Chapter 34: The Butterfly Organization Keep moving forward.

"The Locust Division has many ordinary people. It's a department dedicated to serving the other divisions, specifically the official members."

"The Ants operate under military discipline, with the Queen Ant as the supreme commander. My advice is: don't join them. If you ever see an enemy of yours join the Ants, you can celebrate with a drink. But if a friend of yours joins the Ants... then you've just lost a friend."

Wu Hui narrowed his eyes. "So, mental control—is it that, except for the Queen Ant, the whole division is just her puppets?"

"No, even the Queen Ant is a puppet," said the Tarantula. "They function as a collective consciousness. If the Queen Ant dies, a new one will soon emerge from within."

"The Bees are an organization united outwardly but fiercely competitive internally. Their leader changes frequently. Internal conflicts are often fatal, but when facing outsiders, they're remarkably united. I don't understand how they manage it."

"The Mantises are all enforcers, a band of fighters. They're formidable in single combat but lack much coordination with each other, each acting alone."

"As for us Spiders, we're more akin to operatives. In theory, there's no leader—only regional supervisors, who report directly to Lady Butterfly."

"Operatives," Wu Hui caught the key point. "So, it's possible you'd need to go undercover in other organizations or the like?"

"It's possible, but not that common. For example, my main job is actually to hunt down internal traitors, and to manage the members in this area. I won't interfere much, but at the very least, I keep records," the Tarantula said quite candidly.

Wu Hui nodded. "It seems the Butterfly Organization, if not the most powerful, must be among the top organizations."

"Apart from the Tribunal, you won't find any force in this district that can rival the Butterfly Organization. And you must know about the Tribunal—they're the player organization officially affiliated with the United Human Federation."

The United Human Federation, the full name for what is now the world's sole legitimate government. The former countries have been reorganized based on population and geography into continental-level (provinces) and regional-level (like the European District, East Asian District, South Asian District, etc.) administrative units.

Each district has a certain degree of autonomy and legislative power, though always under the Federation’s constitution.

Such a world setting is clearly designed to avoid censorship.

Hope you all understand.

The East Asian District enforces strict gun control, so even getting bullets is difficult for Wu Hui.

But when he mentioned this to the Tarantula, he was casually given a black market address and instructions on how to get in. Then the Tarantula turned and left. After all, he was a busy man—he could offer Wu Hui a few pointers, but he wouldn't play nanny.

"One last question. What level player are you?" Wu Hui asked.

"Ninth level. The highest in Evergreen City—there are only three of us at this level. Two are from the Butterfly Organization, one from the Tribunal," Tarantula replied. "So, have you made your decision?"

Wu Hui said, "I've decided to keep the badge."

"Very good. Well then, until next time. I have high hopes for you, little brother." Tarantula headed for the balcony and jumped out once more.

Watching his departing figure, Wu Hui fell into thought.

That guy hadn't mentioned the blessing, and judging by his words, the Spider division didn't seem the type to concern themselves with such things. If nothing else, after giving you a blessing, they'd tell you, right? To win your favor?

Unless that person didn't care at all about your feelings.

Or maybe he's your father.

After receiving the blessing, Wu Hui hadn't encountered any real danger or obstacles the entire round, and he'd gained increased favorability from two more girls as well as taken first place in the game.

As for favorability—Wu Hui wasn't particularly concerned, but it was clearly a good thing. Ren Yin's had only risen slightly, now at seventy, indicating camaraderie. Li Xiaoyue's, however, had inexplicably jumped to over eighty, on par with her younger sister, leaving Wu Hui baffled.

He felt he hadn't done anything for her—why had her favorability climbed so much? Was his emotional intelligence really only at four points?

He decided to add two points to it when he got the chance, though it didn't seem especially useful, so he set it aside for now.

For the moment, he’d go find the person who had given him the blessing.

—

Wu Tong was at home drinking.

She spent most of her time drinking, but Wu Hui had rarely seen her actually drunk.

"You're back?"

"Mm."

Wu Hui closed the door.

"Sigh, I didn't plan to keep it secret for much longer, but you found out a bit too quickly," Wu Tong set her can aside.

"It wasn't hard to guess," Wu Hui said. "You must have used the cognitive adjustment service on the app quite a few times, haven't you?"

This service allowed players to conceal their identities from ordinary people. Once used, any destruction or negative effects you caused would be erased by an unseen force.

"No wonder, under its influence, I never wore these glasses in front of you. Just looking can cause harm—are high-level players really that strong?" Wu Hui sat on the sofa. "So, Cocoon Corporation is the Butterfly Organization? Or perhaps part of it? And when you travel for work, it's to fight other players or participate in games?"

Faced with Wu Hui's stream of questions, Wu Tong was instantly overwhelmed. She considered using cognitive adjustment again, but unfortunately, now that Wu Hui was also a player, he was outside the service's effect.

"Sigh. I'm a level-nine player in the Butterfly Organization—codename Wasp. The Tarantula's already contacted you, hasn't he?"

"Mm."

"I can't tell you much; there are restrictions both within the organization and in the system... At most, I can give you a blessing before each game, like before. Also, in the future, try not to use the glasses outside of games—high-level players can basically detect them."

"So, the answers to my earlier questions are yes, yes, and yes," Wu Hui said calmly, watching his sister drape her long legs over him.

Wu Tong's expression became a touch complicated. She'd always known her little brother was smart, and after being strengthened by joining the game, he was even sharper. No matter what she said, she ended up revealing information anyway.

After all, if the answers had been negative, there'd be no reason to hide anything.

"Participating in the game is very dangerous, and my blessing may not be able to help you," Wu Tong sighed. "But there's not much way to escape it, either."

"Isn't it said that after level five, you can choose whether to join games freely?"

"That, yes. But each time you choose not to join, you have to pay points. So those who keep skipping games are usually those who have some real-world resources and can trade for points with other players. There are quite a few like that."

But Wu Tong knew for certain Wu Hui would never choose that path.

"Counting those who've died, the preliminary estimate is that there are hundreds of thousands of players worldwide—about one in every five thousand people," Wu Tong said. "But that one in five thousand... is enough to make the world unrecognizable. What’s more, the number of players continues to grow. Sooner or later, it won’t be a secret anymore."

ps: Please vote, bookmark, and subscribe. No extra chapter tonight. Still owe five or six chapters. After thinking it over, I think it’s better to add them all next month.