Chapter 411 - 358: Jin Xueli: The Sequel to Taking the Original Liquid and the Balloon Smiley Face

After leaving a Nest, Hunters always fall into a long, deep sleep, losing all track of time.

Jin Xueli thought she was long used to it. This time, however, when she finally opened her eyes from her long slumber and groggily tapped her phone screen, she vaguely realized just how long she had been asleep.

'My phone even died?'

She dragged her empty shell of a body, her steps unsteady, and mindlessly went through the motions of her post-Nest routine: she called room service, then ate, ate, and ate some more, yelping four or five times from biting her tongue in her haste. She showered, brushed her teeth, changed clothes, and combed her hair—by this point, the woman in the mirror finally looked human again, ready to go out.

Jin Xueli tapped her charging phone. The screen lit up, telling her it was 11:32 AM on December 3rd.

"What's the date?" Jin Xueli cried out involuntarily, even suspecting her phone's time zone was wrong. 'Did it reset to UTC+8 when it restarted?'

'December 3rd?'

'Did someone steal my time?'

She clearly remembered it all. On the night of November 28th, she'd gotten the Original Liquid and entered the night university. After the general course, she'd hidden until dawn, only to find the community college had moved to a new location. With the threat of the shopkeeper's pursuit gone, she had finally left... She hadn't gotten back to Blackmoor City until the afternoon of November 29th.

To have slept for four days… No wonder she felt so weak and dizzy when she woke up. She was starving.

'Was it because this trip into the Nest had been so mentally harrowing, full of terrifying twists and turns?'

'Thinking about it now, despite all the twists and turns, she really had nothing to complain about.'

Her main objective had been achieved with unexpected ease... Jin Xueli caressed the cold water bottle, still in a bit of a daze.

The heavy liquid sloshing inside the bottle represented nine million in stocks.

It meant one hundred million in cash.

It also meant another woman's life—

'No, don't overthink it. It's not certain. There's no need to torture myself with it. Stop thinking.'

Jin Xueli gripped the water bottle so tightly her knuckles turned white.

She took a deep breath. As she looked up, she saw Scott's secretary hanging up the phone.

"Please, follow me," the secretary said, rising hastily. "Mr. Scott has been waiting for you..."

Being close to the company's core, she was obviously aware of NuLife's recent crisis, and a shadow of panic seemed to cloud her face. That was understandable. Since walking into the NuLife Company, Jin Xueli had seen more than one employee looking anxious; she'd even spotted someone secretly browsing job ads.

"Where are we going?" Jin Xueli asked after taking a few steps with the secretary, noticing they were heading out of the company building.

The secretary gave a wry smile.

"Mr. Scott has been telling everyone he's on a business trip. He doesn't come to the office or see visitors. When he needs to handle work, he does it from his private reception room upstairs. Even the employees don't know he's here. If he hadn't just told me he was waiting for you, I would have used the same excuse to turn you away."

'It's like he's dodging his debts—No, considering the orders placed by distributors that they can't fulfill now, Scott probably *is* dodging his debts.'

"This is it." The secretary, apparently aware that Jin Xueli was carrying a company secret, tactfully stopped at the door of the reception room. "I won't go in. He's waiting for you."

Jin Xueli nodded her thanks and knocked on the door.

Whether because the room was too large or for some other reason, Scott didn't hear. No one answered the door.

Jin Xueli looked around, but the building's interior design was too minimalist and modern; she couldn't find a doorbell anywhere. She glanced back, but the secretary was long gone.

'I'll just have to knock again. What other choice is there?'

Jin Xueli raised her hand, but just as it was about to land on the door, she paused.

'...That's strange. The secretary said Scott wasn't seeing any visitors, right?'

'Why did it sound like people were talking in there just now? Was he on the phone?'

You'd be hard-pressed to find a Hunter in Blackmoor City who wouldn't secretly prick up their ears to eavesdrop on a conversation. If a person had too many manners and respected boundaries, they couldn't be a Hunter in the first place.

Without a moment's hesitation, Jin Xueli pressed her ear to the door.

"...Not enough... I'm not thinking big enough." It was Scott's voice, a little muffled.

The other person was either far from the door or spoke in a low voice, making them even more indistinct.

But for some reason, that faint, muffled voice felt somewhat familiar to Jin Xueli. She couldn't make out the words; only that soft, deep male voice, spreading out from behind the door, as if a dark night sky were unfurling.

"It's a waste of its potential," Scott murmured. "The current version is too weak..."

The other male voice said something.

Scott fell silent.

"...Jin Xueli?" he suddenly said.

Jin Xueli was so startled she almost threw the water bottle from her hand. She quickly took a step back, held her breath, and after waiting a few seconds, she knocked on the door.

This time, Scott opened the door immediately. He had clearly started walking toward it the moment he spoke her name.

Scott, whom she hadn't seen in nearly a week, looked like a completely different person. His eyeballs were yellowed, the corners of his eyes shot with blood. Without any styling products, his hair looked noticeably limp and thin. There was even an old coffee stain on his clothes.

"You found it?" Scott didn't even bother with a greeting, his eyes immediately glued to the water bottle in Jin Xueli's hand. "Th-this is it?"

"See if it's the right stuff," Jin Xueli said, quickly handing him the bottle, afraid that if she were a second too late, Scott would bite her hand off.

Scott spun around, clutched the water bottle, and strode back into the reception room. Jin Xueli followed him inside and scanned the room—besides herself and Scott, it was empty.

'...So he really was on the phone? On speaker?'

Scott placed his phone on the sofa. As soon as he sat down, he eagerly twisted open the cap and took a deep sniff.

"This is it!" His entire face lit up. "This is it, it's perfect, this is it! You really found it! How much is in this bottle?"

"One liter," Jin Xueli said. She remembered him saying last time that one liter would be enough to restart the production line.

"Good, good, good," Scott said, his face flushed with excitement. He looked up, full of expectation, and asked, "Where's the rest?"

'The rest of what?'

"You have more in your bag, right?" Scott glanced at her backpack, urging her, "Take it out."

"Isn't one liter enough?" Jin Xueli was dumbfounded. "I risked my life to get this one bottle."

Scott's face visibly contorted.

"How could one liter be enough?"

He started to raise his voice, but then seemed to realize Jin Xueli was his lifeline and forced himself to calm down and explain. "Oh, oh, you don't know. You weren't here... I've been racking my brain these past few days, trying to figure out how to avoid this problem in the future. The pressure is immense right now, isn't it? But if the production line were to halt *after* we secure venture capital, the pressure I'd be under then would be on a completely different level than what I'm facing now."

Stroking the mouth of the bottle, he said, "I've experimented on myself. The results were good. Very good. I've figured it out. The Original Liquid is too diluted right now, the effect is barely noticeable... That's why everyone is in a position to pressure me... Essentially, it's because I need them more than they need me."

"So?"

"So you did a great job!"

Scott slammed the table, accidentally shaking the bottle. "I'm going to increase the dosage, reduce the dilution. I want to make 'Brain Hacker' have an effect far beyond anyone's imagination, to leave the entire market—no, the entire era—in the dust. Only then will the whole world be begging me for it. I'll supply it when I say I'll supply it. They'll only take back their investment when *I* refuse it. Only then—"

He finally noticed the bottle was so full that a little of the Original Liquid had sloshed out. He quickly wiped the liquid from the bottle's rim with his finger, then stuck the finger in his mouth and sucked on it a couple of times.

Jin Xueli stared, stunned.

"In short, I need you to go back and get as much Original Liquid as you can. Forget three percent of the shares, I could give you thirty percent. No, no, I'm not writing blank checks... How about this? The company will pay you for the trip, so you're not going for free. How about it?"

Jin Xueli looked at the bottle, then at Scott.

'Morando once said that after a Hunter from the Knight Family drank something that sounded a lot like the Original Liquid, his eyeballs grew bigger and bigger, until you could barely see the whites...'

That, however, wasn't happening to Scott.

Scott just looked at her, staring intently at her,

watching her, watching her watching watching watching he's talking he's watching he's talking he's so right watching talking watching

so right she has to go she goes once brings back a bottle of Original Liquid gets five hundred thousand reward from start to finish all she ever wanted was money the company goes public public public watching her not just one hundred million cash so right watching her he says money wealth beyond imagination

She'd even seen a world as incredible as the Nest,

yet she still couldn't set foot in the world of the rich.

watching saying so right he's so right Original Liquid go again richest woman in the world not even a watching her dream

When a sudden phone call pierced Jin Xueli's daze and fantasy, it took her several seconds to steady herself and pull back from the roiling sea of her consciousness.

'...Huh?'

'When did I leave Scott's reception room?'

Jin Xueli then realized she was standing on the rooftop of the office building, the wind howling around her. Looking down through the railing, she saw the bustling streets of Blackmoor City.

So many cars, so many people, coming and going tirelessly... as if watching colonies of ants, oblivious to the coming flood.

Jin Xueli was so high up that not a single person in the dense crowd below noticed she had one foot on the rooftop railing, preparing to jump.

The phone continued to ring, drawing her gaze downward.

In one hand was the constantly vibrating and ringing phone; in the other, a check from the NuLife Company.

It was as if her fear of heights suddenly reawakened, squeezing her heart tight. Jin Xueli scrambled down from the edge of the roof and quickly pocketed the check, her mind still in a disoriented haze.

'...What happened?'

'Was I just so happy that I zoned out for a bit and didn't even notice when I left the office building?'

Jin Xueli looked at her phone screen and saw the call was from Amber, whom she hadn't contacted in a while.

"Hello?" Amber's voice came urgently through the phone. "Jin Xueli, you finally decided to answer?"

"Amber?" she said, her voice hoarse. "I just got back from the Nest. I only just woke up..."

"I know," Amber interrupted. "Not only do I know you just got back from the Nest, I also know you did something major."

"Huh?"

"I don't know the details of your trip, but I know one thing." Here, Amber lowered her voice. "You've thoroughly pissed off the Knight Family. For the past few days, the Knight Family's Hunters have been asking about your whereabouts. I heard they even found your apartment address. You didn't go home, did you?"

…That was true.

After returning to Blackmoor City this time, Jin Xueli had been as exhausted as a drowned ghost crawling ashore. Plus, knowing that her first priority upon waking would be food, she had checked into a nearby hotel instead of going home.

"I asked around as much as I could for you," Amber said. "In the Nest, did you take something from the Knight Family's territory? They found out, and now it seems they're out for blood, hunting you all over Blackmoor City. Whatever you do, don't go home—"

Jin Xueli didn't hear what Amber said next.

She watched the smiling face, swelling like a balloon, as it slowly rose from the edge of the rooftop, and she slowly lowered her phone.

"Fouuund. Yooou," the balloon-like smiling face said.