"The total is five hundred and fifty-two yuan. Thank you for your patronage!"

Accompanied by the "beep" of the scanner, Fu Luo grimaced as he looked at Lin Yu.

"To be honest, when I first saw you bring me to this street food stall, I thought you were trying to save me some money."

"You look pretty slim, how can you eat so much?"

Lin Yu shrugged. "Born that way."

"Really?"

"Of course I'm joking. It's related to my [items]."

Fu Luo helplessly rubbed his forehead. "Then I won't pry any further..."

It was already evening. Looking at Fu Luo, who had been forced to come to Jiangcheng without even a change of clothes, Lin Yu took the initiative to ask.

"You don't have a place to stay yet, right? Want to crash at my place?"

Fu Luo looked at Lin Yu with some surprise. "This... isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

"What's inappropriate about it?" Lin Yu said matter-of-factly. "Even though we haven't known each other long... I feel I can trust you."

Lin Yu patted Fu Luo's shoulder.

Fu Luo nodded, speaking a bit awkwardly. "That's true, buddy, but that's a bit sappy."

"Anyway, I'll graciously accept your offer..."

Lin Yu nodded, and the two started walking towards Lin Yu's home.

This street food stall was chosen by Lin Yu, so it wasn't far from his place.

The two walked slowly one after the other along the sidewalk under the streetlights.

Just after entering the residential complex, without stopping his steps, Lin Yu suddenly spoke to the other.

"Fu Luo, as I just said, because we're friends, I want to be honest with you about something."

Lin Yu said softly. Fu Luo was somewhat surprised. "Huh? What is it?"

"I must apologize to you. When I first met you, I lied to you," Lin Yu said. "I'm not a medical student, I'm studying performance... My [Class] isn't [Doctor] either. I'm just like that [Fish], with a method to use [Doctor] abilities."

"I hope you can understand... At that time, I just didn't want my 'special traits' exposed and attract targeting."

Lin Yu spoke earnestly, as if sincerely apologizing.

And Lin Yu, of course, was well aware that Fu Luo most likely already knew this information—he had been investigating him.

Lin Yu had been gradually mixing and stitching together the false identity of [May May] with his real identity, so tracing from [May May] to "Lin Yu" wasn't difficult.

Lin Yu had a purpose for choosing this moment to "confess."

Tonight's rescue of Fu Luo from Fish's hands, and specifically putting on that show of "battling [Heavenly Artisan]," were all to further draw Fu Luo closer.

To turn from partners and friends into life-and-death comrades.

Then, through his own "honesty," get Fu Luo to voluntarily say the answer Lin Yu wanted to hear.

Sure enough, hearing Lin Yu's words, Fu Luo, who already completely trusted Lin Yu and was originally feeling somewhat guilty, spoke impulsively.

"Ahem, actually I need to confess too... I've also been investigating you. Sorry, Old Lin, I already found some of your information a while ago! I'm really sorry, but I absolutely didn't mean any harm!"

Hearing Fu Luo bring up this topic he wanted to hear, Lin Yu immediately feigned shock.

"What? You investigated me... why?"

"And... how could you possibly investigate and find out my name?" Lin Yu pretended not to understand as he asked. "I have a 'skilled friend' helping me conceal my identity."

This was Lin Yu's true goal.

He wanted to know... what Shen Bingmiao had Fu Luo do.

Although it was just suspicion at first, Lin Yu was now quite certain that Senior Shen Bingmiao had privately commissioned Fu Luo to do some things.

Earlier, when pretending to be [Heavenly Artisan] and sending a message from Fu Luo's phone, Lin Yu was confirming this point—this guy was caught by Fish too hastily, so as soon as his phone was unlocked, he could see the memo interface in the background.

Even though the contents were cleared, Lin Yu could guess...

This was definitely a method of communicating with his senior.

Sure enough, hearing Lin Yu's words, a conflicted expression appeared on Fu Luo's face. "Although I'm not entirely sure who that skilled person you mentioned is... if I'm not mistaken, it should be a very powerful [Player], with abilities related to electronic products... right?"

As Fu Luo spoke, Lin Yu gave a slight nod. "Yes, it seems we're definitely talking about the same person—what did she want from you? Did she hurt you, threaten you?"

"This," Fu Luo rubbed his nose, "to be honest, it was precisely because I investigated and found your real identity that the other party contacted me, hoping I'd assist her with some things... and these things are indeed somewhat related to you."

"The information about that '[Twenty]' I mentioned today was actually passed to me by that person," Fu Luo said cautiously, feeling that so far his phone in his pants pocket hadn't vibrated or discharged abnormally, so he simply assumed the other party agreed to him telling Lin Yu these things. "And according to my latest intel, he should already be dead in the [dungeon]..."

"Dead?" Lin Yu said with extreme surprise. "How did that happen... why didn't you tell me?"

"Because when I notified you, he might not have been completely dead yet. I was afraid if I told you that, you wouldn't take it seriously," Fu Luo said seriously. "Some veteran players have various methods to avoid their first death, transforming themselves into other life forms in different worlds to cling to life. If they leave certain contingencies, they can even return to this world."

"But now, we can rest easy," Fu Luo said somewhat proudly. "I blocked his contingency plan for returning to [reality]—and it's precisely because of this that I got caught by [Fish]! This Twenty targeted you because he was working for the [Marauders]!"

As he spoke, Fu Luo even took out his phone to show off.

"Look, this is the altar from Twenty's house. I already wrecked it using a scroll!"

Lin Yu also roughly pieced it together.

"So Senior intended for Fu Luo to deal with Twenty, that's why she secretly contacted him..."

"And I never expected Fu Luo, a [First-Tier], to actually manage to restrict a [Third-Tier]!"

Lin Yu hadn't even considered that Twenty might have a contingency plan to return to the real world—this was a blind spot in his knowledge.

After all, Lin Yu knew high-level players had life-preserving methods because of Old Zheng and his senior's existence.

However, Old Zheng was truly trapped on the Misty Islands, and his senior was clearly too special, so it never occurred to Lin Yu that Twenty might also have the possibility of returning to reality.

"Well, it seems I should thank you too, for helping me eliminate a potential major threat."

Lin Yu said with a smile.

Fu Luo waved his hand. "No problem, we're bros—just treat me to another meal!"

Lin Yu nodded.

Although he felt there were still some details in Fu Luo's explanation that he seemed to have overlooked, overall Lin Yu had gotten the answer he wanted, so he didn't dwell on it.

The two arrived at the entrance of the building unit where Lin Yu lived.

And right at that moment, a voice came from behind.

"May May—hold on!"

Lin Yu turned around to see a car parked by the unit entrance. The door opened, and two familiar figures he'd met once before stepped out.

Naturally, it was [Paper Kite] and [Chris]!