Chapter 96

What Nerve

[Song-dog — pan the camera back a bit, the good-looking guy who just waved at us is coming over.]

[I'm certain that's a man with very long legs — I saw them in the frame just now.]

The comment section was on fire. Song Xu felt as though he had stepped into an ice storm.

The person Chao Musheng had just pushed back into the car was Xu Chenzhu?

Why was Xu Chenzhu sitting in that car?

He had accidentally put Xu Chenzhu's long legs in frame. Would he be blacklisted when he got back? He pretended he hadn't seen the comments and directed his camera at the compound's main gates. "And here — the gates everyone wanted to see."

Thirty minutes left until the livestream ended. Song Xu's ordinarily not-very-quick brain was running at full speed right now — how to redirect everyone's attention.

"Mr. Xu — the artists' livestreams run about sixty minutes tonight. You might want to head off first?" Chao Musheng glanced back at Song Xu, who was already walking back into the compound with his phone — visibly terrified of accidentally putting Xu Chenzhu in frame again.

Everyone at Kunlun knew Xu Chenzhu was low-profile and disliked being on camera.

"Fine." Xu Chenzhu put down his phone. "You go in first."

"All right." Chao Musheng stood. From his angle looking into the car, Xu Chenzhu's form was half swallowed by shadow — only the phone he'd set down still gave off a faint glow.

He bent down, met Xu Chenzhu's eyes with a smile, and said: "Mr. Xu — see you tomorrow. Good night."

The young man stood in the lamplight, eyelashes catching the light.

"Good night." Xu Chenzhu's arm shifted slightly; his fingertips reached toward the light falling into the car from outside.

The young man turned and walked away, growing smaller. Xu Chenzhu looked down — and saw the bubble machine left behind on the seat. He picked it up, got out of the car, and quickened his pace to catch up.

[Song-dog — the handsome guy who said hello to us is coming back.]

Song Xu didn't dare react. He walked toward the gates at a perfectly natural pace. However high the viewer count was right now, he wasn't going to entertain any ideas.

Though he had underestimated his viewers' curiosity. The more he avoided the subject, the more they wanted to know.

Commenters had already traced the good-looking man to the viral lion's-head video from days earlier — the strikingly handsome figure people had tried and failed to identify then. Now he'd reappeared with the additional detail of being Kunlun's headquarters representative, and had given the spectator crowd the bonus entertainment of watching a fan account get publicly humiliated. Every variety of viewer was intensely curious about him.

"Zhaozhao."

A low, resonant voice reached the livestream. The viewers noticed immediately.

"You forgot this."

Chao Musheng looked at the bubble machine Xu Chenzhu was holding out to him. He took it and pressed the switch without thinking — a burst of bubbles sailed out.

[We didn't see the person, but we saw the bubbles.]

[Good-looking men play with bubble machines too. I have so much in common with him.]

[What kind of relationship involves playing with bubble machines together? So hard to guess.]

Song Xu's hand jerked. He shut down the livestream.

"Good evening, Mr. Xu." He turned and bowed deeply.

"Good evening." Xu Chenzhu gave him a look. "Your livestream viewers have quite bold taste in language."

"That's just how commenters are." Song Xu's brain wasn't great, but he could hear that this wasn't a compliment. "They tend to be... uninhibited. My viewership is usually much lower — it only got this high because Mr. Chao's appearance drew curious visitors. None of this is normal for me."

When in doubt — paying compliments to Mr. Chao couldn't hurt.

"Curious visitors?" Xu Chenzhu's brow furrowed slightly. "What happened?"

"Yesterday at noon, 时光's official account posted some photos. Mr. Chao appeared in one of them by accident and generated some discussion among fans." Song Xu chose his words carefully. "It was a misunderstanding, though — I clarified everything in the livestream just now."

Xu Chenzhu pulled out his phone, searched for the 时光 official account, found yesterday noon's post, and confirmed Chao Musheng was indeed in one of the photographs.

The comments were significantly better than they'd been yesterday. The top-liked ones were mostly fan accounts' organized messaging; only a handful of extreme statements remained, and those all had apologies from other fans beneath them.

Xu Chenzhu's brow drew together.

"Mr. Xu — don't pay these too much attention, please don't keep looking." Chao Musheng reached over and tapped the screen, taking Xu Chenzhu out of the comments section. "The extreme comments aren't great, but most fans are quite sensible and good-natured."

They genuinely were. When fans loved someone, that love was the most admirable thing about them. For their idols, they could travel across the country to do charity work, could hold themselves to a higher standard of behavior, could achieve remarkable things.

The fan wars and grudges in entertainment were something he had no interest in entering. He just wanted to properly accompany his mother through a grand event.

"All right." Xu Chenzhu seemed to be persuaded. He put away his phone. "I'm heading off, Zhaozhao."

"Goodbye." Chao Musheng watched until the car pulled away before turning and walking through the compound gates.

"Who's there?" A very slight sound from the flower beds by the gates made him stop. A bodyguard went in and dragged out a thin, wiry man.

"Paparazzo?" The bodyguard found photographs of both Xu Chenzhu and Chao Musheng on his phone, made him delete everything saved by every method, then took a high-resolution photograph of the paparazzo himself.

"If photographs taken from these angles appear anywhere in the media or online, Kunlun's legal department will be in contact." He released the now-trembling paparazzo. "I trust you've heard of Kunlun's legal department."

The man went white as paper. He absolutely had. Anyone who went up against Kunlun's legal team came out without a skin left.

He had only been trying to get a few photos of Song Xu. He'd had no plans to photograph anyone of Mr. Chao's stature. He'd just been briefly curious—

Two players hiding in the shadows nearby watched the real-world paparazzo get caught, held their breath, and didn't move. Only after Chao Musheng's group had moved away did they cautiously peer out.

What kind of presence did Mr. Chao have in this instance, to scare a local paparazzo to that degree?

They checked their phones. Odd — every photograph that featured Mr. Chao or the man with him had come out blurry without exception.

After searching for a long time, the only clear shot they'd found was a profile image of Mr. Chao bending sideways to push someone into a car; the expression on his face was indistinct, and the other person showed nothing but one long leg.

The senior paparazzo at their studio had been pressing them urgently. Left with no options, they sent the photo over.

After they sent it, the paparazzo who'd been badgering them went suddenly quiet.

They waited, getting bitten raw by mosquitoes, until finally a message came through.

[Don't involve us next time you want to get yourselves killed. You're fired.]

What?

They tried to ask for an explanation. Their messages came back with a red exclamation mark.

They'd been blocked?

What was wrong with the NPCs in this instance?

Before they could process this, the system in their heads started a countdown to instance failure.

Being fired from the studio meant failing the instance?

"Over here — got them." Several security personnel swarmed over and seized them. The countdown hit its final second.

They expected death. Instead they opened their eyes to the same security personnel, staring at them with undisguised contempt.

But even contemptuous faces felt like a reunion. They were still alive.

Their phones were wiped clean and they were ejected from the compound, still with no real understanding of what had happened.

"Count yourselves lucky." The security member who'd thrown them out gave a cold snort. "The organizers are decent people and didn't pursue legal action. Otherwise you'd be in a cell right now."

The two players, now outside and with nowhere to go: "..."

Wait — players could leave the instance boundaries?

You could fail and still not die?

They walked along the road for a long time. Car after car passed by, their headlights cutting through the dark.

"This place..." One player looked down the road stretching into the darkness. No fog. No anomalies. Nothing hunting them.

What a strange world.

He looked blankly up at the sky as a plane blinked its lights overhead.

"We didn't die." The other player murmured. "My system is gone. All my data panels and tools — gone."

"Same." The first said, distantly. "So where are we now?"

The abandoned zone? Somewhere between instances?

A police car pulled up beside them. Two uniformed officers stepped out.

"Good evening, gentlemen. We're officers from the Linhai Yanshui precinct. We received a report from a concerned member of the public that two individuals appeared to need assistance. We'd appreciate it if you could provide your identification, so we can help you better."

The two players stared. Police station? Help? ID?

The space between instances has no monsters — just officers offering assistance to people in need?

Was this a hallucination before death?

[Ding! Two players suffered professional failure — dismissed by their studio, instance cleared unsuccessfully.]

Another wave of eliminations.

The remaining players felt a chill settle in. Professional failure? Being exposed as paparazzi got you eliminated. Failing to satisfy the studio's photo demands also got you eliminated. Was there any way to survive in this instance?

Nearly every player had assumed everyone else assigned to this instance was a paparazzo with a temporary staff cover.

Even Curly Hair had assumed this — until she came out of Luo Yixuan's dressing room and found Old He standing beside a rubbish bin.

The two of them meeting again in the same instance: Curly Hair with a bag of sponsored products Luo Yixuan had given her, Old He with a heavy bag of rubbish.

"Juan-jie." Old He was older than Curly Hair, but she had saved his life in the previous instance, so like You Jiu he called her jie.

"You're not a temp?" Curly Hair noticed his work badge was different from the temporary staff ones.

"When I entered, I was assigned to the compound's cleaning facilities." He didn't conceal anything from her. "My main quest may be different from yours."

"Main quest?" Curly Hair looked around and made a show of helping him sort rubbish. "Yours has already loaded?"

She'd been in the instance three days; the system still hadn't released a main quest for her. Just a scattering of minor side tasks.

Old He nodded.

Curly Hair hesitated — but didn't ask what it was.

"Starlight shining." He volunteered it. "Some stars dim — and when they do, new ones rise. My main quest is to find the star destined to go dark, and before it falls into the sea, bury all the wrongdoing that caused it."

"So that's why the instance is called Starlight Shining instead of Starlight Brilliant." It clicked. "You're saying — before tomorrow night, an artist here will come to harm?"

"I don't know." Old He shook his head. "That's all the instance has told me."

Why had the system given Old He a different identity and assigned him these particular quest hints?

Curly Hair opened her own system panel. Still only the same few lines.

[Starlight Shining instance. A truly successful paparazzo — how would anyone ever catch them?]

[Today's task: Receive a gift from an artist.]

Quotidian tasks with almost no connection to any main thread. Two lines that felt like they'd been put there to give the impression of guidance while actually saying nothing.

Was the system... already taking precautions against her?

Old He's hunger for points was well known among the higher-level players, which was presumably why the system had placed the real quest with him.

She even suspected the player who'd been targeting her had been deliberately inserted into this instance by the system.

The system was gunning for her.

It wanted her gone but could only do it through these indirect methods — which meant it couldn't act against her directly, or couldn't confirm she was actually problematic, or because she had a certain reputation among players and it could only act against her covertly.

The system, just like the Main God that created it, was a thing of underhanded malice.

"Why are you telling me?" Curly Hair looked at Old He. "I thought you wanted the hundred-times reward more than anything."

"I do want the hundred-times points." Old He looked no older than thirty, but his eyes held the weariness of someone much older. "But I've felt something wrong about this instance."

"How do you mean?" Curly Hair's brow rose. Even Old He — desperate to get home — had felt it. The Main God's hold over players seemed to be weakening.

"Just now I watched the security team throw two players out of the compound." Old He looked up at the clear moon. "The system said they were eliminated. But I watched them — they didn't disappear. They just walked away down the road outside."

The instance's time allocation exceeded the fashion event's end date by three days. He suspected this was connected to the artist's death.

"Juan-jie — I remember when you were in the hospital instance, you took You Jiu and the others outside." Old He slowly brought his gaze back to her. "Can we players... actually leave the instance boundaries?"

A pause. She chose to tell him honestly. "I can't say for other instances. But this one — yes, I can take you outside the compound."

She watched him stand there in a kind of daze and sighed. "Come with me."

He set down the rubbish bag and followed her out, step by step, through the compound gates.

No fog outside. No monsters. Only a road leading somewhere unknown.

Old He dropped to his knees on the verge and pulled up a handful of wild grass. "It's real — I actually came out..."

He'd tried just now, right after the players were expelled. He'd walked to the gate — and been stopped by an invisible wall.

"Why can you..." Old He used a personal instance skill and looked toward the space above Curly Hair's head. His expression changed. "You're using a disguise tool? One that mimics NPC status?"

"No." Curly Hair noticed his expression — bordering on horror. "Why are you asking?"

Without any disguise tool — why did Wang Xiaojuan have an NPC-exclusive status marker above her head?

Was Wang Xiaojuan still... alive?

"Old He?" She watched his face go whiter. She sighed. "Come on. Back you go — don't give yourself away in front of the locals."

Old He followed her back in silence, his mind running through one theory after another. When he saw a familiar young man standing under a streetlamp ahead, his already pale face went nearly translucent.

The patient from room four of the hospital. In a different instance now — would he remember their players?

"Xiao Juan." Chao Musheng was still playing with the bubble machine. He waved when he saw her. "Luo Yixuan's livestream finished?"

"Xiao Chao." Curly Hair had a bag of his sponsored products over her arm and jogged over. "That bubble machine looks like so much fun."

"I think so too." He smiled and looked past her at the cleaner behind her. "No wonder you seemed familiar when I saw you near — near the editor-in-chief. We met at the hospital."

He remembered.

A different instance, and an NPC still remembered players from the previous one.

Old He set down his rubbish and tried to control the trembling in his body. "Hello, Mr. Chao."

"Hello."

"Xiao Juan — whenever you go out for work, you like bringing someone you know along, don't you?" Chao Musheng aimed the bubble machine and a long stream of bubbles drifted into the air. "At Chen Garden you had Xiao Hu. At the hospital you had You Jiu. Now you have..."

"Old He." Curly Hair said. "His name is Old He."

The bubble machine flickered in the dark, making light and shadow move across Chao Musheng's face; she couldn't make out his expression clearly. "Old He's family is in a difficult situation. His daughter is only three. The cleaning work is dirty and hard, but the pay is better. We just happened to run into each other — we're not actually a team."

Three years old.

Chao Musheng thought back to the night of the hospital instance — the crying he'd heard in his dream, something like a small girl calling for her father.

He noticed the large rubbish bag Old He was carrying, set down the bubble machine, walked forward a couple of steps, and put his face fully in the light.

"Finish up early and get some rest. Your health comes first."

"Thank you, Mr. Chao." Old He had never forgotten the debt from the hospital instance — even if this person was, to his understanding, only an NPC.

"His color isn't good." Chao Musheng picked up the bubble machine and walked toward the white building. "Is he ill?"

Curly Hair shook her head. She suspected the man had been frightened by Xiao Chao himself.

"Earning money is hard. He's a good father." Chao Musheng looked back once more; Old He's body was swallowed by an enormous rubbish bag, hunched like a sixty-year-old shuffling along.

Curly Hair looked back too. "He is. His greatest wish is to earn enough to go home and be with his wife and daughter."

If not for the wretched Main God, so many players would never have been forced apart from the people they loved.

"For a three-year-old, even if their father hasn't earned enough money, being reunited is still something to be happy about." Chao Musheng looked away. "And you? With all your work — do you get to be with your family at all?"

"Xiao Chao — my relationship with my family isn't very good." Curly Hair shook her head. She could barely recall her parents' faces anymore. "If I could choose, I'd rather settle in the capital permanently."

"Of course you can." He smiled. "When the time comes, I'll put in a recommendation for you."

"Xiao Chao — thank you."

She smiled.

A shame that she was set against the Main God.

If she won, the Main God would be gone. She might die, or she might return to the world she came from.

If she lost, the Main God would go on tormenting innocent people. She would disappear without a sound.

"Don't mention it." He pressed the trigger and the machine sputtered out a cheerful cluster of bubbles. "I said I'd recommend you — and I won't go back on that."

"That bubble machine is beautiful." Curly Hair noticed it again. "Did you just buy it outside?"

"Yes." He shook it with visible delight. "Out on the waterfront, Mr. Xu bought it for me. Some people might find it childish — but I'm a university student, so it feels exactly right. Do you want to try it?"

She felt a faint temptation — but thinking that Boss Xu had specifically bought this for Xiao Chao, she didn't dare touch it. "No, thank you."

"Fair enough." He didn't press. "Tomorrow noon I'm going to the Linhai branch anniversary. If anyone gives you trouble, go find my mother. "

At the mention of his mother, the pride in his expression was plain. "With her there, no one will dare give you a hard time."

"Understood."

She understood his pride entirely. Chao-ayi was, in every sense, a goddess.

*

Chao Musheng slept soundly that night. He had no idea that the spectator crowd had been bouncing around the melon fields all evening.

[HAHAHA thinking about those artists in the livestream praising the Kunlun representative while their fan accounts were frantically deleting their comments from the 时光 official post — genuinely funny.]

[Wasn't the funniest part when the Kunlun corporate official account went into the fashion magazine's comment section to personally explain to certain fan accounts that the civilian was actually their company's senior management??]

[A corporation of Kunlun's scale, solemnly explaining a civilian's identity to entertainment fans in the comment section of a fashion magazine — instant comedy gold.]

[That poor handsome man — all he did was look better than the artists and he caught a completely undeserved disaster. Hope the fans' idols are scared right now.]

[Am I the only one who finds it very couple-coded that Kunlun's official account personally went to bat for the civilian?]

[Don't ship everything you see — romance-brained people should not be allowed online.]

[Industry sources say Kunlun's CEO arrived in Linhai yesterday by private jet. The long legs pushed back into the car — could that be Kunlun's CEO himself?]

[What? The civilian and the big boss are a couple?]

[What nerve on this post — spreading rumors in real time, aren't you afraid of Kunlun's legal department?]

[I was in Song-dog's livestream the whole time last night. I'm pretty sure I heard the long-legs person calling the civilian by a doubled nickname. If you don't believe me, look up the stream clips — those two are not nothing to each other.]

[The fact that Song-dog, who loves stirring things up, didn't even dare mention the long-legs person — that says something.]

Chao Musheng opened his phone to find the very first push notification said: Kunlun CEO's romance reportedly exposed — boss's legs longer than editor's will to live.

What on earth.