Chapter 156 - 143: New Protagonist of Ancient Abyss

"I’ll thank you in advance, then," Yin Zhen said as he stood up. "Eat the breakfast while it’s hot. I’ll be leaving first if there’s nothing else. Contact me if anything comes up."

"Wait!" Bai Qiang called out, stopping him. She waved the notebook in her hand, which was filled with intelligence. "Are you short on money?"

"You want to sell the intelligence?" Yin Zhen asked.

"Exactly. In my current situation, I need to find more sources that stimulate sadness. TV shows and novels are too fake for me; I can’t convince myself to get immersed in them. So, I need to open my psychological clinic as soon as possible and bare my heart to embrace the suffering of the world.

"Before the official game starts, this intelligence is extremely valuable. The fact that Ancient Abyss’s Feng Shui theories can be applied over there, in particular, will allow Players to prepare in advance and increase their survival rate once they cross over. You risked your life for this intelligence. If you agree to let me sell it, you get eighty percent, and I take twenty."

Yin Zhen asked, "Who do you plan to sell it to?"

"We are all tied to Ancient Abyss’s battleship. If we’re selling, it obviously goes to the authorities. Who has more money than them? Plus, the authorities can help us fend off a lot of trouble."

Yin Zhen lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment. "Fine, but I have one additional condition. I want to know who the current protagonist of Ancient Abyss is. If the authorities disagree, I won’t sell this intelligence. If they agree, you set the price. We’ll split it fifty-fifty, and you can just transfer the money to Ding Yi’s account. I’m leaving."

With that, Yin Zhen teleported away. Bai Qiang leaned back in her chair, munching on a steamed bun while flipping through the intelligence, contemplating how to negotiate with the authorities next.

Guan City Airport.

A seven-year-old girl was dragged out of the terminal by her mother, who hoisted her by the back collar. Dressed in a black Lolita dress and hugging a pink octopus plushie, the little girl shouted in a voice that still carried a childish lisp, "Let go of me! I am the dignified reincarnation of an Ancient God! How dare you be so insolent!"

Once out of the terminal, Ms. Guan released her grip. She took out a pair of sunglasses from her handbag and put them on, then pulled out a sun hat and plonked it onto her daughter’s head. The mother and daughter stood together—one so elegant and intellectual that she looked like she had just stepped off the cover of an academic journal, while the other suffered from such severe chuunibyou that she looked like an escapee from an anime convention.

The little girl took a deep breath of Guan City’s air, opened her arms wide, and loudly announced to the sky, "World, I have come to save you! Tremble, evil demons, and submit at the feet of this Ancient God!"

SMACK! Ms. Guan’s palm landed precisely on the back of her head. "If you make a racket in public again, tonight’s ice cream is canceled!"

The little girl stumbled forward from the hit and turned around, baring her teeth at Ms. Guan. "You evil witch! You only managed to imprison my mortal body while my Divine Power is sealed! Just wait until I break the seal and restore my true form as an Ancient God! I’ll defeat you and eat all the ice cream in the world!"

Guan Lan ignored her. Ever since that strange system descended upon her daughter, the girl firmly believed in her Identity as an Ancient God and was convinced she was the protagonist destined to save the world.

A black commercial van stopped perfectly in front of Guan Lan. The young and handsome Ma Fan and the old-fashioned, steady Ye Se stepped out. The two of them glanced back and forth between Guan Lan and little Guan Xing, before Ye Se extended a hand to Guan Lan. "Hello, Professor Guan. We are from Kunpeng. We came specifically to pick you up and take you to Kunpeng Headquarters."

Ma Fan took the luggage and greeted Guan Xing. Smiling, he tried to strike up a conversation. "What are you holding there, little kid?"

Guan Xing raised the pink octopus in her hands with a solemn expression. "This is the great Old God, Cthulhu. Don’t be fooled by how fluffy it is right now. Once I break the seal and summon it, it will grow bigger than this entire building!"

Controlling his twitching lips, Ma Fan forced a dry laugh. "That’s so cool."

The little girl’s eyes lit up instantly. She turned to Guan Lan and loudly announced, "This ugly monster has better taste than you! Once I restore my Divine Power, I’ll take him in as my familiar and discard you!"

Ma Fan’s smile froze on his face. As the most handsome man at Kunpeng Headquarters, he was actually being called an ugly monster?

Seeing Guan Lan’s face darken, Guan Xing hurriedly scrambled into the van.

After everyone got in, Ye Se focused on driving. Ma Fan turned around from the front passenger seat, unable to hold back his question for Guan Lan. "Professor Guan, your daughter is certainly unique. Has she always been into Cthulhu?"

Guan Lan rubbed her temples with her thumbs, her voice carrying an eerie calm born from utter exhaustion. "When she was four, she said she was Princess Elsa. At five, she claimed to be the reincarnation of Nuwa. At six, she was the progenitor of Vampires. And now, this is her 4.0 version update after reading the Cthulhu mythos last month."

The little girl wriggled uncomfortably in her child safety seat, leaning forward as hard as she could to ask Ma Fan, "Do you guys really have Vampires here? Can I bite them?"

Guan Lan swept a sharp gaze over her, but Guan Xing merely stuck out her tongue provocatively before asking another question. "Where are my uncle and aunt? Why didn’t they come to pick me up? I miss them so much."

As soon as Guan Xing’s voice fell, the atmosphere inside the vehicle suddenly turned heavy.

Guan Xing’s uncle was Guan Heting, and her aunt was Nan Jiamu. Back then, for the sake of her career and to rebel against the Guan family’s arrangements, Guan Lan had left the newborn Guan Xing with Guan Heting and gone abroad alone to pursue her doctorate in science. No one knew who Guan Xing’s father was, and Guan Lan had never mentioned it. She had simply brought the child home one day... It seemed the author was laying the groundwork for a side-couple mystery.

Before the age of six, Guan Xing spent most of her time by Guan Heting’s side, to the point where Nan Jiamu had even mistakenly thought the girl was Guan Heting’s illegitimate child. Guan Xing had played wingman countless times on Guan Heting and Nan Jiamu’s journey of love. Even though Nan Jiamu disliked children, resisting Guan Xing was completely impossible.

Guan Xing—a quirky and adorable baby commonly found in CEO romance novels!

It made perfect sense for Guan Xing to become the new protagonist, but it caught everyone at Kunpeng completely off guard.

To make a mere seven-year-old child join this game and shoulder the survival of Ancient Abyss? It was a major question whether this little one could even survive the first round!