After an Infinite Flow Player Retires
Chapter 1

At noon on a midsummer's day, there was almost no one out on the streets.

In the milk tea store at the corner of the street, the female staff sitting at the counter in front of the shop window was feeling drowsy.

"A pearl milk tea, thanks."

"Ah!" The drowsy female staff quickly raised her head when she heard those words and habitually said, "No problem. Would you like……."

Her words stopped.

The sun was scorching hot and there was not even a slight breeze in the air. The ground seemed like it would sizzle with the heat.

The young man stood without any cover in the sun, as if he couldn't feel the hot summer sun. He squinted his eyes slightly and lowered his head to look in the window.

His skin was very pale, and his body was slender. The colour of his eyes and hair were on the lighter side, looking almost amber under the sun.  His overly pale complexion didn't show the slightest trace of being exposed to the sun and there was also no sweat on his forehead or the tip of his nose.

Seeing that the other party still hadn't answered him, Ye Jia coughed politely: "Hello?"

The female staff quickly returned to her senses and nodded, "Oh, oh! I'll get to it!"

She swiftly reached out and picked up a paper cup on the side, and asked: "Would you like normal temperature or with ice?"

"Hot." Ye Jia took out two notes and placed them on the counter.

……Having hot milk tea on such a hot day?

Moreover, in this era, there are still young people who don't use their phones to pay?

While the female staff muttered this inside, she turned around and started to work.

.

Five minutes later.

Ye Jia carried a cup of hot milk tea and walked unhurriedly towards a high-rise building nearby.

Two men were standing in the shadows below the building. They had their heads bowed and seemed to be discussing something.

Zhao Dong raised his head and looked at Ye Jia who stood on the side. His eyes fell on the milk tea in Ye Jia's hand, and he teased with a laugh, "Aren't you tired of these ridiculously sweet things?"

"You don't understand." Ye Jia shrugged and replied slovenly, "This is called learning the business model of milk tea stores in advance."

Cheng Cezhi who stood next to them heard this and raised his head to look at the two blankly, "…..What?"

Zhao Dong laughed, "You probably don't know but our Young Master Ye here dreams of opening a milk tea store after he retires. He is already starting to plan for his future."

Cheng Cezhi: "………"

Wait a minute. He only looked like he was in his twenties at most.

Unable to hold back, he asked, "But isn't that at least forty years later?"

Ye Jia answered without a change to his expression, "The government doesn't support idlers. When it's time to lay off staff, I will be the first to be laid off."

He slowly took another sip of his milk tea, "I call this planning ahead."

Zhao Dong: "……"

Cheng Cezhi: "……."

So, why was this person talking about waiting to be laid off so self-righteously?

Ye Jia brought the topic back: "How were the measurements?"

Please read this from kk translates

"Not good." Cheng Cezhi lowered his head and glanced at the dark, detector-like instrument in his hand. He frowned: "There seems to be almost no useful data here."

Zhao Dong frowned, "The readings are too low. In the end, it looks like we still have to go inside."

Ye Jia's eyes lowered slightly. He watched the two people in front of him analyse the readings on the instrument as he took another sip of his hot milk tea.

The fresh and mellow milk and the refreshing tea fragrance blended beautifully together. It was slightly hot, but it wasn't a big problem.

As of this month, Ye Jia had been working in the Paranormal Investigation and Management Bureau for two years.

The Paranormal Investigation and Management Bureau, as the name suggests, is a secret government department that is in charge with managing all paranormal events.

This department mostly deals with wandering souls that would occasionally cause some strange sounds or presentations. Powerful ghosts and evil spirits would only appear occasionally, and the chance of encountering them was almost comparable to winning the lottery.

The responsibility of this Bureau was to solve these paranormal phenomena before the public discovers them and explain it scientifically afterwards to prevent ordinary people from discovering the existence of dark world like this hidden amidst their everyday lives. To package it nicely, it was to protect the civilians —- Ye Jia however had reservations about this.

There were skilled individuals in the Bureau, but they were basically all concentrated in the main headquarter.

As for the Logistics Department where Ye Jia worked, it was basically filled with ordinary people who were responsible for miscellaneous tasks including paperwork, occasionally going out once or twice for field duties, cleaning up the battle scene and collecting data.

—— In short, they were corporate slaves.

"To have to go out to the field on such a hot day, we're really very unlucky." Zhao Dong wiped away the sweat from his forehead. His spirits were low, "I hope there's air conditioning inside."

He turned and glanced at Ye Jia who stood next to him and sighed jealously, "If only I am not afraid of the heat like you."

Ye Jia didn't bother answering him.

He yawned again, finished his milk tea and threw the cup into the trash can nearby.

"Let's get it over and done with."

The paper cup hit the bottom of the empty trash can, making a dull sound.

With the air scorched hot by the sun, the news broadcast coming from a TV in an electrical store next to the high-rise building sounded distant and unclear. It was almost impossible to tell what the announcer was saying without listening carefully: "….Recently, there have been many mysterious disappearances in the city…..The police are doing everything they can to investigate….."

The three of them entered the building carrying a box of equipment.

The inside of the building was dark and gloomy.

Compared to the scorching and almost dazzling light outside, the inside of the building was much darker, but equally as sultry.

The air was filled with a musty and damp smell that was a characteristic of old buildings. It made it hard for them to breathe.

Zhao Dong wiped his face and angrily cursed.

No air conditioning.

Cheng Cezhi focused on the detector in his hand —- It was a product developed by the Bureau and used to detect and collect paranormal energy, but at this moment, the broken line on the display screen remained unmoving. There was not a single change in comparison to the readings from outside the building.

He shook his head and gave up trying, "Let's go. Go upstairs."

The elevator here was obviously very old. There were rust marks and stains all over the walls in this small space and small advertisements were plastered layer after layer over each other. As it shook and slowly rose, the steel rope supporting it made a terrifying loud creak. It was as if it would fall any moment.

Watching the floor number slowly increase, Ye Jia asked, "What site are we going to this time?"

Cheng Cezhi was surprised, "It can't be. Brother Ye, you didn't read the mission report before you came?"

Ye Jia answered slowly, "Too long."

Cheng Cezhi: "…….."

Although he now had a good understanding of his colleague's unscrupulous work ethic……It was still a little too much for him to take in.

He sighed. Resigning to his fate, he briefly summarised the mission for the other party.

A young girl had mysteriously disappeared after entering this building. The surveillance camera at the entrance only recorded her entering but she never came back out again. It wasn't until a week later, when the residents called the police reporting a foul smell, that her body was found in room 404. The skin on her body had been completely peeled off and her stomach had swelled up due to decay, but strangely, she was lying on the bed peacefully, without any traces of struggle or binding.

Cheng Cezhi scratched his head: "Because there has been a lot of similar disappearances in the city recently, the people above attached great importance to this case and specially sent out a special team to investigate. They checked the scene but was unable to replace anything wrong, so they just directly helped release the girl's soul."

Although it was said to be releasing the soul, it was in fact more like killing. This kind of soul from someone who had died in vain could easily develop into a terrible ghost in the future, so the organisation would often act first to nip it in the bud.

"Then we're here this time for….?" Ye Jia glanced at the detector in Cheng Cezhi's hand.

"Collecting the residual energy." Cheng Cezhi replied, "Taking it back to see if there it has any value to be analysed."

At this moment, they heard a 'ding'.

Along with a small tremor, the elevator stopped. The door was jammed for a moment, but it was able to eventually open slowly to both sides.

The door to room 404 as tightly shut. The yellow tape at the door had still not been removed. Even though they were separated by a door, a faint rancid smell that couldn't even be concealed by the overwhelming smell of disinfectant could still be smelt.

Cheng Cezhi felt a little nauseous.

He built up his courage, "L-let's go."

Most of the furniture in 404 had already been cleaned up. There was a human outline drawn on the ground. The smell of decay was even stronger here.

Ye Jia lowered his eyelids and leaned idly against the wall. He watched the other two busy about.

Zhao Dong put on his gloves, opened the notebook he always carried around with him and began to write on it, while Cheng Cezhi used the detector to scan every inch of the room, searching for even the slightest of fluctuations.

It was actually very strange.

Once a spirit is released, there would usually be some residual energy left. The greater the resentment, the more the residual energy. Logically speaking, this young girl had died in vain. It shouldn't be this clean.

When Cheng Cezhi reached the door, suddenly, a trace of fluctuation was detected on screen.

It was very subtle, but that broken line very clearly rose once.

With joy in his heart, he walked in the direction of the energy fluctuations, searching for the best angle to collect more information.

At one point, he had unknowingly left the room.

Please read this from kk translates

His entire attention was on the instrument in this hand and little by little, he walked towards the dark depths of the corridor.

Suddenly, Cheng Cezhi abruptly stopped in place.

He raised his head and unexpectedly found himself standing at the door of the elevator.

Cheng Cezhi looked around blankly.

That's not right…..He clearly remembered that he was walking in the opposite direction of the elevator. How was he……?

The corridor was deathly silent.

The dazzling sunlight outside the building seemed to be unable to penetrate through the misty and dirty window glass. This dark and narrow space was mainly illuminated by the buzzing light above. The mottled walls would appear and disappear under the dim flickering lights.

Cheng Cezhi couldn't help but shiver.

Wait a minute, why was it so cold?

The sultry heat downstairs seemed like it was from a century ago.

There was clearly no wind, but he seemed to feel an extremely cold chill penetrating through his skin and very quickly reaching his bones. That cold sensation rising from the depths of his spine somehow made him feel panicked.

Also, it was too quiet.

Cheng Cezhi fearfully turned to look behind him. The door to 404 was closed and he couldn't see the other two who had entered together with him.

Suddenly, without any warning, the detector in his hand began beep non-stop.

The sharp sound reverberated through the cold and empty corridor. Cheng Cezhi was terribly frightened. He subconsciously looked down at the instrument in his hand and saw that the broken line on the screen had risen sharply. The line continued to tremble at the peak, as if it was anxiously warning him.

The next second, he suddenly heard a sound behind him.

"Ding."

In a situation where no one pressed the button, the elevator door slowly and silently opened.

Countless small black hands stretched out from inside the elevator. Each of those hands were as cold as ice. They pressed tightly against Cheng Cezhi's exposed skin, sucking away the temperature of his body.

"Heehee."

One after another, they wrapped around him.

Cheng Cezhi's teeth chattered. The breath he exhaled condensed into white mist in the air, making the tip of his nose wet.

His eyes widened in horror, but his fearful screams were stuck in his throat like an ice cube. All he could make was a strange guttural gurgle.

Immediately afterwards, Cheng Cezhi heard a small voice sound next to his ears. It carried insidious malice and whispered softly: "Hungry, so hungry…..Heehee."

The scene before him was like a nightmare he couldn't get out of.

Under extreme panic, Cheng Cezhi's eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

More small black hands came out of the elevator and, together, they dragged Cheng Cezhi towards the darkness. At this moment, a lazy voice sounded in the distance, suddenly breaking the silence: "Hey."

The young man whose skin was so extremely pale that it seemed almost transparent had his lids lowered, partially covering his light-coloured eyes. Standing at the entrance of the corridor not far away, he said unhurriedly, "That is my colleague. You can't do that."

"Smells good, smells good….." The small black hands squirmed around and muttered, "He smells so good."

"I was going to save him for last."

"But he found out."

"So I should eat him now!"

The next second, countless black hands flew out from the elevator. Following the walls and the floor, it charged towards the young man standing not far away!

"So hungry, so hungry, so hungry!"

The voice grew sharper and harsher, like nails scratching against glass: "Want to eat, want to eat, want to eat……"

Unexpectedly, the young man didn't evade.

The little black hands grabbed his thin and pale wrist and happily started to feast——

Soon afterwards, the black hands let out a sharp scream, "No! No! What is this?! What is this?!"

The living has spiritual energy, the dead has yin energy.

Once yin energy is condensed and resentment accumulates, one becomes a fierce ghost.

——- Yet inside the body of this living young man, hid dark and cold ghost energy.

Sticky and dark, cold and evil.

He calmly lowered his eyes. There were no other expressions on his face. His entire being was like an omniscient being standing far away from this world, looking down at the ghost before him from above.

An almost overwhelming power surged out from that human body of his, silently baring its sharp and terrible claws.