"I made a deal with the system. As long as I open my own dungeon for a while after the world reopens, it’ll send us to your world to have a look," Mo Tuo said casually.
Gu Zhan found this both surprising and strange, unsure whether to be more shocked that people from their world could travel to the real one, or that Mo Tuo was willing to open his dungeon to others.
"We’re not some kind of imaginary beings. You have a physical body, don’t you? So why wouldn’t it be possible?"
Mo Tuo grinned, leaning closer like a child seeking praise. "So, what do you think? Shall we go?"
Gu Zhan, nostalgic about his old friends, readily agreed. "Let’s do it!"
After resting for a day in the monster world, the two left through the dungeon portal in Chun Bai Cheng and arrived in Gu Zhan’s former world.
They landed on a bustling street. Streams of pedestrians, vehicles, and the cacophony of city life immediately stirred memories of the past for Gu Zhan.
Mo Tuo stretched lazily, taking in the vibrant atmosphere with a faintly greedy expression. "Mmm, your world is... wonderful."
"Why do you say that?" Gu Zhan asked, finding it no different from before.
Mo Tuo sniffed the complex air and explained, "I can feel it—this world is full of people, full of fear, resentment, and unwillingness... It’s like a giant cake placed right in front of me."
He opened his eyes, his pitch-black pupils glinting with a trace of danger. "I get why the system doesn’t let us come here. Once you’ve seen such a delightful place, it’d be hard for most to willingly return to their own world."
Gu Zhan couldn’t quite grasp Mo Tuo’s perspective on what was "wonderful."
From a human viewpoint, this world was rife with deception, violence, cruelty, and injustice—hardly beautiful.
But on reflection, monsters thrived on human negative emotions. A lack of beauty... might just be what they considered beautiful.
How peculiar, Gu Zhan thought. There’s someone who actually likes this world.
Though, the reason for liking it was... a little odd.
"But where do we find your companions?"
Mo Tuo leaned against a nearby lamppost as the system's invisibility effect gradually wore off, causing more and more pedestrians to take notice of them.
The aura of monsters was distinctly different from humans, and with their striking appearances, they quickly became the focus of attention.
Gu Zhan thought for a moment and said, "He once mentioned his address, though it was vague. Let’s go check it out first."
Mo Tuo eagerly followed behind Gu Zhan. After taking a couple of steps, Gu Zhan suddenly stopped.
Mo Tuo asked, "What’s wrong?"
Gu Zhan’s face grew a little embarrassed. "We... don’t have any money."
Mo Tuo tilted his head. "No money?" He seemed to be struggling to understand.
Gu Zhan awkwardly explained, "It’s like when players don’t have enough credits."
"What happens if you don’t have any?" Mo Tuo asked curiously, his voice loud enough for a passing middle-aged man to overhear.
The man had been eyeing Gu Zhan and Mo Tuo for a while, his gaze growing bolder. Hearing the question, he approached them with a grin, asking, "Hey there, little brother, need some money?"
Mo Tuo felt a strong sense of malice emanating from this man. It wasn’t very appetizing, a bit nauseating, like rotten fruit in the human world.
He tilted his head, giving a genuinely innocent look, and said, "Yeah, I don’t have any money. Are you going to give me some?"
The man’s gaze grew even more eager. He quickly pulled out a wallet, taking out two bills and stuffing them into Mo Tuo’s hand. "Here, take it all!"
Mo Tuo accepted the bills with a faint smile, "Thanks a lot."
The man, practically glued to Mo Tuo now, said, "I’ve got more at home, would you like to come with me? I’ll give you all of it!"
"Go home with you?" Mo Tuo asked.
The man nodded furiously.
"Alright..."
After Mo Tuo said this, Gu Zhan wore an expression that was hard to look at.
What was he planning to do?
But then, Mo Tuo added, "He’s my friend. Can he come with me?"
The man glanced at Gu Zhan, seeming a bit dissatisfied with his appearance, but reluctantly agreed, "I’ll treat you both to a big meal."
"Great, let’s go then." Mo Tuo, with his innocent demeanor, took Gu Zhan’s hand and happily followed the man down a dark alley.
Gu Zhan followed behind, but Mo Tuo gave him a look. The monster's gaze was full of mischief, and something bad seemed about to happen.
Reluctantly, Gu Zhan followed him. The three walked through the crowd, eventually arriving at a narrow alley.
The middle-aged man said, "Keep going straight, we’ll be there."
They walked into the dark alley, and the further they went, the quieter it became, until the sounds of people and traffic faded completely.
Mo Tuo pretended to be scared and asked, "What is this place?"
Hearing Mo Tuo’s slightly trembling voice, the man grew even more excited. He stopped, turned around, and tightly held onto Mo Tuo, saying, "Little brother, I suddenly remembered something. I left something at the alley entrance. Can your friend go get it while we wait here?"
Mo Tuo held onto Gu Zhan’s hand and coldly asked, "Oh? What is it?"
The man couldn’t hold back anymore and moved forward to grab Mo Tuo’s hand.
Mo Tuo, quick as lightning, stepped back. Dark clouds gathered behind him, forming into a long whip, which he swung fiercely at the man.
The next second, the man seemed to have his energy drained, collapsing to the ground, limp.
"Pathetic." Mo Tuo stepped forward, kicked him twice to confirm he was unconscious, then bent down and pushed aside the man’s jacket.
He had clearly seen that this man had taken out the two bills earlier.
He said this is money that Gu Zhan needs.
Watching Mo Tuo’s actions, Gu Zhan helplessly said, "What did you do to him? You can’t just kill people in this world."
"He’s not dead." Mo Tuo didn’t even look up, "I took away his negative thoughts. He should thank me."
As he said this, Mo Tuo took all the money from the man’s possession—red bills, around fifty to sixty of them.
Mo Tuo proudly presented the money to Gu Zhan, saying, "Look, now we have money."
Gu Zhan was even more helpless. "There’s a more professional term in our world to describe your actions—it's called robbery."
But Mo Tuo didn’t quite understand, "But he made the first move."
Gu Zhan thought for a moment and agreed. The man had bad intentions, wanting to take Mo Tuo to the the secluded area.
"Alright, I’ll correct myself. This isn’t robbery, it’s more like black-on-black crime."
"I took his negative thoughts. For the time being, his mind will be clearer, and his decisions won’t be as foolish... Without me, in three days, his company would’ve gone bankrupt. The losses would’ve been more than just this little bit of money."
Mo Tuo’s words made Gu Zhan astonished. "You can see the future?"
Mo Tuo drew a line in the air and said, "I can see people’s fates, especially those related to misfortune."
Gu Zhan was impressed, "I’ve never heard you mention this before."
Mo Tuo replied, "It’s a natural ability I was born with. In the copy world, this power is useless because the fate of the monsters and players there is controlled by you."
Gu Zhan thought he knew this monster well, but he didn’t realize there were still hidden abilities.
Gu Zhan was surprised, but this feeling wasn’t bad—it felt like he understood Mo Tuo a bit more now.
Looking at the unconscious man on the ground, Gu Zhan said, "Alright, let’s take the money and leave. We can just take a taxi."
He was no longer human and had broken free from the moral constraints of the human world. He never thought anything about this situation being wrong.
The only reason he hesitated to stop Mo Tuo was that violating the rules of the human world could trigger a series of undesirable reactions.
But for the man full of dirty thoughts, this might have seemed like a setup for a scam.
Gu Zhan took the money and successfully hopped into a taxi. He told the driver the address Ye Zhou had given him. The driver was taken aback and said, "Young man, haven’t you been home for many years?"
Gu Zhan was surprised. "What? Is the address no longer there?"
The driver clarified, "No, it's still there."
He turned the key in the ignition and continued, "But the place has changed its name."
Gu Zhan replied, "That’s fine, let’s go take a look."
At first, the driver thought he was a traveler returning home, but after hearing that, he felt it was unusual and started chatting with Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan explained that he was looking for a friend, and the driver suddenly understood. "Well, it doesn’t matter. This place used to be a school, and it’s still a school. If your friend hasn’t quit, they should still be there."
"Mm."
Gu Zhan responded, his gaze lost as he stared out the window, watching the scenery retreat.
Both humans and monsters move forward in time.
While the system was reconstructing the monster world, the human world had also changed.
The only humans left behind in the monster world experienced time stagnation.
The car soon stopped in front of a school, and Gu Zhan took out the cash to pay. The driver fumbled, saying, "Ah, I haven’t had a customer pay in cash for years. Oh no, I didn’t bring any change."
He pulled out a fifty and was about to search for more change when Gu Zhan said, "Keep it, we’re in a hurry. We’ll be on our way."
The driver, still holding the red bill awkwardly, watched them as Gu Zhan and Mo Tuo quickly walked away.
Mo Tuo curiously said, "Your human world is really strange."
"Yeah, with so many people, there’s all kinds of stuff."
Gu Zhan led Mo Tuo to the school gate, just as school was letting out.
First came the little ones from kindergarten, and the primary school students were neatly lined up behind them, waiting.
A group of parents surrounded the front, so Gu Zhan and Mo Tuo went to the side, planning to wait for the kids to leave before continuing.
The children were the liveliest, chattering away as they walked, making a terrible noise.
For the first time, Mo Tuo showed an expression of annoyance and said, "Most humans aren't that great. There's no food, and it's so noisy."
Gu Zhan looked at him and then stepped forward, covering Mo Tuo's ears with both hands, silently asking him, "Still noisy?"
Mo Tuo immediately froze, his gaze filled with stars.
Gu Zhan was very familiar with that kind of look. It usually appeared when the two of them were being intimate. When Mo Tuo looked at him with that gaze, the next second, the monster would pounce on him.
He didn’t know what he had done to suddenly make Mo Tuo act this way.
Thinking that Mo Tuo might truly ignore the rules of the human world and pounce on him without care, Gu Zhan quickly reached out and pressed his finger to the monster's forehead.
"Let's find Ye Zhou first."
Mo Tuo immediately looked aggrieved. "Fine. But Ye Zhou isn’t such a good person either!"