---o---
"What do you mean?"
Sparkle was a bit baffled. Why would Fu Zhu suddenly bring up making her famous?
"Literally what I said."
Fu Zhu replied casually. Then, wearing Sparkle's face, he strode out from behind the barrier with a wicked grin, heading straight for the Hound member bathed in green light.
Meanwhile, Firefly, though confused as to why the Hound member chasing her was suddenly enveloped in a beam of light, seized the opportunity to dash behind Xing. She tugged on the corner of Xing's clothes and looked up at her pitifully. "Please, help me..."
Seeing the damsel in distress, Xing immediately puffed out her chest. "Don't worry, it's everyone's duty to protect a beautiful young lady!"
"Thank you!" Firefly flashed Xing a sweet smile and stood safely by her side.
Xing then turned to face the two Hound members, hands on her hips, and scolded them, "In broad daylight, you're actually persecuting a beautiful girl on the street! Is there no law here!"
The female Hound member, seeing that they had been misunderstood, ignored the strange phenomenon happening to her partner and patiently explained, "Miss, I believe this is a misunderstanding. We are members of the Hound Family, tasked with apprehending a stowaway. We are not some dark, evil faction."
"Are you saying this beautiful young lady next to me is a stowaway?" Xing glanced at Firefly, who was shaking her head frantically. She then turned back to the female Hound and said, "See? She denies it!"
The woman sighed, exasperated, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Miss, we didn't explicitly say she is the stowaway, but her physical description matches that of one. Therefore, we wanted to ask her to come with us for questioning. But who would have thought she'd just take off running? You tell me, should we chase her or not?"
"Amy, stop wasting your breath on her!"
The male Hound member, Poli, suddenly cut in. He clenched his fists excitedly. "I'm so strong right now. Let's just take her back first. Better to catch a thousand by mistake than to let one slip by! Excuse me, Miss!"
Poli offered a perfunctory apology to Xing before charging towards her with his fists raised. Combined with the pillar of light enveloping him, he certainly looked intimidating.
Xing frowned, displeased, and summoned her baseball bat. Firefly, hiding behind her, couldn't help but reach for her own skirt pocket.
Just as the two sides were about to clash, a fiery red figure shot past Xing and slammed a fist directly into the face of the Hound member, Poli.
With a loud thump, Poli didn't even have time to cry out before he shattered into pieces, disintegrating into specks of light. On the ground, a few shiny objects appeared.
"As expected of a creature enhanced by the Apotheosis Mod! It drops loot!"
Xing, Firefly, and the female Hound member, Amy, all stared dumbfounded as the red figure, after dispatching Poli, knelt and began picking up the items one by one.
"A Cracked Gem of Strife... and Sharpness. Not bad, not bad."
Fu Zhu was quite satisfied with the loot he had just absorbed into his inventory. Besides a few low-quality gems, a green-grade iron pickaxe had also dropped.
[Rare Iron Pickaxe]
[Mines a 1x3 area when digging, can consume tool durability to place a torch at the target location, ignores 13% of durability loss]
Fu Zhu glanced at the pickaxe's attributes with some disappointment.
"A pity it's only rare-grade. The affix limit is what it is."
But then again, it was only a green-quality tool, so the affix limit was to be expected. Besides, for tools, the affixes were good enough for practical use. For him, the most important affixes were on armor and weapons.
This was because in the Apotheosis mod, each type of item could only get certain types of affixes. Armor basically only got defensive modifiers, like gaining a certain BUFF when taking damage. Weapons, on the other hand, could only get offensive modifiers, like increased damage.
Furthermore, an item's grade could also add a large number of base stats, creating a world of difference in the base values of the same type of equipment. This was precisely why he had spent so much to buy the Apotheosis mod—it was all about the numbers, with no fluff!
"Hey! Who are you! Do you know what you just did!"
A furious female voice pulled Fu Zhu from his thoughts. He turned to see Amy pointing a stun baton at him, her face filled with rage.
"You have just committed the crime of assaulting a law enforcement officer! I've already called for backup! Surrender now! Or you'll regret it!"
Fu Zhu paid no mind to Amy's threats. Instead, he opened his minimap with some curiosity. Amy's marker had now completely shifted from a neutral unit to a hostile one. Unfortunately, the enhancing effect from the Apotheosis Mod hadn't landed on her. This made Fu Zhu lose interest almost immediately.
"Let's skip the pleasantries, little Hound. You can't catch a Masked Fool."
Since he was currently wearing Sparkle's face, he didn't have to worry about tarnishing the reputation of the Express or his own.
Meanwhile, the real Sparkle, still hiding in the shadows, ground her teeth in frustration as she watched Fu Zhu have fun using her appearance. That detestable guy, is this how he's going to make me famous?!
Amy, seeing Fu Zhu's arrogance, knew he had the capital to back it up. That single blow that had instantly killed her partner was probably more than a hundred of her could handle. But she was a security officer for the dream world; she couldn't just let a criminal run free. She could only brace herself and keep her stun baton pointed at Fu Zhu.
Fu Zhu waited for a moment. Seeing that the light pillar from the Apotheosis Mod still hadn't appeared over Amy, he completely lost the patience to stay. He simply turned to leave.
"Don't move!"
Seeing him about to leave, Amy took a step forward, but Fu Zhu shot her a glare over his shoulder, and she froze in fear.
Fu Zhu looked at Amy, thought for a moment, and then a smile spread across his face.
"As the saying goes, do a good deed and leave no name. Conversely, when you do a bad deed, you must leave a name. Otherwise, who would know I did it? Little Hound, remember my name: the Masked Fool, Sparkle. See you next time."
Fu Zhu waved his hand and switched to Observer Mode, vanishing on the spot.
Once he was gone, Amy's tense body finally relaxed. She muttered the name "Sparkle" under her breath, for a moment completely forgetting about Firefly, the stowaway she was supposed to be apprehending. She quickly pulled out her phone to report the situation.
Xing and Firefly were still standing to the side, replaying the recent scene in their minds with great interest.
Xing couldn't help but click her tongue. "Is this still the dream world? To be one-punched into oblivion... that's definitely a nightmare!"
Besides that, Xing felt that something about the situation was off. Hadn't she just heard the name "Sparkle" from her brother a short while ago?
While Xing was pondering whether the red-clothed girl from before was the same person as the "Sparkle" her brother had mentioned, she felt a tug on her sleeve. She looked over to see it was Firefly.
"We should probably get out of here before the Hound Family members get us for questioning."
Firefly looked worriedly at Amy, who was busy contacting backup, and urged Xing to leave.
"Alright."
Xing also had some questions for Firefly, so she readily agreed.
The two quietly slipped away without attracting Amy's attention. By the time she realized it, she was the only one left at the scene.
Elsewhere, Sparkle was clutching the wall, looking around in confusion for Fu Zhu. The moment he had suddenly vanished, she could no longer sense his presence, as if he had never existed.
"Where did he go?"
"Look behind you."
Sparkle jumped, startled. She whirled around to see her own face, the one she saw in the mirror every morning. After a brief moment of panic, she realized it was Fu Zhu and let out a sigh of relief, which was quickly followed by a surge of anger.
"Why did you go and attack someone using my identity? Now I'm going to be a wanted criminal!"
"To have fun while pursuing my own interests, of course!" Fu Zhu said matter-of-factly. He then gave Sparkle a strange look. "Isn't this the kind of thing you Masked Fools do all the time? Why can't I do it? Are you discriminating against me? Be careful, or I'll report you to the Aeon of Elation."
Fu Zhu's words left Sparkle speechless. He wasn't wrong... but why did it sound so infuriating?
Sparkle glared at Fu Zhu resentfully. "But you're still a Nameless, aren't you?"
Seeing her resentful look, Fu Zhu shook his head in disappointment.
"When you're out and about, your identity is what you choose it to be. I can't believe you don't even understand that. Maybe you should stop being a chaos-lover and try being someone else's 'fun' for a change."
"You...!"
Sparkle was so angry her cheeks puffed up like balloons. She could laugh off any insult Fu Zhu threw at her, but this one sentence felt like a personal attack!
"Hmph! If you use my identity, then I'll use yours! Let's see who can ruin the other's reputation more!"
Sparkle was about to transform into Fu Zhu's appearance, but before she could even act, Fu Zhu's fist was already hovering in front of her face. He then moved it aside, revealing his smiling-yet-not-smiling expression.
"If you don't want to experience what that Hound Family member just did, you'd better not do that."
"...Double standards!"
Sparkle puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms, turning her head away, refusing to acknowledge him further.
Fu Zhu was happy to have the peace and quiet. Without Sparkle, he could still complete Silver Wolf's commission, and with much more freedom. The three "deaths" of Firefly could be decided entirely by him.
Shifting his attention from Sparkle, Fu Zhu glanced at the minimap. Seeing that Xing and Firefly seemed to be heading towards an amusement park, he immediately set off after them.
Sparkle noticed the sound of footsteps beside her and turned to see Fu Zhu already walking away. She hurried to catch up.
"Hey, wait for me!"
But after just a few steps, Sparkle saw Fu Zhu, who was walking ahead, suddenly stop and bend down, seemingly doing something. She got closer and saw that he was touching a manhole cover!
"What... are you doing?" Sparkle asked, completely confused.
"Nothing." Fu Zhu straightened up with a disappointed sigh. "I thought the sewers here might be classified as containers like in other games. I was hoping to find a gem inside, but unfortunately, they don't count."
"...Are you crazy? How could there be gems in a sewer?"
"This is something you don't understand. Forget it, let's not talk about it. The two of them have already started playing. We should think about how to stage the first death."
Fu Zhu grabbed Sparkle's arm, whether she liked it or not, and dragged her towards Xing and Firefly. When they got closer, they saw the two girls happily playing an arcade game together.
Fu Zhu watched the two of them getting along so well. He rubbed his chin and turned to Sparkle with a conflicted expression.
"Does the client have any specific requirements for the death? It's not something like 'the black of five different colors,' is it?"
Sparkle rubbed her arm, which was sore from Fu Zhu's grip, and rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"They're not that kind of unscrupulous client. But there are requirements. This 'death' has to make her and any surrounding witnesses believe she's really going to die. Only then can we deceive fate."
"Deceive fate..."
Fu Zhu rubbed his chin, and a spark of inspiration flashed through his mind. He recalled an anime he had once watched called Steins;Gate, which had a similar plot point. This gave him an idea.
"Heh, I have a plan... no, I have Upper, Middle, and Lower Strategies!"