Chapter 1 November 15th

November 15th, 11:00 AM.

In an apartment building in City S, a seventeen-year-old boy was gradually waking up from unconsciousness.

After taking a few seconds to adjust to the light in the room, he made out the scene before him.

The first thing he saw was three figures…

They were three men wearing dark jackets, jeans, and ski masks, now surrounding a table, smoking and playing cards.

Seeing the boy awake, they just glanced at him casually, without much reaction.

But the boy… immediately panicked.

Because he realized right away… that he was tied to a chair with his hands behind his back. Not only his hands, but also his waist and feet were tightly bound to the chair, making it almost impossible to move. In addition… his mouth was taped shut, so he couldn’t speak.

“Where am I? How did I get here?” the boy wondered in his heart. “Who are these people? Kidnapping?”

Soon, accompanied by a dizzy spell, fragmented memories flashed through his mind…

“That’s right! In that restroom!”

The boy’s name was Ma Junxiao. A year ago, he was just an ordinary high school student with average grades, a love for video games, plain looks, and a worrying height. But now, he was a star-level professional gamer, and one of the top players in the industry’s largest studio, with the ID – Tuntian Guixiao (Devouring Sky Devil).

Recently, due to competitions, Guixiao had been working the “night shift” every day. Of course, calling it “work” was a bit of a stretch, as he spent most of his time sleeping in the game pod.

During the day, he didn’t have to stay at the company. As long as he maintained more than three hours (real-time, non-sleep mode) of online time each day, he could work from home.

But at night… he still had to clock in at the Order Headquarters around ten o’clock, do some pre-match preparations, and then lie down in the company’s equipment to compete.

At seven o’clock this morning, Guixiao, as usual… left the company building, bought some breakfast on the way, and took the subway home.

Although around seven o’clock was still the morning rush hour, and it was well known that the subway in City S could squeeze people into juice, Guixiao wasn’t “going to work” at this time, but “getting off work.” The line he was taking was the opposite of the crowded one, with an average of only seven or eight people in each car.

Therefore, he was able to get a seat as soon as he got on the train today.

However… after only two stops, Guixiao suddenly felt unwell. Perhaps the breakfast he bought today wasn’t clean… a violent stomach ache came without warning.

Fortunately, the subway didn’t take long to pass each stop, and there was a restroom right outside the station, so he quickly rushed out of the car at the next stop and headed straight for the public restroom in the subway station.

That trip… took nearly two hours.

Two hours later, Guixiao, with weak legs and nearly exhausted, walked out of the restroom stall.

Actually, in the last twenty minutes… his diarrhea symptoms had basically subsided, otherwise he might have called an ambulance. It was just that… he spent another twenty minutes massaging his legs to restore their ability to stand.

After coming out, Guixiao went to the sink in the public restroom, let out a long sigh, washed his hands, and then lowered his head to wash his face.

But the moment he lowered his head… he lost consciousness.

He couldn’t remember the last bit of memory no matter how hard he tried, but he wasn’t stupid… judging from the situation in front of him, he was either knocked unconscious from behind or had his mouth and nose covered with anesthesia.

“My neck and the back of my head don’t hurt, but I’m a little dizzy…” After calming down slightly, Guixiao began to think, “I was probably knocked out with ether or something…” His eyes swept over the three men, “These three… are obviously adults, it would be easy for them to carry me away.”

Thinking of this, he looked around again.

The place he was in at the moment seemed to be an unfinished room. The empty room had almost no furniture, but thick curtains had been hung by the window; the walls and ceiling were simply painted with a layer of white paint, and the floor was concrete.

As far as he could see, the only furniture he could see was a simple folding table, a few chairs with backs, and a fluorescent light in the corner of the ceiling. The light was on, which meant that the house at least had electricity. According to Guixiao’s reasoning… there should also be water, otherwise these guys couldn’t possibly run outside to use public restrooms while they were holding a hostage, right?

“This is bad… these people are so calm after seeing me wake up…” After looking around, Guixiao thought to himself, “According to what’s shown in the movies… those who react like this are either desperados or professional criminals, or both…” Cold sweat broke out all over him, “Speaking of which… what do they want to do by kidnapping me? I’m not a young girl, they probably aren’t trying to abduct me for sexual purposes…”

Indeed, it was unlikely… because if the other party really wanted to abduct him for sexual purposes, he probably wouldn’t have “woken up naturally,” but in some other form.

“If they’re trying to rob me… that doesn’t make sense either…” Guixiao continued to think, “My parents are both ordinary wage earners. Although my own annual salary isn’t bad now, it’s not enough to make people resort to kidnapping, right…”

That’s right, the assumption of “exchanging for ransom”… wasn’t reasonable either.

From a difficulty point of view, kidnapping children was obviously much easier than kidnapping a high school student like him; and from a profit point of view, if they really wanted to kidnap an adult… they should at least pick someone with more money, like Jin Fugui…

No matter how he thought about it, kidnapping Guixiao was a difficult and low-yield job; it was obvious that these three people who acted against Guixiao… had other purposes.

“Wait… could it be…” A more reliable idea flashed through Guixiao’s mind after a few seconds, “Could it be related to my match in the early hours of the morning?”

He finally hit the nail on the head.

But… even knowing this, he had no ability to escape.

At this time, there were… twelve hours and fifty-three minutes left until the match at midnight on the 16th.

…………

At the same time, Order Studio, headquarters office building.

“Hmm… still can’t get through…” Meng Jingchan listened to the “The number you dialed cannot be reached” coming from the phone, and a suspicious look appeared on his face.

Brother Chan was not a person who liked to bring work home, so he didn’t leave the company in the morning like the others in the first team, but switched to non-sleep mode and finished today’s online requirements before preparing to get off work.

“This is troublesome…” This was the fifth time Meng Jingchan had called Guixiao’s phone in forty minutes, but he just couldn’t get through.

Coincidentally, Guixiao forgot to bring the key to his locker when he came to the company last night, so he borrowed Brother Chan’s locker. As a result, this kid forgot to put the key at the front desk when he went home this morning, and took it away in a daze…

Brother Chan… put all his trivial items such as car keys, house keys, and wallet in his coat, and the coat was in the locker…

Of course, the company definitely had a backup key for the locker, but because it involved personal privacy and other issues, the administrative process for applying for this thing was very troublesome (there used to be a very casual period, but after a few cases of theft and invasion of personal privacy, it became strict), which might take half a day.

At this moment… Brother Chan had nothing but a mobile phone by his side, so he naturally had to call Guixiao… to ask this kid about it.

But… he just couldn’t get through.

“Hmm… why don’t I ask the team leader what the kid’s home phone number is…” Brother Chan hadn’t thought about the worst yet. The first thing he thought of was whether the other party had thrown his phone in a place with a bad signal, or lost it.

…………

Afternoon, 4:49 PM.

There were… seven hours and eleven minutes left until the match at midnight on the 16th.

Whoop—whoop—

Hearing the vibration, Feng Bujue glanced at the phone screen on the table, and saw an unfamiliar number.

“Is it some kind of promotion or scam again…” Brother Jue muttered, picking up the phone.

Although he thought it was probably a harassing call, he would still answer it. Basically… Feng Bujue would only listen to the other party for five seconds when answering this kind of call, and he would know the general nature of it. Then he would hang up without saying a word and add the number to the blacklist.

“Hello, who is this?” Brother Jue asked after picking up the phone.

“Uh… hello, is this Feng Bujue?” A familiar voice came from the other end of the phone.

Brother Jue quickly searched his mind for the source of the voice: “Chou He Tang (Smoke Drink Burn)?”

“Hey, hey… even if you don’t know my name, you can call me by my game nickname…” Brother Chan wasn’t angry, just a little depressed, “What the hell is Chou He Tang?”

“How did you find out my number?” Feng Bujue didn’t respond to the other party’s complaint, but directly asked a question he was more interested in.

“I’m at the police station now, the police told me.” Meng Jingchan’s answer was quite surprising.

“Oh…” Feng Bujue responded casually, and then said, “Did you get caught whoring and want me to bail you out?”

“Big brother… I really have to call you big brother…” Meng Jingchan said, “How did you come to that conclusion?”

“It’s very simple. From the way you smoke, drink, and burn, it gives me the feeling that you often patronize low-end pleasure places,” Feng Bujue replied in a lazy tone. “Then you said you were calling me from the police station, so it must be that you ran into a crackdown on prostitution, right? In your situation… notifying your family is basically hopeless; asking the unit leader to pick you up, or asking a friend to bail you out… not to mention that you won’t be able to hold your head up in front of people in the future, the news will still leak out sooner or later; so, you thought of me.”

Hearing this, Meng Jingchan on the other end of the phone was silent for a full thirty seconds.

“Brother Feng… your reasoning is okay, but you have too much prejudice against me…” Brother Chan held back for a long time before uttering this sentence.

“Okay, then tell me, what’s the matter?” Feng Bujue said.

“Um… it’s like this…” Meng Jingchan said, “Guixiao… seems to have been kidnapped.”

“Huh?” Feng Bujue was stunned for a second when he heard the words, “Did you call the police?”

“We called the police at noon,” Meng Jingchan said. “At first, we thought it was a missing person case, and since he’s a big boy, the police didn’t take it very seriously… but you also know that we have an important match tonight… so, our company leader used some connections to ‘push’ the progress of the investigation… An hour ago, the police had already obtained the surveillance footage…”

“Stop~ thank you!” Feng Bujue interrupted the other party, “You just need to answer me ‘We called the police,’ that’s enough… you don’t need to tell me so much.”

“Brother Feng…” Brother Chan continued, “I’m calling you… because I want to ask for your help.”

“Ask me for help?” Feng Bujue sneered, “Heh… what can I do to help?” He immediately said a very shameless sentence, “Although I, this great writer, also possess the abilities of a famous detective… this kind of case is obviously more suitable for the police to handle, right?” He paused for a moment, “Don’t worry~ our public security officers are very powerful ‘when they get serious.’ Their investigation ability and execution ability are both…”

“Brother Feng.” At this moment, Meng Jingchan suddenly lowered his voice and said to Brother Jue in a very serious tone, “It’s not that I don’t trust their abilities… but there’s something going on here.”

“Oh?” Feng Bujue keenly captured something from the other party’s tone, “What do you mean by that?”

“It’s not convenient to talk about it on the phone… can you come to the police station?” Meng Jingchan replied.

“Hmm…” Feng Bujue considered for a few seconds, “Okay…” Before the other party could respond, he asked, “Give me the address.”

…………

Thirty minutes later, a silver Porsche stopped in front of a public security branch in City S.

Two men got out of the car, one was Feng Bujue, and the other was Wang Tanzhi.

Because they had contacted each other by phone beforehand, Meng Jingchan was waiting for them outside the reception hall.

“I said… you two, coming to the police station in a Porsche…” As soon as the three of them finished greeting each other, Brother Chan complained about this.

“You don’t need to say it, I understand. We’ve always been so low-key,” Feng Bujue replied calmly.

In a sense, he was right… compared to the other cars in Xiao Tan’s family, this one was very low-key in terms of both color and price…

“Hehe… okay… okay…” Brother Chan really didn’t know how to respond, so he simply changed the topic, “Right, time is limited, let’s talk about business first…”

After saying this, he mysteriously pulled Brother Jue and Xiao Tan aside, and stood in a corner outside where there was no one.

“I’m only telling you this…” Meng Jingchan was obviously a smart person. He knew that the content he was about to tell must not be passed on to Guixiao’s family, or to any policeman, “Actually, I originally trusted the police very much, but… just before I called you, I accidentally heard the deputy director here talking to someone on the phone in the toilet…” He said here, looked around cautiously again, and lowered his voice, “The sound in the toilet is muffled, I can hear the voices from the phone…” He paused for half a second, stared into the eyes of the two men and said, “I don’t know who the person on the other end of the phone is, but… I clearly heard him instruct that deputy director to try to delay the investigation… and said that he had to delay it until at least two o’clock in the morning.”