“Is this the contact information for that colleague? Pelican Lady? That codename is quite unique; I wonder how many children she can eat in one sitting.” After reading the anonymous message, Lu Yibei muttered to herself, “But what exactly is that kid Void doing?”

Logically, Void should have responded quickly after receiving the message, even if it was just a bunch of meaningless garbage. But to her surprise, even after Zhang Huainan had someone retrieve the agent's contact information this time, Void still hadn't responded.

This was a bit unusual. That kid usually acted like certain idiotic group members who seemed to have no work or studies, were online 24/7, and could accumulate 999+ messages in a few seconds.

Unable to contact Void, Lu Yibei didn't dwell on the matter for too long. She quickly suppressed her strong curiosity and turned her attention to more important matters.

Contacting Pelican Lady to arrange a meeting time and place, investigating the missing god kidnapping case to understand the ins and outs of Caishen (God of Wealth)'s imprisonment, avoiding the Trademark Monster's prying eyes and guarding against potential attacks it might instigate, and finally, occasionally working part-time at the Angel Rose Theater to ensure she could infiltrate the theater's basement whenever needed...

Just a simple rundown revealed a whole host of things waiting for her to do. How could she have so much time to worry about what Void was doing?

In short, Disaster was trying to rescue Caishen (God of Wealth), and Void was investigating the Information Explosion urban legend. Everyone had a “bright” future! Lu Yibei thought.

Withdrawing her thoughts, Lu Yibei followed the contact information for Pelican Lady sent in the anonymous message. Using Yu Yinchuan's identity, she sent a message via email, then mobile, then a virtual number.

That's right, the contact method sent in the anonymous message was that convoluted!

Perhaps she was acting as a double agent somewhere and couldn't reveal her identity? Understandable, even somewhat admirable! Lu Yibei thought.

“Hello, Pelican Lady, I am Agent 01, codenamed Jin Chan Lang, under Guardian Caishen (God of Wealth). As per superior orders, I am involved in investigating Incident 1-02-12 and require your cooperation. Please reply as soon as possible to arrange a time and place for a face-to-face meeting...”

Lu Yibei didn't yet know what kind of agent the so-called Pelican Lady was, so the message's content was written relatively formally, as Jiang Li had taught her. She used a number instead of Yu Yinchuan's real name, and the God Disappearance Kidnapping Incident also used the Night Watch's internal archive number.

After sending the message, she waited for about half an hour. Seeing that the other party still hadn't replied, Lu Yibei couldn't help but grumble.

“Tsk, how strange! Is it fashionable not to reply to people's messages these days?”

“Xiao Hua, Xiao Hua, are you there?”

“What is it?” Nanling Yaohua held up her small notebook.

“Nothing.” Lu Yibei said, then waited a few seconds before calling out again, “Xiao Hua, Xiao Hua, are you there?”

“What exactly do you want?”

“Still nothing, I just wanted to see if you'd reply instantly.”

Nanling Yaohua, “...”

In silence, perhaps for someone to see, she quietly picked up her pen and wrote a line of text in her small notebook.

“The person I like is mostly good, but occasionally very annoying. Should I deal with it?”

— — — — ~

After waiting for about an hour, almost dozing off, Lu Yibei finally received a reply from Pelican Lady.

“Received. How about meeting the day after tomorrow at 8 AM, at the country restaurant next to the motel on Highway 26?”

“Received.”

Lu Yibei went through another round of effort to reply, then collapsed back onto the double bed. “That should be fine. Tomorrow, I'll visit a reclusive god nearby to understand the situation. The rest can wait until I meet Pelican Lady the day after tomorrow.”

“That's good. You must be exhausted after everything that's happened these past two days. Why not rest a bit?”

“Mm.” Lu Yibei nodded, looking at the small notebook Nanling Yaohua held up.

— — — — ~

Z Country, inside a villa on the outskirts of Hua City.

At dawn. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Behind locked windows and tightly closed screens, the living room, transformed into an e-sports training base, had over a dozen computers neatly arranged. A tower server also stood in the corner.

In front of the window-side seat, Netizen Laosepi, pale-faced and listless, slurped instant noodles while hunched in an e-sports chair.

On the ultrawide monitor in front of him, a dozen windows ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ were open, most of them chat group windows with various messages scrolling rapidly. There was also a window displaying the backend of the urban legend Bounty Website, and a player showing indescribable content.

A colleague from the Monster Story Chat Group, who was up early, walked past him and glanced at his screen, involuntarily giving him a thumbs-up.

Working intensely for over twenty hours without rest, and still being able to work and do perverted things simultaneously, that was truly amazing!

Not long after, as if keenly sensing something, Netizen Laosepi suddenly put down his instant noodles and, with lightning speed, closed the player showing indescribable content.

He looked like a teenager hiding in his room, rewarding himself, who suddenly heard his parents opening the door upon returning home.

Immediately after, in less than two seconds, a young girl with a pair of mottled cat ears on her head silently appeared in the seat beside him.

Looking at Netizen Laosepi's slightly startled profile, Miao Xiaoqi narrowed her eyes and asked, “Are you doing something messy again?”

“No!” Netizen Laosepi put down his instant noodles and said seriously, “This is a critical moment. How could I have time for perverted things?”

You might not understand the value of transforming from Netizen Laosepi to Netizen Life Mentor... Netizen Laosepi added in his mind.

This group of Netizen urban legend had always unconditionally trusted Void. When Void left, he told them it was a crucial moment for Netizen urban legend and the Monster Story Chat Group to progress further, and they had no doubts.

“Hmph! Did I say you were doing perverted things?” Miao Xiaoqi's eyes widened, and she raised her right hand, revealing sharp claws.

“Uh...” Netizen Laosepi was speechless for a moment. Just as he didn't know how to excuse himself, a chat box suddenly popped up on the screen, saving him from his predicament.

“Who is this Blue Yi? At a time like this, why is she looking for the boss?” Miao Xiaoqi said.

“Who knows!” Netizen Laosepi shrugged and casually closed the chat box.

Friendly reminder: The Website is about to be revised, which may cause loss of reading progress. Please save your “book shelf” and “reading record” in time (screenshot recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience caused!

“Hey, hey! Why did you close it?” Miao Xiaoqi exclaimed.

“Why bother with her? The boss is busy saving the world and his dearest big sister right now. He doesn't have time for these irrelevant people.” Netizen Laosepi said.

As he said the words “dearest big sister,” words and images like “siblings” and “small horse pulling a big cart” suddenly flashed through his mind, and a lewd smile involuntarily appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“Damn it, what are you thinking again? Why are you smiling so lewdly?” Miao Xiaoqi chided softly.

“Ah? I didn't...”

“I'm not listening!” Miao Xiaoqi sternly rebuked.

As her words fell, several bloody scratches appeared on Netizen Laosepi's face...

— — — — ~

Meanwhile, in Helsing Port, a thousand miles away from Hua City.

As the polar night of winter approached, this capital city, located at the northernmost tip of the world, was shrouded in darkness for almost twenty-two hours a day.

At this moment, it was already nine in the morning local time, but the sky was still pitch black. Correspondingly, there was no light on the ground, completely swallowed by darkness. The city's buildings in the wind and snow were reduced to fluctuating giant black silhouettes. Gunshots and wails occasionally came from the darkness.

Nearly twenty hours of intermittent large-scale power outages, coupled with the cold temperatures, had already plunged the city into chaos: traffic accidents, urban legend rampant, bandits stealing and robbing under the guise of night, fires caused by heating, and all sorts of sudden incidents, one after another, seemingly never-ending.

What was even more critical was that people injured in these sudden events, when sent to the hospital, could not receive proper treatment due to the power outage... Many could only wait to die!

Before this, residents living in this city could hardly imagine what a cold winter day without electricity and communication would look like. Perhaps their ancestors knew, but they, having been domesticated by modern urban life, had long forgotten.

In the chaotic city, on the dark, empty streets, snowflakes fell with fierce winds, soon turning the heads of those who stood silently like sculptures on the street white.

A boy with a backpack, a woman rushing home with breakfast, a thief who had just stolen from a convenience store and was fleeing, and the convenience store owner chasing the thief... Everyone seemed to have been paused in an instant, frozen there, their eyes vacant.

However, people were still, but objects were still active: an out-of-control bus crashed into a building, a twisted motorcycle was entangled with a fire hydrant, and the gushing water had already frozen into ice. A fire, spreading from an unknown source, gradually consumed an old man's body.

And on this street, which seemed to have been paused, there was still one person moving.

It was a little girl, about seven or eight years old, her face already pale and purplish from the cold. She leaned against her father, whose lower half was crushed by an overturned vehicle, carefully stroking his face, her sobs as faint as a mosquito's hum.

“Daddy... Daddy, wake up... Let's go home quickly...”

Suddenly, footsteps sounded. Following the sound, a thin, tall silhouette emerged from the wind and snow.

He held a strange large umbrella with a comical expression in his right hand, his left hand in his pocket, his dark green trench coat open, its coattails fluttering in the wind like a cape. He walked from the end of the street and stopped beside the little girl.

Then, he crouched down, took off his thick trench coat, and gently draped it over the little girl. After a while, when the little girl's body temperature had risen slightly and she had the strength to look at him, he grinned, pulled out a piece of chocolate, “Little sister, want some chocolate?”

Looking at the older brother who suddenly appeared in the wind and snow, smiling like a small sun, the little girl's eyes wavered.

She had been stuck on this street, which had fallen into “stillness” due to “Information Explosion,” for seven or eight hours. She was cold and hungry but dared not accept the kindness of a stranger.

“Not taking things from strangers? That's good!” Void praised, then thought for a moment and smiled, “How about this! You help me with directions, tell me how to get to the port, and I'll give you this chocolate as payment, how about that?”

“Mm-hmm!” The little girl nodded her head like a pecking chick in an instant, then raised her small hand and pointed to a fork in the road diagonally ahead.

“Thank you for your help, little lady. This chocolate is yours.” Void said, tearing off the chocolate's wrapper and putting it into the little girl's mouth, “We agreed, no more crying once you eat the chocolate! Your daddy needs to rest a little longer.”

After speaking, he gently ruffled the little girl's head, stood up, and walked in the direction the little girl had pointed.

Actually, he knew where the port was, and his destination for this trip was indeed the port.

— — — — ~

Three minutes later, Helsing Port.

This port, adjacent to the Baltic Sea, was Helsing Port's largest port, handling a large volume of cargo ships and containers daily. However, after a prolonged large-scale power outage, it had also fallen into a state of stagnation. The signal station was empty, the lighthouses on the sea were pitch black, the empty port was scattered with ashes left from burning, and smashed and damaged containers were everywhere.

At the edge of the port, Void, thinly dressed, held an umbrella with one hand, his eyes narrowed into slits, gazing at the dark sea that surged restlessly like boiling water, as if waiting for something. His expression was solemn, and the hand in his pocket gently rubbed away the sweat that had seeped out due to nervousness.

He was very nervous.

Although through analysis and research of the victims brought back from the special ward of Yanghe Hospital, he had found a solution to alleviate Nameless Book's injuries and deal with the “Information Explosion” urban legend, and even had confidence in strengthening his own authority and divine kingdom through this action.

But that was, after all, a urban legend that could severely injure Nameless Book, and his solution was still only in the theoretical stage. To say he wasn't nervous would definitely be a lie.

“It's coming soon, right? Don't make me wait too long!” Void muttered to himself.

What he was waiting for were thirteen out-of-control behemoths.

If the intelligence was correct, seven ten-thousand-ton cargo ships and one icebreaker were expected to arrive at Helsing Port today, plus five cargo ships that had been stranded at sea yesterday due to the power outage, making a total of thirteen ships.

If operated properly, the navigation errors caused by the Information Explosion could very well make those behemoths rush towards Helsing Port at full speed during the strongest winds and waves.

At that time, the overflowing seawater, comparable to a tsunami, would deliver a fatal blow to the city, which was already teetering on the brink due to the damaged power system!

“Boom—!”

After an unknown amount of time, a deafening sound of waves breaking came from the sea. Looking up, gigantic dark silhouettes, lined up side by side like a massive city wall, appeared where the sea met the sky, aggressively approaching the port.

And the moment those behemoths appeared, Void's head flickered twice, and a progress bar quietly emerged. Countless chaotic and disordered texts, images, and videos appeared around him from the void, shattering in the blink of an eye and transforming into dark green streams of light, converging into the progress bar.

“Information Explosion” download progress 1.0%... 2.7%... 4.1%...

Void's first confrontation with the “Information Explosion” urban legend began with the slow-growing progress bar...