Seven took a deep breath. He was gentle and nice, but nobody would feel good when he came to help with kindness only to end up with six hundred yuan thrown at him.

"Knock-knock-knock."

Seven gently knocked on the door again.

Su Bai didn’t answer that. He went on showering, thinking that the girl was indeed honest; he had already given her the money, but she insisted on sleeping with him; that was professional. Although he couldn’t agree with her decision to prostitute for traveling around, he admired her persistence in business.

If Seven could know what Su Bai was thinking about, he might be so angry that he’d hit Su Bai’s brains out with his Evil Subduing Club[1].

At last, Su Bai was fed up with the knocking. He walked out while drying himself with a towel and opened the door with one hand. When he saw the monk standing outside with the money on the ground, he felt as if he had got a toothache.

How could it be him?

"Come on in, master."

Seven was indeed extremely civilized; he knew it must have been a mistake, and he had no intention of judging Su Bai’s personal life. So he just went inside with no more word.

Su Bai picked up the money on the floor, put them back onto the shoe cabinet, closed the door and got dressed before approaching his bed.

"What’s up, monk?"

"Have you killed any Tibetans today?"

Su Bai’s eyes glimmered, but he just stayed calm and asked: "Why?"

"Every celestial burial site is guarded by a great Lama. Unfortunately, the celestial burial site near where you killed those people is guarded by one of the most respected great Lamas in West Chuan[2]. Now he’s looking for you, and he’s already in Pansong. But I found you first."

Su Bai didn’t care too much about that or get scared, though he was in his enemy’s domain. This was the real world, not a story world. In a story world, sometimes players were restrained in order to make the story go on, but in the real world, one could always run away from trouble if the enemy was too strong.

"So?"

Su Bai asked. This monk must have come to tip Su Bai off for a reason. He wouldn’t believe that the monk was just too merciful to see him die. He could still remember how the little boy died, and he had killed a dozen Tibetans; there was no way this monk could be so merciful that he chose Su Bai’s side.

"I only want to ask you one question: have you heard of the Dreadful Radio?"

Seven kept looking directly into Su Bai’s eyes. Seeing Su Bai’s silence, Seven smiled, took out his cellphone, pulled out a WeChat official account and showed it to Su Bai.

Su Bai checked it out and nodded. He had considered this monk as a master with real skills, but now he could see that most of his capability was from the Dreadful Radio. Of course, if he was already very capable in the real world and had somehow managed to survive all the story worlds. He’d be much more terrible, because people like him would have a higher starting level.

"Turns out we’re from the same place." Su Bai joked. Just then, the kettle sounded as the water boiled. Su Bai poured water into two glasses, handed one of them to the monk and held the other in his hands.

"Do you know about Reality Tasks?" Seven drank up all his water. He must have been thirsty; but it was boiling water, and he could drink it up without a blink. Even if he was showing off, it was impressive enough.

"Reality Task?" Su Bai could remember that Fatty had mentioned it once. Sometimes the Dreadful Radio would issue some tasks to some audiences in the real world, such as handling some supernatural incidents or taking care of something with greater social harm. To Dreadful Radio, the real world was like its backyard: it had to maintain its stability and harmony; at least it should make sure nothing would go beyond control.

"I’m working on a Reality Task, but I need help. If you’re willing to help me out, I can send you an invitation. We can team up, and the award will be distributed according to our contribution ratio. You won’t lose anything."

"But story points are not very attractive to me.. Besides, I’m here for pleasure. I don’t want any trouble."

Story points were indeed not very attractive, but not entirely pointless.

He had checked if he could exchange for any weapon from the e-shop, and he had picked out two pieces: a [Primary Hellfire] and a [Primary Reaper Scythe]. Though they were described as primary, they were impressively powerful, which could be told from their prices at 1000 story points each.

1000 story points... For any audiences with a completeness of five, it would be too much for them to afford; after all, they needed to spend most story points they earned on enhancing their bloods or physiques little by little. But Su Bai was different. He couldn’t enhance himself in the e-shop, so he spent little and was able to save more than 800 story points.

"Actually, there won’t be many story points for Reality Tasks, sometimes even none." Seven said.

"Then what for?" Su Bai looked at Seven and smiled, "Are you working voluntarily?"

"To fulfill Reality Tasks is a way of sharing Dreadful Radio’s burdens, thus making it a good chance to improve your favorability. Then, in the next story, it will be a little easier for you, and you might even get some privilege." Seven pulled down the curtain as he spotted two Lamas searching outside. Then he turned around and continued: "After killing a dozen Tibetans, you must have received a punishment notification."

Su Bai blowed toward the hair hanging over his forehead and nodded.

"This task with me this time will only need a little help from you. It’s not dangerous, and it won’t destroy your trip. I’m going to the Colorful Ponds in Jiuzhaigou Valley as well, then the Mountain Xuebaoding in Huang Long area. Unless something unexpected happens, I’m going the same way as you guys are. Besides, I’m not in a hurry; I’ve just left my last story world and will be able to stay in the real world for quite some time."

Su Bai thought it over. Story points were not attractive, but a chance to improve his favorability and reduce his difficulty in the next story.. That was something. He stopped hesitating and asked:

"How can I get in?"

The monk pointed a few times on his cellphone screen. Then Su Bai got a WeChat message from the official account "Kongbu66":

"Seven requests to team up with you to fulfill a Reality Task."

Su Bai replied with "Accepted".

Then the task came into Su Bai’s mind. It wasn’t very difficult; first of all, they should go to an inland city and control a family which had been infected and become ghosts, then take them to West Chuan and solve the problem. Seven had accomplished half of the task already.

"The family of three in your van, are they the infected people in the task?" Su Bai asked.

Seven nodded, "Correct. I was taking them to the celestial burial site to dissolve their hatred and evil with a celestial burial, but nowadays, those sacred hawks are not as powerful as they used to be and they dare not eat their bodies. I have no choice but to bring them to the Sacred Urn on the peak of Mountain Xuebaoding[3]."

"Why not just send them to a crematory?" Su Bai asked.

"For now, their bodies are kind of constraint of their souls. If their deeper selves are not destroyed while their bodies are damaged, it will be like throwing a bomb into fire. In the old days, celestial burials were only accessible to devoted believers with great virtue, and high prestige could be honored. But nowadays, money worship has changed it all, and mostly the rich people can get honored by celestial burials. The sacred hawks have been feeding on these for ages, and as a result, they have degraded and can no longer dissolve hatred."

"Fine. What do you want me to do?" Su Bai lit a cigarette and turned on the TV.

"First of all, come with me. I’ve got an instrument in my car that can hide your trace and protect you from ordinary pursuit. If the Tibetan monks find you here, we will be in trouble."

"Oh, a gift?"

"I’m lending it to you, not offering it as a gift. Though it’s merely a primary instrument, it’s mine, not some tool in the e-shop."

"Fine, if you say so." Su Bai didn’t mind. He’d get the instrument and talk later.

Taking out the key card, Su Bai went out with Seven. He was not worried whether this monk would set up a trap for him. Their teaming-up was achieved with the Dreadful Radio as the middleman, so the two of them must stick to the main plot just like in story worlds. If Seven led him into a trap, the monk would definitely be punished by the Dreadful Radio.

They walked towards the elevator. When they passed by one of the rooms, they could clearly hear the breathe and excited moans of a girl. Local hotels in Pansong were not good, especially in soundproofing. Su Bai could tell that it was the college girl who came to his room before. No wonder it took her so long to fetch a condom; she was caught up in another "business" and must be planning to put him off until this new guest had finished, since Su Bai had already made a deal with her.

"You know her?" Seven suddenly asked.

Su Bai checked the room number. It should be Sun Lin’s room. Li Yu had ordered five rooms in a row. It was not a crowded hotel and there were only five rooms occupied for now, respectively belonging to Su Bai himself, Li Yu with Lan, Liu Gang with Grace, Nikki by herself and Sun Lin by himself. Nikki couldn’t be with the girl, nor could the couples, so it must be Sun Lin’s room. Maybe Sun Lin felt lonely after he failed in wooing Nikki, so he hooked up with this girl lacking in money.

"Let’s go."

Su Bai and Seven went into the elevator. The Lamas outside had already left. Apparently, they saw Seven’s van parked outside and left this hotel for Seven to inspect.

They came to the van. Seven picked up a yellow bag from the driver’s cab, took out a jade pendant of poor quality and handed it over to Su Bai.

While Su Bai was examining it, Seven suddenly pulled the door open as if he had found something.

Su Bai looked into the van as the door opened, and then his eyes widened. There used to be a family of three in the van. Right now there were still three people, two adults— one male and one female— and a child; but the man was definitely not the dead husband, but someone Su Bai knew because he had been in Su Bai’s car for the entire day.

It was Sun Lin!

The look on Su Bai’s face turned strange. If Sun Lin was somehow in this van, then..the man in Sun Lin’s room having sex with that college girl traveling on a tight budget..

Who was he?

——————————————

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Evil Subduing Club: An Evil Subduing Club, also know as Monster Subduing Club or Phurba Club/Pestle, is a kind of Buddhist instrument. On one end it looks like a pestle, on the other end it is pointy with three edges; in the middle there are three Buddha’s heads forming its handgrip, one is smiling, another is angry, and the last one is cursing. In Esoteric Buddhism, it is considered to have strong power and can be used to subdue evil.

[2] West Chuan: An ancient area since Tang Dynasty, referring to the middle and western parts of Sichuan Province nowadays.

[3] Mountain Xuebaoding: The highest peak in Mountain Minshan, one of the seven sacred mountains of Bonismo(a branch of Buddhism) in Tibetan areas.