Kingdom of Corrosion
Chapter 385 - 208: Deep Blue Star_2

Chapter 385: Chapter 208: Deep Blue Star_2

Everyone entered room 15, where Horse Soul held a jewelry box with a necklace inside, the pendant of which was a blue gemstone.

Facing Maya’s confusion, Shana explained, "The female celebrity is called Ding Er, and the man in the master bedroom is called Ding Yi. Ding Yi is a tycoon, and Ding Er is his daughter. Although Ding Er is a celebrity, she’s not very prominent. Their talent agency and the security company Hailisten are all owned by Ding Yi. They are here to attend the commencement ceremony for a TV drama held at the hotel on the first floor."

Maya looked at Lin Wu, who didn’t have a smug expression but rather nodded kindly to Maya. Maya turned to speak briefly with Peanut, then suddenly swung around. Lin Wu, caught in the middle of a boastful gesture, froze, offering Maya an awkward smile.

Juvenile Ghost! Maya checked the time and whispered a consultation with Shana before announcing, "Everyone else head to entrance number 2 to continue the search, Lin Wu and Shana will go to complete the task."

Maya handed the gemstone necklace to Lin Wu, who smoothly removed the gemstone from the necklace. Everyone was perplexed, but Lin Wu explained, "The gemstone we need to hand in is not the one on this necklace. I’ve fought Dawn for too long and have figured out his schemes. Believe it or not, if I submit the necklace, we won’t be able to complete the task."

The others were skeptical, all chiming in, "Dawn wouldn’t do something so low."

Lin Wu ignored them and raised an eyebrow, "The Star of the Deep Sea? Isn’t what we’re actually looking for the Deep Blue Star?"

Everyone checked their mission: Find the Deep Blue Star. They each inspected the gemstone, which was named Star of the Deep Sea in the item system, clearly not the gemstone they were searching for. This revelation stunned those players who hadn’t previously been outsmarted by Dawn; they really hadn’t expected him to stoop to such shameless tricks.

Peanut couldn’t help but ask, "Lin Wu, are you really at 95%?"

Without seizing the opportunity to brag, Lin Wu modestly replied, "This has nothing to do with intelligence. From childhood to adulthood, I’ve clashed with Dawn no less than a hundred times. I understand exactly what tricks he has up his sleeve." If Lin Wu bragged at this moment, it might make the two genuine 5%ers uncomfortable. It was only a possibility, though, as not everyone can be expected to be magnanimous.

Little Knife grew curious, "Tell us, what exactly do you mean by ’understanding exactly’?"

Caught off guard, Lin Wu intended to say it was just a general idea, but since he’d spoken, he had to stubbornly follow through, "To tell the truth, Dawn’s tricks are quite devious. His moral value is passable, but he really enjoys setting traps." Unlike insurance, which covers your illiteracy, Dawn bets on your carelessness.

For example, if you were fooled by the trap of the Star of the Deep Sea and the Deep Blue Star, could you blame Dawn? Of course not, and even taking it to the Universal Court would be futile.

Having wasted so much time, they could only continue to look for clues.

"Room 17 is open." A corpse had unlocked the room.

This body belonged to a young girl, and from the information on her person, it was learned that she was an assistant at the celebrity studio of someone named Ding San. Carefully going through her work notes, they found on the last page a line written: Before 10 o’clock in the morning, take the maintained Deep Blue Star to room 17 on the 34th floor of Left County Hotel.

Lin Wu raised a question, "Do jewels need maintenance?"

Shana explained, "Cleaning and maintenance are necessary. Celebrities usually wear heavy makeup, and inevitably leave residue on the necklaces and jewels."

Lin Wu asked, "Does it cause damage?"

Shana replied, "If jewelry didn’t need maintenance, wouldn’t it not appear in the notebook? And wouldn’t players be unaware of which room contains the jewels?"

Lin Wu disagreed, "It’s precisely because the record is so clear that it raises suspicion. I think room 17 doesn’t have the Deep Blue Star."

Only by searching would they find out. The owner of room 17 was the female celebrity who took a photo with the bellboy, and she too was there to attend the TV drama’s opening ceremony. From the information of the assistant, it could be confirmed that celebrity Ding San was indeed the owner of the Deep Blue Star.

Because Lin Wu had shown off too much today, everyone was somewhat inclined to believe his speculation, searching for items with less enthusiasm. Peanut found a smartphone in a seam of the master bed, unlocked it using Ding San’s corpse, and gathered an important piece of information: the Deep Blue Star had been loaned by Ding San to Ding Si.

In this TV drama, Ding Si was the lead actress, while Ding Er and Ding San were supporting actresses, with Ding Yi as the producer. The drama centered around the Deep Blue Star, narrating the thirty years of Ding San’s acting career as portrayed by Ding Si. The Deep Blue Star had been with Ding San since she debuted, witnessing countless turmoils. To better film her biopic, Ding San had lent the Deep Blue Star as a prop to Ding Si.

Now there were two possibilities; the first, the Deep Blue Star might be with the production team, prop department, or producers. The second, the Deep Blue Star could be with Ding Si. Shana meticulously analyzed the social media communications between Ding San and Ding Si over the past month, asserting with certainty that the Deep Blue Star was in Ding Si’s possession.

The next task was to find Ding Si and the room he was in.

Lin Wu completely dropped his cocky demeanor, opting instead for silently slacking off. He knew when to stop before it became annoying. He had tricked Little Knife out of some hot water and snacks, then sat at the service desk to drink tea and eat, casually flipping through any textual materials at hand. From the duty roster to the delivery receipts, he read whatever he could find.

Then he saw a maintenance record and a room swap record stating that room 13 had a slight smell of smoke, so room 13 was switched to room 11, whose occupant was none other than Ding Si.

Lin Wu passed the information to Maya, who couldn’t help but ask with curiosity, "Are you and Dawn related?"

"Who would dare to have such a relative!"

Maya seemed confused, "On the surface, you seem to be having a great time, but you seem a bit down. What happened?"

"Did you know that men also have a few days each month when they go nuts?"

Here he goes again, Maya thought, ignoring Lin Wu and calling everyone to move the bodies and open room 11. Lin Wu joined in the work.

Today was Lin Wu’s birthday. During his childhood and even in middle school, the school and the life counselor would routinely order a birthday cake and a greeting card for him. This privilege lasted until Lin Wu went to college. Ever since then, every year on this day, Lin Wu would act particularly crazy, as if he wanted to make his presence felt more, yet also feeling sentimental and childish.

A girlfriend? When asked about his birthday, both girlfriends realized they had missed it, and neither relationship lasted until the next one.

It’s normal for people to act up occasionally, especially someone like Lin Wu who wasn’t too hard on himself.

An hour later, they successfully acquired the Deep Blue Star. After verifying the item was correct, the group split into two. This also reflected Lin Wu’s value in everyone’s eyes, as anyone else would have been escorted to exit 99. Lin Wu and Shana were free to move on their own, but even so, Lin Wu did not take it lightly, having already had a profound experience of Night Demon’s treachery.

...

Lin Sha kept up a conversation all the way to Bounty Hunter Hall, while Lin Wu came up from the 99th sewer, casually killing some Frenzies, finishing his own task, and taking on another private one. The tasks on the 34th floor were no ordinary matter. The uncle took a waist mirror, inspected the Deep Blue Star closely, and then solemnly led the two down to the basement.

Uttering a formula under his breath that lasted a weird 30 seconds, the floor to the left of the service desk slid open, revealing a staircase. Once in the basement, they saw it was filled with cabinets, each labeled with a number. The uncle explained the rules for selecting prizes.

The task had a difficulty of C+, and a team of seven completed it. Lin Wu could choose to open any cabinet with a C+7 at the end of its number, or just a C+ cabinet. The difference was that a C+ cabinet contained just one prize, while a C+7 cabinet contained seven.

Shana asked, "Uncle, are the prizes the same?"

The uncle answered, "That depends on luck. Theoretically, the quality of the single prize would be higher than the individual quality of the seven. You guys can discuss it amongst yourselves and pick whatever you want." After saying this, the uncle left on his own.

Lin Wu did not consider the possibility of theft; such a bug was impossible in Dawn—perhaps they’d use the opportunity to catch you stealing and deal with you on the spot. The resolute Lin Wu with full conviction said, "Let’s go with the seven."

Shana objected, "You know, seven pieces of junk aren’t as good as one high-quality item."

Lin Wu replied, "One high-quality item can’t explain things to seven people." If they had agreed beforehand, certainly they’d choose one. Without prior agreement, Lin Wu wouldn’t decide for others.

"Alright then." Shana randomly pointed at a cabinet.

Lin Wu nodded, "Okay."

When they opened the cabinet, inside were seven white boxes, each weighing 0.1 kilograms.