Chapter 18

Helping Out

"Please, don't mention it — it was nothing." Chao Musheng smiled politely at the middle-aged man, then noticed Zhang San standing frozen and staring at the car. "We haven't eaten lunch yet, so we'll be heading off. Goodbye."

"Wait—" The man didn't get another word out before Chao Musheng had already turned and walked away.

The advantages of long legs — covering ground faster than everyone else.

Zhang San followed after Chao Musheng in a daze, feet barely connecting with the pavement. It was a short stretch of road, but every step felt like it was landing on nothing solid.

Before stepping into the restaurant, he couldn't help looking back one more time.

The enormous dragon was still coiling above the car, its vast head turned in their direction. Its eyes were black hollows — nothing inside them but a churning vortex of error codes and question marks.

One glance at that vortex, and a fear beyond words seized him. Beyond life and death. Something that made his soul shudder.

"Stop standing there — come sit down." Chao Musheng, noticing Zhang San rooted to the doorway with that blank, stupefied expression, leaned out and looked past him.

In the instant Chao Musheng looked out, Zhang San watched the dragon coiling above the car simply vanish. As though it had never been there. As though it were nothing but a hallucination.

The rear window of the car slowly lowered. With the light coming from the wrong direction, he could only make out the faint shape of a person inside.

"Stop looking. Come in." Chao Musheng physically pressed Zhang San into a chair. "No matter how impressive someone's car is, it's still theirs. The food in your stomach — that's the only thing that's really yours."

He handed Zhang San the menu, then noticed his face was sheened with sweat, and passed him two napkins as well. "Why are you so overheated?"

"I — I'm fine." Zhang San gripped the napkins and kept his hand out of sight, not wanting Chao Musheng to see how badly it was trembling. "Xiao Chao — that car outside. Do you know the owner?"

"No." Chao Musheng saw sweat still running down Zhang San's face and moved the water jug in front of him. "Just gave them directions a few days ago."

"Then he's, ah—" Zhang San swallowed. "He's very polite."

Chao Musheng gave him a look of mild concern. Giving directions was a minor thing — it wasn't normal for someone to return again and again to express gratitude over it. "Zhang San, make sure you download an anti-fraud app when you get back to your phone."

Zhang San was halfway through asking what an anti-fraud app was when he glanced up and caught Zhao Shang's steady, composed expression.

He snapped back.

This was an instance world. Not his real life.

Every unnecessary word out of his mouth was a risk.

A fresh wave of cold sweat broke out across his back. How had he let his guard down in front of Chao Musheng?

[Ding! Delicious lunch consumed. Health +5.]

Health going up again.

Even eating outside the school, the health still increased?

After the meal, Zhao Shang set down his chopsticks and quietly observed Chao Musheng using his phone to scan a code and pay the bill.

In this instance world, the NPCs outside the school seemed to have no particular use for cash — they settled transactions via some kind of payment application on their phones.

Every player had arrived in this world carrying a thousand yuan in banknotes. Cash.

It was fortunate that he and Zhang San had thought to load their campus cards — using the cards at the dining hall hadn't raised any eyebrows.

"Come on — back to school." Chao Musheng finished paying. "I'm thinking of borrowing some books from the library. Want to come?"

"Yes!" Zhang San's enthusiasm was immediate and genuine. "I've been curious about the library ever since we arrived."

The library. A key location for plot development in any campus instance.

Both players were still mentally framing it as a plot location when they stepped through the library's doors — and then all those calculations evaporated and there was only astonishment.

Shelves of books extending further than the eye could follow. Intelligent robot assistants gliding between the aisles. An enormous, silent population of students.

Even Zhang San — who had never found anything compelling about studying — felt something like reverence standing in a place like this.

Chao Musheng found the books he wanted using one of the self-service machines, gestured for the two of them to wait, and disappeared into Stacks Section 7.

When he came back, he found Zhao Shang already holding two books of his own. Chao Musheng smiled at him and led them both to the registration desk outside.

It was only when Chao Musheng registered all three books under his own borrowing card that Zhao Shang understood — with a temporary campus card, he could come in and read, but couldn't check anything out. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's no trouble." Chao Musheng passed the books back to him. "If you want to return the favor, help me out this Friday."

"Of course." Zhao Shang held the books close.

"Friday is our school's anniversary celebration. I have to help receive invited guests. But I'm also in a performance in the second half — could I ask you two to keep an eye on my costume in the meantime?"

"Obviously — you don't even need to ask." Zhang San was eager. "Something this small, you just say the word. We'll be at your disposal the entire day."

"Thank you, both." Chao Musheng said his goodbyes as they left the library. "Afternoon class starts at two-thirty — don't be late."

Once Chao Musheng had gone, Zhang San looked at Zhao Shang cradling those two books like they were precious objects, and asked, genuinely puzzled: "Shang-bro, are there instance-clearing clues in those?"

"No." Zhao Shang shook his head.

"Then why are you treating them like they're made of gold? Don't tell me these students are getting to you and you've started actually caring about studying."

"There are important theories of invention in here that could help with national development. I want to memorize them. When I get back, I'll pass them on."

When I get back.

Zhang San looked at Zhao Shang's expression — resolute, set — and was quiet for a long moment before his voice came out rough: "Getting back is going to be very hard."

Zhao Shang's knuckles went white around the books. "As long as you don't give up, there's always a chance."

Even if the path ahead is almost impossible to see.

*

Lao Jin's elimination had shaken everyone. Over the following two days, the players threw themselves into winning the students over — carrying water, fetching food from the dining hall, picking up packages, cleaning, deploying every compliment they could think of. They did everything within reach.

But these students were stone. After two full days of effort, not one of them had pushed a single player's affinity past 50.

The players were running in frantic circles, desperately wanting to grab these students by the shoulders and demand to know what it would take.

*

That evening, Chao Musheng was pulled into the anniversary rehearsal by the student arts committee and didn't leave the auditorium until late. His head was ringing with the whine of audio equipment.

The days had been getting hotter, but the evening breeze coming off the artificial lake was wonderfully cool. He walked to the lakeside, threading through the couples dotted along the path, and had just reached for his phone to photograph the swans dancing on the water when the two girls walking ahead of him were shoved — hard — by something invisible, and went straight over the edge.

"Got them!"

The two male players concealed behind a tree breathed in with excitement. Winning affinity through ordinary means clearly wasn't going to be fast enough. Time to try something more dramatic.

There was always a method that worked on NPCs.

But just as they prepared to rush out and play the hero, the two girls — already falling — were caught.

In the dark, they couldn't make out the young man's face. They could only see him holding one girl with each hand, his arm and core strength terrifyingly solid.

Nothing more inconvenient than someone who couldn't help minding other people's business.

One of the players activated his puppet doll again, directing it to push all three of them into the water.

This puppet — his Heavy Strength model — could lift the equivalent of a small elephant. It could send a person flying without effort.

"What was that?" Chao Musheng pulled both students back to solid ground, and felt something brush against his back. He turned and looked down. A few tangled wisps of straw had fallen near his feet.

A bird dropping nesting material from a branch?

The player watched his puppet doll make contact with the young man's back and immediately shatter into fragments. He nearly lost control of himself on the spot.

His puppet doll—!

The two girls were pale and shaken, clinging to each other, thanking Chao Musheng with great sincerity.

"No harm done — that's what matters." Chao Musheng picked up his phone from where he'd dropped it and brushed off a few grass fragments.

"Is your phone alright?" Both girls were already reaching for their own phones to transfer him money for any damage.

"It's completely fine, honestly — no repair fees needed." Chao Musheng looked around the area carefully. No holes in the path, no loose paving stones. "Go home and rest."

The player watched in anguish as Chao Musheng stepped on the puppet fragments. Walked over them. Then stood still on them for a moment.

He couldn't bear it any longer. He stormed out from behind the tree.

The other player, seeing how unhinged he'd become, followed.

Chao Musheng heard footsteps behind him and looked back. "Oh — it's you."

The player in the lead saw Chao Musheng's face and his furious energy deflated by more than half. "Xiao — Xiao Chao."

If he'd known the person ruining their scheme was one of the assigned hosts, nothing on earth could have made him come out.

"You're the Chao Musheng from computer science?" One of the rescued girls heard the words "Xiao Chao" and made the connection. "Thank you so much for tonight — we'll get you milk tea tomorrow."

"Really, don't worry about it." Chao Musheng talked the two flustered girls into heading back, then turned to find the two visiting students still standing there. He asked, gently: "Do you two need anything?"

"No — no, we're fine." The player stole a glance at the sole of Chao Musheng's shoe, his expression on the verge of tears.

"If everything's alright, I'll head off then." Chao Musheng noticed the player's eyes keep drifting downward and looked at his own foot. A few pieces of straw had stuck to his sole. He scuffed them off in the grass.

No—

The player watched his puppet doll grind into dust under Chao Musheng's shoe and felt something inside himself crack along with it.

How could he do something this unconscionable to a puppet doll?

Absolute monster.

*

"Shang-bro, are we coming back to the library tomorrow?" The density of knowledge Zhang San had been absorbing had left him genuinely woozy. Even the light above the bathroom door looked blurred and doubled.

Zhao Shang's footsteps stopped. He looked toward the bathroom entrance.

"What is it?" Zhang San felt a prickle of unease. If you were ranking high-risk locations in instances, bathrooms competed with shower rooms for the top two spots.

"There's something — sounds like someone in pain. Wait here." Zhao Shang hesitated for a moment, then walked in.

"Shang-bro, don't—" Zhang San sighed, and reluctantly followed.

Inside, the light was a harsh, pale white.

"You should have been this cooperative from the start." Chen Er had a fistful of Zhou Yi's hair and was pushing his face down toward the sink.

"Bro Chen." The junior student, worried things were about to go too far, spoke up quickly. "Let's go — if someone walks in and sees this, it's not going to be good."

"Relax." Chen Er's mouth said one thing; his grip loosened slightly.

The junior student took the opportunity to help Zhou Yi straighten up. Zhou Yi steadied himself against the sink, coughing without expression, then raised his head and wiped the water from his face. He looked at Chen Er's reflection in the mirror and said nothing.

"Think about your useless parents. And your brother." Chen Er wiped the water off his hand with a look of distaste. "If you don't want them to lose their jobs, keep your mouth shut."

"And don't think that cozying up to Chao Musheng means I can't touch you—"

Click.

The sound of a phone camera shutter from the doorway.

Zhang San gave an awkward smile. "Sorry — forgot to turn off the shutter sound."

Zhao Shang stood in the entrance, face unreadable, taking in Zhou Yi — ashen-faced, drenched. The student from Window 8 at Dining Hall 5. "Zhou Yi, do you need help?"

Chen Er let out a contemptuous laugh and tilted his chin toward Zhou Yi. "You need help from these two?"

Zhou Yi gripped his fist tight. Then slowly let it go. Under Chen Er's mocking gaze, he shook his head.

"See that? Nothing to do with you two lapdogs. Stop sticking your noses in and get out—"

"Chen Er. Barking again?"

At that familiar voice, Chen Er's head snapped toward Zhang San and Zhao Shang. "You tipped him off?"