"Did you hear?"

"About what?"

"That game, it reopened after maintenance a few days ago, and already some players have run into trouble after entering."

"Trouble?"

"Yeah, they just never woke up. The hospital says their mental strength was destroyed, and they're basically vegetables now!"

"Holy crap! Seriously? The game has that kind of risk?"

...

Mingmei's workload was heavy this semester, so she only learned about the trouble with Yan Hui's survival game after it had already been brewing online for some time.

During this time, she still couldn't contact Liu Liu or the main brain, Ruan Xun was still missing, and even her second brother, Mei Qiu, was busy and left again quickly.

If her friends and classmates weren't also swamped with studying every day, Mingmei would have started to suspect it was her fault.

Now that she had just gotten a break and learned about the major issues with Yan Hui's game, Mingmei was very concerned.

"How accurate is the information online?"

Seeing the conflicting reports online, and unable to reach her family who were all busy, Mingmei didn't want to bother them, so she organized a small gathering with her friend Mu Chen.

Taking advantage of the break, she invited all her close classmates to Mu Chen's dessert shop outside the school.

"This could be a big problem. Although the game reopened to the public after the last shutdown, the port for us military academy students has remained closed."

Because Lu Xiaoyao had a monthly streaming quota, she sometimes had to stay up late even after finishing her work, so she naturally paid attention to the game.

Some time ago, her fans told her that they could enter the game, and she was happy for a long time. She was ready to stay up late, but she couldn't log in.

She muttered to herself, wondering why she couldn't access her account.

Only later did she learn that her account was marked as a military academy student channel, and customer service said that the military academy training port was still being debugged.

"I heard it's because of a problem with the NPCs in the game."

Lu Gui also seemed to know a lot. As he spoke, he looked at Mingmei and Mu Chen, as if he thought they might know something.

"What? What kind of problem can NPCs have? Can they run away?"

Zhen Po blurted out without thinking, causing Mingmei and Mu Chen to exchange glances.

Seeing their expressions, Yuan Fang's eyes flickered with suspicion. "Could that actually be the case?"

Although they didn't know the exact relationship between Mingmei and Yan Hui, they figured that since her likeness was being used by the game company, there must be some connection, and she might know something they didn't.

"There have been some issues with specific data in the game."

Seeing Mingmei's hesitation, Mu Chen spoke first.

He didn't directly say that Yan Hui's game had other purposes besides gaming, but he told the truth about the zerg data.

"What? Some of the zerg NPCs in the game are real? Which ones? Have we played with them?"

Hearing this, everyone's curiosity was piqued, but some thoughtful people began to overthink.

If the zerg NPCs originated from the zerg's mental power, then what about the people?

Without a physical body, how long could they exist in the game in another form?

Wang Wenfei took a sip of her tea, her heart racing.

She suddenly thought of her sister, Wang Wenying.

"So, you're saying that the zerg NPCs in the game rebelled again due to permission issues and ran away?"

Bai Xiao pondered for a long time before daring to voice her understanding.

"Could it be that the recent incidents with players in the game were caused by encountering real zerg?"

Yuan Fang continued Bai Xiao's line of thought, looking incredulous.

Could the game really do that?

"However... please don't disclose this matter." Mu Chen's tone carried a hint of threat, but his face remained smiling. "Although the higher-ups know some of what's going on here, the technology involved is complex, and some things are not as simple as you might think.

"However, this matter should be announced to everyone in another form soon, so please don't reveal it beforehand."

Everyone's expression turned serious. Lu Gui tentatively asked, "Could it be that we need to help?"

Mu Chen didn't answer, but he didn't deny the conjecture either.

Mu Chen naturally knew about the zerg NPC's escape, and even the database behind his villain NPC had been touched, otherwise he wouldn't have discovered it and told Yan Hui.

Thinking of this, Mu Chen looked at Mingmei. He didn't ask if the data behind Mingmei's mysterious merchant NPC had changed. If it had, he wondered what the escaped zerg was trying to do.

...

The Zerg.

"Is what my son says true?"

The glimmering, light purple eyes of the Queen Zerg looked at the child standing before her, gazing at the matching purple eyes.

Some things didn't need to be said. She had already seen too many messages through those eyes.

His time lurking in the human world, trying to enter the game to explore secrets, and finally seeing that figure in the game.

"Brother died in the hands of that Lu, his body was destroyed, and his mental power was imprisoned. Fortunately, he disguised himself as the Star Ember Zerg General, who was already dead, and has been lurking until now."

When the Queen Zerg appeared outside, they rarely showed their true form. They preferred to transform into other zerg to blend in, in order to protect their abilities from being known by other races.

"Go. It was not easy for you to come back, so rest well."

The Queen Zerg lovingly reached out, a light golden ray spreading from her fingertips onto the figure opposite her. "You were the only zerg to return from the last plan, and you bear the primary responsibility. However, all punishment will wait until you have recovered."

"Yes, Mother."

Hearing what his mother said, a trace of resentment flashed in Jeros's eyes.

Even though he had anticipated Mei Qiu's ambush and plan to trap them during the last attack on Mingmei, he had not expected the terrifying mecha that Mingmei carried.

That mecha covered with Queen Zerg insect cores!

Even the Federation suddenly took action and captured all the remaining zerg on the way back!

This time, the Federation was involved, which he had not expected.

...

Louis couldn't believe that a Star Ember Zerg General had escaped from his personally planned layout.

He also couldn't figure out why the other party was able to escape.

"How many days has Father been like this?"

He was brought back for a while, and then sent back to continue classes. When this matter was more or less ready to be made public, Julian's first-hand information still came from Lu Xiaoyao.

When their school officially went on vacation, he came back and Louis hadn't come out of his study for two days.

If his mother hadn't personally delivered three meals a day plus afternoon tea and snacks upstairs, he would have suspected that something had happened to his father.

So, when Secretary Chen came at night, Julian directly stopped him and asked what was going on.

"The President is fine, he's just a bit of a perfectionist." He smiled. His arrival today was also because Louis had asked him to collect information from the hunt for the escaped zerg, in order to confirm some things.

"Is that so?"

Sure enough, Louis had an incredible guess after looking at a pile of data...