The Rise of Otaku

Chapter 138 shadow

Inexplicably, Zhou Yu became the target of many people, it was like an invisible thief at home, no matter how he tried to find it, he just could not find it, but he could always smell, that it was around him. It constantly made his hair stand on end. It was fine that he did not know it before, but now he had this letter, it completely broke the peace of Zhou Yu’s life.

“My friend, your skill amazed me, but I am not the best hacker, and I know some people have started to notice you, after all, your reputation is so big. The rewards for Beidou studio and Qin Zhuan studio are getting higher and higher. I am looking forward to the confrontations between you and the excellent hackers around the world.”

The words in the letter made Zhou Yu’s hair stand on end.

‘There are more!?’ This was not Shōnen manga, where there would be enemies coming one after another to feed the protagonist XPs. Not knowing the strength of the person, who was helping him in the dark, Zhou Yu was worried, that whether the person could block the attacks from many excellent hackers?

Zhou Yu quickly came to his computer, and deleted all the games and animation. Anyways, he still had physical backups. In the future, if he wanted to play, he could just use those CDs. No matter how skillful those hackers were, they would not be able to find out the existence of the ACG world, but those things would get him into even bigger troubles, because the number of those things was simply too big.

However, although all the hidden dangers on the computer were removed, the feeling of being watched still stayed. No matter what he does and what he says, Zhou Yu always subconsciously felt like someone was watching him.

If it continued like this, he would be driven mad.

To get out of this state, Zhou Yu could only think of two methods. The first was to find out the person, who was secretly helping him in the dark. However, there was no clue as to whether this person was from the real world or the ACG world. Who this person was and where this person lived, he didn’t have any clues at all. Therefore, there was no way to find this person unless this person showed up himself.

The other was that when Xia Huan came to the village to shoot “the dragon’s treasure”, Rubin, the hedgehog, had submitted a strange list of suspects to help him catch a spy hiding in the shadow.

Perhaps Rubin the hedgehog and the mysterious man he mentioned, who did not want to show himself, could find the mysterious man, who was helping him, or maybe they two were the same person.

In the real world, Zhou Yu has never contacted any hackers before, the people he knew also seemingly did not engage in this profession. Even if there was one, he did not think, that there would be a friend helping him so silently, after all, he didn’t have that many friends. He only knew more people, who had the same interests as his online.

So, the possibility that the person was from the real world could be eliminated.

The ACG world was a miraculous world, especially after he had Mini Luhua village, he could find some strange citizens with strange abilities. If there was one that was very good at this kind of thing, it would not surprise him.

Therefore, without delay, Zhou Yu quickly found Rubin the hedgehog and asked respectfully, “Rubin, I respect your friend’s decision, so I have not tried to find him, but now mini Luhua village is in danger, I really need his help, I wonder if you can help me to pass a message?”

Rubin the hedgehog was a very taciturn person, usually liked to walk in the shade of trees, and often stayed in his own hole busy doing something that no one knew what it was. Even the residents of mini Luhua village knew very little about him, and he may be more introverted than Zhou Yu.

After listening to Zhou Yu’s words, he lowered his voice and said, “he is from Shadow. So he must live by the Shadow’s rules forever and must not see the people on the ground. I know the danger you’re talking about, but don’t worry, a few bad guys aren’t enough of a threat to Shadow. The People of the underworld will take care of Luhua village’s network security.”

After saying that, hedgehog Rubin closed his eyes and seemingly entered the state of half-sleep. He did not seem to want to explain the things about the underworld at all. But from his words, Zhou Yu could still tell something.

It turns out that there was still an underworld in Mini village, and in there also lived some citizens of the ACG world, but it seemed, that they never came to the ground, even the old dragon king has not seen them before. Rubin the hedgehog was probably a villager between the underworld and the ground world, just like a liaison.

Shadow sounded like the name of an organization, but it seemed that there were not that many members left. One of them lived under the ground of Luhua village and became the network guardian of Luhua village.

Not only did Zhou Yu not know about this person, but even the old dragon king, who had been living in Luhua village for a very long time, also didn’t know about this person. Its ability to hide in the dark was truly amazing. If it wasn’t for Rubin the hedgehog, Zhou Yu didn’t even know there was an underground world.

. . .

“Okay, I trust you. But if anything happens, you must tell me in advance.”

Rubin did not answer, but wave his hand to show that he understood it, and ask Zhou Yu not to disturb his sleep. It seemed like he was even lazier than Zhou Yu.

As long as he knew, that there was someone protecting him. Although the ability of this person still needed to be verified, it was better than no one protecting him. At least, he was slightly relieved now.  But after the relief, his curiosity towards the underworld began to rise.

Although there was probably only one person living under Luhua village at the moment, when he just discovered the ACG world, there were only Beaver and the old dragon king, so if he could develop the underworld, he might be able to get more citizens of the ACG world.

But the problem was, how could he get under the ground?

The hole that hedgehog Rubin dug, Zhou Yu couldn’t get in. His body was simply too big to be able to fit into the tiny hole.

If he wanted to develop the underground world, he had to build the underground city first.

This was a big project, and he must find a reason as well, otherwise, he would not be able to explain it to Zhou Fu. And the best reason, of course, was to say that it was a new movie project with Beidou studio.

At the acceptable rate of making one movie every six months, no one would question his production speed, if he started to prepare a new movie. As soon as the new movie was released during summer vacation, the amusement park could have an underground city adventure project, and at that time, he could develop the underground world without causing any suspicions.

It would solve multiple problems at the same time.

After the decision, Zhou Yu contacted Xia Huan.

“Older Xia, how about let us work together again. You must have made a great fortune from the last movie, right? So, this time, please help me to choose a better script, but it needs to be something about an underground world.”

“Haha, I have to thank you for that. But it is also the win-win cooperation, older Zhou, your little Muli’s reputation is also rising steadily. She has even joined the idol alliance. If she participated in a few more good movies, she will soon be an S-Rated star.”

After flattering each other for a while, they both confirmed the distraction of the next project. Now Zhou Yu was just waiting for the right script.