Zhang Long's sudden stunt genuinely caught Lin Mo off guard.
He thought, 'What's he up to this time?'
'Pretending to be weak?'
'Faking surrender so I'll lower my guard before striking?'
Lin Mo decided, 'Let's see what he's really after first.'
So instead of exposing Zhang Long, he simply went along with it.
"Fine. Go ahead."
Zhang Long didn't waste any time.
He got straight to the point.
"My name is Zhang Long. Brother Jun and I met in prison. His real name is Chen Jun."
"Neither of us had finished our sentences when someone got us out. Later we found out that the person who pulled us out was the Boss."
"I don't know the Boss's real name, and he's never met us in person. We've only ever communicated through encrypted calls. Brother Jun and I have been doing dirty work for him ever since. Everything we did against you in Divine Oracle was under his orders."
Lin Mo grew impatient, "You don't know his name, and you don't know what he looks like. So after all that talking, you've basically said nothing."
Just as Lin Mo turned to leave, Zhang Long panicked, "Wait! Brother!"
"Brother Jun and I had no choice! The Boss has Brother Jun's seven-year-old daughter, Chen Tingting. He threatened her life to force Brother Jun to work for him. And Brother Jun once saved my life in prison from the prison boss, so I just followed him into this mess."
"And Nether too! The Boss is good at threatening people into working for him. There has to be something he has on Nether too. That's the only reason Nether would target you."
Just as Lin Mo had expected.
Ever since confirming that Nether wasn't the "Boss," he had already suspected this.
Looking at it now, sparing Nether in the Divine Tomb had been the right choice.
What he needed wasn't to cripple Nether.
He needed to save him, the man who, in his previous life, had been the second-ranked player on the Dragon Nation server of Divine Oracle, and Ning Xi's strongest subordinate.
And if he wanted to save Nether... it seemed he'd have to start with the "Boss."
At that moment, Zhang Long continued, "The Boss kept reminding us not to touch you in the real world. He told us to cripple you inside Divine Oracle."
"But Brother Jun and I kept failing, and after you killed Brother Jun back to Level 0 and completely ruined him... maybe the Boss thought we were no longer useful. Last night, he sent people... to kill Brother Jun and his daughter Tingting."
Ning Xi asked, "Do you mean in Divine Oracle, or..."
Grinding his teeth, Zhang Long replied, "In the woods outside Luoyang."
Ning Xi's eyes filled with shock, "How could something like that happen in a society governed by law?"
Lin Mo wasn't surprised.
Back in his second life, the Tyrant had tracked him and Ning Xi down in the real world and killed them.
He had already witnessed the Boss's methods firsthand.
Of course, in Ning Xi's current timeline, she'd only experienced the Tyrant coming to cause trouble in the real world. She hadn't gone through what happened afterward, when the Tyrant killed her. She couldn't truly understand the way Lin Mo, who had been reborn with his memories, did.
Ning Xi asked suspiciously, "If that's true, why didn't you call the police?"
Zhang Long shook his head, "The Boss has enormous influence. He controls both the underworld and the authorities. Calling the police is useless."
Then he finally got to the important part, "The person who killed Brother Jun in the woods last night was a woman. I heard her call the Boss... 'Godfather.'"
Zhang Long continued to Lin Mo, "If nothing unexpected happens, she'll probably join forces with Nether and keep trying to deal with you."
"Rulebound, everything I've said is true! If I've lied even once, may I die a horrible death!"
"If Brother Jun hadn't saved me, I'd have died in prison long ago! Everything he did to you... he had no choice! Tingting was his only daughter!"
"Rulebound, I came here because I want to work with you!"
"I want revenge for Brother Jun! If you're willing, I can stay undercover beside the Boss and gather information for you!"
Lin Mo nodded casually, "Sure. Let's work together."
Hope immediately appeared on Zhang Long's face.
"Alright!"
After Zhang Long left, Ning Xi asked doubtfully, "Brother Lin Mo, do you think Zhang Long can be trusted?"
Of course Lin Mo wasn't about to believe Zhang Long's side of the story so easily.
But there was one thing that he couldn't help questioning.
'Zhang Long said the Boss specifically told him and Chen Jun not to attack me in the real world and insisted they cripple me inside Divine Oracle. Why?'
'If it was to let Nether steal my talent, that doesn't make sense. Nether hadn't even appeared back then. The Boss probably hadn't recruited him yet. He only found Nether after Chen Jun and Zhang Long couldn't deal with me.'
'Without Nether, even if Chen Jun and Zhang Long killed me in Divine Oracle, they couldn't take my talent. So what was the point?'
'Unless... he knew the secret of the Mark of Destiny in my possession, which is why he stopped them from touching me in reality?'
The more Lin Mo thought about it, the more unsettling it became.
The reason he'd made that connection was because the Boss had actually awakened the second potential of Nether's SSS hidden class, the Judge.
Back in his previous life, Ning Xi had spent years searching for a way to unlock Nether's second class potential, yet never found one.
A thought slowly formed in Lin Mo's mind, 'I possess Destiny, which lets me defy fate through rebirth after death.'
'Ning Xi possesses Miracle, which allows her to create miracles and turn impossible situations around.'
'Unless... this Boss also possesses a similar power...'
'The ability to see the future?'
'If my guess is correct, then everything makes perfect sense.'
The "Boss" had foreseen Lin Mo's future and knew he possessed the power of rebirth, so he never dared attack him in the real world.
He had also foreseen Nether's future, allowing him to learn how to awaken the second potential of his class.
Lin Mo became even more curious about the Boss's true identity.
There was something else as well.
Zhang Long had said that the woman who killed Chen Jun called the Boss "Godfather."
Everyone else called him "Boss."
Only she called him "Godfather."
That clearly meant her relationship with the Boss was anything but ordinary.
'Maybe even Nether doesn't know who the Boss really is.'
'But the woman who killed Chen Jun definitely does.'
'Then... I'll start with her.'
No matter what, Lin Mo was determined to drag this "Boss" out into the open.
After all this, he was even more determined to obtain the SSS hidden class advancement certificate from the Yama Hall and push his strength in Divine Oracle to the limit.
Because then, in the real world, he had the Mark of Destiny and could be reborn after death.
Inside Divine Oracle, he had an SSS talent, an SSS hidden class, and an SSS Empress wife by his side.
He was practically ivincible.
Even if the Boss really possessed the divine power to see the future... how many futures could he possibly foresee?
What could he possibly use to compete against Lin Mo?
And how could he ever kill him?
With that, Lin Mo and Ning Xi set off once again to hunt Bosses.
They spent the entire morning killing more than fifty Bosses of all sizes.
As more and more Bosses were repeatedly farmed, third-hand, fourth-hand, and fifth-hand loot became worse and worse, and worth less and less.
Even after killing so many Bosses, with Ning Xi's SSS talent Supreme Sovereign providing a hundredfold Reputation bonus, she only gained a little over a hundred thousand Reputation.
Fortunately, combined with the 110,000 Reputation generated by the Divine Might Tower that morning, Ning Xi's Reputation had now reached 3.4 million.
Finally, it exceeded the requirement for obtaining the SSS hidden class advancement certificate from the Tenth Hall of the Yama Hall with the tenfold reward multiplier.
Without wasting a second, Lin Mo and Ning Xi immediately headed for the Yama Hall.
Because, the eighth SSS hidden class player in the world of Divine Oracle... was about to be born in Dragon Nation.
[T/N: Consider joining P@treon to keep the stories going. Enjoy~]