Wen Wen calmed down after a brief moment of panic, his expression solemn as he surveyed the scene.
He neither lost the proper reverence nor acted foolishly out of arrogance, demonstrating the qualities of an excellent demon hunter, which earned a silent nod from Gong Baoding.
“Looking at him, he must be scared. It’s understandable, he hasn’t been an anomaly user for long and hasn’t seen much of the world…”
“If he were from the containment facility, he should have recognized that aura and wouldn’t be so scared…”
“So, is he or is he not from the containment facility…”
Gong Baoding’s assessment of Wen Wen had become blurred.
Upon closer reflection, he had never seen Wen Wen wear the uniform of a containment operative, nor had he seen Wen Wen use those chains. Everything was based on the similarity between the monsters within the containment facility and those Wen Wen had dealt with.
Next, the two began investigating the crime scene. The Hunter Association had its own procedures for investigating abnormal energies.
This allowed them to gather as much information as possible while ensuring safety.
Thus, under the guidance of the seasoned Gong Baoding, Wen Wen surveyed his own energy residues while also learning how to appropriately slack off during work.
…
In a dilapidated rental apartment, a slightly overweight man was furiously typing on his keyboard.
He was an online writer named Sun Wei, whose pen name was Bu Mian Bu Yu (Sleepless and Silent).
He was currently behind on his updates, hence his intense effort.
Although this job couldn’t make him rich, it allowed him to support himself, and he was content with that.
After racking his brains to finish his daily update, he casually opened a novel website to read the comments.
Reading his readers’ comments after finishing his writing each day was the most fulfilling part of his job.
Suddenly, a comment that had already garnered seven or eight replies immediately caught his eye.
“When did my book’s comment section get this lively? How I wish it could stay this way forever.”
He clicked to read it and, before finishing, felt a surge of anger, almost smashing his keyboard.
This was a comment from a pirate reader. It was one thing to read pirated content; over ninety percent of readers did, and he couldn’t do anything about it.
But the content of this reader’s comment was truly unbearable.
“You author write such garbage, how dare you charge money? I just want to provoke you, make you have some self-respect, and encourage everyone to read pirated copies, since it’s free anyway.”
Sun Wei was so angry he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. If you’re reading the paid chapters, how can you call the writing garbage?
This person’s comment was met with resistance from the legitimate readers, hence the numerous replies.
Although he knew that deleting the comment and banning the user would end the matter, and that as a novelist, one must be prepared for criticism, Sun Wei did not want to tolerate this kind of comment.
He grabbed his keyboard as if it were a treasured sword, his fingers flying across it, his hands feeling as if they had been smeared with chili oil, spewing out stinging profanities.
For Sun Wei, cursing required no skill, only sufficient speed. As long as you could type faster than the opponent, you had won.
Fortunately, Sun Wei’s typing speed was truly fast.
This verbal battle was waged with gusto and served as an emotional outlet for him.
Ever since he started writing novels, he had felt a sense of frustration. Music, videos, movies – other forms of pirated content were being curbed, so why couldn’t online literature’s piracy be resolved, or even slightly curbed?
Among all his readers, perhaps only one percent, or even fewer, paid for his work.
There might be many reasons: low cost of piracy, difficulty in regulation, search engines unwilling to police it, advertisers willing to advertise on pirated websites, legitimate reading being too expensive, etc. The reasons were endless.
But reasons were just reasons.
All of these factors formed a massive, parasitic chain of profit, where everyone involved, including the vast majority of readers, was happy.
Only the original authors and the small number of legitimate readers voiced their dissatisfaction.
However, their voices were faint, and they could change nothing.
In such circumstances, when a pirate reader came to mock him, Sun Wei truly couldn’t stand it.
This battle of words was not a momentary impulse, but an outburst of long-suppressed emotions.
After the cursing, Sun Wei felt utterly refreshed, as if he had just spent a day in a sauna. With a smile, he imposed a ban and block on the user, then went to wash up.
He’d leave the user suspended for the night and delete the comment in the morning. It was simply delightful.
For Sun Wei, this was enough to bring him joy.
Since he started trying to write, he hadn't engaged in any extra entertainment for a long time.
In his sleep, Sun Wei felt something strange. He stood up, walked to his computer, and then… he plunged into it!
Inside the computer, Sun Wei soared through green data streams, feeling incredibly comfortable.
Sun Wei found this not strange at all; it was a dream, and in a dream, anything was possible.
When he stopped, he saw the reader who was raging in anger due to being banned, and he felt a secret pleasure.
As he watched, a wicked thought arose in Sun Wei’s mind: “Since it’s a dream, it doesn’t matter what I do, right?”
Sun Wei grabbed a kitchen knife from the kitchen, carefully walked behind the person, and plunged the knife into their back. Then, he picked up a stool and repeatedly smashed it against the person’s head.
After just a few blows, the person stopped moving, but Sun Wei continued to strike, as if venting something. By the time he stopped, the person was unrecognizable.
With slightly sore hands, Sun Wei lay back on his bed and smiled, saying, “This dream is so real…”
He shook his head. If it weren’t a dream, he didn’t know how crazed he could become.
“But if it weren’t a dream, I probably wouldn’t be able to beat this guy. He’s tall and strong, and I’m just a fat otaku…”
Then, he lay down on the ground and drifted back to sleep.
…
The investigation into the mess he had made yesterday continued until midnight.
The next morning, Wen Wen arrived at the Hunter Association early, even buying breakfast and bananas for Ding Mingguang.
The bananas were for the monkey; he wasn’t sure if it could eat them.
Ding Mingguang had promised that Yan Biqing’s whereabouts would be discovered today, so Wen Wen came.
Ding Mingguang seemed even more anxious than Wen Wen to capture Yan Biqing. After obtaining a computer, he remained glued to it, relentlessly tracking down clues.
When Wen Wen arrived, the members of the Hunter Association were gathered around Ding Mingguang, awaiting his leads.
Wen Wen leaped lightly and landed on a chair without making a sound, afraid of disturbing Ding Mingguang’s concentration.
After waiting for about an hour, Ding Mingguang’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
“I’ve got him!”