IBO -Chapter 127 People Within the Game

This novel contains sensitive and taboo content like R*pe, Mu**er etc. Read only if you are comfortable.

After returning to the royal palace, Song Yiran and the others said their goodbyes to Su’er.

The farewell was awkward. Everyone wanted to say something to Su’er, but in the end, no one managed to say anything. All they could do was wave at each other awkwardly, counting it as a final goodbye.

All the children ran on their own to Song An and Song Yang’s room. A bunch of adorable fluffy cubs sprawled across a bed made of flowers, playing games together on their light brains.

Xiao Zhong’er joined them too, blending in with the kids—checking one child’s gameplay, then another’s—before pulling out his own light brain to show off his skills in front of them.

Song Yutu returned to his own room. After showering and changing into pajamas, he took out dyeing flower powder and carefully used it to draw Kallen flower patterns between his toes.

Song Yiran stood on the lawn outside the corridor, gazing up at the stars in the sky, and let out a heavy sigh.

[FrenziedFlashyCoolTyrant]: Come find me in the back garden. I can answer all of your questions. This is my location. [Location]

[Guardian of History]: Okay.

Song Yiran sighed again and followed the location all the way to the back garden. The garden was filled with all kinds of flowers, most of them Kallen flowers.

In the center of the garden was a table and two chairs. A teapot and two cups sat on the table. Wang Hu was already seated, drinking tea.

“Sit. Have a cup of tea.”

Song Yiran obediently sat down, lifted the cup, and took a small sip. He then set the cup down and stared silently into Wang Hu’s eyes.

“If you have questions, ask,” Wang Hu said, lightly tapping the handle of her cup with her finger, producing a crisp sound.

“When did you start setting this up?”

Wang Hu’s answer was completely beyond Song Yiran’s expectations.

“From the moment you set foot on Kallandil, you were already being watched by an irregular system. I merely went along with the situation.”

From the moment Song Yiran and the others arrived on Kallandil, an irregular system had already locked onto them.

At the time, Wang Hu instructed Celeste to have the elves secretly keep a close watch on Song Yiran’s group. If there were any suspicious signs, they were to report immediately.

The male contestant who used underhanded tactics against Song Yang at the arena that morning was actually a host controlled by an irregular system.

Celeste sensed that something was very wrong with that contestant and reported the situation to Wang Hu.

Suspecting that the contestant was likely a host hijacked by an irregular system, Wang Hu asked 554 to assist Celeste in confirming it.

The final result was exactly as she had expected—the contestant was indeed a host hijacked by an irregular system.

554 reported the matter to the System World. The contestant was taken away by the System World’s support team, while the irregular system was escorted to the System World to serve a prison sentence.

Before that irregular system was taken away, Celeste extracted some useful information from it.

The organization behind the irregular systems was already at the end of its rope, and the mastermind behind it had set its sights on Song Yiran and the others.

The leader behind this organization was a system—more precisely, all irregular systems were avatars of this mastermind system.

Over the years, due to Wang Hu’s continuous reports, the mastermind’s avatars had been imprisoned one after another. The mastermind itself was close to collapse.

The system that hijacked the male contestant was the mastermind’s final remaining avatar. Its original plan was to have the avatar injure Song Yang, allowing it to seize the opportunity to bind directly with him.

However, the plan fell apart halfway. Now the mastermind had no avatars left at its disposal—its entire organization consisted of only itself.

The mastermind’s energy was nearly depleted. If it didn’t find a host soon, it would disappear completely.

Ordinary hosts could only provide a limited amount of energy. It wanted a host with greater energy.

Song Yiran and the others became its targets—it sensed abundant energy fluctuations from them.

The reason it chose to go after Song Yang was because he looked easier to deal with.

If possible, its first choice would actually have been Song Yiran. But with Xiao Zhong’er by Song Yiran’s side, it couldn’t bypass him to bind with Song Yiran.

Song Yutu also possessed abundant energy, but Song Yutu had abilities—it couldn’t defeat him.

In the end, it turned its attention to the children. After picking and choosing, it selected Song Yang, whom it thought looked the easiest to bully.

Celeste reported the extracted information to Wang Hu, and Wang Hu ultimately decided to use Song Yang as bait to lure the snake out of hiding.

This opportunity was extremely rare. The mastermind system was very cautious and had been hiding in the shadows for many years. This time, it had finally exposed a trace of itself.

If they didn’t seize this chance, the mastermind might escape again—and could go on to harm even more ordinary people.

Using Song Yang as bait was a last resort, but Wang Hu would never let a child die for nothing.

She had Celeste dispatch elves to secretly protect Song Yiran and the others, and also provided a magic necklace that could withstand three attacks, instructing Celeste to find a way to give it to them.

The mastermind’s sanity was already close to collapse. After its final avatar failed and was captured, it decided to throw caution to the wind—if it was going to do it, it would do it all the way, and step in personally.

It secretly followed Song Yang for a long time and discovered that Song Yang had two souls in one body. Believing it had found a breakthrough, it planned to sow discord and take advantage of the situation.

What it didn’t expect was that everything was merely a trap laid specifically for it—and what awaited it was imprisonment.

After finishing her explanation, Wang Hu took another sip of tea to moisten her throat.

Then she added, “I didn’t tell you any of this because I was afraid of alerting the enemy. The mastermind is extremely cautious—any sign of trouble, and it might have fled immediately.”

“And if it escaped, it could have harmed even more ordinary people. This was the best opportunity.”

After hearing everything, Song Yiran felt deeply conflicted. He had originally thought that Wang Hu deliberately set things up and used Song Yang as bait. He hadn’t expected that they had been targeted by the mastermind from the very beginning.

Still, there was an indescribable sense of discomfort in his heart.

The outcome was good—Song An and Song Yang were unharmed, the mastermind behind the irregular system organization had been captured, and no innocent people would ever be hijacked by irregular systems again.

But… he felt that he, Xiao Zhong’er, and the younger brothers had been nothing more than chess pieces kept completely in the dark. From the moment they arrived on Kalen Deel, they had already been swept into the conspiracy of the irregular system.

The irregular system had been plotting against them behind the scenes. Wang Hu knew the plan, but in order not to alert the enemy, she chose to play along and let them act as bait.

He knew he couldn’t blame Wang Hu. If there was anyone to blame, it was the irregular system. Wang Hu had also secretly sent elves to protect them and had given each of them a necklace imbued with protective magic.

In this matter, Wang Hu hadn’t actually done anything wrong.

But… there was still a tiny bit of dissatisfaction in Song Yiran’s heart.

His little brothers were still so young—how could they be used as bait? What if something really happened? Even if nothing happened in the end, what if their minds were hurt? His brothers were still so young…

Yet he also knew that the one who truly deserved blame was that detestable mastermind system—it was the one that had set its sights on Song Yang and Song An.

If they rashly alerted it, the mastermind system might flee and then go on to harm even more ordinary people.

The plan Wang Hu proposed was the optimal solution. No one would be injured in it.

“For this operation, I am 100% confident that I can protect that little one. I personally experienced the electric current of the irregular system with my own body. The magic on those necklaces was developed by me specifically as a punitive measure against the irregular system—there is absolutely no risk.”

“If I didn’t have 100% certainty, I would never let a cub act as bait. Even with 99% certainty, I would not take that remaining 1% risk.”

“It’s precisely because I have 100% certainty that I chose to go along with the plan and let him act as bait.”

“Speaking of it, I wasn’t entirely aboveboard either. I’ll compensate you.”

“Ten billion credit points—ten billion for each person. As for the little one who acted as bait today, I’ll give him an additional thirty billion as psychological compensation.”

Song Yiran had still been harboring a bit of dissatisfaction, but after hearing Wang Hu’s words, that small bit of discontent was immediately washed away by her sheer wealth.

Wang Hu took everyone’s light-brain account information from Song Yiran and transferred ten billion credits to each person. Then she additionally transferred thirty billion credits to both Song An’s and Song Yang’s accounts.

Wang Hu lightly took a sip of tea, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Song Yiran. “Do you have any other questions?”

She felt that Song Yiran still had something he wanted to say.

At first, Song Yiran was stunned by Wang Hu’s extravagance, but then that lingering dissatisfaction surged back up.

He looked at Wang Hu with a deeply aggrieved expression. “…If the mastermind system had set its sights on your younger sister, would you be willing to let your sister act as bait?”

If it were him, he absolutely wouldn’t. He would rather act as bait himself than let his brothers do it.

If Wang Hu had asked him to be the bait, he wouldn’t have had so many complaints—but she had let his brothers be the bait.

He knew that this was only because the mastermind system had targeted his brothers, so Wang Hu had gone along with the plan and used them as bait.

Still, it made him feel uncomfortable.

After Song Yiran asked that question, Wang Hu was silent for a long time. For a while, the two of them sat facing each other without a word.

Song Yiran lowered his head and sighed. “Sister, I’m not blaming you. Look—you wouldn’t want your own sister to be bait either, right?”

“I feel exactly the same way as you. I wish I could replace my brothers and act as bait myself. I don’t want them to suffer any harm at all.”

“Even though you said you’re 100% confident, what if there’s an accident? What if something goes wrong? Even if there’s only the tiniest possibility that they could be hurt, I’m unwilling to accept it.”

“I know this plan is the best one. If it were me, I couldn’t come up with a better solution either. I’m not blaming you—I just feel a little conflicted…”

Song Yiran stood up and bid Wang Hu farewell. “Sorry. I can’t really control my emotions right now, and I don’t know how to face you… I know what you did was right. I just feel a bit… It’s late. I’ll go back and rest now. You should rest early too, Sister.”

A night breeze carrying a hint of chill swept by, rippling the surface of the tea in the cup. Wang Hu said nothing, only quietly took another sip.

With a weary heart, Song Yiran walked all the way back to his room. Just as he was about to push the door open and go inside to rest, he saw his younger brothers running toward him in a panic.

Song Yutu stood barefoot in the corridor, holding what looked like the sleeping Xiao Zhong’er in his arms. The children rushed up to Song Yiran to report.

“Brother, Fifth Brother seems sick! We’ve been calling him, but we can’t wake him up!”