Part-time Boss
Chapter 79 - 79 79 Nightmare and Visit

79: Chapter 79 Nightmare and Visit 79: Chapter 79 Nightmare and Visit Mo Fei found himself in utter darkness, and a cacophony of voices echoed in his ears.

“Hero, please help us…

A wicked Green Dragon lives on that mountain, its venomous spit has polluted the land, and our crops are dead.”

“Hero, please save us…

In the cave by the sea lives a White Dragon, it breathes Dragon Breath every day, freezing over the sea, we can’t fish, and we’re nearly starving to death.”

“Hero, please help me, my daughter was kidnapped by a Blue Dragon, taken to the mountains; please rescue her, I will offer you gold, silver, and riches, and proclaim your heroic name to the people of the Kingdom.”

“Hero…”

So noisy!

Mo Fei opened his eyes, and the jumbled noise suddenly ceased, a fiery red glow filling his vision.

Mo Fei found himself lying in the midst of molten magma, surrounded by scalding lava and flames.

He felt no pain, but a warmth instead.

The molten rock enveloped him like hot water, and it felt as though he had returned to his mother’s embrace.

“Hero, quick, look!

That’s the monster, kill him!

Kill him!”

That voice rang out once more, followed by the sound of footsteps vibrating the ground.

Someone was approaching his resting place, wanting to kill him…

Mo Fei felt a surge of anger rising in his heart, and he angrily crawled out of the molten rock, only to find before him was not a lair of some monster in the lava, but a warrior with a long spear in hand.

He stood at the entrance of a cave, inside which a pair of dragon’s eyes glowed a ghostly red, staring at him from the darkness.

“You think that by killing me, you could win the people’s love?

You think that by killing me, you could earn the King’s reward?

Foolish Dragon Slayer, you are no different from me, feared for your power, coveted for your rarity,” emerged a Red Dragon from the darkness, with its elegantly beautiful stature and terrifyingly noble fangs.

“Kill!” Mo Fei’s perspective soared, a long spear thrusting mightily from his hands into the creature’s chest, blood gushing as the Red Dragon collapsed with a thunderous fall.

A moment of dizziness…

No, that wasn’t a Red Dragon, but a Magma Earth Dragon, strikingly familiar.

The surroundings weren’t a dark cave, but a hot magma cavern, and in the Earth Dragon’s eyes wasn’t anger, but tranquility.

“O seeker of the Dragon’s power, turn back now, or you are doomed to become like me.”

Mo Fei’s mind wavered, the creature before him transforming again into that Red Dragon.

He drew his long knife and gouged the Dragon Heart from its chest, the scorching Dragon Heart shining with a fire-like gleam, exuding an enticing sweetness and a salty scent.

Hey—huh—ha!

Heh—huh—ha!

That familiar chant arose once again, and suddenly it became cold around him.

He found himself standing at the round table in the ritual hall of Dragon Delight, surrounded by warriors as fierce as him, holding long spears and swords, their mouths dripping with fresh blood, some clutching half-eaten Dragon Hearts.

Everyone was looking at him, shouting and singing to him, their faces filled with ecstatic joy.

A whisper followed…

“Eat it, Flol, Devour that power!”

Mo Fei bit down without hesitation, with a feeling of ecstasy and satisfaction swelling within him.

The heart of the Red Dragon, the heart of the Green Dragon, the heart of the Blue Dragon, the heart of the Earth Dragon—there was no difference, he devoured them all, consuming their power…

The hearts of dragons could never be fully consumed, the more he ate, the hungrier he became, the more he ate, the thirstier he grew.

Mo Fei felt his body expanding, his skin tearing apart, and it was as if flames were burning in his blood.

He struggled on the ground, rolling around as his body continued to grow larger.

His back tore open, and something burrowed its way out.

Ah!

He let out a heart-wrenching howl and suddenly collapsed onto the ground.

The cold floor turned into a mirror, and through the mirror, he could clearly see the reflection of a terrifying monster.

The monster’s eyes met his, with no tranquility, only the primal desire to kill and to Devour everything…

Mo Fei woke up with a start from the dream.

He sat up and found himself sitting on his own bed, surrounded by the familiar scenery of his bedroom.

There were no monsters, no heroes, no dragons, and no Dragon Slayers—just himself.

——————

He let out a sigh of relief, whew, thankfully it was just a dream, a terrifying nightmare but, wait, a dream!

A chill ran down Mo Fei’s spine as he remembered that Morphis had begun to manifest starting from a dream.

Could it be happening again?

His heart started beating erratically.

It shouldn’t be possible.

Morphis had gradually come into being through his long-term role-playing in the game, and according to the technical advisor Wang Xuan, it was an intelligent AI that emerged from the computer program’s continuous simulation of virtual life.

Although Mo Fei didn’t particularly believe what Wang Xuan had said, he could be certain of one thing: this phenomenon was extremely rare.

It should be just a nightmare caused by the game experience he had during the day.

He reassured himself, and got out of bed feeling extremely thirsty.

He went to the water dispenser in the living room, filled a large cup of water, and gulped it down in one go, which made him feel much better.

He didn’t know if it was because of the air conditioning, but he felt an intense heat all over his body, and the air seemed bone-dry.

Mo Fei walked into the bathroom and washed his face with cold water.

When he looked up into the mirror, his eyes appeared slightly red, perhaps due to poor sleep.

He was about to take a closer look when he suddenly noticed a mist forming on the mirror.

Eh?

Where did this mist come from?

He looked down in surprise to find that the water droplets on his hands were rapidly evaporating, giving off wafts of steam, as if his hands were radiators.

What the heck is going on?

He defiantly poured some more water on his hands.

Sure enough, his hands were heating up.

Although he himself only felt a slight warmth, his body temperature at this moment was definitely not low.

He searched the medicine box for a thermometer, held it in his hand, and in just a few seconds, it burst with a bang.

This truly frightened Mo Fei.

He hurriedly threw the thermometer into the trash can and cleaned off the mercury.

Looking at his hands, he faintly felt that he was undergoing some kind of strange transformation.

He abruptly remembered the game’s task warning.

[Warning: Completing the storyline task will have a profound impact on the World’s lore and can grant the player powerful abilities.

However, such tasks come with certain risks.

Please be psychologically prepared when undertaking them.]

Gaining powerful strength comes with certain dangers, be mentally prepared… In an instant, everything became clear.

Could it be that I can acquire abilities from the game?

What ability did I gain, could it be a body of magma?

That would explain why I feel so hot.

Does that mean I’m now immune to flames?

He picked up a lighter, ignited it and placed his hand over it, one second, two seconds, three seconds—his palm felt slightly warm.

By the fourth, fifth, sixth second, it grew increasingly hot, and it seemed by the eighth second he finally couldn’t stand it and pulled his hand back.

He looked at his hand, the areas burned by the fire were slightly red, but that was all.

He found it hard to believe yet couldn’t deny it, his heart filled with fear and excitement.

Did this count as acquiring superpowers?

No, I must find Wang Xuan and ask him for clarification.

He felt the other party must know something.

The moment he picked up the phone, he hesitated.

Should he tell the other party about the changes in his body, and would that bring him danger?

But then he thought it shouldn’t be a problem—the whole game was created by the Cangqiong company.

If there was anything wrong, the other party should have known about it already.

From the last conversation with Wang Xuan, it’s clear that the game is hiding some kind of secret, and the players uncovering these secrets seemed to be encouraged.

Even the appearance of Morphis didn’t seem to be a big deal to them; this time shouldn’t be too serious either.

He dialed Wang Xuan’s number, although it was three o’clock in the morning, he had a feeling the other party would pick up.

As expected, the phone was answered after just two rings.

“Hello, Mr.

Mo Fei, what’s up so late at night?”

“I do have something, I need to talk to you.”

“What happened, you haven’t encountered another game bug, have you?” The voice on the other end didn’t sound impatient at all.

In fact, there was a hint of anticipation.

Mo Fei thought that if it were just a game bug, it would be simple, but this is a bug in reality.

He opened his mouth but didn’t know where to start.

Directly saying his body temperature could burst thermometers, quickly evaporate cold water, and withstand a lighter for several seconds…

This sort of thing sounded utterly unimpressive.

The other person might think he’s insane, and what’s worse, the other person might know what’s happening but could just fob him off.

If he could breathe fire or shoot lasers from his eyes, then he could boldly shout out and demand the truth from the other party.

After some thought, he could only vaguely say, “There seems to be some problem with my body, I suspect it’s caused by your company’s game.”

“Oh, really?

Haha, that’s really interesting, what exactly is the problem?”

The tone on the other end was not at all surprised, quite relaxed, which made Mo Fei’s mood relax as well.

“Can we meet to talk?

The situation is a bit complicated, hard to explain clearly.”

“No problem, then how about you come to our company tomorrow?

Do you know where Cangqiong Building is?

Once you’re here, just tell the reception you’re looking for Wang Xuan from the tech department, she’ll know.

If the security doesn’t let you in, just use my business card.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow.”

The next day, Mo Fei got up early, feeling that there shouldn’t be any danger today.

Nonetheless, just to be safe, he sent an email to Shadow and chose to delay its delivery for 24 hours.

If something were to happen to him, he wanted to ensure that people would learn the secret.

Then he drove to Cangqiong Building in the center of City S.

The Cangqiong Building was also a famous structure in City S, a newly built skyscraper standing a hundred floors tall that the Cangqiong Group had boldly purchased for sixty-five billion and had no intention of renting out any floors to other businesses.

So the entire building was occupied solely by the Cangqiong Group.

This fact alone showed that the Cangqiong Group really wasn’t short on money.

Walking into the lobby of the building, he told the pretty receptionist his business.

At first, she maintained a formulaic expression, but when she saw the business card of Wang Xuan that he provided, she immediately switched to a respectful demeanor.

“Accessing the tech department requires special permission, please use the internal elevator over there.”

Mo Fei thanked her and entered the elevator, his eyes slowly scanning the floor buttons.

The 100th floor—Chairman’s Office.

99th floor—Empty.

98th floor—Empty.

97th floor—Empty.

The utilization rate of this Cangqiong Building was infuriatingly low, only until the 66th floor did it display as Cangqiong Group Business Department.

All departments of the Cangqiong Group were concentrated within ten floors in the middle; below that, it was empty again—empty—empty—empty.

Tech Department, Tech Department, Tech Department…

His gaze finally landed on the bottom button, where he saw the label for the tech department.

Basement Level 3—Cangqiong Group Tech Department.

It was actually in the basement.

Mo Fei pressed the button for the third floor, and as the elevator slowly descended, his heart also began to elevate.