Phantasmal Genesis - Chapter 40: Going nuts

“Eh?” The woman covered her mouth with her hand in shock as she stared at Chen Zhou, “You found out?”

“……”

I wouldn’t have found out if you didn’t admit to it. Chen Zhou’s face was creased with wrinkles.

Then, the man spoke.

“Do you want to try running away?”

The man smiled as he asked, completely unfazed.

Chen Zhou’s expression was dark, his eyes darting at the surroundings.

There were originally 400 people here to watch the competition, he didn’t care too much then, but now that he looked again.

The four hundred people had completely surrounded this place, and all of their faces had strange expressions as they stared at him.

“You guys……”

Chen Zhou was bitter, and since the mahjong had been dealt automatically by the table, he started to touch his tiles stiffly.

“When did you guys start noticing me?”

He knew that resistance was futile, it was upsetting that he didn’t have a martial god operating system instead! Was it even possible for him to escape when he was surrounded by 400 people!

The woman cooperated and picked up a tile with her tender hand, speaking unbotheredly.

“Why don’t you take a guess?”

“I can tell you that we were the ones that rushed to prepare this mahjong competition just for you!”

Chen Zhou was stunned, and his hand hesitated for a moment before it threw out a tile.

No wonder, he had just gotten his gambling skills yesterday, and he had coincidentally found out about the mahjong competition on the way home.

It wasn’t obvious then, but now that he thought of it, the signup booth was pretty crude……it was as if it was something that was prepared in a rush.

And all the contestants were uncles and aunties that could be found on the street……

Not only that, there was also never any mahjong competition hosted in Tian Hai city before……

Chen Zhou understood now, it was all a trap!

“You guys are officials aren’t you!”

Chen Zhou glanced at the people surrounding him again, they were standing in uniform, straight postures that were ready to pounce at any moment as they stared coldly at him.

He couldn’t think of another elite group in the city capable of setting up such a competition in such a short time other than the government.

“How were you guys so sure that I would be here?” Chen Zhou was curious.

The man shrugged and said, “We didn’t know either! If you had somehow lost along the way, we would probably still surveil you for a bit.”

“……”

Chen Zhou held his breath, he was stunned.

That meant……

If I had lost……

These people might not have caught him……?

I……

Chen Zhou didn’t know what to say, his expression stupified.

“Alright, I admit it.”

He dejectedly hung his head and decided to let it all out.

“I’ll admit it, I cheated.”

“Sigh,” Chen Zhou sighed and shook his head, “I didn’t expect to get caught the first time I cheated, but isn’t it too much for you guys to bring 400 people to catch me?”

Chen Zhou felt a little lucky, these people might not know about something like an operating system, which bordered on black technology. Perhaps they were here to catch something that he didn’t know about.

If he came clean, and if they weren’t looking for the supergenius operating system, but a cheater instead? He would be truly idiotic then.

They were here to fish for a carp, but then a whale chose to jump on land by itself……

“Pffft.”

With a disdainful laugh, the man stood up and looked down at Chen Zhou. He mocked, “Chen Zhou, are you an idiot?”

“We investigated you.”

“24 years old, you’ve never learned to carve, but you’re carving wooden sculptures that would even put world-class masters to shame. You’ve never learned to cook, but your skills are within the top 10 of the country. You’ve never learned to play mahjong, but you won over a hundred dollars from the elderly yesterday in a mahjong room……”

Staring at the dumbfounded Chen Zhou, the man laughed and spoke coldly, “Don’t tell me that you’re a child genius!”

“I……”

The flustered Chen Zhou opened his mouth, wanting to quibble against the man’s words, but as the words were about to leave his mouth, he decided against it.

He bit his dried lips and ridiculed himself, “I was that obvious, huh……”

Seeing Chen Zhou’s admittance, the man and the woman looked at each other as a wave of relief washed past them, but there was more disappointment in their hearts.

They didn’t know if Chen Zhou had a backup plan, after all, this man was the second suspect in the ‘Blue Aurora’ incident.

But with this admittance, it was obvious that he wasn’t planning on resisting.

Was this man truly the mastermind behind ‘Blue Aurora’?

If not, what was the point of capturing him?

………

It didn’t take long for Chen Zhou to be brought into an isolation room in the base by the two of them, accompanied by more than a dozen trucks.

There was nothing in the isolation room, it was extremely quiet and the walls were padded with a soft material, he couldn’t even kill himself by banging his head into the wall.

After a while, the door was opened.

The man that had brought him here entered the room, closing the door behind him.

“Nice to meet you, Chen Zhou.”

Chen Zhou was squatting in a corner, his face was ashen as he nodded.

“Actually, we really wanted to see you resist.” The man spoke disappointedly.

“Do you know about the second middle school incident in Tian Hai?”

Chen Zhou nodded, then asked, “Are you talking about the……Second middle school monster incident?”

That incident was still very controversial, even now.

The man nodded.

The reason why we were observing you, is related to this incident.”

“Wait!”

Chen Zhou hurriedly interrupted him and jumped up from the ground, he pointed at himself and spoke with disbelief.

“Do you guys actually think that I’m somehow involved with that incident!?”

The man kept quiet, and his silence allowed Chen Zhou to understand the situation. His eyes were wide open and his tongue hung from his mouth.

“Fuck……”

Who did I offend!?

That meant that if the second middle school monster incident didn’t happen, this group of people wouldn’t care less about him?!

“Fuck me!”

Chen Zhou was going nuts as he slammed his head against the wall, he wanted to cry, but not a single tear came out.

How could I be so unlucky?! I just wanted to earn money!? They made such a big fuss to catch me, and now that they did, they’re saying that they caught the wrong person!?

“Calm down, if you don’t have anything to do with that incident, we won’t do anything to you.” The man spoke calmly as he watched Chen Zhou slam his head into the wall. He was completely unfazed, it would be impossible for someone to kill themselves even if they had slammed their head over 10,000 times against this wall, at most, they’ll just knock themselves out.

“Calm down? How can I calm down!? Let me die and be done with it, I don’t want to live anymore!!”

After a long time, Chen Zhou, who had slammed his head against the wall a total of an unknown number of times, finally fell to the ground dizzily. Tears were pooling in his red eyes as he mumbled.

“How could I be so unlucky……How could I be so unlucky……How could I……”

“……”

The man could feel a headache coming, he knew what Chen Zhou was feeling.

It could be described with a line from a movie, “You brought your wife out of town, and as you ate and sang, you were suddenly robbed.”

“How could I be this unlucky!!!”