Wen Wen only panicked for a brief moment before calming down and looking at the scene with a grave expression.
He neither lost the reverence he ought to have, nor did he make foolish moves out of arrogance, displaying the temperament befitting an Excellent Demon Hunter, which made Gong Baoding nod in approval silently by his side.
"Looking at him, he must have been scared; no surprise there, since he hasn’t been a superpower user for long, and it’s normal for him not to have seen much of the world..."
"If he were also a person from the Sanctuary, he should have experienced that person’s qi and not have been so easily frightened..."
"So, is he really from the Sanctuary or not..."
Gong Baoding’s judgment of Wen Wen became somewhat blurred.
On closer consideration, he had never seen Wen Wen wear the Containment Officer’s uniform, nor had he seen him use that chain. Everything was merely based on the similarities between the monsters at the Sanctuary and the monsters Wen Wen had faced.
Following that, the two proceeded to investigate the crime scene, the Hunters Association has its own procedure for investigating abnormal energy.
They aimed to gather as much information as possible while ensuring safety.
Under the veteran guidance of Gong Baoding, Wen Wen surveyed his own residual energies, and also learned how to "freeload" effectively while at work.
Inside an old rental house, a slightly overweight man was rapidly typing on his keyboard.
He was an online writer named Sun Wei, pen name "Sleepless Whisper."
He was still behind on his updates, so he was working particularly hard.
This job might not make him a lot of money, but it was enough to support himself, so he was content.
After wracking his brain to finish the day’s update, he casually opened the novel website to read the comments there.
Reviewing reader comments after a day’s writing was the most fulfilling part of his day.
Suddenly, a comment with seven or eight replies, recently posted, caught his eye.
"When did the comment section of my book become so lively? It would be great if it could always be this lively."
He clicked to read it, and before he finished, he felt infuriated, almost to the point of smashing his keyboard.
It turned out to be a comment from a pirate reader; the fact that they read pirates was one thing—he couldn’t stop the vast majority who did so—but the content of this reader’s comment really got to him.
"For such trash writing, how can you have the nerve to charge money? I just want to provoke you a bit so you’ll show some shame. Everyone, go read the pirated version. It’s free anyway."
Sun Wei was ridiculously frustrated—trash writing, yet you read up to the paid Chapters! How could you even bring yourself to say that?
The comment also faced backlash from legitimate readers, which was why there were so many replies.
While he knew that simply deleting this person’s comment and banning them would end the matter as being a novelist inevitably opens one to criticism, Sun Wei couldn’t stomach such remarks.
He grabbed his keyboard as if it were a sword, his fingers danced upon it as if they had touched chili oil, spewing stinging obscenities.
For Sun Wei, cursing required no skill, just fast typing. As long as you typed faster than your opponent, you considered that a win.
Luckily, Sun Wei was genuinely fast at typing.
This battle of words was intensely satisfying and served as an outlet for his emotions.
Since becoming a novelist, he had always felt stifled. Music, videos, and movies, other types of pirated content faced crackdowns, so why was online fiction piracy unresolved, or even slightly curbed?
Among all his readers, perhaps only one percent, or even fewer, were paying to read.
There might be many reasons: low cost of piracy, difficult control, search engines unwilling to regulate, advertising agencies willing to advertise on pirated websites, legitimate reading being too expensive, and so on. If one were to look for reasons, they would be endless.
But reasons are just reasons after all.
All of these have formed a massive, blood-sucking chain of interests, and everyone involved in this chain, including the vast majority of readers, is more than happy.
Only the original creators and a few legitimate readers are complaining.
However, their voices are insignificant and they can’t change anything.
In such a predicament, when pirated readers come to mock him, Sun Wei really couldn’t stand it.
This cursing battle wasn’t a moment of hot-headedness, but an eruption of long-suppressed emotions.
After the cursing, Sun Wei felt refreshed all over, as if he had spent a day in a sauna. Smiling, he gave the other party a mute and block combo, then went to wash up.
Let him hang there overnight, and delete his account tomorrow morning, simply delightful.
For Sun Wei, this was enough to make him happy.
Ever since he started trying to write, he hadn’t had any extra entertainment for a long time.
In his sleep, Sun Wei felt something strange. He stood up, walked over to the computer and then... he dived into it!
Inside the computer, Sun Wei soared through the green streams of data, feeling very comfortable.
To him, this didn’t feel odd because it was a dream, and anything could happen in a dream.
When he stopped, he saw the reader who was furious because of getting banned. A dark joy rose in his heart.
As he continued watching, a wicked thought arose in Sun Wei’s mind, "Since it’s a dream, nothing I do matters, right."
Sun Wei grabbed a kitchen knife from the kitchen, carefully approached the man from behind, staked the knife into his back, and then grabbed a chair and wildly beat the man’s head.
After a few hits, the man no longer moved, but Sun Wei kept beating, as if venting something. When he stopped, the man was beyond recognition.
With his hands slightly sore and shaking, Sun Wei lay back on his bed and smiled, "This dream feels so real..."
He shook his head, if it weren’t for his dreaming, he wouldn’t know that he could become so crazed.
"But if it weren’t a dream, I probably wouldn’t have been able to beat this guy, this person is tall and strong, and I am just a fat nerd..."
Then, he laid on the ground and fell back into a deep sleep.
Yesterday, he had been investigating his own blunders until midnight.
Today, Wen Wen arrived at the Hunters Association early in the morning, even buying breakfast and bananas for Ding Mingguang.
The banana was for that monkey, though he wasn’t sure if it could eat them.
Ding Mingguang had assured that today they could definitely track down Yan Biqing’s whereabouts, so Wen Wen had come.
As for the chase for Yan Biqing, Ding Mingguang seemed even more anxious than Wen Wen. After obtaining a computer, he had been guarding it and ceaselessly tracking down clues.
When Wen Wen arrived, the people of the Hunters Association were all gathered around Ding Mingguang, waiting for clues.
Wen Wen gently leaped to sit on a chair without making a sound, afraid to disturb Ding Mingguang’s concentration.
After waiting for just over an hour, Ding Mingguang suddenly opened his eyes,