Translator: AnubisTL
When beasts and hunters dance together in the wilderness, when hostages and kidnappers revel together in the hall, when gods and demons gather to discuss what to eat today...
All absurdity ceases to be absurd.
This is the kind of world we live in.
A club where souls are completely liberated.
The city binds the flesh, but roses free the soul.
This is the Rose Club's slogan.
"Go ahead," Chen Jiang said with a smile, glancing at Li Hao beside him, whose eyes were filled with envy. "What are you waiting for?"
"Thanks, Brother Jiang!!!"
With permission granted, Li Hao let out an excited roar and tore off his shirt. "When we get back, Zhao Ritian and Wang Defa are gonna be green with envy!"
"Come catch your daddy!"
With that, Li Hao sprinted forward and leaped straight off the stage, spreading his arms wide as he soared into the crowd below!
Chen Jiang shook his head with a smile, saying nothing. His gaze casually swept through the crowd until it landed on a dimly lit booth, where he witnessed a shocking sight.
His expression turned slightly odd as he paused, then stepped off the stage and approached the dimly lit booth.
After a moment of observation, the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily. "Are you conducting some kind of mysterious religious ritual?"
Wang Jili, who had been working diligently, froze at the sudden voice beside him. He instinctively turned to see Chen Jiang sitting behind him, his body stiffening slightly before he climbed off his wife and settled back onto the sofa.
After a moment of silence, he poured himself a glass of wine, drained it in one gulp, and finally spoke. "I recognize you. You helped Wu Jinshen. I saw that familiar barrel of yours in the satellite footage."
"Hmm," Chen Jiang replied casually, noncommittal. "Wang Jili, chairman of Shark Company, right? I know you. So, what were you doing just now?"
He glanced at the woman's corpse lying in a pool of blood beside them.
"She was my wife," Wang Jili said, lowering his head in silence for a moment before lighting a cigarette. As the crimson tip glowed, he spoke through the pale blue smoke.
"She betrayed me. Though she'd betrayed me long ago, I never imagined she'd become so promiscuous as to accept four men."
"I killed her."
"Those who betray me must die."
"Understandable," Chen Jiang nodded in agreement. "If I were in your shoes, I'd have done the same. What I don't understand is why you continued to defile her corpse after she was dead."
"I couldn't accept it."
Wang Jili pulled a cigarette from his pocket and offered it to Chen Jiang. "I killed her in a fit of rage, but the thought that her last man wasn't me only fueled my anger."
"To remedy this regret, I had no choice but to do what I did."
"Most importantly..."
"Ever since we had a son, she refused to have more children, constantly insisting I use protection. But those men hadn't used any. I couldn't stand it."
"The frustration was suffocating."
"So, I had to have her one last time while she was still warm, without protection, to quell this suffocating frustration."
"I understand now."
Chen Jiang declined the cigarette Wang Jili offered, instead pulling one from his own pocket, lighting it, and placing it between his lips. After a coughing fit, he frowned slightly, took a small sip of his wine, and finally spoke.
"You don't sound like a normal person."
"Normal?" Wang Jili retrieved the cigarette he had offered Chen Jiang from the table, glanced around at the chaotic scene, and sneered. "Is there a single normal person here? What even is 'normal'?"
"I only regret killing her too soon."
"According to my plan, I would have bound her in the basement and tortured her day and night."
"But in my rage, I lost control."
"And speaking of normal, you're hardly one yourself. You've slaughtered tens of thousands on the subhuman star and Orange Red Star."
Chen Jiang didn't reply, instead turning his head to watch a young man in a white suit approach, wine glass in hand.
"Good evening, sir."
The young man in the white suit stopped before the booth, raised his glass in a mock toast to Chen Jiang, and only then removed his mask, revealing a smile as he introduced himself.
"Allow me to formally introduce myself. I'm X, the Mastermind of the Rose Club."
"Hmm."
Chen Jiang casually raised his wine glass in a perfunctory toast before gesturing for the man to sit on the sofa opposite him. "X? Introducing yourself by a code name isn't very polite."
"No, no, X is my real name."
"Real name? Then what was your father called? XX?"
"My father was also called X. The name is hereditary. I had no name before his death; only upon his passing did I become eligible to inherit it."
As the young man spoke his name, Wang Jili, sitting in the booth, visibly paled. He lowered his head, staring silently into his wine glass, his thoughts unreadable.
Chen Jiang noticed Wang Jili's expression. His eyes narrowed slightly as he studied the man before him. He had to admit, the man was strikingly handsome, the kind of effeminate beauty that bordered on androgynous.
It wasn't to Chen Jiang's taste, but by conventional standards, he was undoubtedly a beautiful man.
"A fitting name," Chen Jiang said with a casual nod. "So, is your Rose Club collecting some kind of emotion? The thrill of breaking free from societal constraints?"
"An interesting innate ability or perhaps an item?"
As the words hung in the air, the smile on X's face froze slightly. After a brief pause, he slowly set down his wine glass. "It's hard to believe you guessed that."
"Why do you find it so hard to believe?"
"Hah!"
X took a deep breath before meeting Chen Jiang's gaze with a serious expression. "You're right, it is my innate ability. But that's not important. I came to you with a specific request."
"Your subordinate mentioned earlier that you have the power to destroy planets."
"And?" Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow, casually flicked his cigarette butt into the wine glass on the table, and looked across at the man sitting under the dim, flickering light. "Do you want to destroy a planet?"
"No, no, no." X shook his head. After a moment's thought, he pulled a tablet from his coat, swiped the screen, and placed a picture before Chen Jiang. "I need you to destroy all lifeforms on this planet, including all structures."
"Name your price."
"Let me see." Chen Jiang picked up the tablet, his expression remaining calm as he studied the aerial photograph without speaking.
He recognized the scene in the photo.
It was Eugenia Star.
This was Wu Jinshen's target for this operation, the private planet owned by the Eugenia Company. It housed three massive stockpiles of miscellaneous goods, nearly sustaining the economies of several surrounding planets.
X's mission was to destroy all lifeforms and structures on the planet.
In truth, even without X's request, they would have done the same.
Under the relentless bombardment, all traces would be obliterated.
He tossed the tablet into the air, drew a hand cannon with a caliber as thick as his thigh, aimed at the arcing tablet, and gently squeezed the trigger.
Boom.
The shot rang out, and the tablet exploded mid-air.
"This—"
X's expression darkened as he lowered his voice. "Sir, what do you mean by this?"
"I've memorized the image," Chen Jiang said casually, tucking the hand cannon into his coat. "Once the target is committed to memory, the reference photo must be destroyed to better protect the client's confidentiality."
X paused, then blurted out almost instinctively, "But you haven't even asked why I want this done."
"No need to ask," Chen Jiang said with a smile, retrieving a fresh glass from under the table. After pouring himself a drink, he continued softly, "Our company's policy is never to inquire about our clients' motives. You pay, we deliver."
"We only discuss money, nothing else."
"This deal is for three hundred million."
"..."
X's jaw slowly dropped, momentarily stunned. He murmured in a daze, "Your company truly operates with remarkable professionalism."
Then, he abruptly stood up, extending his right hand with a serious expression. "Deal. What's the deposit?"
Chen Jiang shook his head, ignoring X's outstretched hand. He remained seated on the sofa, raising his glass to take a small sip. "My policy is never to accept deposits. Full payment upfront."
"Payment received, job done."
"Full payment..."
X hesitated briefly before replying, "Alright, please wait a moment. I can't access that sum immediately; I'll need to arrange it. It won't take long."
"Go ahead."
Chen Jiang watched X's retreating figure, his eyes narrowing slightly. X didn't seem like someone who frequently appeared in public; even as he blended into the crowd, he attracted surprisingly little attention.
Considering Wang Jili's reaction upon hearing the name "X," it seemed this was someone widely known by reputation but whose true face had never been seen.
As for why he had ignored X's outstretched right hand earlier, it wasn't out of arrogance or aloofness. Rather, he avoided any potentially manipulative interactions until he understood a person's innate abilities and items.
He knew that many rule items could be triggered simply by inducing someone to perform a specific action.
For example, his own three-star item, the Sorrowful Calendar.
Thus, he had declined Wang Jili's offered cigarette and refused to shake X's hand.
He was in the Galactic Federation, a world capable of mass-producing Ten Thousand Races Arenas. It was impossible for such a place to lack items and innate abilities with bizarre and unpredictable effects.
He had to be cautious, cautious, and even more cautious.
And acquire more items capable of defending against rule items.
Rule items were truly impossible to guard against.
Meanwhile, Scar Dog stood in the crowd with his arms raised, laughing wildly as he twisted his body in unrestrained revelry.
He was starting to enjoy this rule-less world.
Here, the basest aspects of human nature were amplified to their extremes.
A person with a mental obsession with cleanliness would find this environment unbearable, but fortunately, Scar Dog had no such qualms.
He could maintain a serious demeanor in high-class settings, meticulously adhering to aristocratic etiquette to appear as refined as possible.
He could also wallow in filth, stepping on prostitutes and acting like a street thug, constantly staining himself with ink as he danced with demons.
He could be as filthy as dung, yet restrain his urge to spit on the floor in the most refined halls.
He was simply Scar Dog.
No words could adequately capture his essence.
After all, life is about finding joy.
A clean person lives a tiring existence, tormented by even the slightest speck of dirt.
A dirty person, on the other hand, lives comfortably.
He had never pretended to be a good man. He only knew that after joining Brother Jiang, he had finally become someone.
"Come on, come on, come on!"
Scar Dog gazed excitedly at the photo album projected in mid-air, gripping a remote pen as he swiped through the images on the tablet.
The photos showed a woman dressed in dazzling, luxurious outfits, taken at various high-end events.
She looked every bit the heiress, the kind of woman men wouldn't dare meet her gaze on the street.
Yet in this moment, the girl in the photos was leaning over him, utterly transformed from the icy figure in the images. Her eyes overflowed with seductive allure.
He relished such stark contrasts, especially seeing someone who normally maintained a prim and proper demeanor reveal a completely different side of themselves at the Rose Club.
"I like it," Scar Dog grinned widely, tossing the remote pen aside. He grabbed a bottle of liquor from someone nearby and immediately poured it over the head of the "pet" before him.
He lit a cigarette, clamped it between his teeth, and shoved the heads of several nearby men down. When his view cleared, he roared toward the stage band, "What, didn't you eat? Beat the drums like you mean it!"
"Slow down, and I'll twist your heads off!"
Chen Jiang leaned back against the booth sofa, lighting another cigarette. He rested his cane across his lap, crossed his legs, and draped an arm over the edge of the sofa. He watched Scar Dog reveling wildly in the crowd nearby, his expression unreadable as he remained silent.
If Chen Jiang remembered correctly, Scar Dog should still be under the 24-hour influence of the Sorrowful Calendar.
Yet the current scene suggested he had completely broken free from its effects.
The Sorrowful Calendar was, after all, a rule item. Even though it was only a two-star item, it shouldn't be this ineffective.
"The batch of one-star items Wu Jinshen gave you passed through my hands," Wang Jili suddenly said, his head still bowed as he sat on the opposite sofa. "Liu Deping's sudden price increase was because I manipulated things behind the scenes."
"Oh?" Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow, his tone casual. "And then?"
"I planted four small devices within that batch of one-star items. They had no other function; their sole purpose was to transmit the item's precise location back to me every hour."
"I took extensive precautions and planned meticulously. Even if you traced the clues, you'd never find your way back to me."
"Hmm." Chen Jiang nodded slightly, pulled a cigarette from his pocket, and tossed it to Wang Jili. "So, what exactly do you want to say?"
Wang Jili remained silent for a moment, his expression unreadable. He lit the cigarette Chen Jiang had offered and held it between his fingers. "What I wanted to say is that, initially, I did have intentions of going after you."
"Because you helped Wu Jinshen, causing me to lose a significant sum of money."
"But that's no longer the case. There's no animosity between us now. Even if we can't be friends, we shouldn't be enemies either."
"I'm being upfront now to avoid any misunderstandings later. If you were to discover this on your own, it might be too late for explanations."
"You're a truly honest man," Chen Jiang remarked, then chuckled softly. "Why not? I think we could be friends. I enjoy making friends, especially with interesting people."
"My name is Jiang Cheng."
"Jiang Cheng of Jiang Cheng Company. You're also a valued member of our company."
"What if I asked you to help me go after Black Europe Company?"
"That would be impossible, I'm afraid."
Chen Jiang shook his head slightly, a hint of regret in his eyes, and set down his wine glass. "Black Europe Company is a true friend of Jiang Cheng Company. Under most circumstances, I would never take action against them."
"If..." Wang Jili lowered his head in silence for a moment, then looked up at Chen Jiang, his eyes slightly reddened, and said, "If I could also provide Jiang Cheng Company with a large quantity of one-star items, would Shark Company become a true friend to Jiang Cheng Company?"
Chen Jiang leaned back on the sofa, one hand resting on the edge, gazing at the unshaven man before him in the dim light. A faint, piercing glint flickered in Wang Jili's eyes. After a moment of composure, Chen Jiang chuckled softly.
"A clever man?"
"I enjoy making friends with clever men."
"If you can provide Jiang Cheng Company with a large quantity of one-star items, then you will naturally become Jiang Cheng Company's most respected friend."
"The kind of friend Jiang Cheng Company would never attack unless they were offered ten times the price."
He recognized that glint—it was familiar.
Ambition.
That was ambition flickering in Wang Jili's eyes.
This was a somewhat deranged and ambitious man.
Just then—
X, holding a wine glass, emerged from the dimly lit center of the venue and strode toward Chen Jiang's booth.
(End of the Chapter)
Translator's Corner:
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🔓 𝐰𝐰𝐰.𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐥.𝐜𝐨𝐦 — 13 Series (7 Ongoing) | 14+ New Chapters Daily | 6,100+ FREE