Chapter 113

Chapter 113

“Are we there yet? This place is so remote and far away!” A voice complained impatiently from the passenger seat of the black SUV speeding along the winding mountain road.

The young man driving responded coldly, shutting down the complaint. “If you don’t want to go, you can get out now.”

The driver wore a simple white crew-neck t-shirt and jeans, with a dark gray hoodie over top. His short, sharp hair stood up distinctly like the quills of an agitated hedgehog. His thick black eyebrows gave him a somewhat defiant look, and his eyes were exceptionally bright and spirited, giving the first impression that he was not someone to be trifled with.

The complainer quickly shrank back, but still grumbled. “I was just saying, Shi Cheng. Why are you taking it so seriously? Besides, I’m just worried we’re all being tricked...”

As he continued, he grew more self-righteous. “The place they gave is so remote and far that even GPS can’t find it. We’ve already spent three days just traveling here. Who knows if that person was just making things up to deceive us? Maybe their plan was to delay us for a few days and then run off with our money. The reward we offered wasn’t cheap... I invested half a year’s allowance in this!”

The speaker appeared to be in his mid-twenties, wearing a black coat with a two-finger wide platinum necklace. On his left wrist was a silver watch, and on his right a pure gold bracelet. Three of his ten fingers wore rings. From head to toe, he exuded an aura of someone who grew up swimming in money.

“You’re overthinking it, Xue Hao. Our transaction was on the Extraordinary Forum’s trading board, and we specifically requested official notarization from the forum,” Ji Nian spoke up from the back seat, coming to the rescue. “Although we’re all anonymous on the forum, it’s widely accepted that the people behind the Extraordinary Forum know our true identities. Everyone can guess that powerful extraordinaries are behind the forum. Surely no one would be foolish enough to try to scam us with false information when the forum officials are involved?”

Ji Heng immediately agreed with his sister. “Exactly! Scamming us for money is a minor issue, but affecting the credibility of the Extraordinary Forum is a major problem. The forum would definitely investigate.”

Thinking of the forum points they had to give up to request official notarization, Ji Heng couldn’t help but grimace, looking pained.

Those forum points were painstakingly accumulated bit by bit through daily sign-ins, active participation, and completing various tasks on the forum!

The Extraordinary Forum posted all kinds of bizarre tasks. Besides users being able to post and accept tasks for points among themselves, the forum officials also regularly updated the task board. However, the specific details of a task were only known to those who accepted it.

Sometimes they were simple errands, like mailing a package or finding a stranger at a certain time and place to pass on a message or item. More difficult tasks included short-term protection of a target or rescuing someone from a specific location. As for even more challenging tasks, they weren’t clear on those yet – their current forum levels weren’t high enough to access them.

Of all the tasks they had done so far, the most memorable was probably the errand Xue Hao took out of curiosity while traveling out of town half a month ago.

After arriving in that city, he followed the task instructions to find a box hidden inconspicuously at the base of a wall – he guessed that burying the box there was probably another person’s task, and tracing it back, there might be even more people’s tasks linked together. Then, according to the real-time updated task details provided by the forum, he accurately arrived at a certain cafe and “accidentally” left a photo from the box on a table where he had coffee.

Since it was his first time doing this kind of errand, Xue Hao didn’t leave the cafe right away but curiously observed for a while outside. In less than a minute, he saw the photo being collected by a waiter, whose expression clearly changed upon seeing it.

Xue Hao was very puzzled at the time. There were no people or special markers in the photo – it just looked like a landscape shot of the wilderness.

But three days later, he learned from the news about that waiter’s death. The person had died in a river in the suburbs, with the cause of death ruled as an accidental drowning. The scenery around the river in the newspaper was identical to that in the landscape photo.

Xue Hao: !!

If he had been an uninformed observer, he would have thought it was just an ordinary accident. After all, even the news only gave it a brief mention.

But to deliver the photo one moment and have the person die in the river from that photo the next was too much of a coincidence. Others might think the deceased liked the scenery in the area and went for a walk after work, finding an old landscape photo on them without suspicion. But knowing the truth, Xue Hao was already starting to tremble.

...He felt like the police might come to arrest him at any moment.

It was another accidental drowning incident, occurring in the same suburban river. The incident happened ten years ago when two children who went out together – one accidentally drowned, while the other survived. The waiter was the child who had survived.

After the incident, the family of the deceased child wasn’t satisfied and always believed that the child’s death wasn’t an accident, but murder.

They learned from their son’s friend that the two children who went out together weren’t good friends, but rather had resentment between them. Their son had been bullied for a long time, and this time he was likely called out to be threatened for money... The police also found traces of beating on the deceased child’s body...

Many details and clues pointed to the two not reaching an agreement, resulting in the latter impulsively pushing the victim into the water, but there wasn’t enough evidence. The accused person admitted to bullying and beating the deceased but denied any involvement in the accidental drowning. Ten years later, this person’s death gave the investigation team ample reason to thoroughly investigate him, and they finally discovered the truth hidden for years in his concealed diary.

The drowning incident from back then indeed wasn’t an accident.

Although the Extraordinary Forum had somehow learned the truth about that incident beforehand and executed their own form of judgment.

After learning the truth, Xue Hao finally let go of his worries. He didn’t have the idea that the culprit must be brought to justice by law, as long as no innocent person was harmed. At the same time, he felt an incredible sense of wonder.

During this period, whether it was the revival of spiritual energy, the widespread dissemination of martial arts cultivation methods, or himself accepting tasks from a mysterious organization and becoming part of “carrying out heaven’s will”... all of this was so incredible, it felt like a plot happening in a novel.

“There must be many people who have secretly joined the organization behind the Extraordinary Forum, becoming their true members...” After understanding everything, Xue Hao had a sudden realization.

...Especially those who have participated in tasks, perhaps they would come to enjoy this feeling of executing justice in their own way and redeeming others? Even Xue Hao felt a small sense of accomplishment.

Since users were selected to take on tasks through unknown special methods, those chosen wouldn’t be people who disliked this idea of “carrying out heaven’s will”. The process of completing tasks further screened based on one’s personality and abilities. Moreover, it could subtly increase the goodwill of like-minded individuals towards the organization behind the Extraordinary Forum... Whether this last point was intentional or not remained unknown.

This quiet recruitment of like-minded individuals...

“The entity behind the Extraordinary Forum is truly impressive!” Xue Hao couldn’t help but exclaim as he recalled the past events.

“Of course!” Shi Cheng, who had been driving all along, responded without hesitation, saying matter-of-factly, “With such powerful extraordinaries backing the forum, what are you worried about?”

No, that’s not what I meant... Xue Hao was about to retort, but Shi Cheng had already stepped on the brake and pulled out the car key.

He gestured for the others to look out the window. “We’re here.”

Nestled among the green mountains and trees stood a quiet mountain villa.

“This is the residence of the collector who supposedly has many ancient artifacts, as mentioned by that person on the forum.”

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