Chapter 33 - The Old Fourth

After the shower, Shu Jun poured himself a glass of water and sat on the edge of the bed. His body was basically made of erosive substance, so in theory, he didn’t have to shower, and the food he ate would also totally decompose by itself. But he still kept his old habits to make himself feel normal.

Zhu Yanchen’s clothes were neatly folded and placed at the top of the bed, while the man himself was lying facing the wall, his breathing soft and even. His sleeping posture was quite normal — Zhu Yanchen no longer curled up in pain, his whole body looking calm and relaxed.

He left the lamp on for Shu Jun, and the dim light illuminated the edge of the bed, making the air feel like it was soaked in honey.

Thinking that they used to be friends at one point, Shu Jun felt a little strange. His tense nerves finally loosened, and at least for this moment, he could find some peace amidst the tension, anger and fear.

He lightly climbed onto bed, only to find that Marshal Zhu had wrapped himself in the quilt again. Combining this with his listlessness throughout the whole day, Shu Jun could roughly guess what had happened. He pursed his lips at Zhu Yanchen, who was facing away from him, then rather consciously, he rolled the quilt around him and tried to lay as flat as possible, so that he would be ‘well-behaved’ after falling asleep.

For a moment, they looked like two spring rolls laying side by side in a frying pan.

Shu Jun had calmed down completely after a cold shower. With no more chaotic thoughts in his mind, he yawned a few times and swiftly fell asleep.

But Zhu Yanchen wasn’t sleeping.

He could feel the mattress next to him sink. Shu Jun took a very quick shower, and the clean scent of soap was still emanating from his body. This scent carried with it his body temperature, blending into a strong aura of vitality. As the sensation of the reality before his eyes feeling extremely surreal struck him once more, Zhu Yanchen was dazed for a few seconds.

Then he forced himself to close his eyes and waited for the other man to fall out of bed, but unexpectedly, he slept soundly until dawn. This evening, Shu Jun and the quilt still rolled into a deadly fight, and he did end up flipping the quilt over, but somehow the flames of war didn’t spread to Zhu Yanchen.

This was a feeling of satisfaction and happiness. However, after Marshal Zhu was completely awake, he suddenly felt a sense of discontent.

Forget it. He fastened his buttons carefully and smoothly pushed Shu Jun’s outstretched arms and legs back into the quilt.

One hour later, Shu Jun was awakened by Monday’s hoarse scream. He sat up with his white hair a complete mess, his claws almost digging holes in the sheet. Finding that Zhu Yanchen wasn’t in bed, he was subconsciously nervous for two seconds.

“Breakfast is on the table, still hot.” Zhu Yanchen was sitting on the sofa, manipulating the giant light screen in front of him. “The faucet is out of cold water. I’ve already informed Pan ge. Be careful not to burn yourself when using it.”

“Oh.” Shu Jun, with his upper half undressed, got out of bed, pulled his slippers and walked towards the bathroom.

A Yan was still that A Yan, with the same degree of attention to detail as before. If it weren’t for Zhu Yanchen’s markedly cold temperament, Shu Jun even wanted to come back to their ‘online relationship’ and chit-chat about his recent emotional problems.

“You got up so early. What are you watching?” Having nothing to attend to, Shu Jun simply brushed his teeth while leaning close to the screen.

“Blackbird’s new mission.” Zhu Yanchen didn’t mean to conceal it. He tilted the screen a bit so that Shu Jun could see more clearly. “I’m a bit concerned about the recent news.”

“The condition of the new Erosion Marsh near X City seems very special.” Shu Jun looked at the data on the screen and clenched his toothbrush. “Hm… it’s a bit strange.” 

If its condition was really special, Sweet Vanguard, who was so desperately wanting to die, wouldn’t let go of such an opportunity. But if this big marsh turned up after Sweet Vanguard disappeared, the timing would be too coincidental.

“What do you think?” Shu Jun had roughly made a guess.

“Sweet Vanguard might’ve been deliberately ‘left behind’ by another Erosion Marsh.” Zhu Yanchen’s fingers slid across the screen to connect the two documents out of thin air. “She has remarkable strength and strong will. Even though the marsh has gotten her brain, it can’t fully control her consciousness.”

“I’m sure after she destroyed X City, she chose to stay there on her own.” Shu Jun wiped the toothpaste from the corner of his mouth. “But if you put it in that way, it still sounds a little weird. If someone accidentally finds her, the evolution of the Erosion Marsh behind her will be exposed. Even if she can conceal her presence, this is still a very probable issue.”

If there truly existed another smarter Erosion Marsh behind her, and that it could keep itself in hiding so easily, this would be extremely dangerous. Logically, the later people found out about it, the more smoothly it would evolve.

“There’s a prerequisite for this to happen. If an Erosion Marsh with a brain wanders alone, it’s indeed the best strategy to expose its own kin who is more easily exposed than itself.”

Zhu Yanchen pressed his thumb on his lips, and his dark eyes were illuminated by the dim light of the screen.

“But if they’re used to communicating with each other and have established a certain degree of intelligence network between them, it’s possible to specially leave her behind.”

Shu Jun reacted quickly: “As bait?”

“Yes, as bait. To leave behind such an ‘incomplete’ yet strong marsh, in a place relatively close to humans, she certainly can become an excellent beacon.” 

The two had discussed countless strategies together, so Shu Jun understood what Zhu Yanchen wanted to say at once.

The most evolved Erosion Marsh hid in the distance, leaving only its brainless kins near humans, thus humans obviously would never learn of its real location. But this came with a price, because this would make it difficult for the Erosion Marsh at the highest rank to obtain human intelligence.

From this perspective, Sweet Vanguard, who had a strong desire to attack, was indeed a suitable beacon. If she got defeated, there would be only two possible outcomes — first: either humans had gained the ability to penetrate deep into the erosion zone, discover and defeat an evolved Erosion Marsh, or second: there was a nearby evolved Erosion Marsh that was stronger than Sweet Vanguard and also possessed a brain, which must be wiped out as soon as possible.

If Sweet Vanguard continued to live on, then the marsh at the highest rank could continue to evolve and grow behind the curtain, without ever having to worry about what was happening in the human communities. This would save it loads of time and effort.

Shu Jun was dumbfounded.

……If he hadn’t integrated with an Erosion Marsh himself and simply judged based on his own combat experience, he would only think that Zhu Yanchen was a paranoid conspiracy theorist. As a ‘player’ constantly fighting against Erosion Marshes, by just using his knees, Shu Jun could already guess what a commoner would likely think.

Shu Jun didn’t want to imagine what it felt like for Zhu Yanchen to hold onto such ridiculous, terrifying conjectures and study them by himself all these years.

“So you think that the new Erosion Marsh near X City was specially released by an evolved Erosion Marsh with a powerful brain?” Shu Jun earnestly continued the conversation.

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Since it’s impossible to help Zhu Yanchen’s research in the past, I’d better discuss it sensibly now, rather than raising questions at him all sentimentally.

“Yes.” Seeing Shu Jun firmly keep up with his thoughts, Zhu Yanchen looked a little bit happy. “After all, Sweet Vanguage was a special case. The top-ranking Erosion Marsh might think that her disappearance was an unforeseeable accident. But the same accident will never happen twice in a row.”

“Regardless whether the top-ranking Erosion Marsh thinks that it’s a human or another marsh that defeats her, if this new marsh that it has specially released is also killed, it’ll be able to confirm the existence of a ‘strong enemy’. After that, it’ll start considering countermeasures.”

“But there’s also a possibility that this is just a coincidence. We’ll have to look at the marsh up close to know. It seems that we were right to take up this mission, my great strategist.”

In order to discuss seriously, Shu Jun specially ran to rinse his mouth. Earlier, he was worried that the toothpaste foam would splash on Zhu Yanchen, but now that he had all freshened up, Shu Jun directly moved closer. The font size on the light screen wasn’t big and it kept flickering. Shu Jun leaned forward, pressing his naked chest against Zhu Yanchen’s shoulders.

Not hearing Zhu Yanchen’s response after five full seconds, Shu Jun found that his great strategist was frozen on the chair.

Oops.

Zhu Yanchen was a reserved man, one who always behaved seriously and carefully, so it was highly likely that he disliked close contact with people. Even if they were good friends, personal space should be respected.

“I’m so sorry, so sorry, I’ll put on a coat first.” Shu Jun straightened up awkwardly.

Zhu Yanchen still didn’t respond, his eyes fixated at the light screen in front of him, while his expression returned to its usual blankness. By the time Shu Jun got dressed and returned, Marshal Zhu had already continued drawing lines on the screen.

It was just that the drawing was a bit crooked at first.

It seems that a proper distance should be maintained between us in the future, Shu Jun secretly noted it down. Thereafter, everything went as usual — Finishing their breakfast, the two went out to gather information, and on the way, they went to see if there was anything to add to their supplies.

When the two stepped out of the morning market, an incident took place.

A mechanical arrow flew out from the dark at a tricky angle. Shu Jun didn’t have time to draw his sword, so he pulled Zhu Yanchen into his arms. As the mechanical arrow pierced deep into his shoulder, Shu Jun could hear the exclamation from people around him.

“It’s coated with erosive substance!” Someone breathed in exaggeratedly: “Alas, isn’t this person already crippled?”

Shu Jun: “……” He only felt a little itchy. The attackers’ luck must be really bad — to Shu Jun, rather than poisoning him to a painful death, an arrow like this felt like feeding fresh erosive substance to an Erosion Marsh.

Zhu Yanchen’s reaction wasn’t slow either. Although Shu Jun was holding his neck down, he simply kept his slumped posture and fired several shots in the direction of the arrow. An excruciating scream came from the opposite side, and another wave of poisonous arrows was shot out, but their accuracy was significantly worse.

This time Shu Jun had time to react — he released the hand holding Zhu Yanchen, swung his broadsword across the air and successfully blocked the poisonous arrows.

If it weren’t for the fact that he might expose his identity as  a ‘player’, Shu Jun would simply solve the problem with his skill ‘Wind Shield’. In order to play the role of a wounded man, Shu Jun tried to ‘strugglingly’ waved his Monday, his heart quietly sighing inside.

Seeing that they had no way to win this, the poisonous arrows came to a stop and the attackers clearly wanted to flee. Before Shu Jun even started giving chase, Zhu Yanchen rushed out, his face totally turning black. Eventually, it seemed that the attackers both subdued under Marshal Zhu’s gun. By the time the marshal walked back, he was firmly dragging two people behind with his hands — The two men were wearing protective clothing and thus not fatally injured by the bullets, but seeing their crouched posture, it seemed that their bones might’ve broken.

“Pfft.” One of them hissed, his voice sounding a bit familiar.

Shu Jun could feel that Monday was twisting in his hand and making the “bah!” sound, which conveyed that it wanted to go home. Shu Jun quickly covered his mouth with a piece of cloth.

“We saw them during the test.” Even with his mask on, an icy aura could be felt coming from Zhu Yanchen, and his tone was frosty: “It’s those two scumbags who snatched their teammate’ equipment.” 

“Don’t be shy, I’m just giving you some congratulations.” The man who kicked the woman during the incident opened his mouth, and he said to Shu Jun in a sinister tone: “Help me give my regards to Yu Jin.”

If Shu Jun was just an ordinary person, the erosive substance on the arrows would be enough to kill him. Assuming that he insistently struggled to carry on the mission, his chances of surviving would be massively reduced. Shu Jun frowned — no matter whether it was now in the past, he hated this detrimental behaviour.

“Because you can’t provoke Yu Jinn, so you target us?” Shu Jun sneered as he squatted in front of one of them.

The excitement-hungry onlookers couldn’t ask for more. Seeing that blood was about to be shed here, half of the morning market gathered around to watch.

“It’s because you follow the wrong person.” Seeing the onlookers increase, the man snorted again. “It’s your bad luck. Anyway, the higher-ups don’t care about this place. You can’t kill inside a settlement. If you dare to touch me, The Old Fourth won’t leave you alone.”

“Hou Ye is coming!” As if to confirm his words, outside, someone yelled. “The Old Fourth is here, let’s give way, let’s give way!”

Shu Jun sighed. Zhu Yanchen and he indeed had the intention of making a reputation for themselves, but this reputation wasn’t meant to be notorious. They said that ‘when in Rome, do like the Romans do’. This notoriety might be complicated to deal with later.

“What’s The Old Fourth?” He muttered to Zhu Yanchen.

“There are three families that are closely connected to the coalition government, the Zhus, Xias and Tangs, but the coalition government has limited resources and usually doesn’t care about the settlements at the border of erosion zones.” Zhu Yanchen stared at the mechanical arrow on Shu Jun’s shoulder. “The Old Fourth is a loose organization that can be regarded as an underground manager of this kind of place.”

“So, he’s the town’s bully.” Shu Jun was immediately enlightened. “Well, I hope he’ll be reasonable.”

“It’ll be okay.” Zhu Yanchen whispered.

In the commoners’ mind, ‘The Old Fourth’ was a mocking name that tried to make fun of the three big families, but Zhu Yanchen knew something clearly in his heart —

The Old Fourth was just a name on the facade. The truth was, from within the government, the lazy staff who always wore an I-couldn’t-care-less attitude called this loose organisation ‘The Fourth Team’.

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