Black Tech Internet Cafe System
chapter-369

- Origins Internet Club in Jiuhua City -

Despite the storm outside, this shop was always lively with a big crowd.

"Well! When I first came to this shop, it only had a few seats." Nalan Hongwu lounged on a couch and said, "But now, it's so huge."

"Hehe, Senior, you were not here on the first day of business," Song Qingfeng said with a smile. "When I came, it was so small that there were only four computers. Four!"

"At that time, only me, this fat guy, and Old Liang were here." He pointed at Wang Tai and Liang Shi who were busy eating instant noodles and said, "There was only Resident Evil and nothing else. It was completely different from now."

"Right!" Lin Shao said in a loud voice, "You probably didn't experience that. We didn't have online games or online games guilds; we all played solo!"

"Hahaha! The Shop Owner was a great player back then, and we watched him play every day."

"Am I not a great player now?" Mr. Fang walked over with a bowl of instant noodles.

"Now that you mentioned guild…" Lan Yan frowned while sitting beside them. "Did you notice that people like Little White and Qi Xian haven't been online for a long time?"

"Who are they?" Mr. Fang was nonplussed. "Are they customers of the shop?"

"Yeah," Lan Yan said with a frown. "After you went to the Morning Star Sea Realm, the Legend of Mir 2 was released. We established our guild and recruited many new players. Some of them were close to us, but they have been absent for a long time now."

She still remembered a girl named Little White who was about 16 years old; they were on good terms with each other, and it wasn't like her to disappear without a word.

"Maybe she went to play other games," Mr. Fang said.

"Impossible," Lan Yan said, "It's weird that she hasn't been on QQ since then."

"Now that you mention it…" Mr. Fang said in confusion, "Several new players in our Heaven-Defying Online Games Guild ensured us that they would be online every day, but now they just disappeared."

"As the Guild President, why don't you ask about their whereabouts?" Lan Yan said, "After all, you are the Guild President."

"Where can I take the inquiry?" Mr. Fang said in contempt. "Do you want me to visit their homes one by one? Even if I want to do it, I don't know their true identities since I only know them online."

"So annoying," Lan Yan complained, "I told her that I would take her to play the next day, and then she just disappeared."

"Who are you talking about?" A teenage girl wearing pale blue clothes walked into the shop in high spirits. She was Ye Xiaoye, and she came in with a couple of cultivators of the Cloud Ocean Faction. "Who disappeared?"

"The new players in our guild. They were nice, and we had a good time chatting on the guild channel," Lan Yan answered. "Then, they just disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Ye Xiaoye immediately asked, "You mean… they were just not online on the next day and couldn't be contacted through QQ or communication jade? It is like they had just vanished?"

"How do you know?!" Not only Lan Yan, but people like Nalan Mingxue and Song Qingfeng turned their attention to her.

Ye Xiaoye said, "I don't know much. Do you remember my Senior Sister Zhou Hongying? It was she who brought me to the shop in the first place."

"Don't tell me she disappeared as well!"

"She didn't," Ye Xiaoye said, "A while ago, a few cultivators came with Senior Sister Zhou and Brother Bai, those few sorcerers who got into top 16 for Diablo Competition, do you remember? Senior Sister Zhou told me that they were summoned back to their factions, and they couldn't be contacted anymore."

"What?!" Not only Lan Yan, but Mr. Fang had sensed the seriousness of this issue as well.

"They haven't been found since then?" People like Dong Qingli came over to join the conversation, and the grandmasters including Nalan Hongwu slightly frowned.

"I sense foul play in this…" Lan Mo, Nalan Hongwu, and the other grandmasters looked at each other.

"When did that happen?" Nalan Hongwu asked.

"About half a month ago," Lan Yan said.

"Only half a month?" Mr. Fang said. "The time doesn't seem to fit. Those few in my guild disappeared about one month ago. I thought they didn't play because they were short of funds."

"…"

The atmosphere in the Taixi Faction was different from that in the Origins Internet Club.

For most of the players in the Origins Internet Club, today was probably another enjoyable day spent on playing games.

However, for the small number of players in the Mystic Land in the Taixi Faction, they had to stay here and spend another day in darkness.

This had been a cultivation field for cultivators of the Taixi Faction, but now it had been modified. Restriction arrays were set up around this place. Locked inside, they couldn't escape even if they could dig out a tunnel, let alone flee by flying.

Disciples from various factions were forced into wearing greyish-white 'prison uniforms', and their spiritual essence was depleted with tough and high-intensity training.

A genial-looking, middle-aged man who was wearing white clothes was responsible for disciplining them. Although Duyou Holiness was behind this, he entrusted the execution of his plan to this cultivator named Tian Leizi who cultivated lightning spells.

"Lightning spells are the most righteous spells in the world!" the aquiline-nosed Tian Leizi said with a gloomy expression as he stared at the cultivators from different factions, "Holiness asked me to watch you, and I can use the lightning spell to remove the evil poison from your bodies!"

He stared at a disciple tied to a post with a gloomy expression and said, "The Taixi Faction has you under monitor for 24 hours a day in case you lose control due to the evil poison in your body. If you can't control the evil poison in you," he pointed at the disciple tied on the post and said, "Then, I will have to help you."

He cast a spell with both hands, and many pale blue lightning bolts viciously struck the brass pole behind this disciple. Then, everyone heard an extremely shrilling scream!

These disciples from different major factions had excellent talents and abundant spiritual essence, but right now, they were full and didn't even dare to glance over when they heard this scream. They continued their drills which were designed to drain their spiritual essence, and they looked scared and behaved like zombies.

A row of birds flew across the bright blue sky, and many disciples looked up at the flying birds in envy.

"Maybe you've heard that the disciples who had removed the evil poison have returned to their factions with their elders," Tian Leizi said, "If you cooperate with my healing process, maybe you can return to your factions one day as well!"

The disciples' eyes lit up in excitement but then quickly dimmed. Perhaps they were hoping for something else.

"Someone, please come and save us!"

"Sister Lan Yan… I miss you guys…" With tears in her eyes, a girl who looked to be 16 years old looked at the high walls covered with restriction arrays and thought in desperation, "I hope someone will come and rescue us…"