Chapter 124 | The Alliance Hired Me to Play Final Boss

The world fell silent for a moment.

"Dr. Lin" was stunned for a second, the punchable smile on his face stiffening slightly.

Under Ren Yi's cold gaze, he slowly raised a hand to his forehead, the corners of his mouth twitching into an "it's going to be hard to talk my way out of this" look.

"See, now this is awkward..." He gave a helpless laugh and turned to the waitress standing nearby.

"Hey, say something. Aren't you waitresses responsible for smoothing over the atmosphere?"

The waitress's expression vanished instantly. She kept her eyes on the ground and her mind on her business, even taking a discreet half-step back, clearly signaling an "it has nothing to do with me, carry on" attitude.

"Heh."

Ren Yi didn't give him an inch. With a cold sneer, he took two steps back to open up some distance and pulled out his phone, his fingers sliding rapidly across the screen.

The real Dr. Lin was right—this entertainment city was truly a den of snakes.

But even he probably hadn't expected his own doppelgänger to show up so brazenly, had he?

That being said, this fake Dr. Lin clearly wasn't an employee of the entertainment city.

Yet it was obvious that the entertainment city knew this impostor. Even if they weren't partners, they were at least turning a blind eye to each other's presence.

From the very beginning, when Ren Yi had asked the waitress why this guy was here, she had intentionally avoided a direct answer, only giving a vague reply like "it's normal for him to be here."

It was a subtle misdirection.

Then this fake Dr. Lin, working hand in glove with the house, had immediately tried to lure Ren Yi into a trap with his smooth talk.

Seeing that he couldn't get a reaction from the playing-dead waitress, the fake Dr. Lin sighed and tried to mend the stiff atmosphere himself.

He looked back and noticed Ren Yi's movements on his phone, leaning in proactively to ask, "What are you doing, young man? You aren't trying to find little Lin, are you?"

"Hey, hey, don't ignore me."

"Don't just stare at your phone. Look up—your parrot's feathers are standing on end."

On Ren Yi's shoulder, Wang Zhixin's feathers were indeed fully bristled. He raised his wings toward this "Dr. Lin" with a face full of vigilance.

"No, you're overthinking it." Ren Yi didn't even look up, reaching out to gently stroke Wang Zhixin to calm him down. "I'm just checking the Alliance's sentencing guidelines for scamming a minor."

"Oh, found it, found it," he suddenly paused, his tone becoming exceptionally exaggerated.

"The primary offender starts at three years, with a maximum of the death penalty—to be executed ten times!"

"Cough, cough, cough." The fake Dr. Lin let out a series of very deliberate dry coughs. "Now, now, 'young man,' don't go throwing around wild accusations. When did I ever scam you?"

"I never once admitted to being some 'Dr. Lin.' You're the one who mistook me for someone else and started calling me that right off the bat."

He acted as if he were completely in the right.

"I'm just an innocent bystander who got dragged into this. If you really want to blame someone... you should blame this local casino syndicate that intentionally lured you over here."

As soon as those words were spoken, the waitress, who had just been splashed with the "syndicate" label, finally reacted.

"Customer, please do not go around pinning blame on others."

"The entertainment city has always adhered to its duties, diligently fulfilling its role. We would never engage in misconduct such as using someone else's appearance to commit fraud."

"The way you're talking, it makes it sound like I'm running a honey trap..." The fake Dr. Lin's face fell, looking aggrieved.

"Isn't that exactly what this is?" Ren Yi put down his phone. "You've even changed your face to look like Dr. Lin."

Ren Yi was well aware that the fake Dr. Lin in front of him was certainly a higher-level Anomaly than himself.

Judging by his behavior, he didn't seem to be an employee, and the entertainment city's rule that "customers are not allowed to harm each other" was still objectively in effect.

The rules protected the customers themselves.

Therefore, even if this impostor and the entertainment city were likely in cahoots, he was still restricted by the rules.

In other words, while Ren Yi couldn't beat the guy, the guy couldn't lay a hand on him either. The most they could do was trade verbal barbs.

Having realized this, Ren Yi's tone became particularly bold.

"You've got it all wrong." The fake Dr. Lin looked like he had been deeply wronged. "You've got the causality backwards. My face was originally like this."

"It's that 'Dr. Lin' you're talking about who's imitating my face!"

Ren Yi stared at him coldly.

He naturally didn't believe a single word about Dr. Lin imitating this guy's face.

However, the part about his face naturally looking like this might actually be true.

Ren Yi vaguely remembered that when Ren Man told him Dr. Lin's name was "Lin Xinyan," he had said: "There are many Heart Fiends."

At the time, Ren Yi had wondered if there were also Wang Xinyans, Zhao Xinyans, Ouyang Xinyans, Shangguan Xinyans...

Surnames didn't have absolute meaning for Anomalies. Ren Yi had initially thought that the Heart Fiend family might be like Lu Zihan's, with many members.

But looking at it now, his brother's comment that "there are many Heart Fiends" didn't refer to family members at all.

Did it mean there were many Heart Fiends who looked exactly the same?

While Ren Yi was lost in thought, the "Dr. Lin" in front of him probably felt the atmosphere was uncomfortably stiff. He awkwardly reached out a hand, putting on the air of a formal introduction.