It was still early in the day, with bright autumn sunlight shining overhead.
A cool breeze swept fallen leaves along, pushing layers of thin clouds across the sky and carrying away some of the lingering noon heat.
Most residents of Xinjiang City who had money and leisure were outdoors enjoying the autumn weather.
They set up grills for barbecues, brewed tea while camping, and relaxed without a care. Even groups of elementary school students on autumn outings were cheerfully making their way back to school.
It was at such a leisurely, peaceful moment that the terrifying sound of the steelworks’ second explosion abruptly tore across the entire city.
A full, beautiful mushroom cloud surged upward, carrying iron shavings, steel dust, and blazing flames.
Yin Chen’s sinister voice had barely fallen silent when the enormous shockwave rolling in from the distance swept straight into Happiness Community, becoming an ominous low hum circling beside Song Zang’s ears.
The floor-to-ceiling windows trembled faintly under the invisible impact, making tiny, unsettling noises. Dense, choking smoke and dust spread across the sky, slowly dragging everyone into a disaster film where the apocalypse was about to arrive.
The view from the twenty-fourth floor was excellent. Song Zang turned and narrowed his eyes toward the distance, only to find that the clear, thin clouds on the horizon had already been burned a fierce blood-red.
Several banner notifications quickly appeared across his phone.
Xinjiang City’s local television news channel also began an emergency live broadcast. The host loudly warned nearby residents to evacuate the accident area at once, find shelter, and contact emergency services…
Song Zang held his burning-hot phone and directed Xiao Xiao Xiao to help close the doors and windows.
Not only his own apartment, but also the doors and windows of the burly man’s place next door and Auntie Li’s home needed to be tightly sealed.
Breathing dust filled with metal fragments into one’s lungs was definitely not a good idea.
Both new players were injured and already physically weak. If they developed more injuries or illnesses, Song Zang genuinely would not be able to manage everything.
For now, the best strategy was for the three of them to hole up at home, block the door cracks with wet towels, lie around, and leisurely watch television.
After bustling around for five or six minutes, Song Zang firmly shut the fire door beside the elevator as well.
The twenty-fourth floor of Building A thus became a fresh little nest cut off from the outside world.
At least the air was very fresh.
Watching the panting Xiao Xiao Xiao, Song Zang let his gaze drift unobtrusively toward the blue-black side of her face.
It seemed a little lighter again. Pretty effective.
The sudden explosion, together with a certain amount of physical exertion, emptied Xiao Xiao Xiao’s mind. She had no time to think about the male player she had killed with her own hands, much less spiral repeatedly into self-blame and fear.
“Brother Song, what do we do now?” Xiao Xiao Xiao tilted her head to admire the spectacular mushroom cloud outside the window. She rolled up her sleeves and wiped away her sweat, looking almost a little excited.
“Stay home. Running outside now would only be more dangerous.” Song Zang paused, then abruptly asked, “Xiao Xiao Xiao, do you know how to bake?”
“Hm? Of course. I can even make cream cakes.”
“Good. There are flour and baking trays in the kitchen, and the other ingredients are in the fridge. Go make some chocolate cookies.” Song Zang casually shifted in front of the floor-to-ceiling window so she would not suddenly notice the abnormality on her face in the glass reflection. His tone remained mild as he gave the order directly. “We’ll eat them together tonight and watch a horror movie while we’re at it.”
“Roger! Watching a horror movie at a time like this will have such amazing atmosphere. Brother Song, you really get it!”
Even after being assigned another cooking task, Xiao Xiao Xiao remained extremely excited. Someone naturally optimistic really was difficult for ghosts to erode mentally. That was an advantage she had been born with.
Xiao Xiao Xiao rolled her sleeves even higher and enthusiastically went off to make cookies. Song Zang turned and glanced at Ye Xiao Xi.
The girl was completely ignoring all the noise outside and was still staring at her phone, typing with total concentration… Good. Apparently Chen Jing Sheng had not been affected by the explosion at all.
With nothing to worry about for the moment, Song Zang removed his coat, tossed it into the laundry basket, and returned to the bedroom to change into comfortable short-sleeved loungewear.
When he said they should stay home, he had not been saying it just to placate Xiao Xiao Xiao.
Song Zang genuinely had no intention of going out right now. As long as he did not wander around carelessly, staying inside Happiness Community was actually… fairly safe.
If he left alone, the two girls staying behind would be in greater danger and more likely to run into one of the community’s deeply hidden psychopaths.
Besides, by this point, the clues along several possible paths toward the main mission were already clear enough. They had absolutely no need to provoke more psychopaths. That would simply be asking for trouble.
Steelworks director Wang Tie Zhu was clearly no simple figure. For the players to rush over and capture him in an unfamiliar environment would create plenty of potential dangers.
It would be better to let Xu Qing cause a major disturbance first and test the waters for them.
If Xu Qing could not help him solve the main mission, then Song Zang could simply solve Xu Qing instead.
After all… there were bound to be several ghosts in this world silently hiding in the darkness and desperately yearning for Xu Qing’s death.
All roads led to Rome.
Song Zang gathered his thoughts, rubbed the back of his neck tiredly, and considered what he should do next.
As he thought, he let his body go limp and fell backward onto the wide mattress, bouncing once.
The soft sheets brushed his skin, carrying threads of cool autumn air.
Song Zang rolled over comfortably, hugged his phone, pulled the blanket up, and wrapped himself in the most comfortable position possible.
“Baby, switch devices and talk to me through something else. My phone is insanely hot now. It’s really about to break,” Song Zang whispered toward the phone. “How about my computer? Then I can see your face too.”
Yin Chen was not very cooperative. His aggrieved voice spread through the static of electrical interference, deliberately cold. “Song Zang, you’re ignoring me.”
Song Zang wanted to laugh. He knew perfectly well that Yin Chen was jealous, and the emotions roiling inside him were several times stronger than what his voice revealed.
With the phone tucked against his body, it felt like an unpredictable bomb, or even a piece of red-hot iron… absurdly adorable.
Song Zang tried hard to suppress the curve of his lips, then patiently began teaching him again. “Yin Chen, from now on, if you dislike anything I do, you can tell me directly and discuss it with me, all right?
“If you’re jealous, you just need to say it clearly. I’ll adjust the distance I keep from other people according to how you feel, because I care about you.
“But you can’t express your feelings by hurting me.”
“Song Zang, when have I ever hurt…”
Before Yin Chen could finish the stiff retort, Song Zang raised his slender fair wrist and waved it at the phone with a faint, knowing smile.
Song Zang’s self-healing ability had always been absurd. The bite wounds from the little snake tearing into his wrist and drinking his blood had almost disappeared, leaving only faint tooth marks on the delicate skin.
But even those tooth marks should never have existed in the first place.
Yin Chen was silent for a long while before saying quietly, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. As long as it doesn’t interfere with important things, I actually kind of like it.”
“…You like it? Like what?” Yin Chen paused, not quite understanding.
Song Zang buried his face in the blanket and pretended to be shy, though the things he said became wilder and more direct with every sentence. “The fact that you like drinking my blood is especially cute and especially sexy. It gets me a little excited. Really excited.
“If you want to bite me in the future, you can take a few more bites anytime. As long as the wounds heal eventually, within reasonable limits, you’re absolutely allowed to do whatever you want to me!”
Yin Chen listened in a daze and involuntarily fell silent again.
He truly could not understand Song Zang’s bizarre tastes. Song Zang had clearly never been like this before.
And besides… what did he mean by especially cute?
What exactly was cute about it?
If he had said Song Zang looked cute, that would have made sense. Yin Chen, however, had never associated that word with himself in any way.
Thinking carefully, throughout these past two days together, Yin Chen had always felt somewhat awkward, while Song Zang behaved far more naturally and familiarly than before.
Yin Chen still had not completely adjusted to this way of interacting. He wondered whether, before losing his memory, he had done something very cute in front of Song Zang.
The more he thought about it, the question hidden in his heart finally slipped out.
“Song Zang, which version of me do you actually like?”
Song Zang froze, then bent one finger and knocked bang bang against the phone screen a few times. He said seriously, “All of you, obviously. From beginning to end, from ancient times until now. Even if you were only a speck of cosmic matter tens of billions of years ago, I’d still like you. Don’t question my feelings.”
“I’m not cos…”
Yin Chen abruptly stopped halfway through the sentence. Even the phone’s temperature dropped slightly with him.
Under Song Zang’s “innocently confused” stare, Yin Chen silently changed locations. His voice came from the computer speakers instead, sounding faintly guilty.
“I’m here.”
That pause had been full of holes.
Song Zang struggled upright, pulled the computer into his arms, lay back beneath the blanket, and casually opened a webpage showing the face of a handsome man.
As he watched the man’s features gradually become more and more like Yin Chen’s, Song Zang stared at him darkly, deep in thought.
Could it be that Yin Chen was not merely nonhuman, but could not even be defined by molecular structure?
Remembering Codename X, which Chi Yan had mentioned before, Song Zang’s suspicions spread even farther.
Unfortunately, whenever this topic came up, Yin Chen acted as though someone had sealed his mouth with industrial-strength glue. No matter what happened, he refused to say anything more.
Damn it!
Irritation rose in Song Zang’s heart, so he simply seized the opportunity to make a scene with complete confidence. “Yin Chen, do you not trust me? Do you not love me anymore?”
Yin Chen on the screen froze, utterly unable to understand how Song Zang had reached that conclusion.
At a loss, he instinctively denied it. “I don’t.”
“I don’t believe you.” Song Zang’s eyes reddened and his voice trembled, as though tears could fall at any moment. “The person you like isn’t me. It’s the old me from before I lost my memories, right? You don’t care about me at all. You tricked me into giving you my feelings, and now you’re turning around and blaming me. How can you be this awful?”
Several sharp crackles of electrical sparks came from the fragile laptop.
Yin Chen wanted desperately to rush out of the screen and hold him while explaining, but the current situation did not allow it. He could only coax him gently. “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have doubted you. But Song Zang, I never lie… You’re extremely important to me. You’re the only person I care about.”
“Really?” Song Zang sniffed pitifully and lowered his eyes as he wiped away tears.
“Really, Song Zang. I should only be temporarily missing my memories. It’s different from your situation. There are plenty of ways for me to recover them.”
Song Zang’s eyes immediately lit up, and he forgot all about his unreasonable little performance. “So you know how to get your memories back? Hurry up and tell me. I’ll help you.”
“…At the moment, I can think of only two methods, and both of them piss me off.”
“Say them. Tell me everything, or I’ll literally cry myself to death right in front of you.” Song Zang instantly threatened him in an aggrieved huff.
Yin Chen could not help letting out a low laugh. His gaze lingered on the slightly red tip of Song Zang’s nose, and under Song Zang’s urging he seemed to grow a little eager himself.
“I sensed a special force inside my storage space. In essence, it’s the same kind of power as whatever is hiding inside Xu Qing. If I can extract the same-origin power from Xu Qing’s body, I’ll recover very quickly… but I don’t want you getting close to him.”
Although Yin Chen spoke vaguely, Song Zang understood immediately. The special force inside Yin Chen’s storage space was Xu Ming.
Xu Ming, Xu Qing. Two of them had appeared in succession, and both were Boss characters inside instances… It was not difficult for Song Zang to infer that in the instances he matched into later, more of these strange things would probably keep appearing.
What connection was there between them? Other than Codename X, Song Zang could think of no other possibility.
There could not be many powers in the world this strange, this powerful, and fundamentally identical, capable of interfering with the mechanics of Infinite Game’s instances.
That unknown distant existence was interfering with Infinite Game and wrestling against it. Only because of that struggle did openings appear, subtle fluctuations that precise human instruments could detect…
But Song Zang still could not understand why they insisted on deliberately imitating Yin Chen’s temperament and appearance, managing roughly sixty percent similarity, then willingly coming to seduce him.
Even with the enhancement from [Mask], the situation was still extremely bizarre. Song Zang was not being targeted at all. If anything, he had benefited greatly from it.
The only one being targeted was Yin Chen.
Song Zang took a deep breath and suddenly suspected that Yin Chen’s temporary amnesia absolutely had to be the result of an injury, though the cause remained unknown.
Maybe his head had been injured, which was why he needed some special force to repair himself.
Song Zang suspiciously studied Yin Chen on the computer screen. Seeing that he looked perfectly normal and “healthy,” he casually continued, “Got it. What’s the other method?”
Yin Chen’s phoenix eyes narrowed slightly. Threads of cold killing intent shone openly in his gaze, and his tone abruptly soured. “Destroy the instance world. Just like Xu Qing said.”
“…Huh? What would you get after destroying the world?” Song Zang’s pupils practically shook.
“I can extract the source power of this world. As long as I absorb even a small portion of it, I’ll recover my memories one hundred percent.” Yin Chen paused, and his expression gradually turned serious. “But you cannot be the one to do it. Don’t interfere. I have to do it myself.
“A game player who destroys an instance world will receive severe punishment from the Infinite Game system.”
Song Zang listened intently. “What kind of punishment? Baby, explain it properly.”
“Account termination, erasure of the body, erasure of the soul, demotion into an NPC inside a virtual world… Any of those are possible.” Yin Chen looked at Song Zang and continued darkly, “In your case, the likeliest outcome would be exile inside this damaged, broken world. You’d lose your self-awareness and be reset over and over as the world gets repaired, tested, and run.”
“You mean Xu Qing keeps tempting me to destroy the world because he wants to turn me into an NPC here? So I’d stay with him forever?” Song Zang said blankly, and his heart suddenly tightened.
If he truly had to suffer that kind of punishment, he would rather simply die a miserable death. Song Zang would sooner let Yin Chen dismember and eat him than spend meaningless years trapped beside someone else.
Yin Chen looked completely serious as he immediately began badmouthing Xu Qing, with several very sincere death threats added in. “Exactly. He’s awful. Honey-tongued and treacherous, a yandere pervert, completely deranged, not fit to be human.
“Song Zang, you’d better not develop any trust in him. Otherwise I might as well chop you to death first, so you don’t get forced into a lifetime of torment with no escape.”
This death threat made the two of them sound weirdly in sync. Song Zang blushed and softened his voice. “Baby, you’re making me embarrassed.”
“…Hm?”
For one instant, Yin Chen’s icy expression went blank. He genuinely could not deal with this strange form of… coquettishness from Song Zang.
Song Zang curved his lips. His fair fingertip slid across the hot screen and slowly rested against Yin Chen’s cheek, while his curled lashes lowered pitifully to hide the faint disappointment in his eyes.
His shy tone abruptly vanished. Song Zang whispered, “Yin Chen, just how powerful are you? To treat a short period of memory loss, you actually need the source power of an entire world.
“I’m only an ordinary human. I’m obviously so normal, so why would someone like you ever want me?”
Yin Chen was quiet for a moment, then laughed from sheer irritation. “Song Zang, even though I don’t remember at all how the two of us ended up sleeping together, there’s only one reason I would ever agree to have sex with you.”
“You fell for my looks, so you favor me especially much?” Song Zang blushed again and lightly bit his lower lip.
“Bullshit. Other than you, no one is qualified to have an intimate relationship with me. I don’t casually regard anyone as an existence on equal footing with myself. Do you understand? That’s not favoritism. It’s recognition.”
Recognition…
Song Zang pondered the word, yet his face turned aggrieved as he accused, “So you only see me as one human worth acknowledging, and you’ve never favored me at all?”
On the screen, Yin Chen suddenly raised a hand and rubbed the sharply defined bridge of his nose.
It looked as though he was speechless at Song Zang, but Song Zang knew him too well. This was an unconscious little gesture Yin Chen made only when he felt shy and uncomfortable.
After the gesture, Yin Chen lifted his phoenix eyes and watched Song Zang with a faint smile. He retorted as though it were perfectly natural, “If I didn’t favor you, do you think you’d get to fuck me?”
C-Could he actually say that directly?!
The tips of Song Zang’s ears burned. “…Oh.”
Yin Chen gritted his teeth and continued, somehow getting more worked up as he spoke. “Even with my memory gone, I can still understand the decisions I made. You’re too delicate. Your whole body turns red when touched, you cry easily, you’re afraid of pain, and your heart is smaller than a needle. If someone offends you once, you’ll remember it for the rest of your life. If I really made you uncomfortable, wouldn’t I still be the one who ended up being tormented into taking care of you afterward?
“I favor you, so while I want to have you, I also want you to be happy. But even without that favoritism, if I suddenly wanted to satisfy a physical need, I would still only develop an intimate relationship with you. By the end of it, even for my own pleasure, I’d rather lie there and make you do the work.
“Song Zang, from the bottom of my heart, I think it’s perfectly normal for you to □□ me once. You’ve never been an ordinary person in my eyes. Understand?”
Elio’s Notes: The source itself contains □□ here. The missing wording is not reconstructed.
Boohoo. He understood now, but Yin Chen had just said so many mean things about him right to his face.
For once, Song Zang experienced what it felt like to be too embarrassed to face anyone, yet he could not suppress the curve of his lips at all.
He buried his hot face in the blanket and silently rolled back and forth across the bed.
“…Stop.”
He had been rolling for so long that Yin Chen finally had to speak up darkly and stop him.
Song Zang obediently stopped moving. His muffled voice came from deep beneath the blanket. “Yin Chen, you were obviously really shy at first. How come you suddenly stopped being shy by the end?”
Yin Chen sighed. “We’re talking honestly. You taught me that when I do something wrong, I should apologize, and when I have thoughts, I should say them out loud. I’m listening to you. What’s wrong with that?”
“So you really like me too, right? I’m also super, super amazing in your eyes?” Song Zang pulled open one corner of the blanket, revealing bright black eyes as he secretly watched Yin Chen’s expression.
“Otherwise what, I’d randomly find someone to sleep with? Am I sick? Would I even look at them?”
Song Zang was finally satisfied. He suddenly sat up and hugged the scorching laptop tightly. “Baby…”
Yin Chen gave a low “Mm.” A moment later, however, he still could not resist saying darkly, “Let go. We’re done talking. Your computer is seriously about to explode. Until you kill Xu Qing, don’t call me baby. I’m still jealous and I don’t want to be lovey-dovey with you.”
“Can I call you wife instead?” Song Zang reluctantly pushed the computer a little farther away and tilted his head at Yin Chen with an innocent expression.
Yin Chen’s expression froze.
Bang!
The next instant, the computer screen went black and faint black smoke rose directly beside the camera at the top.
The cool little snake dropped into Song Zang’s hands. Its snow-white tail possessively wound around his wrist and squeezed extremely tight.
Apparently Yin Chen was still a little shy after all.
Song Zang’s black eyes curved quietly. He idly coiled the little snake around his fingers and experimentally pressed the computer’s power button.
It lit up. It lit up! Somehow it could still barely be used. The screen had almost completely died, but at least it still worked!
Up to now, no matter how turbulent his emotions became, Yin Chen had never actually burned out any of the electronics in Song Zang’s home.
Baby really was such a wonderfully restrained good baby. Song Zang loved him so much… At that thought, he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
He suppressed the urge to eat Yin Chen, sat against the headboard with the computer in his arms, and happily started typing.
After all, in this world he had a job. His daily online novel serialization still had to be completed.
He could not simply stop updating, disappoint all the NPC readers still following the story, and devote himself entirely to pleasure. Song Zang was not that unethical.
After experiencing so many colorful worlds, continuing a new chapter of an ancient household-intrigue novel was ridiculously easy for Song Zang.
He finished ten thousand characters in half an hour and happily clicked upload. Comments immediately poured into the comment section in a flood.
Song Zang wanted to see what readers thought of him too, but after scrolling for only a short while, his eyes narrowed slightly.
One loyal reader used the username 【Noble Lady Gives Birth to Eighteen Babies at Once】, and every story she subscribed to involved some form of household intrigue.
Her IP address was in Xinjiang City, and she tipped extravagantly on ordinary days. Whenever there was a plot where the heroine fought back against her mother-in-law or made her husband bitterly regret everything, she would casually spend several thousand or tens of thousands, sometimes even hundreds of thousands or millions, purely to “reward” the author for writing something that left her feeling spectacularly satisfied.
This wealthy reader was somewhat famous among the readership, and her behavioral profile matched Doctor Guo Jian Chun, whom the players had been closely watching, almost perfectly.
She had lots of money to spend freely, hated a powerful wealthy husband and mother-in-law, yet had absolutely no status inside the family herself. Unable to take revenge in real life, she had to relieve her resentment by reading fantasy revenge stories online…
Put all those signs together and it looked far too much like Guo Jian Chun’s actual life.
It was now exactly the time people got off work and children left school. Guo Jian Chun, already collected from the police station by the Jiang family’s lawyers, should have been hurrying home to remove her husband’s tie, pretend to be a virtuous wife, and coax sons of every age into eating dinner and doing homework.
Yet Guo Jian Chun was still reading household-intrigue fiction?
After finishing Song Zang’s scene where a scumbag man was personally slaughtered, she could not resist tipping wildly and posting excited comments.
【Noble Lady Gives Birth to Eighteen Babies at Once: Kill him! Kill him! Good! PS: Does the author accept customized story commissions? Ten thousand per thousand characters. No other plot requirements, but the exact details of killing the old woman must be written the way I want.】
【Author Reply: I do, dear~ How many babies should the heroine have? Any specific requirements~】
【Noble Lady Gives Birth to Eighteen Babies at Once: Daughters. Two. The eldest daughter will become empress in the future. The younger one… the younger one is up to you. I haven’t decided yet either.】
Case solved.
That wealthy reader was absolutely Guo Jian Chun.
When her final comment appeared in the author’s backend, Song Zang suddenly felt the temperature around him plummet. The little snake lazily pressed against him also went rigid.
A dense eruption of twisted resentment abruptly surged through the warm apartment.
Clearly, Guo Jian Chun’s younger daughter, who had died in the womb, had also been secretly waiting for her mother’s reply.
And that reply had successfully enraged her.
Ding-dong!
Chen Jing Sheng returned, travel-worn and dusty, and rang the doorbell.
Ye Xiao Xi excitedly opened the door and threw herself into his arms.
The motion-sensor light outside had broken.
None of them noticed Xu Qing standing silently in the pitch-black corridor, soaked from head to toe like a brooding venomous snake hidden in the dark.