Chapter 1 "Aaaaaah! I'm so pissed!"

Charlie climbed out of the game pod, his eyes wide and bloodshot. He couldn't believe his game score was only 4.0!

He had completed the game in full. Subtracting 1.5 credit points for a takeout box, that meant he only earned 2.5 for the whole round?!

Was that even reasonable?

And when he requested a re-evaluation, the system dared to deduct points on the suspicion that he was carried to victory (lying-win), dropping his final score to 3.5!

Oh, come on!

So infuriating!

Charlie was so angry he couldn't sleep half the night. He finally decided to throw on some clothes and head to the training grounds to vent his frustrations.

But in the hallway, he ran into someone wearing a hat who wasn't watching where they were going, knocking him on his rear end.

"Who's there!"

His pent-up anger hadn't even been released yet, and now he'd been knocked over. Charlie exploded, grabbing the collar of the person who bumped into him. But when he met the other's grayish-brown eyes, Charlie froze.

"Julian?"

"What?"

Julian was wearing a mask and a hat, completely covered up, and carrying food from the school's 24-hour convenience store.

Julian was usually very disciplined, going to bed early and waking up early. Why was he out buying food in the middle of the night?

Thinking about it, Charlie couldn't help but peek at Julian's food, wondering what had such a strong allure—it turned out to be Xiao Shi Spicy Hot Pot, which had suddenly become very popular in recent years.

Red oil broth, fragrant and spicy!

Damn, it made him hungry.

"Move."

Julian glanced at Charlie coldly, his brows furrowed with displeasure. He looked like someone owed him money, which confused Charlie.

Charlie figured the guy was probably in a bad mood too, which was why he'd gotten up to eat a late-night snack.

Originally, Charlie was going to the training grounds to vent his anger, but now, because of Julian, he wasn't so angry or anxious.

A small flame of gossip ignited. Charlie put his arm around the other's shoulder, chuckled, and asked, "Are you angry about your game score too?"

"No."

After answering, Julian glanced at Charlie. Suddenly, he remembered that his classmate wasn't one to go out late at night either.

Julian glanced at the combat suit he was wearing and, remembering Charlie's earlier behavior, guessed that the guy must have come out to blow off steam after the game because of a problem with his score?

"No?"

Sure enough, when he heard that answer, Charlie paused. Then Julian asked, "Was your score very low?"

Charlie: "..."

Seeing that Charlie didn't speak, Julian knew he'd guessed right.

"Ahem, what was your score?" Charlie didn't say what his was, he just wanted to know what Julian's score was.

"4.3 credit points."

"Huh? Why?!" Charlie exploded. "Why did I only get 3.5?!"

"You only got that much?" Now it was Julian's turn to be stunned. That score was ridiculously low.

"How would I know!" Charlie was on the verge of tears. "That stupid scoring system said I was suspected of getting carried, that I didn't contribute enough during the game… How was that not enough? I clearly did so many things!"

Charlie said, looking indignant. Then, as if he'd thought of something, he said, "By the way! That guy who cooperated with us earlier, did you add him as a friend after the game? Where is he from? What score did he get?"

"I didn't add him." Julian shook his head. "That guy didn't even accept my friend request. He seemed pretty solitary…"

Speaking of this, Julian's expression darkened, and a look of admiration flashed in his eyes. He said, "Although we didn't get a perfect score, but… do you think… that person might have gotten a perfect score?"

Charlie opened his mouth, then closed it again. Remembering that person's performance, he muttered, "If he got a perfect score, he deserves it."

That person had directly killed the tyrant, and he had also shown them the true nature of the game's mission, which wasn't just about assassinating the tyrant, but more importantly, about saving the precarious Hua Liang.

That's why they had the final deception, the two of them helping him to put on a show so they could clear the game!

It was just that they had cooperated so busily, but the system seemed to think they had gotten an unfair advantage and didn't give them a perfect score.

The two of them stood in the middle of the road, speechless for a moment. After a long while, Charlie came back to his senses and looked at Julian again. "By the way, why are you so covered up to buy something so late at night? I didn't even recognize you just now."

"Heh~"

Speaking of this, Julian's face darkened. Who knew that there were players in their game who were streamers?

Logically speaking, the players they encountered in the game now were basically all from military academies. Which military academy student would stream while training?

He remembered logging onto his personal terminal after leaving the game pod, only to have a bunch of his friends send him a short video, telling him to watch the top trending searches on the StarNet.

Wow!

If he hadn't watched it, it wouldn't have mattered—but the topic #HowFarWillModernStraightMenGoToWinAGame?# was trending!

And the male lead in the video was him, the scene where he threw Lu Xiaoyao out when they were besieged by a group of soldiers in the game.

He also learned from the trending search that this player was a famous game streamer from the Empire, and also a student at the Empire Central Military Academy!

Watching the fleeting "victory smile" on his face in the moment he pushed her out, Julian was furious!

What was taking things out of context?!

This was it!

It was clearly just that his facial expression management wasn't in place. He wasn't in the mood to laugh at anyone at that time!

Also!

What was with the angle of this video?

If they had the ability, they should show the expression on the other person's face in that instant!

And why didn't anyone show the scene where that woman's expression turned fierce in the next second and she directly killed that group of soldiers?!

Trash!

For no reason, he was labeled as the quintessential straight man, and he was ridiculed to death by all his acquaintances, forcing him to dress so tightly when he went out to buy spicy hot pot because he was afraid of being recognized and laughed at!

Lu Xiaoyao, huh?

Just you wait!

…

At the same time, Lu Xiaoyao, who was being talked about by Julian, was notified to go to the school hospital's psychiatric department late at night.

Lu Xiaoyao: ??

When she met the kind, chubby old doctor, Lu Xiaoyao first greeted him, then gave him a pure and lovely smile.

She looked like a very lovable little girl.

"Don't be nervous. This is just a routine procedure. After the game ends, students will come here to chat with me to avoid some things in the game leaving a psychological shadow."

Sure enough, the old grandfather-level doctor's voice was kind and gentle, immediately dispelling the tension in Lu Xiaoyao's heart.

However, that's what he said, but the kind old doctor didn't say the other half of the sentence. Generally, this kind of situation can be resolved by chatting with a psychological AI; he doesn't even need to show up.

He was also temporarily notified late at night that a student needed to be paid attention to, so he came.

But looking at the sweet-smiling little girl in front of him, the old doctor felt like he was seeing his own granddaughter, and he wondered if the student psychological monitoring system had made a mistake.

"Oh~ that's good~"

Lu Xiaoyao breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this, and smiled even more brightly, appearing even more charming and cute. She relaxed and said, "This escape game was really scary. I even fainted directly in the game, but fortunately, I was lucky and cleared it successfully as soon as I woke up~"

Lu Xiaoyao, sitting on the high stool, swung her legs back and forth. She spoke easily, and the doctor on the other side carefully recorded everything without rushing. The doctor didn't feel that there was anything wrong with Lu Xiaoyao at all.

He was still wondering why he had to come see her, so the old doctor looked down at the abnormal performance screen of Lu Xiaoyao in the game's student psychological monitoring system sent by the personal terminal.

Until he saw Lu Xiaoyao in the darkness, her hands covered in blood, touching her face and revealing a strange smile, the doctor was silent.

He looked up and looked at the smiling Lu Xiaoyao opposite him again.

Now, he had truly made a mistake.

"Okay, let's do a psychological test in the end, okay?"

He smiled kindly and secretly replaced the original ordinary psychological emotion measurement scale with a personality split measurement scale and handed it to the other party…