Perhaps because he had slept for too long, Zhu Yan felt extremely dizzy with a slight, dull ache.
Dazed and groggy, he forced himself to open his eyes and waited for his vision to slowly clear.
Zhu Yan was not sure whether he had had a nightmare--
There were no images in the dream, only a voice endlessly clamoring with two phrases: "Ability loading complete" and "Congratulations on becoming a member of the first batch of closed-beta players."
A moment later, it cluelessly blurted out another sentence.
"Players, please note to check and claim your identity badge and ability card."
"Repeat, players, please note to check and claim your identity badge and ability card..."
Until they were deeply imprinted in Zhu Yan's mind, the voice in the dream stopped abruptly.
Zhu Yan raised a hand and wiped his forehead, which was soaked in cold sweat.
Unlike his usual dreams, the memory of this dream was exceptionally clear.
Those voices seemed to have genuinely been broadcast in the real world!
Zhu Yan got out of bed.
His aunt was scrolling through short videos in the living room, and the speakerphone's sound drifted into Zhu Yan's ears at a moderate volume.
"...According to reliable sources, 200 people in our city have suddenly died of sudden cardiac arrest at home, and the police have initially ruled out homicide."
That was right. The number of sudden deaths in Bailu City, where he lived, had surged over the past week, and the ways they died were all quite bizarre.
Clickbait accounts and news reports kept talking about this matter; it even made the trending searches, and even Zhu Yan, who rarely scrolled through short videos, knew about it.
What players, what closed beta, what ability card—could they be related to the recent large-scale death cases?
Zhu Yan generated an absurd association.
He got out of bed and twisted open the wooden door of his room.
"Aunt?"
Zhu Yan's parents had died early, so his guardians naturally became his uncle and aunt.
His uncle's apartment was very small, with two rooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom crammed tightly around the living room.
On the small sofa, a heavily made-up woman turned her head, her unblinking eyes gazing at Zhu Yan through thick eyelashes.
"Since you're awake, do some chores."
She pointed at a broom to the side, then pointed at the front door.
"The floor, and take the trash out too. Don't be ungrateful; it's all your parents' fault for leaving such a huge mess..."
Zhu Yan raised his eyes to look at his aunt, knowing that the best way to make her shut up was to obey her commands.
He feigned obedience and tied up the full trash bag, and his aunt's complaints naturally took a turn.
"Your brother won't be going to tutoring starting tomorrow. You clear out your room and sleep on the sofa."
"I've had someone arrange a job for you. Next month, once things outside get better, you'll go to work."
Zhu Yan agreed twice and carried the trash downstairs.
His aunt did not treat him very well, but she still managed to let him have enough to eat and go to school.
In fact, due to her lax discipline over him, his days were even a bit happier than his uncle's biological son's.
Zhu Yan did not care about these minor orders, as long as this family did not interfere with his upcoming plan.
He skillfully threw the trash away downstairs and then stopped by the courier station to pick up his university admission letter.
According to his aunt's original plan, Zhu Yan's only use from then on would be as his brother's blood bag.
He was supposed to take "the job arranged" by his aunt's acquaintance, enter an electronics factory, and then have his salary directly deposited into his aunt's card.
Zhu Yan was not going to do that at all.
His actual gaokao scores were very good. Behind his aunt's back, he filled out his college choices and was admitted to a university a thousand kilometers away.
He had saved up some money from working part-time these past few days, so he would just take advantage of these couple of days when his uncle and aunt dared not go out to run away first.
The warm sunlight shone on Zhu Yan, finally dispelling the chill in his heart.
Zhu Yan swiftly tore open the courier packaging and tucked the envelope sent by the school into his clothes.
He routinely checked the empty courier bag, and actually found something left behind in the corner.
"What is this?"
In the corner of the courier bag, a small black envelope was shockingly lying there.
The envelope was only the size of Zhu Yan's palm, looking just large enough to hold a bank card.
A hot-stamped pattern was printed on the envelope, resembling a clump of messy, tangled yarn, yet possessing a bizarre sense of rhythm.
Zhu Yan squeezed it; it felt hard inside, seemingly containing a card and a coin.
"...It can't be a cafeteria card, right?" Zhu Yan muttered to himself, checked the bag once more to confirm nothing was missed, and tucked the small envelope into his pants pocket.
"They actually use this kind of design? So stylish."
Zhu Yan decided to go home and take a good look at it in the bathroom.
As for the large envelope with the admission notice and the other things, he didn't plan to take them home.
There was nowhere to hide them at home, and bringing them back would only make the others suspicious.
Suppressing his excitement, Zhu Yan walked into the dim hallway.
The hallway of the old apartment building wasn't very clean. Residents had piled belongings in every corner.
Zhu Yan lived on the top floor, the sixth. At the landing between the fifth and sixth floors stood a mirror covered in dust.
The mirror leaned against an old plastic bucket. Zhu Yan had checked it beforehand: there was nothing inside but some trash and dust, and no one would come to touch it.
He carefully crouched down and tucked the admission notice into the bucket, leaving no gaps.
The mirror faintly reflected Zhu Yan—
His black hair had grown to his shoulders since he hadn't had it trimmed in a while. He'd casually tied it into a ponytail.
His features were smooth, and the corners of his eyes tilted up slightly.
Below those beautiful eyes were a high nose bridge and a sharply pointed mouth, lending him an easy air of slyness.
The only flaw in his face was his half-dead expression, giving him a faintly lively air of calmly going mad.
Zhu Yan didn't linger in front of the mirror.
After making sure everything was in order, he hurried upstairs and went home.
"Why did you take so long?" his aunt complained, her sharp gaze sweeping over Zhu Yan.
Seeing that he wasn't carrying anything suspicious, his aunt relaxed again and continued scrolling through videos, absent-mindedly.
Zhu Yan slipped into the bathroom.
He carefully tore open the black envelope and pulled out the stiff card inside.
The card was black, with striking scarlet lettering printed on one side.
"Player Ability Card—Your ability is [Roleplay]."
"You have a talent for acting. You often use alternate accounts online to roleplay people of different genders and personalities, testing how people react to different personalities and genders."
"This is your instinctive means of self-protection, and the foundation that allows you to make your way through [Carnival Paradise]."
"Current ability level: lv.3. Please confirm whether to accept the ability. Once accepted, the stat card will merge with you."
"If you do not accept, the ability will be activated automatically once the instance begins."
"Note: The instance will begin within 3 hours!"
Zhu Yan's mind went blank for a moment. Then his hair stood on end, and his scalp prickled with an ominous feeling.
[Carnival Paradise] and the instance matched the information from his dream.
He had dreamed of an ability card, and after waking up, he'd received the exact same thing in a way that was absolutely unscientific!