CHAPTER 677: FIRST THING FIRST

Shen Nianzu took a few more days to recover and returned to his usual self just in time to attend Gu Luoxin’s funeral.

He had once done a background check on the young man and thus knew what his uncle looked like: a slightly chubby businessman who worked around the globe all year long. But the man Shen Nianzu saw in the funeral... he seemed to have aged ten or twenty years in the span of a week. His gaze was hollow and lifeless and he had thinned down considerably, making his suit appear a little loose on his person.

Just like how Gu Luoxin only had his uncle as his family member, his uncle also only had him. But he had left so soon... far too soon... leaving the middle-aged man all alone in this world.

Ignoring the pinpricks of pain and remorse in his heart, Shen Nianzu led Jin Jiuchi over to offer incense before bowing to the uncle who seemed like he had lost his soul. "My deepest condolences."

It took the man a couple of seconds to focus his scattered gaze on them. Even then, his reaction was still sluggish. "You are...?"

Shen Nianzu did not mind the scrutiny. After all, they did look a little out of place amidst the funeral hall just by their appearances alone. "Friends," Shen Nianzu forced out a smile. "We are Xinxin’s friends."

"Oh, you’re Xinxin’s friends..." he muttered before returning the bow, belatedly. "Thank you... thank you for coming all the way here. Xinxin must be happy to see you."

"En," a hard lump lodged in Shen Nianzu’s throat as he forced out that choked reply. He was about to grab Jin Jiuchi and excuse himself, unable to bear another second in the presence of Gu Luoxin’s black-and-white portrait, when he heard the middle-aged man ask,

"Do you guys believe it too?" His voice was brittle—bitter—like he was one second away from collapsing. He squeezed out a smile that looked worse than crying, "My Xinxin... he couldn’t have committed suicide, but everyone... they all keep saying—"

"No."

Surprisingly, it was Jin Jiuchi who responded before Shen Nianzu could. His gaze was firm, his voice even more so, echoing throughout the hall until everyone could catch every word he said. "It was an accident. Xinxin is not the kind of person who would do something like that. Uncle, you have to believe in him or... Xinxin will be very sad."

The middle-aged man jolted as though Jin Jiuchi’s words had struck a nerve deep inside him. Then his entire body sagged against the wall, shuddering, like an unknown tension had finally been drained out of him. Like he had been granted amnesty. "I-I know... I know Xinxin couldn’t have done that..." he fumbled to wipe away his tears, crying so hard he was gasping for breath, "It’s all an accident... an accident..."

Shen Nianzu felt the strength in which Jin Jiuchi used to grab his hips, silently supporting him from behind and allowing him to stand a little straighter. Otherwise he feared he would have collapsed right there and then—together with Gu Luoxin’s uncle.

Taking a couple of deep breaths from his mouth, he spoke again after making sure that his voice was steady, "I will avenge him."

His voice was low, almost in a whisper. And right after he said that, he turned to take his leave, not caring whether the middle-aged man heard him or not.

Outside the building, he tilted his head back and stared straight into the blazing sun until dark spots danced across his vision and the last moisture in his eyes evaporated for good.

It was a bright summer day, with the sky so clear and unobstructed you could not see a touch of clouds. Didn’t people usually say that if it rained during a funeral, it signified that the deceased person was weeping?

So with weather like this, did it mean that Gu Luoxin was... happy? Was he smiling somewhere above, now that he no longer had to be tormented by the pain and terror caused by the Nightmare Cycle?

Shen Nianzu hoped so. He truly, sincerely hoped that the cheerful and timid Xinxin had found peace now...

"Nian’er..." Jin Jiuchi caught up with him from behind, but he interjected before the man could speak more:

"I’m fine." He took a deep, deep breath until his chest expanded to the limit before releasing it slowly. "I will not cry again. Better save the tears for when we manage to kill the Nightmare." He turned and gave Jin Jiuchi a faint reassuring smile, before glancing at the building behind him. His gaze eventually turned resolute.

"Let’s go, we have our own battle to fight," he told Jin Jiuchi, only to find the man looking around as if searching for something. He paused, "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing, it’s just..." Jin Jiuchi pursed his lips, uncertain. "Noir... I didn’t sense him at all. Did he not come, Nian’er?"

Shen Nianzu fell silent at that.

Compared to the two of them, it was Noir who had actually found Gu Luoxin amidst the ruin of the Garuda territory and stayed with him until his last breath. There was also the appearance of the colossal death scythe that forcibly stopped the Nightmare from descending into the Cycle, nearly eliminating everyone in the process.

Shen Nianzu couldn’t explain why, but somehow he had a strong hunch that the phenomenon was connected to Noir even though all skill cards should have been sealed at that time.

But the man’s skill card was related to his flying ability, wasn’t it? Where, then, did the death scythe come from?

Unless...

Unless it was a joker skill card?

Did Noir have one too—just like Jin Jiuchi?

En, this manner of going berserk, overturning heaven and earth with no regard to any living beings, indeed possessed some similarities to Jin Jiuchi’s skill card. Shen Nianzu nodded to himself. He just didn’t expect a salted fish like Noir to own a joker skill card too, especially when he recalled the passive condition required to activate it.

As expected, Xinxin and Noir, these two people are...

All those thoughts and speculations raced through Shen Nianzu’s mind in mere seconds, but in the end, only a quiet sigh escaped his lips, carrying all the complex emotions swirling in his chest.

"Let’s just go," he said, pulling Jin Jiuchi along. "If he wants to come, he will."

They might have challenged a few Cycles together, but their camaraderie existed solely due to Gu Luoxin acting as a bridge. Noir had even turned down Shen Nianzu’s offer to recruit him into the team, claiming that he preferred to go solo.

And yet, since then, Shen Nianzu often found them entering the same Cycles—whether by sheer coincidence or not.

Even entering the ’House of Evil’, wasn’t it all because he was worried about Xinxin?

And now that Xinxin was gone...

Feels like we’ve gone back to being strangers, Shen Nianzu resisted another sigh. What a pity.

But he quickly shook his head and told himself to focus. Now was not the time to get distracted. Like he had told Jin Jiuchi, they had their own battle to fight.

If they wanted to defeat the Nightmare, first thing first— they had to become Legendary players.