'Interesting. If I'm not mistaken, the appearance of the Kingdom's rebels might stem from this very manuscript!'
'And to venture a bold guess, the rebel leader is probably this guy who likes to write whatever he pleases.'
Ever since Gutaf ascended the throne, all of the Lanyu Kingdom's previous ceremonial systems had been completely overhauled.
Not only the national emblem and flag, but even the banknotes were now adorned with Gutaf's portrait.
The only ones who dared to brazenly use the symbols of the "former regime" were those rebels.
Although the manuscript didn't record the "final investigation results," the rebels who appeared in the Kingdom afterward said it all.
He'd even found the root cause of the Lanyu Kingdom's ban on virtual games.
'Strange. Weren't the rebels supposed to have been completely wiped out?'
'Have they resurfaced?'
The reappearance of this manuscript forced Chen Qi to consider the implications.
However, after a moment of thought, Chen Qi completely dismissed this possibility.
In any other country, such a resurgence wouldn't be out of the question.
But this was the Lanyu Kingdom. The King's Game had been running for forty years, even permeating the very way people thought.
'An ideology like "rebellion" could never possibly resurface.'
Chen Qi was absolutely certain the disappearance of the "rebels" was the handiwork of the King's Game.
And this must have been a very important milestone in the King's Game's operation.
It marked the moment the King's Game completely overwrote the perceptions of everyone in the Lanyu Kingdom.
'Heh. Since it's not the rebels making a comeback...'
'...then the appearance of this manuscript becomes all the more intriguing!'
Chen Qi refused to believe that his was the only copy of the manuscript on the Dark Web World.
Someone was definitely spreading it intentionally!
Although he didn't know who, Chen Qi believed this person was definitely a Player.
Only they could unearth secrets that had been buried in the annals of history.
'What on earth is this person trying to do? Are they just stirring up trouble for kicks?'
The motives of the person behind the scenes were certainly worth pondering.
They certainly weren't trying to spread this inside information to ordinary people, nor would it even be possible.
That meant their target could only be other Players.
For Players, the most important piece of information in this manuscript was one thing: the Bloody Coup.
If the Xiaowang Card had always been held by the Prime Minister, then... Chen Qi couldn't help but form a bold hypothesis.
'Could it be that the ones who followed Morici—the holder of the Xiaowang Card for the first and second rounds—in launching the coup were all first-generation Players?'
'And what exactly caused this upheaval?'
Chen Qi's intuition told him that if he could figure that out, he would uncover the secret Gutaf was hiding.
Unfortunately, so much time had passed that even if there had been any clues, they would have long since been exhausted by other Players.
'It sucks being a newbie Player!'
······
The journey was silent. The convoy sped along, the scenery blurring past the windows.
About an hour later, Chen Qi and his team arrived at their destination.
Saran City. It was a mid-sized city with a population rivaling that of Talin City, at around 2.5 million people.
Of those, about 300,000 were civilians living in the slums.
The Dog of Death had been spotted by a homeless man three nights ago.
In fact, sightings of the Dog of Death had been occurring occasionally over the past few years, and they were even becoming increasingly frequent.
Clearly, the dog had grown bolder and no longer feared humans.
As a result, however, everyone had grown accustomed to it. Only the tabloids would bother to write a few lines about it when they were short on material.
If Taruno hadn't been expanding his intelligence network recently, this latest sighting of the Dog of Death would never have been noticed at all.
"Boss, according to our research, that dog only appears at night."
"And it's smart. It knows the weapons in the wealthy districts can harm it, so it sticks to the slums!"
"Of course, that's also related to the large number of people who die in the slums every day."
"Our primary search area this time will be Saran City's West District, because the local gangs there are at war."
Leiteri held up a detailed map of Saran City and explained their plan of action to Chen Qi.
Chen Qi preferred to trust the professionals, so he gave them free rein.
The journey hadn't been long, but he still felt a bit weary.
Chen Qi went to the city's most luxurious hotel and had a good, long sleep.
As for everything else, he naturally had subordinates to handle it.
······
「January 13, 10:30 PM」
Winter had already set in, and the cold wind had grown more merciless.
It swept through the West District of Saran City, picking up the stain of blood and growing colder and more ruthless for it.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Kill him! Cut him down!"
In the West District of Saran City, the two largest gangs in the slums were in a bloody brawl.
As one side fell, a frantic chase and a desperate rout ensued.
And so, the entire West District became even more chaotic.
Every now and then, some poor bastard would panic, run down the wrong alley into a dead end, and be promptly hacked to death by his pursuers.
At a time like this, no one was concerned with disposing of the bodies.
After all, by morning, everything would be gone.
As the local overlords of the slums, the major gangs were well aware of the Dog of Death's existence.
But its existence actually helped them clean up a lot of the messy aftermath.
So they all had a tacit understanding: no one was to disturb the Dog of Death.
TAP, TAP, TAP.
In the cold darkness, a black dog the size of a calf appeared languidly before its "food."
The "food" seemed to still have one last breath left. The Dog of Death, with a strange professional courtesy, waited to the side in silent vigil.
Finally, the "food" was ready.
The Dog of Death's ears twitched vigilantly. It scanned its surroundings and, finding nothing amiss, began its meal.
"Tsk, tsk. This black dog seems fatter and more robust than before."
From 500 meters up, a maglev drone meticulously filmed the large black dog on the ground.
Chen Qi sat in a car a kilometer away, watching with curiosity how the Dog of Death would eat.
He had expected the creature to tear the corpse to shreds and wolf it down.
Reality, however, proved him dead wrong.
The large black dog's feeding method was filled with a sense of ritual.
First, the dog opened its massive jaws and took a hard bite out of the corpse.
Then it prostrated itself before the body in what looked like a "pious act of worship."
Chen Qi was completely baffled. Taruno and his five men were also stunned speechless.
'Has this thing become sentient?'
In foreign myths, there was no shortage of stories about animals suddenly gaining wisdom and learning to speak.
But after humanity entered its new era, all such tales were proven to be mere rumors.
Yet tonight, the group was witnessing just such a mythical scene.
"Why isn't it eating?"
The dog remained motionless, "worshipping" for a full three minutes, to the point that the watchers began to suspect their video feed had frozen.
But in the next second, something strange happened.
The corpse on the ground—thoroughly dead and cold—suddenly twitched.
Thankfully, it was just that single movement. Otherwise, Chen Qi might have thought the corpse was reanimating.
"No, wait. The body is melting... no, is it spontaneously combusting?"
Wisps of black smoke began to pour from the corpse's mouth, coalescing in the air, unscattered by the wind.
The dog, still prostrate on the ground, finally moved. It began to inhale the smoke in deep gulps.
Chen Qi, Taruno, and the others were all completely stunned by the scene.
Five minutes later, only a black scorch mark remained on the ground. The corpse had vanished without a trace.
Having finished its fine meal, the dog set off for its next feast.