Chapter 180: Little Sister’s Dream
“Bai Tao.” Wen Xing finally appeared in the game hall.
Scanning her surroundings, she grabbed Bai Cha and led her straight into the Game Town.
Under normal circumstances, players rarely communicated proactively after exiting an instance.
Even if they recognized someone as a player who had just cleared the same instance, they would mostly just exchange glances and part ways.
Mainly because a portion of the players—such as those who remained long-term in the Game Town—had long become morbidly twisted.
And that morbid state extended directly into reality as well.
“Don’t linger too long in the game hall after stepping out. A player was targeted by someone from the same instance before, only to be murdered in reality.”
The game prohibited players from killing each other internally; though real-world laws banned it as well, it lacked the absolute, overwhelming suppression enforced by the game after all.
Consequently, after that incident transpired, very few players ever communicated inside the game hall again.
Bai Cha looked thoughtful.
“Got it. Didn’t we talk about this beforehand, anyway? Take a look at this.”
Bai Cha shoved the diary into Wen Xing’s hands.
Wen Xing looked down, her brows instantly twisting into a tight knot.
Rather than calling this book a diary, it was more like every page held the inner monologue of a young child following death.
[I seem to be dead.
Mommy shaved off my hair and buried my body in the soil.
Daddy poured a black liquid over me.
It hurts so much.
How strange—why does it still hurt after dying?
People danced around me, telling me never to reincarnate and plague others ever again, saying that girls bring nothing but bad luck.
They scattered wood sorrel seeds across my body.
Those little flowers are so pretty, but it hurts so much as they grow. They root deep inside my body, itching and throbbing with pain.
Yet I can’t bring myself to pull them out, because those are flowers blooming directly from my body.]
[I am a boy, not a girl.
Except I got sick, and the doctor said I am actually a girl.
The doctor scolded Mommy, saying she shouldn’t feed me random medicine, telling her I needed treatment as soon as possible to turn back into a girl.
After returning home, Mommy began feeding me medicine, saying that once I finished it, my illness would be cured and I would become a real boy.
It feels so agonizing, though… I seem to have died.
Daddy wanted to take my decorative lantern away. I don’t know why I suddenly returned to my body, snatching the lantern back.
That’s mine. I am a boy, and that is my lantern.]
Wen Xing flipped through a few pages with trembling hands, utterly unable to read any further.
Her eyes rimmed red as she handed the diary back to Bai Cha.
“Fuck, it was still way too lenient on them!”
Bai Cha let out a soft sigh.
“Yeah, after all, this is something that actually happened in reality…”
Wen Xing froze briefly, falling into a complete, heavy silence.
Bai Cha gently stroked the cover of the diary.
Truth be told, the texture of the paper felt quite unique to the touch.
She would find a chance to contact customer service later to get them to explain its function.
In a couple of days, customer service should have cooled down, right?
“Sister, let’s add each other as friends! We should head back too!”
“Mhm…” Wen Xing appeared to want to say something, but refrained in the end. After adding each other as friends, she departed a step ahead.
Bai Cha returned to reality as well.
Very well—good news: it was currently the morning of the day after the night she entered the game.
Bad news: it was nine-thirty.
She was late.
Bai Cha touched her forehead; good, she was still running a fever—a solid excuse.
Skipping makeup entirely, she walked straight into the company sporting a deathly pale, sickly face.
The department manager who had originally intended to question her for being late shut his mouth in an instant.
“If you’re feeling unwell, remember to take leave.”
Bai Cha raised her head, offering a weak smile.
“It’s alright, I’m actually almost recovered. The medicine I took yesterday just made me too sleepy, causing me to oversleep this morning. I’m really sorry.”
Manager: “…”
You don’t look anywhere near recovered—you look like you’re about to die!
“In any case, don’t force yourself if you can’t hold out.”
Offering another word of advice, the manager departed in a hurry.
A few colleagues around Bai Cha looked at her with hesitant expressions, yet seeing her already diving earnestly into her work, they had no choice but to retract their gazes.
As for Bai Cha herself… truth be told, she was actually doing fine—she really was almost recovered.
She was simply worn out recently.
On her phone, a message arrived from Xu Shengsheng.
Xu Shengsheng: Sis, I secretly brought my phone to school today! It’s break time right now—don’t worry, I didn’t neglect my studies, I just wanted to tell you about something.
Xu Shengsheng: I had a dream last night. I dreamt I was inside a school, playing the Pen Spirit game alongside a few other people.
Xu Shengsheng: We left after finishing the game, and nothing happened at the time.
Xu Shengsheng: When we stepped out of the classroom, I looked back, only to discover an extra person standing behind us in the window’s reflection.
Xu Shengsheng: I woke up from sheer terror! After waking up, I checked my phone and found I’ll be entering an instance in nine days.
Xu Shengsheng: Didn’t I tell you last time that my rank was B? I’m F9, and the upcoming instance is an E3 instance named “Campus Urban Legend.” That falls within range, right?
Seeing this message, Bai Cha let out a breath of relief.
Bai Tao Oolong Tea: Yes, you don’t need to worry too much. Nine days means I should be able to watch your livestream on my end.
Bai Cha’s next instance entry was still seven days away; as long as the time dilation between reality and the game didn’t skew too heavily, she should be able to catch Xu Shengsheng’s livestream.
As for Xu Shengsheng’s rank, because Bai Cha had carried her through the previous instance, her rank evaluation had turned out quite solid.
It would depend on her performance in this upcoming instance.
Xu Shengsheng: Waaah, but it’s really so terrifying! What kind of psycho plays the Pen Spirit game?!
Xu Shengsheng: Never mind, gotta go—class is starting! Bye-bye, Sis!
Bai Cha didn’t reply further, searching up the instance on the forum instead.
“Campus Urban Legend,” E3-rank instance, newcomer mortality rate: 90%.
F-rank and E-rank instances housed the highest concentration of newcomers.
Particularly F-rank, which occasionally featured scenarios where a single higher-ranked player was thrown in with a horde of newcomers.
Because the instance rank was relatively low, especially for F3 and below, scenarios with a hundred percent newcomer composition weren’t unheard of—all within reasonable parameters.
Searching this instance on the forum revealed that its primary notoriety lay in a high newcomer mortality rate, though experienced players fared significantly better.
The issue was that Xu Shengsheng had only cleared a single instance, after all.
One could only observe for now. An E-rank instance couldn’t possibly match C-rank or B-rank difficulty, making it a solid instance for farming experience.
During lunch, Bai Cha casually scrolled through her Moments feed.
Upon coming across a particular post, Bai Cha’s hand paused slightly.
Lin Zhen-yang: A bit absurd—had a dream last night where I was playing the Pen Spirit game with a few people inside a school. Don’t know what happened, but it felt so real, especially when I discovered an extra person joined our group later—scared me wide awake! Anyone know how to interpret dreams to tell me what this means?
Bai Cha narrowed her eyes.
She naturally recognized Lin Zhen-yang; he had confessed his feelings to her in the past, after all.
Truth be told, after that day, Bai Cha felt her reaction back then had been a bit over the top.
Having just emerged from an instance with Yu Zhenzhen erased directly before her eyes, the sheer insecurity born of encountering such a powerful, mysterious force had been instantly triggered when Lin Zhen-yang repeatedly claimed he wanted to take care of her.
She had thought about apologizing to him later, but felt it was inappropriate, ultimately saying nothing in the end.
Yet this dream of his was entirely too similar to what Xu Shengsheng had described just moments ago.
