The Queen Mother of the West instructed me to reveal to Mr. Lin the mission of Commissioner Gu's trip to Tokyo. Commissioner Gu's current true location is currently hidden within the Canglu branch of the Heavenly Rank."

A brief silence fell over the room.

Zhong Ping continued, "The Queen Mother of the West said that if Mr. Lin is in a hurry to find Commissioner Gu, then that is the only destination."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Qishan sat on the tatami mat, his eyes slightly narrowed.

He was, after all, a seasoned veteran of the underworld, and after a moment's thought, he immediately grasped the deeper meaning behind those words.

Tian Shu wouldn't casually reveal mission details to unrelated people. He only knew that Gu Qingxin had come to Fusang because she personally told him.

He brought Lin here across the sea, just to try his luck.

He thought that if he could run into Gu Qingxin in Zhongping, he would get the job done; if not, he would treat it as a paid trip.

Most things follow rules, but now the Queen Mother of the West has actually revealed the details of the mission.

Zhao Qishan understood perfectly well that, from the perspective of the Xia Shang government, they naturally wished nothing more than to eliminate the unscrupulous organization, Tianjie, as soon as possible.

The Queen Mother of the West deliberately revealed this information to Lin Ye, making her purpose quite clear.

Firstly, it's to extend goodwill to the top-ranked person and win their favor.

Secondly, this is clearly an attempt to use someone else to do the dirty work.

Once Lin Ye goes to the Tianjie Canglu branch, given his abilities and straightforward style, he will inevitably clash violently with that huge cancer.

The Queen Mother of the West knew that as long as Lin Ye stepped into that place, even if the Heavenly Realm Canglu branch wasn't completely eradicated, it would definitely suffer a severe blow.

Lin, sitting next to him, didn't care about those complicated details.

Whether the Queen Mother of the West was showing goodwill or using someone else to do her dirty work, it didn't matter to him. All he needed to know was Gu Qingxin's location.

Where is the Tianjie Canglu branch?

……

……

Night fell over the entire sky.

This is a sparsely populated forest. The night wind after the rain blows through the trees, making a rustling sound as the fallen leaves rub against each other.

No one could easily detect that beneath this land lay a vast underground complex, the headquarters of the Tianjie Canglu branch.

In the darkness at the edge of the woods, Saya Igarashi stood silently.

Behind her stood dozens of elite assassins from the Igarashi family, all standing silently.

The most eye-catching were the few people standing beside Igarashi Saya. Even though they tried to restrain themselves, they still exuded a heavy sense of oppression. There were four Yao-level players.

Saya Igarashi glanced up at the sky, her red lips slightly pursed, and a murderous intent surged in her icy eyes.

Not long ago, the people from the Tianjie Canglu branch hijacked a batch of top-secret supplies called "Genju" that the Igarashi family was escorting.

In this era dominated by "Star Abyss," whether ordinary people can qualify to become players is entirely random and unpredictable.

For large families, the breakdown of power and influence is the most deadly threat.

However, those "sources" can allow ordinary people to be selected by "Star Abyss" and obtain player status.

The family's mole within the Heavenly Realm has provided reliable intelligence: the several Chen-level members in the Heavenly Realm Canglu branch have all left the base tonight due to some kind of emergency.

As long as those Chen-level players are gone, Igarashi Saya is confident that she can take everything back intact.

Once they succeed, all they need to do is retreat back to the city as quickly as possible, and the operation will be considered a success.

The Shinji had signed an agreement with the Tenji Canglu branch, so they dared not take action in downtown Tokyo.