“What was the third secret?”
“There are no true immortals in this world. An insignificant secret.”
Yin Chen spoke carelessly, his gaze falling on the dark-blue system panel as he said mockingly, “They’re all useless. No one gets to take you away from me.”
Song Zang froze. He had absolutely no idea what Yin Chen was talking about.
But he could feel the undisguised arrogance in Yin Chen’s words.
From the perspective of someone on his side, Yin Chen’s arrogance really was dependable and reassuring.
He suspected Yin Chen had secretly gone behind his back and fought someone.
The fight must have been extremely intense. Yin Chen had probably ended up covered in blood from head to toe, so much that he could not even wipe it clean… otherwise, he would never have come out to see people wearing only his inner garment.
Seriously. Yin Chen’s bad habit of secretly fighting bosses behind his back had not changed at all.
Song Zang complained inwardly for a few moments but did not waste time pressing him for answers. He pulled open Yin Chen’s damp inner garment and laid cool fingertips against the taut waistline stained with seeping blood.
He wanted to quickly bandage Yin Chen before the transfer began. Song Zang had plenty of experience now and had become very good at dealing with all kinds of horrific wounds.
But before he could begin, Yin Chen gently wrapped an arm around his waist.
The two looked at each other in silence for a moment before Yin Chen’s lips curved. “Don’t bother. Give me a goodbye kiss.”
“…Yin Chen, you’re suddenly so romantic.”
“Got a problem with that?”
Song Zang shook his head with a red face, wiped the blood from his fingertips, and cupped Yin Chen’s handsome face, which looked a little paler than usual.
Yin Chen had lost too much blood, yet his beautifully shaped thin lips were still vivid red, and ever hotter warmth flowed beneath his injured shell. Song Zang no longer had any attention to spare for the outside world. He seriously rubbed against those soft lips, grinding and nibbling until the system notification appeared again.
【Transfer beginning. Countdown: 3, 2, 1…】
“I won’t see you for another month. I’ll miss you.” Song Zang pressed forehead to forehead with him and acted spoiled in a quiet voice.
A direct attack always had extraordinary power. Yin Chen froze slightly, stared fixedly at Song Zang, and slowly nodded.
Why was he spacing out at a time like this?
Song Zang bit him resentfully, leaving a faint flush at the corner of his lips, then imperiously demanded, “Hurry up and say you’ll miss me too!”
“…Mm. I’ll miss you a lot,” Yin Chen answered softly.
Perfect.
The next instant, Song Zang’s vision sank completely into darkness.
When he opened his eyes again, bright morning sunlight filled the world.
The good mood he had brought back from the instance was still going strong. Song Zang stretched and felt completely refreshed.
He went up to the attic, pulled out a chair, and sat in front of the enormous ice coffin, stroking Xiao Bai’s peacefully sleeping face through the glass.
“Xiao Bai, I’m going to find you a new dad. A family of three sounds pretty cozy, right? Your other dad is amazing. He can buy you tons of beef bones, as many as you want to gnaw.”
Xiao Bai did not respond to him at all.
Song Zang propped up his chin and sat quietly for a while. After a long time, he could not help sighing softly. “What am I supposed to do? You haven’t even woken up yet, and I’m already starting to feel happy.”
“Are you angry? Think I’m heartless? Then you’d better wake up soon… otherwise I’ll end up so happy I could die.
“I’m going to go out and enjoy myself, live it up, and leave one lonely dog lying here all by himself, unable to eat his fill for the rest of his life.”
He looked a little neurotic, but even with Xiao Bai lying inside an ice coffin, Song Zang had never stopped habitually talking to him.
There were many things buried in one’s heart that felt safer when told only to cats and dogs.
And Xiao Bai really was different. He was a very, very good dog.
Whenever the pork-stall owner deliberately tempted Xiao Bai with fresh ribs and tried to lure him away, or whenever the elderly neighbor cooked a pot of soybeans and pork trotters and jokingly tried to steal him, Xiao Bai would always drool while biting Song Zang’s pant leg, whining and refusing to move.
But he had never abandoned Song Zang and entered a neighbor’s home alone, nor had he ever chased a closing market cart and vanished after it.
That pure, passionate, one-of-a-kind devotion had been Song Zang’s strongest emotional support during the years of his amnesia.
Without Xiao Bai, Song Zang would never have gotten to know any of the neighbors who treated him kindly.
A life spent hiding with extreme caution was equivalent to an endless state of exhaustion and numbness.
“Actually, I’ve already been unbelievably lucky, haven’t I? You’re the only unlucky little thing in the whole family. Hilarious…”
After his usual round of threats and coaxing with Xiao Bai, plus a little chat about Yin Chen, Song Zang finally left in satisfaction.
Talking had made him somewhat thirsty, so he slowly poured himself a cup of warm water and drained it in one gulp.
The weather was getting hot. He should put some fresh mint in the water.
Damn it. He had only just left the instance, and he was already starting to miss Yin Chen.
The new pots of greenery on the windowsill had only just begun to push up tender shoots. If he wanted to taste mint leaves he had grown himself, he would probably have to wait until next month.
Song Zang watered each of the little pots, threw on a light jacket, and suddenly heard Ning Yan calling from downstairs.
“Song-Song, come eat breakfast! If your blankets kidnapped you, squeak once!”
“…Coming, coming.”
Song Zang opened the door and went downstairs, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Then he was surprised to discover that practically every player was present today. Even the butler had not deliberately hidden his presence.
Lu Xing You was sprawled across the sofa fast asleep like a corpse, just as always, while Xie Chun Ye and Chi Yan huddled around a tablet looking more serious than usual.
Lan Yu Heng and Zhang Ming Shen had come as well. They had clearly not eaten breakfast. Fresh from an intense battle inside an instance, they had hurried straight to Helin Estate.
“Did something happen?” Song Zang asked cautiously, unease showing on his face.
“Nothing major. We’ll have a meeting after breakfast,” Chi Yan reassured him with a smile. “Xiao Song, eat until you’re full first. Yin Wu Xue will be here later too. She’s still on the plane.”
“…Okay.”
Song Zang listened in confusion, obediently pulled out a chair, sat down, and scooped up a spoonful of soft, warm steamed egg custard.
The butler’s cooking was getting better and better. It had practically reached the pinnacle of perfection. The food was delicious enough to move him.
Song Zang’s appetite surged. He silently buried himself in eating half a bowl of egg custard, while the Ning brothers barely touched their food. Both looked dazed, as though they still had not fully recovered.
Chi Yan noticed and casually elbowed Ning Yan. “Before we start the meeting, why don’t you two tell us whether anything interesting happened in the new instance?”
Ning Yan fell silent for a moment, then turned his head to show everyone the veins bulging at his temple.
His face crumpled miserably. “Good thing Song-Song didn’t take part in activating the secret treasure. Burning the life-soul hurt so badly I nearly exploded from the inside. Even my body in the real world went into a stress response. I’ve had a migraine ever since. Save meee!”
“Heh. You call that bad?”
Ning Ran cut him off with a dark expression, his tone even more agonized. “I recognized a titan straight out of Attack on Titan as my dad… and later he realized I wasn’t actually his biological son and almost swallowed my soul whole. Ning Yan, do you have any idea how terrifying a Star-Absorbing Technique is? No. You don’t.
“I’m serious. This time I got the full experience of being sucked so dry I nearly went bald, suffered a rectal prolapse, and almost got skinned and eaten alive. If Yin Wu Xue’s talismans hadn’t all been on me, there wouldn’t have been enough left for a whole corpse.”
As Ning Yan listened, his grave expression gradually twisted into something strange. Finally he burst out laughing. “Hahahaha, you actually prolapsed… Hahahaha, I can’t breathe…”
“Still laughing? Want to try it too? I can help.” Ning Ran ground out through clenched teeth.
These brothers truly would never achieve a peaceful, harmonious relationship.
Chi Yan wordlessly pushed both of them back into their seats. “Quiet. No fighting!”
Then she sighed faintly. “I knew it. The players from our institute all have unusually complicated lives. Song Zang especially. Every instance he gets assigned is bizarre. You’ve had it rough.”
“It wasn’t rough.”
Song Zang smiled shyly and, without drawing attention, served himself a huge bowl of fresh-meat rice noodles. No one noticed that he still was not full.
“Oh, right, Song-Song. There’s something else. Since Mountain Village Oddities is a brand-new instance that appeared for the first time, Ning Ran and I talked it over. We want to upload a strategy video and earn some points, but we wanted your permission first.”
Ning Yan brought up the serious matter, then paused oddly halfway through with a rather subtle expression. “Here’s the thing. Yin Chen and I… ahem, talked about some fairly private, unusual subjects. I don’t particularly want other people hearing them.
“So would it be okay if Ning Ran uploaded the player’s-view footage from his side instead? He didn’t have much contact with you guys anyway.”
“Of course.”
Song Zang agreed immediately. In fact, he could not have asked for anything better.
He could already imagine how much player attention the Infinite Game would attract after two completely new high-difficulty instances appeared within a single year.
The experience value of 【Mask】 was still rising nonstop even now, precisely because the clearance video for Journey Through Tianhai remained pinned in the forum’s popular section.
That was right. Even now, Song Zang was still constantly getting cursed out by new viewers… The profits were incredible. He could not wait.
Once Song Zang gave permission, Ning Ran seized the chance and clicked upload without hesitation.
He set the price for buying the strategy at only 1,000 points. Cheap, practical, and fair to everyone.
Only a few seconds later, Song Zang heard Ning Ran shout with rare excitement, “Holy shit, it’s already got a hundred views?!”
Making a hundred thousand points in the blink of an eye was incomparably easier than risking one’s life to clear an instance. No wonder people kept diligently producing strategy guides despite the danger of exposing their privacy and secrets.
Emotion surging, Ning Ran stood up and gave Song Zang an extremely forceful hug, then solemnly promised, “Don’t worry. I’ll moderate the comments for you.
“If anyone dares curse at you, I’ll report them to the system for personal attacks. Before their comment gets deleted, I’ll curse them ten times harder and make those idiots question their entire existence. I’m extremely good at insulting people online. Nobody can beat me in an argument.”
Actually, that was completely unnecessary.
Song Zang thought for a moment, then quietly curved his lips and deliberately let a trace of bashful sweetness show in his eyes. “It’s fine. Don’t let the comments ruin your mood. Yin Chen already told me he’ll help by chopping every one of them to death. That’s a much more satisfying revenge.”
As long as he used Yin Chen as the excuse, every player who frequented the forum would be instantly convinced.
“…That makes so much sense. Enlightening.” Ning Ran sank into thought.
＊
After breakfast, Yin Wu Xue finally arrived at Helin Estate, travel-worn and exhausted.
It was already late spring, and the air carried the warmth and humidity of early summer. She had run all the way up the mountain herself and entered with sweat beading at her temples, panting for breath.
The moment she stepped into the villa, Yin Wu Xue first gave Song Zang a solemn bow.
“Thank you. Thank Yin Chen for saving my life too! If you ever need help with anything, come find me. I absolutely won’t refuse!”
Song Zang hurriedly pulled her upright and said in confusion, “You don’t have to be so formal. I didn’t even do anything. You really don’t need to thank me.”
“No! It’s all because of you!
“Yin Chen said what I was doing benefited you, so he specifically had Little Stone save me while it was at it. I almost got lost in the illusion that I was about to become a god and couldn’t come back… It was terrifying. Seriously terrifying.
“And your mom! She’s unbelievably, super, ridiculously gorgeous. Red hair. She and the Goddess seriously saved my worthless life. Oh my god, I love her so much.”
Yin Wu Xue still looked badly shaken. The instance had thrown too much stimulation at her, and even now she remained in an intensely excited mental state, unable to settle down.
She did not explicitly name Medisa, but the instant Song Zang heard her, he knew exactly who she meant.
“You actually saw her?” Suppressing the shock and disbelief in his heart, Song Zang lowered his voice. “Can you tell me the details privately? I kind of miss her.”
“Of course, of course. I’ll keep it secret. She misses you too.” Yin Wu Xue lowered her voice as well, cooperating perfectly.
After the two spoke privately for a while, Lu Xing You was finally shaken awake mercilessly by Xie Chun Ye.
“All right. Everyone’s here. Meeting time.”
Chi Yan glanced at him, stood at the center of the dining table, and abruptly rapped hard against the tabletop.
A faint series of mechanical gears quietly began turning above everyone’s heads.
Then the brightly lit villa living room underwent a succession of strange changes.
The windows suddenly sealed shut, the front door slammed closed, and the enormous room plunged into pitch darkness where no one could see a hand in front of their face.
Even the television and refrigerator were cut off from power.
“Well? I had this fully automated curtain system custom-made in Germany. It comes with a satellite and wireless-signal jammer plus a power cutoff device. Impressive, right? Guaranteed to give us the ultimate private experience.”
Chi Yan’s rather smug voice drifted eerily out of the darkness.
She pulled out an old-fashioned battery-powered flashlight, held it beneath her chin, and lit her smiling face from below.
“Awooo! A ghost!” Ning Yan screamed instinctively.
“Quiet. Let the beautiful female ghost speak first,” Xie Chun Ye said coldly.
Chi Yan rolled her eyes at him and cleared her throat. “All right, all right. Get serious and listen carefully.
“At 1:49 a.m. last night, the Future Research Institute’s newest detection equipment once again detected a relatively strong double energy fluctuation.
“After investigating through the night and excluding all interfering data, our researchers can now make a preliminary determination that the unknown existence from an unidentified space, which we designate Codename X, once again interfered with the Infinite Game. The intensity of the fluctuation approached the historical maximum ever recorded.
“Comparing the recorded data shows that Codename X has emitted four detectable energy fluctuations this year, more frequently than at any point in the past three years… and the timing happens to coincide with the date Song Zang became an official player.
“Combining that with our past investigations into star-marked player behavior, we’ve formed an irresponsible preliminary hypothesis:
“Yin Chen’s degree of participation and activity inside game instances has a major correlation with Codename X’s behavioral pattern.
“Put simply, whenever Yin Chen just grabs a knife and mindlessly kills everything, Codename X remains silent and undetectable. Whenever Yin Chen seriously participates in the game’s process and deeply investigates an instance’s secrets, Codename X produces comparatively obvious energy fluctuations that our institute’s instruments can capture and record, leaving behind valuable data.”
Chi Yan took a sip of water. “In short, Yin Chen is the most unusual star-marked player and the key breakthrough point in our research. From now on, if any of you match into an instance with him, nobody is allowed to slack off. Participate seriously in the instance process. Don’t think you can lie down and let him carry you… All right, any questions?”
Everyone looked at one another and fell into silence almost in unison.
Still overexcited, Yin Wu Xue could not help raising her hand first. “Big Sis, I didn’t understand any of that!”
Song Zang silently followed. “I really didn’t understand it either.”
At minimum, Song Zang had never heard a single thing about that entire string of information before.
Chi Yan smiled knowingly, her voice gentle. “I know you don’t understand. I’ll explain it slowly.
“Before that, in order to protect the Future Research Institute’s safety and stable development, we established an internal confidentiality assessment period for newly joined players.
“But circumstances are different now. The Chi family is also much stronger than before, so I don’t have to be quite so cautious.”
That was right. The Chi family, once merely the richest family in Luo City, had now become the wealthiest family in the entire country. They had also established large-scale arms industries overseas, with armed power comparable to the combined forces of several small nations.
No wonder Xie Chun Ye had constantly been helping Chi Yan make money. It had all been to provide protection for the institute.
Curled up on the sofa and eating a milk ice pop that was nearly melted, Song Zang listened through Chi Yan’s explanation.
The true meaning behind the name Future Research Institute went far beyond some explosive episode of middle-school syndrome.
The existence of the Infinite Game world brought enormous benefits to humanity’s future, but also enormous dangers.
It was a super-treasure vault with limitless potential, and at the same time a vast and merciless meat grinder. What it would evolve into in the future depended entirely on humanity’s ability to control itself, cooperate, and use it rationally.
Chi Yan was a little different from the other players. She did not really possess any special obsession. Since childhood, her dream had simply been to make money, make money safely and steadily, and make enormous amounts of money in a peaceful world.
After inexplicably being selected as a player, Chi Yan developed serious anxiety about the future of human society.
When tremendous power is concentrated in a single individual, it can create chaos no one can contain.
She wanted to earn money properly instead of profiting from vile wars. To do that, she first had to guarantee peace in the world.
So Chi Yan immediately threw herself into founding a laboratory, buying equipment, and establishing a research and development team.
She repeatedly danced along the edge of death by almost leaking the Infinite World’s secrets, hiring many scientists who knew nothing about it to help her explore the spatial principles, energy sources, and operating mechanisms of the game world.
To this day, the researchers she hired still believe Chi Yan is studying some classified form of extraterrestrial life and possible alien bases on Earth.
According to Chi Yan, biological remains originating from outer space really do exist within the country. But she was only a businesswoman, with no authority to learn more classified details and no qualifications to take her own researchers into the field for an investigation.
Of course, Chi Yan had no intention of letting the matter go. She had already begun preliminary cooperation with the government and was gradually obtaining access to more inside information. By the end of next year at the latest, she would qualify for her first field investigation.
Chi Yan was decisive, willing to pour money into things, fairly lucky, and genuinely bold.
The project team under her leadership had already produced visible results. Their equipment could detect energy fluctuations and unusual signals originating from the game world.
Not only that, she had even drawn inspiration and extracted technology from the Infinite Game to develop an extremely advanced immersive holographic game.
After its successful closed beta, the game caused a massive stir on the real-world internet. Preorders had already reached a million, and it would officially launch that summer.
Of course, earning back a little money by selling holographic gaming equipment was only one of the ways Chi Yan recovered the vast sums she had poured into the project. In her eyes, it barely counted for anything.
More importantly, while monitoring the game world’s unusual signals over a long period, the institute’s detectors unexpectedly captured another strange and unfamiliar energy fluctuation.
That unknown existence was what they called Codename X.
It followed behavioral patterns and possibly possessed intelligence. It seemed to be some special form of matter that did not exist in the human world and could not be classified among the more than one hundred interstellar molecules humanity had discovered. Even its basic structural concept was difficult to define.
When its energy was transmitted, it produced slight radiation and slowly corroded all organic life.
If an ordinary human approached residual Codename X energy without protection, they would not only face a risk of cancer but could also develop severe cognitive impairment, depersonalization, schizophrenia, and other permanent aftereffects.
Put simply, if someone’s Resistance was too low, approaching Codename X was basically a death sentence.
“Compared with the Infinite Game, this thing is obviously much more dangerous,” Chi Yan said seriously. “And there’s something else. Xie Chun Ye found some leads on the people who were hunting Song Zang before.
“The organization’s core is scattered overseas. The people sent into the country to carry out missions are basically clueless mercenaries. Even the core members probably don’t know the game world exists, but there’s a very high chance they’ve all had close contact with leaked Codename X energy.
“They’re all lunatics. Lunatics who aren’t afraid of dying at all. And I can’t tell what they’re trying to accomplish. The most likely possibility is that they’re using you to trace Yin Chen’s whereabouts. So Song Zang, don’t go wandering outside casually for a while.”
“…I understand. I’ll be careful.”
The temporary meeting officially ended. Lan Yu Heng and the others seemed to have more to discuss with Chi Yan, but none of it had anything to do with Song Zang.
After all, he was a weak, helpless, easily frightened bottom-tier combatant who needed careful protection. His only task was to maintain a good relationship with Yin Chen.
Song Zang obediently lived his quiet little life. He grew plants and flowers, ate, trained, inspected his Memory Palace once every day, and chatted with Xiao Bai…
He discovered that he missed Yin Chen terribly. He wanted kisses and hugs. He wanted to wake up every day and see that person lying beside him.
One month suddenly felt unbearably long.
Chi Yan was extremely busy that month, but she still insisted on returning to Helin Estate before midnight and mixing everyone a beautiful cocktail… after which she flopped down, woozy, and immediately fell asleep.
Song Zang received a richly colored Bloody Mary. Beneath the dim nightlight, dark-red liquor slid along the walls of the glass, faintly carrying an ominous sense of forewarning.
Full of anticipation, he closed his eyes and waited for Yin Chen to send him a team invitation.
Instead, a golden notification window appeared in the darkness, catching Song Zang completely off guard.
【Special Instance Opening Notice】
【Player Song Zang, please take note. Data verification confirms that you have reached the promotion standard for elite players.】
【On this game day, you will be forcibly assigned to a promotion assessment instance and required to guide rookie players in experiencing the boundless wonders of the game world.】
【Note: Upon becoming an elite player, you will receive Permanent Points Shop Discount Coupons ×10, full access to all Café entertainment facilities, and an exclusive limited-time benefit exempting you from mandatory fixed instances.】
【Players are requested to maintain a positive attitude, refrain from passive gameplay, and look forward to a beautiful tomorrow.】
“No… wait…”
Song Zang was horrified, but he could not find any way to refuse.
The gold-framed message vanished together with the darkness in his vision. In the blink of an eye, Song Zang was forcibly transported into the familiar Café.
Five people sat around the booth area, both men and women, every face unfamiliar.
Their expressions varied, but more or less all of them carried unease in their eyes. Their physical condition looked fairly ordinary too. They were rookie players who had been forcibly selected.
Song Zang silently looked around. Yin Chen was not there.
He had no interest in socializing right now, so he ordered a double espresso.
Clerk No. 1 personally brought him the coffee, wearing the same bright smile as always.
“Hello, Player Song Zang. Clerk No. 1 has completed the preliminary game guidance. Please note that the rookie players are waiting for your next instructions.”
Song Zang lifted his eyes and stared at her. “Where is Yin Chen?”
“I’m sorry. Clerk No. 1 does not have permission to access that information.”
“If he comes looking for me, tell him exactly what happened.”
After speaking, Song Zang turned toward the bewildered players. His voice was listless. “Want to stay alive? Don’t touch random things. Don’t look at random things. Move together and follow my instructions…
“Come on. Let’s get moving.”
【Instance opening. Countdown: 3, 2, 1…】