Chapter 85

Crash

The Evil Tiger — a tool whose name had made countless players go pale for years — lay silent in the male player's hands like an ordinary stuffed toy.

Not like one. It had become one. Whatever attack capability it had possessed was simply gone.

You Jiu pressed his back against the door of room seven, cold all over, not daring to say a word.

He watched Chao Musheng smiling with mild, unhurried warmth, and felt a wave of relief more profound than anything he'd experienced in his time in the Main God's space.

Relief that he'd made the choice he had in the last instance.

If he had moved against Chao Musheng then — what kind of end would have been waiting for him?

"The tiger is very cute," Chao Musheng said, coughing lightly. "But the hospital corridor isn't the place to be chasing each other around. Please don't play in the corridor next time."

The player holding the tiger was trembling. In the split second that this sick man's hand had closed around the Evil Tiger, he'd felt something impossible to describe — a terror that was everywhere at once and left nowhere to run. For a moment he'd been completely certain he was about to be torn apart.

Seeing that both of them seemed frightened by his words, Chao Musheng smiled. "Off you go."

He hadn't said anything severe. Why were they this scared?

Countdown: 2 minutes 37 seconds.

The death countdown snapped the player back from fear. He stared at Chao Musheng's retreating back. Something curdled in him. He summoned another tool and launched it at the undefended back.

This one was also a patient.

Ding ding ding.

The corridor lights flickered twice. Somewhere, a patient's phone went off — the ringtone sharp enough to cut through the player's eardrums.

In that moment, he saw threads of light converging from every direction, coiling around Chao Musheng, resolving into countless ferocious shapes — beasts and birds — that turned their teeth toward him, the intruder.

Crack.

He thought he heard his own soul break.

No — the countdown hadn't finished — he shouldn't be dying — he wouldn't—

System—

System——

You Jiu felt the flow of time in the corridor seem to stop for exactly one second.

In the moment Chao Musheng walked back into room four and the door closed, the male player standing in the corridor shattered and disappeared.

Completely. Not even a particle of dust left behind.

Only the small, round tiger plush on the floor.

The corridor lights were white and cold. You Jiu moved his fingers deliberately, and found that he hadn't shifted position once since Chao Musheng had appeared.

He stared at the tiger on the floor for a long moment, then bent and picked it up.

Ding — one player has failed to clear the instance and has been eliminated. Players remaining: 4.

Listening to the system notification, You Jiu felt the absurdity of it. Had that player really been eliminated by the system?

The sound also brought Curly Hair and the other male player's scuffle to a stop. The surviving player looked horrified. "The five minutes weren't up yet."

He looked toward the break room entrance. You Jiu came in carrying the stuffed tiger, face without any triumph.

"You Jiu — players can't kill players!" He got in You Jiu's face. "Have you lost your mind?"

"I didn't kill him." You Jiu dropped the plush on the table without acknowledging the outburst, his head still full of what he'd just witnessed.

"This is—" The player looked at the toy on the table. He picked it up and turned it over several times. Every angle showed only a cotton stuffed animal.

"You're not wrong about what you're seeing. It really was his tool."

"Impossible." The player pushed back. "This is a normal toy."

"I'd prefer it to be just a tool. But I watched it become a toy in front of me." Without his usual easy smile, You Jiu looked considerably colder — something aloof and sharp in the set of his features. "His tool stopped working in this world. Which means our tools may end up the same."

The blood drained from the other player's face.

He stopped pressing You Jiu. You Jiu was equally done with him.

You Jiu rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Curly Hair — what's your method for getting outside the instance boundary?"

This instance had too many things wrong with it. He wanted to clear and leave as quickly as possible.

"Change into regular clothes first. Then follow me."

*

Ten minutes later, You Jiu was standing behind Curly Hair at the door of room four. He stared at the back of her head for a long moment without finding words.

Did Wang Xiaojuan understand what kind of entity she'd attached herself to?

Even just looking at Chao Musheng now made his insides go cold.

"Xiao Chao—"

The door opened to reveal Xu Chenzhu. Her tongue immediately tangled. "Good morning, President Xu."

"Good morning." Xu Chenzhu glanced at the two people behind her and stepped back, opening the door wide. "Zhaozhao — Ms. Xiaojuan is here."

"Curly Hair?" Chao Musheng was still eating breakfast. Seeing her at the door, he waved her in. "You just worked a night shift — why aren't you resting?"

"Xiao Chao — my two colleagues and I need to leave the hospital for a bit." She walked up to him in her most ingratiating manner. "I'm worried the director will make things difficult. I need you to cover for me."

"Done. I've got you." He tucked a bag of toast and three cartons of milk into her arms. "Eat something before you go."

"Thank you, Xiao Chao." She wanted to say a few more things, but remembered Xu Chenzhu standing behind her and obediently gathered the breakfast he'd given her. "You and President Xu take your time eating — I'll head out."

Being a third wheel will bring divine retribution.

You Jiu's mood was complicated. He kept his head down and didn't let himself look at Chao Musheng for long.

Taking food from a boss this terrifying with a smile on your face, Wang Xiaojuan — you are a woman among women.

*

You Jiu and Qi Shi followed Curly Hair into the elevator. Before anyone could speak, the director — showing significant hair loss at the crown — walked in after them.

"Going out?" He noticed their ordinary clothes and frowned. "If you don't rest on your days off, how will you have the energy to work?"

Qi Shi and You Jiu both understood: the director's appearance was the instance pushing back. The moment he opened his mouth, their ability to leave was gone.

"Good morning, Director." Curly Hair smiled pleasantly. "We were just saying — the cleaning room gloves are a bit stiff, which slows us down. We thought we'd use our free time to buy a few pairs of our own."

"Oh." The director's expression eased slightly, though not entirely.

"You're so thoughtful about us, Director." She looked at him with an expression of pure gratitude. "Just like Xiao Chao — always worried we're not getting enough sleep."

Under the weight of Curly Hair's how-is-this-man-not-a-saint gaze, the director found he had nothing left to say.

"Xiao Chao?" He looked at the toast bag in her arms — a high-end brand, well outside the price range of a cleaner's salary. "You mean Mr. Chao in room four?"

A cleaner, acquainted with Mr. Chao?

"Yes." Curly Hair blinked with complete innocence. "Xiao Chao and I are old friends."

"Ah, I see." The director smiled. "It's warm out today — don't be too long, or Mr. Chao will worry."

"Of course, Director."

You Jiu: "..."

This people-governed, favor-mediated, utterly human instance world.

*

From the inpatient building to the outpatient building was a long walk. The two hundred meters from the outpatient building to the hospital gate felt, to both You Jiu and Qi Shi, like walking on cotton — every step slightly unreal.

Were they really going to walk out?

Foot traffic flowed in and out of the pedestrian channel. You Jiu set one careful foot past the threshold.

Nothing happened.

The most ordinary of moments. Walking out the door on an ordinary day.

No fog. No barrier. No supernatural interference of any kind.

Just that. Just plain.

A wide, clean street. Cars moving steadily. Roadside trees rustling in the breeze.

You Jiu stood and stared at the enormous advertising billboard across the road — a model in business attire demonstrating a watch.

I can't hold onto time. But I want to hold onto you.

A watch advertisement.

To his left, people were arguing. To his right, a child was playing with a bubble machine, laughter carrying on the wind.

This was the sound of freedom.

You Jiu looked at the world outside the instance with something close to hunger, eyes stinging in the light.

"You Jiu — stop standing there. The car I called is here."

A car?

You Jiu registered the white car stopped in front of Curly Hair. Players' phones couldn't even run a search function. How had Wang Xiaojuan called a car?

The moment he got in, he noticed something wrong. There was no driver.

She called a ghost car?

"Autonomous vehicles are slower than regular ones, but the fare is cheaper." Curly Hair buckled her seatbelt. "I don't have much money on my phone."

Money.

You Jiu: "..."

He had approximately no money.

He turned to Qi Shi. Qi Shi's shoulders had also quietly dropped.

Wait — neither of them had currency from outside the hospital instance. Where had Curly Hair gotten hers?

He didn't have the energy to chase that question, because through the window, the city was opening up in front of him — vast and luminous and impossibly alive.

This was what existed outside the instance?

The car stopped opposite Kunlun Tower. Curly Hair got out and pointed at the building across the road, her tone carrying something nostalgic. "That's Kunlun."

Qi Shi looked where she pointed: a striking, impressive building, with people on the street below posing for photos in front of it.

"Is Kunlun well known in this world?" he asked.

She looked at him with an expression that wasn't quite a smile, and nodded. "Very. And this is just the headquarters — there are branches all over the country."

Qi Shi felt the last piece of his hypothesis click into place.

Curly Hair had been here before. She'd crossed paths with the patient in room four long before this instance began. That was why she understood this world so well.

"Vehicles can't go into the pedestrian street." Curly Hair didn't seem bothered by what they might be piecing together. She led them in.

The pedestrian street was quieter in the morning than at night — most of the small stalls hadn't opened yet.

Wan You had rented a small unit here recently. When Curly Hair found him, he was cutting meat and washing vegetables.

"Why are you here alone?" She looked around the narrow space. "Where are the four of them?"

"We finished late last night — I told them not to come in this morning." His eyes moved over the three of them. "Good timing. Wash your hands and help."

You Jiu looked at the unprocessed ingredients, then at the thoroughly purposeful Wan You, and had a profound sense that someone had moved into Wan You's body without permission.

By the time he'd recovered from this sensation, Qi Shi had already washed his hands and put on an apron. You Jiu crouched in the corner and started washing vegetables.

Before long, You Jiu shivered from the air conditioning. "It's a bit cold."

"These are all fresh ingredients from the market this morning. Higher temperatures cause spoilage." Wan You found a jacket and threw it to him. "When you're in the food business, quality ingredients matter. My regulars trust me. I'm responsible for their stomachs."

"You've changed a lot." You Jiu studied him. Without the Main God's universal-charm effect, Wan You was not, strictly speaking, conventionally beautiful — just two eyes considerably larger than the average person's.

"People change with their circumstances." Wan You sliced beef into thin, even pieces. "I think my life now is good."

A narrow stall, a table full of prep work — this was good?

"Before the Main God's space, I had eyes too big for my face, a sharp chin, and no muscle to speak of. My primary school classmates called me ET." He said it with the equanimity of someone who had moved well past it. "When they wanted to bully me, their favorite line was: drive the alien off."

"For a long time I believed I got bullied because I was the sort of person no one liked." He paused his work. "I wanted to be loved — so the Main God gave me a universal-charm effect. Curly Hair was competitive, always needing to be first — so the Main God gave her the ability to read NPC strength levels. Ah Ze had a simple mind — so the Main God gave him the ability to distinguish whether an NPC was friendly or hostile."

"Not every player has a special ability. But for those who do, that ability almost always connects back to what they most wanted at their core." He looked at You Jiu and Qi Shi. "Players clear instance after instance using the abilities the Main God gave them. The more tools and points they accumulate, the harder it is to leave."

Did a plantation owner give enslaved people tools because he cared about them?

No. He gave them tools so they could do more work and generate more value for him.

"Here — I'm Wan the Barbecue Boss, and I'm Wan the Diligent Student." Wan You pointed at his face. "From the moment I entered this particular instance, my charm effect stopped working."

At the time he'd thought the Jinghua NPCs were strange. Looking back, he was the strange one — because to them, he was just Wan You. Not a player wearing a charm effect like a costume.

"So — your failed school instance, the Chen Garden instance Curly Hair and I went through, and the current hospital instance — they're all in the same world?" You Jiu's voice was slightly distant. He didn't notice he'd crushed the green pepper in his hand. "The Main God just — keeps building instances in this world?"

"Probably more than those." Qi Shi looked at Curly Hair. "Curly Hair — have you been through other instances in this world before?"

"You're right." She put the washed mushrooms in the draining rack. "This is my fourth time here."

"My first instance in this world was the Kunlun company."

"The one that wiped out everyone a while back?" You Jiu pressed.

"And the cruise ship instance after that. I was in that too."

"I don't know how you survived to get back to the Main God's space when those instances all ended in total failure. But what I don't understand is why you kept signing up for exploration instances, if every one was a wipeout." You Jiu shook his head. "You're the competitive type. Why do you keep going around in circles in these particular instances?"

"Because the boss I'm trying to beat isn't any instance's final stage." Curly Hair worked quickly; she was processing the ingredients with the efficiency of someone used to this.

"What are you trying to do?" You Jiu asked.

"Better if you don't know." She looked at Qi Shi in the corner, who had been mostly quiet. "You've guessed some of it, haven't you?"

Qi Shi nodded. "A bit."

When a player cleared an instance and re-entered the same one, the NPCs would never remember them. But the people Curly Hair had encountered still recognized her.

Strange in an instance world. Perfectly normal if you stepped outside that framework.

Instance NPCs were governed by data — they got drowsy when their exhaustion hit the threshold, violent when their anger hit the limit.

The people in this world were different. They had data values — but they weren't controlled by them.

Angry people controlled their tempers. Exhausted people pushed through.

Only puppets and machines were driven by data. Living people had their own minds.

"What have you guessed?" You Jiu's brow creased slightly. He had the feeling of being on the outside of a conversation between the other three.

"This instance is full of living people." When Qi Shi said it, something seemed to go out of him. "From this world's perspective — we players are a group of uninvited intruders."

He took out the glasses again and put them on.

Wan You: exhaustion 10, anger 0.

You Jiu: no data.

Wang Xiaojuan—

Qi Shi went rigid. In the blink of an eye just now, he thought he'd seen values flicker above Curly Hair's head.

Curly Hair was a player. Why would she have data values?

He took the glasses off and put them on again. Nothing above Curly Hair's head.

He'd probably blinked at the wrong moment.

"Is there something above my head?" Curly Hair produced a small mirror and looked up above herself. Nothing there.

"No." Qi Shi shook his head. "I was thinking about something else — we've been talking openly about Main God-related things this whole time. Why hasn't the system reacted?"

"I knew you were coming. I was ready." Wan You pointed at the signal blocker under the table, then looked at Curly Hair. "Mine has a three-meter range. Better than yours."

A signal blocker.

A signal blocker from this world could block the system?

From morning until now, You Jiu felt close to overloaded.

This terrifying world — and the Main God still thought it was suitable for building instances. What kind of courage was that.

Truly fearless.

*

"Even dragon liver and phoenix marrow can't beat being healthy." Chao Musheng lay flat on the bed, staring at the drip overhead with the expression of someone deeply done with everything. Compared to being hospitalized, he would rather be at work.

"You didn't have another fever last night — the doctor says you're recovering well. Tomorrow the drip schedule should be lighter." Xu Chenzhu set up the over-bed table. "Play something on the computer. Pass the time."

Chao Musheng opened the laptop. The trending list had something about a fashion event guest lineup — entertainment accounts tallying the confirmed attendees.

He was about to scroll past, then noticed one of the organizers was 时光 magazine. He clicked in and read more.

That was why his mother had been busy lately.

"时光 Fashion Evening?" Xu Chenzhu registered the connection to Chao Musheng's mother's work. "Kunlun's film and television division received an invitation. If you're interested, you could attend as our representative."

"Who usually represents us at this kind of thing?" Chao Musheng's interest was caught.

Xu Chenzhu was quiet for a moment. He looked at Secretary Liu on the sofa.

"Previously, the film division handled its own attendance — the president's office hasn't sent a direct representative before." Secretary Liu looked up. "But the division just went through a restructuring. If the president's office sends someone, it would reassure the film division staff and let the industry know Kunlun hasn't abandoned its commitment to the film side."

There was also the matter of signal — the president's office showing up would lend the event itself considerable weight.

"Would you like to go?" Xu Chenzhu could see Chao Musheng's eyes brightening.

"A bit." Chao Musheng nodded. "时光's editor-in-chief is my mother. She's always protected me from anything she considered the shallow end of the industry — she's never brought me to things like this."

He understood why. He also very much wanted to see his mother in her element.

"Understood." Xu Chenzhu finally stopped resisting and ruffled Chao Musheng's hair. "I'll have someone reply to 时光."

*

"Chao-jie!" The assistant burst through the door of Chao Yin's office. "Kunlun headquarters responded to our invitation!"

"Headquarters?" Chao Yin's expression was odd. "Not the film division?"

"Headquarters." The assistant's hands were unsteady as she held out the tablet. "Kunlun headquarters says they'll be sending a representative to the event."

The event had originally been scheduled for late July; due to circumstances outside their control, it had been moved to late August. The change had disrupted a number of commitments, and several major names who'd originally confirmed were now vague about attendance.

Some entertainment accounts were already running pieces mocking 时光's diminished influence — clearly planted by competitors.

"The moment word gets out that Kunlun headquarters is sending someone, every artist who's been sitting on the fence will confirm." The assistant held the response letter and exhaled with feeling. "This is the first time Kunlun headquarters has ever sent a representative to an industry fashion event. What do our competitors have to match that?"

Chao Yin read the response two or three times, thought of her son who hadn't been home in several days, and wondered whether this reply had anything to do with him.

No.

She caught the direction of her own thoughts and pressed a hand to her cheek, commencing some private self-examination.

Chao Yin. The filter through which you view your own child. Really something.

Was she perhaps somewhat excessively confident in her son's ability to make things happen?

*

How elated You Jiu had been leaving the hospital — that was how complicated his feelings were coming back.

He moved through the lobby past a middle-aged man sobbing over a set of test results, past an elderly person slowly counting out crumpled bills at a counter. He could no longer look at any of them as a string of data.

From a corner, a woman's crying — she was sitting on the floor holding a swaddled infant, pleading with the ceiling and the walls.

Faces everywhere. Emotions everywhere. All of it distinct and particular and real.

In the elevator, it was packed. The man beside him bumped into him and bent his head without a word.

You Jiu looked at him again. In this heat, the man was wearing a dark outer layer. A strong smell of sweat came off him. Everyone else in the elevator turned their faces to the other side.

The man seemed not to see their aversion. He put his hands in his pockets, and when the doors opened, made directly for the ward with his head down.

"Wait." Qi Shi went after him and stopped him in the corridor.

This floor had cartoon drawings on the walls. You Jiu and Curly Hair followed.

The fifth-floor pediatric ward.

"What do you want?" The man stared at Qi Shi. Under the lank hair, a pair of sunken, dark eyes.

Curly Hair skipped the preamble and kicked him flat on the ground.

Bang. A knife fell out of his coat pocket.

"Useless waste." She stepped on his thigh — once, twice — kicked the knife away, and looked at You Jiu, who was still standing there. "Call the police."

...What?

Call the police. In a horror hospital instance. To arrest someone.

You Jiu had run his brain hard for over a day. It gave up entirely.