Deceitful Game

Chapter 37 Gao Fan's Teammates

Gao Fan took Mingpo on the subway for a full hour, changing stations twice, before finally getting off at Nanjing East Road Station.

"I feel like... I might not be able to go home tonight."

As Mingpo and Gao Fan walked along the road, Mingpo casually remarked, "The subway will stop running in a little while."

"There's no other way; hiring a driver is too extravagant."

Gao Fan was also quite helpless: "We can't afford to hire them... Why don't you stay and let's chat? You can leave tomorrow... We have plenty of time anyway."

How extravagant can hiring a driver be?

...To be honest, it is indeed quite extravagant.

As imposters who cannot interact with the material world, they must use the power of time chips to briefly manifest themselves in order to have any interaction with the present world. This means that even if they just want to issue an instruction for a driver to pick someone up, they must spend at least one lowest-level chip.

To have the power to change the past hour and use it to hire a driver... that's quite a luxury indeed.

"Thank goodness we can still use the subway..."

Mingpo sighed: "Otherwise, it would be a real hassle to even go out."

After getting to know each other a bit on the subway, Gao Fan gradually stopped being afraid of this tall, sullen, and taciturn man.

"And that's precisely why...only the charlatans in big cities band together."

Gao Fan shrugged: "At the very least, it has to be a city with a subway, an airport, and a high-speed rail station at the same time, otherwise it will be too difficult for them to go to other places."

"After all, the location of the 'anchor point' is fixed, and there must be some entrance connecting it to the real world. Apart from one's own home, it can be a hotel room or a school classroom or something similar."

"Brother Xiao probably doesn't go out much, right? Actually, if you just stroll around the subway station during the day, you might see other charlatans. Because this is the only place where all the charlatans come. It's quite useful whether you're exchanging information or trading chips... Now that the subway is about to shut down, everyone's gone home."

Gao Fan is a very intelligent person.

When he asked Mingpo how many people were in the team, he suddenly realized... this "Brother Xiao," although very capable in combat, seemed to be a relatively new conman—

Because he doesn't know many common-sense things.

However, Gao Fan did not break this tacit understanding by asking directly.

Instead, during the conversation, he casually mentioned a few points, weaving these common-sense points into the conversation and telling Mingpo about them.

"...Trading chips?"

Since the other party had tactfully identified himself as a "homebody," Mingpo didn't expose him but instead went along with it and asked.

"The chips of time can only be separated, not combined," Gao Fan's voice was quite childish, like a child's, "but where there's a will, there's a way... Although they can't be combined, it doesn't say they can't be traded."

Even the most skilled con artists need low-level bargaining chips. Small change is usually the fastest money to spend.

"So normally, if one day can be exchanged for twenty-four hours, there would definitely be people willing to trade one day for thirty or even thirty-two hours, right?"

Gao Fan said with a smile, "Brother Xiao, look, isn't this just exchanging lower-level chips for higher-level chips?"

Off-site transactions.

Mingbo understood.

If we follow this line of thinking...

He glanced at Gao Fan and suddenly asked, "So, have you ever been traded?"

He emphasized "you".

"...Ah, of course."

Gao Fan's smile faded slightly, then returned with a somewhat forced one: "After all, I'm quite useful!"

really.

If chips can be traded, then other resources should also be tradable.

This naturally includes... human resources.

Besides functional deceivers like Gao Fan who can "warn of danger" and "find the right path," it's highly likely that other types of deceivers also possess similar abilities. For example, healing abilities, telepathic communication, or even clairvoyance—

If a team was originally well-organized, but lost an important member due to an accident, causing the entire team structure to become unstable, then it is perfectly reasonable for them to spend a lot of money to rent a team member.

If you can team up with people from your own team, there's no reason why you can't team up with people from outside your team.

That being the case...

A meaningful smile appeared on Mingpo's lips.

When Gao Fan led him back to the base, things weren't so simple.

Soon, he brought Gao Fan to a villa.

"...It's not cheap here."

Mingpo was somewhat surprised: "This place must cost 150,000 to 160,000 per square meter. The anchor point is here... Could this be your captain's house?"

He knew this place—even in the entire Huangpu district, it was considered a very high-end residential area, where a single unit could cost 30 million.

According to the theory that anchor points are usually one's own home, that means... one of Gao Fan's team members lived here before his death?

"what……"

At this point, Gao Fan turned around and smiled, "This is my home."

...?

Upon hearing this, Mingpo was taken aback.

—Hey kid, you look unremarkable, but you're actually a rich guy?

Unsurprisingly, Gao Fan didn't knock. He simply opened the door and went inside, with Ming Po following behind him.

A man and a woman approached from the opposite direction—they both looked to be in their twenties or thirties, which was considered quite young.

"Xiao Gao..."

Just as the man was about to say something, he saw Mingpo behind Gao Fan.

He immediately became alert, a ghostly green light flashing in his pupils, and asked, "Who are you?"

"This is Brother Xiao."

Gao Fan said with a smile, "They are my and Xiao Ning's friends... We're here for a get-together."

The man's gaze swept over Mingpo, then he frowned and looked at Gao Fan: "...Why didn't you discuss bringing a friend back first?"

He did not introduce himself, and his tone was accusatory.

Gao Fan didn't reply, he just lowered his head.

"Okay, okay..."

The woman, who was pretty, gentle-looking, and seemed like a rich young lady, was breaking up the fight.

She clung to the man's arm and advised, "Since he's Xiaoning's friend, he's at least not a bad person, right?"

"Yes," Gao Fan finally spoke up, "Xiao Ning is a charlatan in the realm of virtue... How could someone he trusts be a bad person?"

"Since they're friendly people, why can't we introduce them? We can't just keep maintaining a team of three like this, neither growing nor shrinking, can we?"

"Three people is already quite enough..."

The man seemed to want to argue, but quickly shook his head.

He stepped forward and extended his hand to Mingpo.

He began, "I am the 'Leader of the Ironblood,' and this is the 'Diplomat of the Moon.' We are a team from the Realm of Balance... There are no members from the Realm of Virtue among us, I apologize."

Mingpo narrowed his eyes slightly.

He understood what the other person meant.

The implication of this "leader" is that they are not the kind of "team formed under the charismatic leadership of a charismatic figure in the realm of morality."

As a purely balanced team, they no longer accepted anyone else's ideas.

In other words, he was kicking people out.