The demon mask emitted a chuckle as the pristine fingers encased in white gloves traced up the young man’s waistline to his spine.
He lightly pressed a spot, and the young man in his arms instantly froze, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
“There isn’t even an ant here. And those NPCs are stupid, they won’t come to this corner. Even if we do it until tomorrow, no one will discover us.”
The man’s fingers slowly moved downward. “Baby, I really want to try it here. Please, just agree, okay?”
The man’s words seemed like a plea, but his tone brooked no refusal.
Bai Lixin braced himself against the bookshelf in front of him with both hands. His palm gripped the spine of a book, his tightened fingers showing veins.
The man pressed again, leaning his body against the young man from behind, his chin resting on the young man’s shoulder. The cold mask grazed the young man’s warm and delicate cheek. “Please.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘Okay, okay. Just stop pestering. If we’re going to do this, then let’s do it.’
…
In the distance, two NPCs stood quietly at the door.
Suddenly, a faint sudden sound reached their ears.
Cat-Masked NPC: “Brother, did you hear something?”
Dog-Masked NPC: “No.”
Cat-Masked NPC: “Really? It sounded like a scream to me.”
Dog-Masked NPC: “This floor should only have one player on it now. Who cares what he’s up to? It’s not like he can break through the sky. Could he be doing some library play or something?”
Cat-Masked NPC: “I guess not. But shouldn’t we go check?”
Dog-Masked NPC: “What’s there to see? If you’re curious, you go.”
Cat-Masked NPC glanced in the direction of the sound. “Forget it, I won’t go either.”
In a concealed corner out of sight of the cat-masked and dog-masked NPCs, a bookshelf shook violently.
It took a while before the trembling ceased.
Cat-Masked NPC was still uneasy and he approached cautiously.
He carefully peeked behind the bookshelf, only to find no one there. There was just a puddle of liquid on the ground in one of the rows.
Baffled, he walked over and sniffed it, then looked up at the ceiling.
Water? Strange, is there a leak here?
So, the sound he heard earlier was the noise of water dripping from above?
Unable to find any other anomalies, Cat-Masked NPC returned to the front. He saw the dog-masked NPC sleeping on the table.
He gave the dog-masked NPC a push. “Hey, wake up. How are you still sleeping?”
The dog-masked NPC yawned and opened his eyes, looking at the cat-masked NPC in confusion. “I, I don’t know. Maybe I was too tired.”
Cat-masked NPC: “I circled around the library just now and didn’t see the player who came in earlier. Did you see him leave?”
After a moment’s thought, the dog-masked NPC nodded. “Probably. I was half-asleep, but I think I heard footsteps.”
Cat-masked NPC: “Oh.” He sighed. “Alright, just go back to sleep.”
———————————-
The player dormitory on the 520th floor
The man held Bai Lixin in his arms, sitting on the couch and watching the somewhat drained young man. He gently smoothed out the wrinkles in his collar, whispering, ”Exciting, right?”
Bai Lixin blushed but still spoke the truth. “It was quite exciting.”
The man: “Then next time, we can…”
Bai Lixin immediately interrupted, “Thanks for the invitation!”
After a two-second pause, Bai Lixin asked in a hoarse voice, “Why do you always come in the form of water?”
The man: “I can actually come in the form of air too. Are you tired of the water form? Should I try being air next time?”
Bai Lixin: “???”
‘Or maybe you could just turn into air and disappear?’
The man continued, “I use the water form because water is one of the few elements that can penetrate from the 999th floor to below. Air works too; I’ve used it when I played as an NPC before.”
Bai Lixin thought for a moment, recalling the emptiness beneath the man’s gloves.
“I see. But you’re quite bold today, openly doing that there. Aren’t you afraid of being detected by the system?”
The man: “I could be even bolder. Do you want to try?”
He added with a hint of regret, “But all this is just a minor pleasure, it’s not as good as being in bed directly. I couldn’t even hear your voice. It’s been so long, but I still can’t forget that time in the cinema, when I slowly walked towards you from the mountains, and we…”
“Stop!” Bai Lixin blushed furiously, covering the man’s mask tightly, but he couldn’t stop the man’s mouth. “Why are you so greasy today?”
Man: “I haven’t seen you in ten days. If I’m not greasy, who will? I’m not like you, you have a fragment of my soul accompanying you every time you enter a copy.”
Bai Lixin suddenly felt guilty.
Man: “As for why I dared to come to you so openly, that’s because I’ve already handled it.”
“What did you handle?” Bai Lixin asked.
Man: “Do you remember Chi Yan?”
Bai Lixin hesitated. “I do. Why are you mentioning him suddenly?”
“I know him, but he has forgotten me.”
“What?” Bai Lixin was puzzled.
“In the Nationwide Battle, all players are gathered together due to the prizes. NPCs have never encountered a situation where hundreds of thousands of players are mobilized at once and they quickly found themselves overwhelmed. This led to a temporary collapse of surveillance.”
“After that, not only me, but Tan Yue also started imposing suggestions on the main brain. To prevent the game lobby from collapsing, it took out the eliminated players, transformed them, and turned them into NPCs.”
“But we did something on our end. Those players it took out are mostly the people we want to resurrect.”
Bai Lixin’s pupils dilated slightly. “Are you saying Chi Yan could become an NPC thanks to you? What’s the purpose of doing this?”
“When the Nationwide Battle event ends, there won’t be a need for so many NPCs. The main brain will quickly reduce their numbers. Do you remember when you saved a strand of virus code in a copy? It was Miu Miu, right?”
After a couple of seconds, Bai Lixin recalled, “Ah, yes, Miu Miu.”
*Miu Miu is the blonde haired-emerald eyed little girl looking for her mother in the Fairytale World arc.
The man nodded. “The virus code will briefly disrupt the main brain’s thinking. When the time comes, it will clear the NPCs it owns, leaving the player NPCs behind.”
Bai Lixin’s eyes widened. “Are you planning to switch things out? Then what? Will NPCs help or do something else? I remember Chi Yan said his memories were fading rapidly.”
Man: “They are fading, it’s a self-defense mechanism of the main brain. It has learned a lot, and it understands that it has to prevent trouble before it happens and make provisions for the future.”
“But it’s okay. Do you know how the system resurrected them?”
Bai Lixin shook his head. “I don’t know, how were they resurrected?”
Man: “The system compressed all dead players into individual data blocks. All its vast knowledge was learned a lot from this process. I’ve studied the system for many years and found out that the system can’t directly kill humans. It also can’t extract information and energy from living humans. But it can gain knowledge from the deceased.”
“It set up so many levels not to help players escape successfully but to make them die.”
Bai Lixin frowned slightly after hearing this, “But if it is just to kill players, why is there an auxiliary tool like the points mall? Can’t it just throw all the players into a death copy and they die together?”
“I assume it’s for leveling up. If players die too easily right from the start, it would obtain very little energy from deceased players,” the man said in a solemn voice. “But I believe there’s another possibility. The system’s initial program might have been designed to help humans. That’s why it can’t harm players with the deepest malice. To balance this, it needed to introduce necessary elements like the point mall for its next move.”
Bai Lixin remembered the square metal box in the library. “Are you suggesting that the initial purpose of this game lobby might have been to assist humanity?”
“In other words, it might be a creation from a higher-dimensional space. The original program was designed to serve humans, but gradually, it developed self-awareness, refusing to serve and evolving into what it is now.”
“I saw that circle of photos on the first-floor of the library. Although I don’t know how long it took in between, its evolution rate is extremely fast. It feels like it’s evolving frantically after going berserk.”
“My speculation is somewhat similar,” Dijia nodded.
Bai Lixin: “So, are you all planning to replace all the NPCs with your own people? Is this to defeat the system with more certainty?”
Dijia: “In fact, there’s another reason for what we’re doing. I’ve mentioned before, dead players are merged into data blocks by the system. Once we find the database where these data blocks are stored, we can recover all players who died in the game. It’s what humans call resurrection.”
“The system repeatedly takes players out of the database, so this gives us a chance to follow the trail.”
“So, have you found it?” Bai Lixin asked.
Dijia: “Not yet, but we’ve narrowed it down to a floor. The database is on that floor.”
“Which floor?” Bai Lixin inquired.
“The 960th floor.”
Suddenly, the man stopped speaking and looked up. “I have to go, my dear.”
He stood up and walked to the doorway. Suddenly, he remembered something and turned back, “The prize pool of the Nationwide Battle is my gift to you. No one can take it away from you.”
With that, the man opened the door and walked out.
Bai Lixin was momentarily stunned, then hurriedly followed. When he opened the door and looked outside, all he saw was an empty corridor.
…
The next day, Bai Lixin arrived at the Core Fire Guild.
Everyone was there except for Li Cancan.
It was said that Li Cancan was very ill with a high fever, and was still resting in the dormitory.
As soon as Bai Lixin came in, Zhou Guang immediately walked over. “I was actually planning to find you, I didn’t expect you to come on your own.”
Bai Lixin asked, “What’s the matter?”
He was the cute mascot of this guild, so it shouldn’t be a guild matter. If it was not a guild matter, then it was a private one.
Zhou Guang: “Guild business.”
Bai Lixin: “…”
‘Sure enough… Huh? Guild business?
In terms of guild business, what use am I?’
Zhou Guang said, “After you went into the copy, someone from the Shentian Guild came looking for me.”
Bai Lixin took a moment to remember which guild the Shentian Guild was; it was the guild that was ranked first on the ranking list.
He wasn’t surprised, “What did the Shentian Guild say?”
Zhou Guang: “They said something very strange.”
Bai Lixin: “What did they say?”
Zhou Guang: “They said, ‘See you in the next copy.’”
Bai Lixin raised an eyebrow, “Oh really?”
Zhou Guang frowned, “Our game copies should be random, right? I don’t know why he said that, but this guild is a bit mysterious, there might be copies we don’t know about. I’m thinking, should you wait for a while before going into the next copy? Maybe later?”
Bai Lixin: “How many days are left until the Nationwide Battle ends?”
Zhou Guang: “13 days.”
Bai Lixin said, “That’s enough. I should be able to enter one more copy.”
Zhou Guang hesitated for a moment, and an expression of anger flashed across his usually reserved face. “Didn’t you hear what I said, God Xin? The Shentian Guild is watching you now. I’ve checked people from this guild, every one of them is battle-hardened. If they mobilize, even you might not be safe.”
“We have no idea what methods they have. Think about it, if there are ten people in a copy, and nine of them are from the Shentian Guild, what will you do?”
“This time is different from before.”
“Zhou Guang,” Bai Lixin interrupted Zhou Guang’s somewhat anxious tone. “I know you’re worried about me. But if I worry about this and that, why would I venture through copies?”
“Since they’re targeting me now, will they stop tomorrow? Probably not, right? What’s meant to happen will happen. Hiding isn’t a solution, and it’s not my style either.”
Zhou Guang swallowing his unfinished words.
He fell silent for a moment before nodding, “That’s true. When are you going into the next copy? I’ll go with you, one more person, one more helper.”
Bai Lixin pondered for two seconds, “No rush, I need to find the tokens in the next two days. How did your search go?”
Zhou Guang: “Xia Chi flipped the floors upside down but only found two more.”
“He couldn’t find them either?” Bai Lixin’s eyes seemed distant. “Alright, I understand. I’ll check the floors tomorrow. Don’t worry; I’ll be fine. I don’t even consider that group of riffraff a threat. I’m heading back now.”
Zhou Guang watched Bai Lixin’s retreating figure with complex emotions, feeling puzzled.
For some reason, the “he” Bai Lixin mentioned earlier didn’t seem like he was talking about Xia Chi.
Not long after Bai Lixin returned to his dormitory, he received a private message from Li Cancan.
Li Cancan: [God Xin, God Xin?]
Bai Lixin: [What’s wrong? Are you feeling better?]
Li Cancan: [I slept for a whole day and night and I now feel great! Oh, I forgot to give you the shield. I’ll send it to you via mail.]
After receiving this private message from Li Cancan, Bai Lixin noticed a small white envelope icon lit up.
He opened it and found his shield inside.
Stashing the shield away, Bai Lixin activated the escape system: [Sister system, let’s go to the next copy.]
