Transforming Succubus: Almost Doomsday

Zhou Baiyu didn't dare to gamble.

He had finally understood why sister Lin had told him to remain silent earlier.

Now he was almost certain that if corruption emerged in his world, the forerunners would receive defensive task assignments.

And it was very likely that the woman he had encountered that day was the source of corruption!

Grateful, Zhou Baiyu glanced at sister Lin:

"Thank you."

For middlemen, their relationship with the forerunners was basically that of a shopkeeper to customers.

But certain interesting forerunners did enjoy the appreciation of the middlemen.

Such as Jiang Xianwu and Guang Tongchen.

Had Zhou Baiyu revealed to other forerunners that he had encountered a corrupt being before the defense task was released...

The moment the defense task appeared and the news of his encounter with the corrupt being accidentally got out... It would undoubtedly make him the focus of all forerunners.

The other forerunners would also find ways to take the moral high ground, pressing Zhou Baiyu to disclose the situation by invoking the future of the forerunners and the safety of the original world.

In the future, Zhou Baiyu's predicament would become very passive.

Since middlemen are not absolutely neutral and guided by self-interest, Zhou Baiyu was grateful to be the favored one.

Sister Lin said:

"As long as you don't skimp on spending in the future, I'll take extra good care of you~"

Zhou Baiyu smiled and responded with a phrase sister Lin had said before:

"Business is business, and sentiment is sentiment."

Right now, Zhou Baiyu did not have the forerunner points to be grateful to sister Lin.

In fact, he had also doubted which side the middlemen stood on. Did 'middle' refer to their work at the transfer station, or did it imply... an absolute neutrality?

He began to ponder the information he had seen.

"Looking at the version 1.0 update announcement, it validates one of my suspicions."

"The announcement mentioned this — the increasingly common drop of cross-version items has also led to a tighter connection between the relevant worlds."

"My speculation was not wrong; the Advanced World and the original world may indeed become 'closer'."

This 'closer' was not about physical proximity, but rather the future possibility that, under certain rules, a passage would emerge connecting the two worlds.

If such a convergence occurred, the efforts of humanity in the Advanced World would not be meaningless.

This was just Zhou Baiyu's guess.

At that moment, there were more urgent matters to deal with, so Zhou Baiyu did not delve deeper into his thoughts.

He suddenly became very curious about how the guild leaders, or the elites among the forerunners, viewed the defense mode.

Guang Tongchen had actually started a private chat with him:

"Finally online? Are you familiar with Linxiang City? Should we meet in person? If you're afraid, I can give you my information first."

The explosive news of wanting to meet offline right away, but before Zhou Baiyu could reply, Ling Hansu also sent a message:

"Big brother Jiang, Wuer Guild Leader asked me to assist him... I'm sorry, I exposed my identity previously because I trusted the people in the guild too much."

"But only the leader of Dafengqi and Wuer Guild Leader know my true identity. Wuer Guild Leader also knows my special ability, and he really hopes I can use it to help."

"What should I do, big brother Jiang?"

Brilliant.

Truly worthy of being Wuer.

This strategy was indeed brilliant because knowing that the Ice Demon was in Linxiang City meant that upon the arrival of corruption there, the Ice Demon might have more insight into certain matters.

Most importantly, Wuer had reached the same research conclusion as Doctor A through his own observations — the soul determines special abilities.

Linxiang City was vast; to find a corrupt being hidden within was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

But with the Snow Demon involved, there might be another way to search.

Zhou Baiyu first responded to Guang Tongchen:

"I have a life-and-death rapport with the President, and I certainly trust the President, but President, it's not yet time for us to expose our identities."

Then he responded to Ling Hansu:

"Reject the request of 'Unparalleled Under Heaven' and leave Linxiang City overnight."

Ling Hansu responded quickly:

"Why? Brother Jiang, my family… actually has a lot of money, I can help you make connections, investigate the recent homicides, so you can find the murderer sooner."

Since the updated announcement mentioned that there had been a recent murder case, the most straightforward clue was to investigate the case and find the murderer, which was the same as finding the corrupt source.

Strike it down while the corrupt source is still weak.

This was a very correct line of thought, albeit an easy one to come up with, but Zhou Baiyu still praised,

"Not bad, you're starting to think. But I don't need it. Listen to me, Linxiang City is not safe, leave Linxiang City overnight, you remember what you said, right?"

Ling Hansu of course remembered, which was whatever Zhou Baiyu said, she would do.

But she didn't quite understand why Big Brother Zhou didn't need it?

Not to mention her financial resources could help Big Brother Zhou, even her special traits might come in handy…

'Unparalleled Under Heaven' realized this too.

And the other Pioneers were also forming teams in search of reliable teammates.

Ever since the Defense Mode was introduced, it had unexpectedly promoted the Pioneers' "offline gatherings."

The teammates that most Pioneers would choose were those they had teamed up with before.

To some extent, everyone had participated in multilateral recruitments, and there were also guild trials when they first joined.

Apart from a very few unaffiliated Mutators who no one in the guilds wanted, practically each person had at least a few comrades with whom they had shared life and death experiences.

The Devious Wife and the Kneeling Mule Pawn decided to meet.

Everyone realized that in such a scenario, teaming up increased the chances of victory.

Because they were no longer fighting using "accounts," they had lost their initial identities.

Instead, everyone was using their true bodies to investigate corruption.

After experiencing the Advanced World, the Pioneers' courage exceeded that of ordinary people. Upon learning about the Defense Mode, they were shocked for a while, but they were quickly able to reluctantly accept it.

But to confront corruption in the real world, everyone also believed it was inadvisable to fight individually.

Almost all the discussions on the forums were about the corruption infiltrating Linxiang City.

Ling Hansu was very obedient, rejecting the request of 'Unparalleled Under Heaven' and expressing her fear, stating she would leave Linxiang City overnight.

'Unparalleled Under Heaven' was helpless, probably guessing that the Snow Demon had listened to Jiang Xianwu's words.

He also wanted to cooperate with Jiang Xianwu, but Jiang Xianwu was probably already targeted by Guang Tongchen, wasn't he?

With no other options, 'Unparalleled Under Heaven' prepared to cooperate with Huan Liuyan.

It wasn't that he necessarily needed a teammate, but Huan Liuyan had items that could be used in the original world.

Such items would make a lot of things more convenient for him.

On the other hand, Huan Liuyan also needed to rely on the financial resources and connections of 'Unparalleled Under Heaven' in real life.

The two were forming a powerful alliance.

Their alliance also prompted many others to follow suit, all seeking teammates.

But Zhou Baiyu didn't need teammates, he really didn't.

Because in this mission, his starting point was already higher than the endpoints of many Pioneers.

And most crucially, the corrupt seed… seemed to quite fancy him.