Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
“Amitabha”
A Buddhist chant calmed everyone’s restless hearts.
Despite wearing a completely different style of clothing, at this moment, Tang Luo still had the look of a respected monk.
Tang Luo spoke. “Don’t worry, Benefactors. The way I see it, we’re at an advantage.”
“Advantage?”
“Yes.” Tang Luo nodded. “Whether or not Benefactor Chu’s analysis is correct, there’s one thing we can be sure about. We’ve always been Jack the Ripper’s targets. So, we don’t actually have to bother to find him. We just need to rest, stay put, and wait for the Ripper to come to us. When he appears, I will find a suitable opportunity to beat him up, then the mission can be completed.”
It sounded very reasonable, and it was impossible to refute it.
Chu Chongtian’s eyes widened. The Ripper could turn into a ghost, murder, steal corpses, and freeze bodies with dark and evil powers. He was creepy and dangerous.
But now that he thought back about it, Jack the Ripper had always been moving in the shadows, like a viper lurking in the dark.
Did that mean that Jack the Ripper wasn’t as strong as they had imagined?
At least, not stronger than Master Xuanzang!
What had happened across the three nights had one thing in common—they were not around Master Xuanzang!
Tonight, Jack the Ripper had really come face to face with Master Xuanzang in the body of Old John.
The result?
Master Xuanzang cut him in two, and he ran away.
What did that mean?
It meant that Master Xuanzang was the real boss!
Jack the Ripper was just an old man hiding in the shadows, unable to come out into the light. In case he came out, Master Xuanzang would break his head any minute!
Chu Chongtian came to a sudden realization.
In The Game of Gods And Demons, in the mission world, everyone instinctively saw themselves as players who were supposed to use their ingenuity and abilities to overthrow the BOSS.
Naturally, they imagined Jack the Ripper to be irresistibly strong.
Of course, this was also true. Jack the Ripper, whose mere evil presence made them unable to move, was irresistible.
He was indeed a BOSS.
But now that out of the group of players, an even stronger bald BOSS emerged, the original BOSS became a tragic character. He was directly downgraded to the level of a monster that could only hide in the corners and secretly make trouble.
Chu Chongtian felt confident about the mission and that he could chill now due to their powerful teammate.
‘By the way, why can’t people enter The Game of Gods And Demons in teams?’
In the future, when he would no longer have such a powerful teammate, Chu Chongtian felt he would die!
“If he doesn’t come to find trouble with us anymore, then the mission will be a failure,” said Zhou Zhenguo.
It was right to wait for the opponent to attack them, but what if Jack the Ripper didn’t appear?
“It’s the first time anyway, what are you afraid of?” Li Liang, the slacker, had the right mindset for a slacker as well. He even thought in the dark direction.
If everyone failed the mission together, he wouldn’t be the only one to suffer. He felt a huge sense of satisfaction.
Zhou Zhenguo didn’t speak. The others were doing this for the first time, but he, Zhou Zhenguo, had failed several missions. If he still had no achievements this time, and the mission, it was likely that he would disappear, which was almost equivalent to obliteration.
Everyone called it “go missing” or “disappear” because of the little hope in their hearts. Yet everyone understood that the possibility that such disappearance was not certain death was far too small.
“Let’s rest first.” Tang Luo said, “We’ll make plans tomorrow.”
The excitement subsided, and the tiredness came like waves of the tide. Their eyelids suddenly felt as heavy as lead balls were hanging on them.
They passed the night with no more discussions.
The next morning…
“Little Zhou has also gone missing. Is Jack the Ripper this interested in our bodies?” Chu Chongtian said self-mockingly, “Can we, Employees of Gods and Demons, be the meat of Tang Seng1 to the indigenous people?”
“Eating the meat of Tang Seng would break your teeth,” said Tang Luo.
Little Zhou, who was almost an empty shell, was undoubtedly a perfect object for possession for Jack the Ripper.
Thus, Zhou Zhenguo had placed him in another room separately to prevent anyone from getting too close to him and get caught off guard.
One night had passed, and Little Zhou had disappeared just like that, while Old John’s corpse was still there. To prevent unnecessary troubles, Zhou Zhenguo and the others dealt with it.
In the morning, the owner of this hotel returned.
Chu Chongtian asked around and heard that the owner had gone back to rest very early the previous night. He wasn’t even sure why himself and felt like he had slept all the way till dawn. He didn’t remember much.
Most likely, the Ripper had possessed and manipulated him into going to sleep in order to make space for him to kill the Employees of Gods and Demons. As to why he didn’t directly possess the owner to commit the murder, they were uncertain.
They could only speculate that there were limits to his possession ability. Maybe, he could not possess others any way he wanted, or that Old John was easier to use, and many other speculations.
After realizing that only Master Xuanzang could save him, Li Liang no longer lay on the bed like a salted fish1.
He followed close behind Tang Luo.
In any case, he was a likely target of the possession of Jack the Ripper, if he still wanted to make moves.
Undoubtedly, Li Liang was one of those in the greatest danger.
“Actually, you don’t have to follow him so closely.” Chu Chongtian felt threatened.
“If I don’t, what if the Ripper finds an opportunity?” retorted Li Liang. Only oneself would really care for oneself.
Chu Chongtian patted Li Liang on the shoulder, and said sincerely, “In case, I mean just in case.”
“In case? In case of what?”
“In case you are possessed, if you are far enough away, there may be hope for life,” said Chu Chongtian. “But if you happen to be right beside Master, then it’s game over for you.”
“Then Master can save me at once!” said Li Liang, completely forgetting the words he used to educate Little Zhou.
“No, I think, taking into consideration Master Xuanzang’s actions, he would break your head instantly,” said Chu Chongtian.
“Is he not a monk?” asked Li Liang.
Monks were supposed to be kind and merciful, no?
“You don’t know Master Xuanzang,” said Chu Chongtian. “Monks also worship the Acala1.”
Li Liang swallowed, remembering the fear of being manipulated by Tang Luo with a candlestick the other night.
Suddenly, his footsteps slowed, pulling away from Tang Luo.
“Hmph!” Chu Chongtian snorted with pride internally.
Zhou Zhenguo gave Chu Chongtian a strange look. ‘The young man fell so fast.’
Then he looked at Tang Luo and asked, “Master, is it okay to just kill like this?”
Though they agreed to stay put and wait for Jack the Ripper to come to them, they wouldn’t really do nothing. Especially when they currently had pretty much no clue about Jack the Ripper.
It was arguably not a bad option to start a sub-mission.
Presently, the target of Tang Luo’s group was one of the organization’s members. It was time to lead everyone into punishing the evil!
…
For three days in a row, Tang Luo had been leading the others and easily dealt with the organization’s remnants.
He had gained a significant amount of merits, while Zhou Zhenguo and Chu Chongtian had obtained various weapons. The most common were revolvers and bullets. There were two stick swords, practically swords hidden in the shaft of the cane, brass knuckles, kukri knives, as well as a small number of explosives.
Finally, Zhou Zhenguo had been able to showcase the remarkable battle prowess of a veteran. In addition to his Imprisoning Chain, he had another skill—Powerful Single Strike.
He could focus his strength and make a strong, powerful single strike. There were many possible ways to release the power. For example, banging with his head, hitting with his fists or palms, kicking, or even biting. It could also be used on other objects when hurling them.
The usage was also very simple, it could basically be used at will. It could be counted as one of the more typical combat skills.
Simply put, it was a momentary burst of power.
Zhou Zhenguo used Powerful Single Strike to unleash energy comparable to guns in this world with a small stone.
He had successfully dealt with a dangerous enemy, but after using it, Zhou Zhenguo had also fallen into a state of weakness.
Zhou Zhenguo didn’t hide anything from Tang Luo. Currently, his Powerful Single Strike had a cooldown time of two hours. After usage, he would fall into a state of weakness for 30 minutes. Zhou Zhenguo would feel like he had run for several kilometers under the state of weakness, and even continuing to walk took willpower.
It was like an ultimate trump card. It wouldn’t be used unless as a last resort.
This disappointed Chu Chongtian somewhat. He didn’t expect the cooldown time for skills to be so long.
It was alright for the chain, but his Powerful Single Strike, a typical combat skill actually had a cooldown time of so long as 2 hours.
It was impossible to use it frequently in combat. Daily battles still depended on ordinary fighting.
Keep using skills?
There was no such thing.
Of course, it did not mean that all skills had such a long cooldown time.
At first, it would indeed be quite long, but as one’s mastering of the skill and the level of the skill improved, it became different. It was not impossible to routinely use some skills.
But for the current them, that was too far a goal. Even Zhou Zhenguo was just getting started.
In the evening…
Outside a vast manor, the four stood in the shadows beside the road.
“The biggest sponsor of the organization, Earl Leo Thorndike,” said Tang Luo. “The security is very tight, huh?”
In these three days, the remaining members of the organization would definitely have responded. Not to mention that Tang Luo’s group also worked as scavengers, cleaning up the remnants of the organization.
There was no way this Earl Thorndike wouldn’t respond.
Presently, his manor was tightly protected with bodyguards and hounds.
Interestingly, he had a dinner party tonight. He might have used this as an excuse to regather the remaining forces of the organization in order to deal with the new dangerous enemy by starting with a new round of research.
This dinner party arguably included all the famous people of the small city. Its publicly announced purpose was to work together to tackle the problem of deteriorating security in the small city.
In these days, aside from the cases created by Tang Luo’s group, there was also Jack the Ripper, who had begun a mad killing frenzy.
In just three days, the number of victims had reached nine.
Every morning, there would be three more ripped-up corpses in an unknown alley, or even in a house.
Terror spread, and it was impossible to suppress it. It hovered over the whole city like a black cloud.
Nobody could stay out of it.