Chapter 169: The Ember's End

Chen Ling nodded slightly, then asked in confusion, "What is Senior Bai Ye's identity?"

"Me? I don't need an identity," Bai Ye chuckled. "As long as I don't want to be exposed, who in Aurora City can catch me?"

"Currently, a group of Twilight Society members has entered Aurora City, but most of them don't have public identities. The information I can gather alone is limited; we need a larger intelligence network," Chu Muyun said earnestly, looking at Chen Ling. "Although you haven't been with the society long, you're the only one who can quickly leverage an advantage in this area."

"Information, huh..." Chen Ling mused thoughtfully. "I understand."

Chen Ling indeed needed a new identity; after all, he couldn't stay hidden in Chu Muyun's residence indefinitely. However, from his observations, continuing as an enforcer was no longer suitable. Re-entering the enforcement system as a rookie would be too cumbersome. Moreover, secretly replacing an enforcer would be too risky, as he couldn't inherit their memories, and Aurora City was filled with powerful individuals. Any discovery of a clue would have severe consequences. Furthermore, Aurora City had too many high-ranking enforcers. With his current strength, impersonating a two-mark or three-mark enforcer was already his limit, but this was only the lowest tier in Aurora City's enforcement system. Even if he succeeded, it would be difficult to access any crucial information. Therefore, choosing this new identity was a challenge Chen Ling had to face.

"Before you find a new identity, you can stay here," Chu Muyun said, pointing into the distance. "That separate courtyard is for you, but there are no servants here, so you'll have to manage your own meals every day."

"Okay."

As Chen Ling was about to leave, something seemed to flash across the sky. He squinted, seeing a bright moon hanging high above the night sky.

"What's that...?" Chen Ling asked, puzzled.

"It's the Gray King," Chu Muyun replied calmly. "The Gray King is using the moonlight to establish contact with us... No, it seems it's not 'us'..."

Chen Ling looked back along the hazy moonlight, seeing a sliver of moonlight, like white snow, pouring onto Bai Ye's front. Bai Ye gently raised his head, his gaze meeting the moon through the brim of his baseball cap, and sighed helplessly.

"It seems... they're looking for me..."

Bai Ye left that very night.

Chen Ling returned to his separate courtyard. Although it was just a detached dwelling, its size was equivalent to three of his former homes in District Three. He pushed the door open and stepped inside; all necessary living supplies were provided. Chen Ling tidied up briefly, then lay back on the bed and quickly entered a dream.

When he opened his eyes again, he was back on the familiar stage. The audience's gaze, as always, fixated on him, like countless crimson stars in the darkness.

Chen Ling had returned once before after self-immolating on the train, but the situation was critical then, and he had no leisure to do anything else. He quickly returned to the real world and hid himself to avoid detection. Only now did he have time to carefully examine the gains from this performance.

He walked to the screen in the center of the stage and scrolled through the entries one by one:Audience Expectation Value: 5Current Expectation Value: 83Detected loss of actor connection, performance interrupted.Audience Expectation Value: 50Current Expectation Value: 33

After scrolling to the last message, Chen Ling's eyebrows lifted slightly. After this death, there was still an expectation value of 33, thanks to having pushed it to 83 earlier. This was Chen Ling's first time raising the expectation value to such a level, marking a new record.

If Chen Ling remembered correctly, after the expectation value exceeded 80, he should have an additional random skill draw.

Chen Ling reached out and lightly tapped the treasure chest.

A fanfare sounded!

Accompanied by rousing music, a table appeared out of thin air in the center of the stage. On a white sheet of paper in the middle of the tabletop, several lines of small text quickly emerged:"Detected: Audience expectation value has exceeded 80 for the first time, unlocking the achievement 'Rave Reviews'!""You have received one extra draw right.""Upon use, one random character skill will be drawn from all characters appearing in this performance for you to learn."

Chen Ling's gaze swept over the text. It was as he expected... However, this random reward was still significantly inferior compared to the rewards received after completing a play. After all, this was a completely random draw of both "character" and "skill." As more characters appeared in the play, the uncertainty of the draw would increase. Moreover, this draw did not have probability boosts based on the play, making it purely dependent on luck.

The white paper on the table suddenly vanished, replaced by a spread of cards laid out on the tabletop. The cards were of various colors; most were white and gray, some were blue, and Chen Ling even saw a few purple cards. This indicated that some of the characters appearing in this performance possessed relatively high-tier divine path skills.

The next moment, the cards simultaneously flipped face down, revealing uniform card backs. Then, they rapidly overlapped, finally spreading out neatly across the tabletop.

Chen Ling knew it was time to test his luck.

He took a deep breath and randomly tapped a card in a corner. When the card flipped over to reveal a flicker of white light, Chen Ling's expression immediately stiffened.

"Skill: Iron Fist of Justice""Attribution: None.""Character: Wen Shilin."

This was not a divine path skill card, but an ordinary ability that barely qualified as a "skill." In terms of rank, its level was essentially on par with "Cooking" and "Housekeeping Mastery."

The moment the card merged into Chen Ling's body, an introduction naturally appeared in his mind: "Even if I am as insignificant as an ant, my Iron Fist of Justice will steadfastly strike at all darkness and injustice in the world... even if I am reduced to ashes."

Chen Ling was somewhat bewildered. He didn't know how this incredibly weak skill could have such an imposing description, nor did he know who this "Wen Shilin" was. In his memory, he had never seen or even heard of this person.

At this point, Chen Ling realized another issue... While this random reward had significant uncertainty, it allowed him to draw skills from people he hadn't even met. In contrast, the selective rewards after a play's completion required knowing the names of the characters in the play to make a draw. From this perspective, it wasn't that the reward was weak; it was simply that his luck was terrible.

Chen Ling shook his head. Although he only drew a common skill, he wasn't too disheartened, as he knew he still had another chance.

After the cards dissipated, a white sheet of paper reappeared on the table out of thin air.

"Congratulations on completing the play, 'When the Embers Fall'."