Chapter 1 Sitting in the House

Sitting on the sofa in the house, Mingmei held a boxed lunch, eating while staring blankly out the window at the sandstorm that had yet to subside. Her gaze fell on the balcony, where fine sand had piled up on the ground due to a crack in the sealed window.

Sand seeped in through the crack, accumulating on the floor.

After Mingmei finished two boxed lunches, the sandstorm gradually died down. She silently pushed open the balcony door, picked up a dustpan and broom, and carefully swept up the sand, putting it into the iron bucket that had originally been used to hold the sand.

Mingmei looked at the sand that hadn't been completely emptied from the iron bucket and then shifted her gaze to the dusty sink on the balcony.

"Where does our drinking water come from?"

Mingmei suddenly thought of this question. Although the boxed lunch was delicious, it was a bit too salty, and she needed to replenish some water.

[Please explore on your own, Host~]

In an instant, Mingmei suddenly felt the sorrow of being a player.

There was just no damn experience at all.

Carrying the ten-odd-kilogram bucket of sand, Mingmei walked down more than a dozen flights of stairs. As she walked through the stairwell, she sorted through all the information she had about this place as a player, only to discover that the water source here was purchased from the black market in the underground city!

Last night, Mingmei had spent four hours guarding that shop, without even thinking about getting water.

"So all day I've been..."

Mingmei was talking to herself, planning to say that she would just have to tough it out for the day, when she suddenly heard movement from inside a door not far from her in the stairwell. She subconsciously retreated up two steps.

Immediately afterward, she heard a "bang" behind her, and the door of the stairwell opened with abnormal force.

Mingmei turned her head at the sound and saw a fierce, bald man falling heavily to the ground, his face contorted in pain.

The shattered door panel behind him also indicated what had just happened.

A slender figure walked out of the doorway, bent down, and picked up two water bottles from beside the bald man.

"A'Chen?"

Mingmei didn't expect to meet Mu Chen, whom she hadn't encountered before, at this moment.

"Meimei..."

A hint of surprise also flashed in Mu Chen's eyes at this moment. After entering the game yesterday, he hadn't seen Mingmei for a long time and thought that his teleportation point was far away from Mingmei's, but he didn't expect—

His gaze fell on Mingmei and the bucket in her hand, and the corners of his mouth immediately curved up. It turned out that they were neighbors, living just above and below each other.

Taking advantage of the moment when the two were gazing at each other, the bald man scrambled to his feet faster than anyone else and rushed downstairs.

Seeing this, Mu Chen didn't intend to let him leave. He directly kicked him, sending him tumbling down the stairs. The sound of flesh and bone crashing from the height of eight or nine floors made Mingmei tremble.

Mu Chen's actions were a bit too terrifying.

"Scared?"

Mingmei stood there without moving, but Mu Chen walked to her side in an instant, took the bucket of sand from her hand with one hand, and took Mingmei's somewhat cold hand with the other, walking downstairs.

As he walked, Mu Chen said, "This place confirms a saying—'Desperate places breed desperate people.'"

Mingmei didn't say anything, her gaze fixed on the two water bottles on Mu Chen's waist.

That was the reason Mu Chen had fought with the bald man just now.

Mingmei's silence didn't affect Mu Chen's pace. He continued, "This is a place without legal constraints. If you let go of someone who harbors malice towards you, they won't be grateful."

"I know."

Mingmei spoke after listening for a long time.

"But, there's no need to be so..."

Mingmei's words paused as they walked to the next floor and saw bloodstains on the handrail. She silently turned her head to glance at the person beside her and said, carefully choosing her words, "Will this have any impact?"

"Just killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. To avoid being disturbed by others for two bottles of water later, for both you and me."

As Mu Chen said this, he stopped, and Mingmei stopped with him. As soon as she stopped, Mingmei suddenly heard movement coming from behind them. When she turned her head, she saw several furtive figures who immediately turned and left as if they had been greatly startled.

Mingmei withdrew her gaze.

"You knew all along?"

"Yes." Mu Chen nodded and continued to walk downstairs with Mingmei. Perhaps Mingmei was a bit too sensitive, but after being followed just now, Mingmei felt faint gazes on her back every time she passed a floor.

"They won't attack."

Mu Chen sensed Mingmei's unease. While comforting her, he also confirmed that there were indeed people spying on them from behind.

"Everyone below heard the commotion just now. They're just taking a look."

Taking a look at what kind of person had made the move.

He had seen that bald man last night on the underground black market boxing match stage.

He had brutally beaten his opponent to death on the stage, bullying and robbing weaker fighters. The sudden death of such a notorious person would give him much peace in the coming days.

"Speaking of which, I didn't see you at the black market in the underground city last night." Mingmei remembered to ask Mu Chen about his whereabouts last night.

"There are several black markets in the underground city. You and I probably weren't in the same one."

"Are you so sure?"

"Yes, I searched there for a long time, not letting a single stall owner go." Mu Chen said, turning his head to look at Mingmei and smiling, "There's no one else who can make me see you at a glance in the crowd like you."

Mingmei: "..."

She was suddenly being flirted with!

"Tonight, I'll take you to see my shop~" In a good mood, Mingmei didn't explicitly tell Mu Chen that she sold boxed lunches, but when he heard Mingmei mention the shop, a hint of understanding flashed in Mu Chen's eyes.

"Okay."

Unconsciously, the two had already reached the first floor. Mingmei saw a large pool of blood on the ground but no corpse. The mental preparation she had made was now useless. She was even a little surprised: "This person didn't die and ran away?"

"No." Mu Chen looked at the pool of blood. There were no footprints around it, indicating an escape, only some scattered bloodstains.

"The corpse was moved?" Mingmei also noticed the surrounding situation and said in surprise, "So fast?"

"Well… after all, corpses are also valuable."

Mu Chen spoke softly, but Mingmei heard him clearly. She turned to look at Mu Chen, curiously asking what he meant by corpses being valuable.

"Last night, I saw people selling them at the black market at night. As… food for other races."

Mingmei: !!!!

...

Outside the game,

"I didn't expect a game to be able to persuade those people from the extraterrestrial seas to surrender."

Yan Hui didn't even look up, staring at the operation of the new game while speaking to Hu Mingli, who had come to join in the fun, "Even when you guys drive your starship mechs to their doorsteps, they are still afraid and aggressively come to hack your systems. You expect me to 'save all living beings'?"

"So, I'm also curious as to why you asked us to help you spread this game business to the extraterrestrial seas."

Hu Mingli naturally knew that a game couldn't achieve such a huge effect.

But since Yan Hui had brought it up, the so-called "real moves in the game" was ultimately just an excuse. So, he was curious about Yan Hui's true reason for doing so.

"Firstly, to let these students see what is called 'the treachery of the human heart.'"

Yan Hui said, referring to the last time Hu Mingli sent people to pretend to be space pirates and capture people, "This only works on naive people like these kids. Someone with a little experience wouldn't be fooled at all. Fake is fake, and they will have to pay the price sooner or later."

"So, you let them suffer in your constructed extraterrestrial seas?"

Seeing Yan Hui nod, Hu Mingli chuckled and asked curiously, "I'm curious, how exactly are you so clear about the extraterrestrial seas?"

Hearing this, Yan Hui's eyes met Hu Mingli's green irises, and he said with a smile that was not a smile, "How you received information about the whereabouts of those people is how I know."

Since everyone has special information channels, there was no need to say more.

Hearing this, Hu Mingli chuckled and seemed to brush the matter aside, saying, "Then what's the second reason?"

"The second reason…" Yan Hui turned to look at the game data and said softly, "Someone once said that the scariest thing in my survival game is not the terrifying scenes that cause nightmares all night, nor the difficult-to-conquer Bosses, but—emotion, the strong emotion that makes people addicted and unable to extricate themselves."

As for whether this strong emotion is good or painful, it depends on everyone's perspective.

This time, all the new recruits from their military group who entered the game were placed in the extraterrestrial sea area, while those extraterrestrial sea players were placed in the peaceful environment on the Empire's side.

"People walking in the darkness suddenly see the light, warming them, illuminating them, even if they know that this is only a fleeting mirage, they will eventually be lost in the beauty of the light." Yan Hui said, raising his eyes to look at Hu Mingli, and smiling brightly, "When the game ends, they will be driven mad by it."

"I just want them to be good people in the game, to have happy and fulfilling families, surrounded by friends and relatives, and then witness with their own eyes some people in the extraterrestrial seas shatter these dreamlike bubbles."

Yan Hui's voice grew softer and softer as he spoke. After speaking, he turned to look at Hu Mingli, his deep eyes making Hu Mingli feel a chill.

"They will become addicted to it. All the beauty in this game is a kind of addictive drug to them."

"Then you underestimate those ruthless characters in the extraterrestrial seas. Just being addicted to this illusory bubble is not enough for them to survive for so long in the extraterrestrial seas."

Hu Mingli felt that Yan Hui was thinking too simply. They were all monsters who had lived in the extraterrestrial seas for so long. Would they casually fall in love with this kind of false warmth in the game?

Hearing Hu Mingli say this, Yan Hui knew that the other party probably hadn't played his game much.

Yan Hui smiled without saying a word. Some people, who seem calm, detached from the illusion of the game, and not immersed in that false warm emotion, are not necessarily attached to reality.

It is even possible that they will directly hate this real world because the gap between reality and the game is too large.

Rejecting beautiful illusions, hating cold reality...