Is This Guy For Real?

Alright.

As it turned out, he had misunderstood.

There really were "five" rewards from the blind boxes.

The system had not done anything as unscrupulous as "swallowing equipment," nor was there any such thing as "better luck next time."

It was just that the prize from the fifth blind box had been buried beneath the other four...

What lay before Chu Guang now was a vacuum-sealed pack of compressed biscuits with a net weight of 100g, along with three lollipops weighing 25g each—apple, banana, and mango flavored.

And a note.

The compressed biscuit packaging was intact and showed no signs of swelling. Though its production date and expiration date were a mystery, it probably would not kill him.

This was good stuff.

The ingredient list stated it contained 500 calories. Whether eaten dry or tossed into a pot and boiled into mush, it could fill his stomach.

As for the lollipops, while they were not low in calories, they could not provide any sense of fullness.

Still, for Chu Guang, who was poor enough to be on the verge of chewing bark, they were already pretty good.

Seriously, this system was way too stingy. Was it afraid he would get too full or something, giving him this little to make do with?

Standing beside the dispensing slot, Chu Guang stuffed the food into the backpack he carried with him. Then he picked up the note delivered by the conveyor belt and unfolded it for a look.

Some words were written on it, in the language of this world.

...What creature in this world is more suited to being harvested than players?

Not only do they possess boundless curiosity, they are always full of enthusiasm. They face hardship head-on and never despair over their present predicament. Of course, the most, most, most crucial thing is that they can even consider problems from the operator's perspective and help the operator harvest themselves!

I'm simply a genius for packaging this device as a game!

—The First Administrator of Vault 404; (Please place this note in the fifth beginner blind box. This is an Easter egg I left for my successor!)

Chu Guang: "..."

To be honest, not only did he feel no delight at discovering an Easter egg, he was even somewhat speechless.

But...

What did "device" mean?

"Xiao Qi."

"What is it, Master?"

"Did you know the First Administrator?"

"No. My main program was only activated when you entered the vault. According to records in the vault database, it has been more than a century since the previous administrator transferred operational authority."

Chu Guang continued asking.

"What exact year was it?"

Xiao Qi answered.

"January 1st, 2157."

The war had ended in 2129, and human civilization had entered the Wasteland Era. The year 2157 was therefore the 28th year of the Wasteland Era.

From then until now...

183 years!

Chu Guang had always been sensitive to numbers, especially critical information like this. Once he remembered something, he generally would not forget it easily.

"So in other words, the First Administrator from 183 years ago invented this device that could project consciousnesses from parallel worlds into clones, packaged it as a game, but never used it for some reason?"

Maybe it was because of the nuclear winter.

Or perhaps some other reason had kept the vault from meeting its activation conditions.

No matter what, someone from a century ago should have already died.

Xiao Qi said.

"Probably."

"What was his name? That First Administrator."

Chu Guang suddenly became curious about his identity.

The person who came up with those wicked settings might not necessarily have been a genius, but someone who could invent such absurdly powerful black technology single-handedly after civilization had declined—"genius" was no longer enough to describe him.

Projecting consciousnesses from parallel worlds into this plane, then placing them inside cloned bodies that served as vessels.

Chu Guang could not imagine how this had been accomplished.

Technology beyond his comprehension was no different from magic to him.

"I don't know either. The available database contains no detailed information about him. Could it have been deleted?"

"Forget it... Asking you was the same as asking nothing."

Chu Guang was slightly disappointed, but he was not discouraged.

At present, the shelter had only been unlocked up to the B1 level.

As the missions continued to progress, the secrets buried within this shelter would eventually reveal themselves to him in their entirety.

Chu Guang casually stuffed the note into the computer desk drawer and tightened the backpack on his shoulders.

Noticing his movement, Xiao Qi, crouched in the corner, asked.

"Master, are you leaving?"

That flat, emotionless voice somehow sounded rather pitiful.

"Yeah. The players won't log in for another three days, so there's no point in me continuing to guard this place. I might as well go back and make some preparations."

This dump was called a shelter, yet it did not even have any food or water.

Chu Guang only had half a palm-sized flatbread and half a bottle of water left on him, along with the compressed biscuits and lollipops he had just exchanged for reward points.

That little supply would not last him until three days later.

He had a crude little nest in a nearby survivor settlement, where he kept some supplies and useful tools.

Chu Guang planned to go back and sort things out, then gradually bring over whatever he could carry.

This place would be his new base from now on.

"Oh, right, Xiao Qi."

"What is it, Master?"

"I need your help with something."

After a brief pause, Chu Guang continued.

"Our official website is too bare-bones. I need you to add a forum function and a database and gallery function to it. Can you do that?"

Simply put, he wanted the players to better understand this "game."

Trying to fool people into joining with nothing but his mouth was a little difficult. At the very least, he had to put up a convincing front.

"Of course. You have editing permissions for the official website. Aside from the game reservation page, you can add subpages or modify existing pages."

"Very good. Then I'll leave it to you."

"Leave it to me!"

Xiao Qi seemed delighted by the task her master had assigned her. Even the speaker volume rose by half a decibel.

Of course, that might have just been Chu Guang's imagination.

"Master, when will you be back?"

Chu Guang thought for a moment before answering.

"Three days at the latest."

"If everything goes smoothly, maybe before tomorrow night."

In the real world, the Ox-Horse Club group chat.

The old bro in the group called "Guang" had vanished right after dropping the website link. No one knew whether he had logged off or was lurking somewhere, watching the chat.

The discussion about "fully immersive virtual reality games" had nearly died down, but a few minutes ago, this old bro's showy move of creating a small group had dragged the topic back into the main group.

Quit Smoking: Holy shit, is this guy serious?

Quit Smoking was also an active group member who often spoke up, though he was not an admin.

A White Colt Flits Past: Yeah. After you all made your reservations, he created a small group and pulled all of us group admins into it. (scratches head)

A White Colt Flits Past was the group owner, so naturally he was in that small group too.

The moment they heard that, the group members instantly exploded.

Fuck! Rigged!

Do you guys know the name of the company Brother Guang works for? I'm reporting him for backroom dealing! (grin)

Bullshit, what company? There was a VR company on the A-share market last year that lost so much money the damn boss got thrown in jail! VR stopped being the hot trend ages ago!

Keep your voices down. Ah Guang might be lurking and watching the chat. (grin)

What do you think he's after? Just making a joke?

Who the hell knows. Maybe he's funneling you dear brothers to a gambling site, then he'll fleece you all once enough people show up!

I don't think this guy is anything good! Just kick him out.

The topic gradually took an ugly turn.

It even escalated into personal attacks.

Ye Wei frowned as he watched, just about to say something when he saw the group owner step in and hit the brakes.

(All members muted)

A White Colt Flits Past: Everyone, don't be like this. The newer members might not know Ah Guang, but he's actually a decent guy. His aim is just a little trash, his eyes are just a little blind, and he's just a little bad at games. Other than that, he's fine.

Fang Chang: Indeed. I believe A-Guang didn't go astray and start gambling. We're just not sure whether his account was hacked. If it was, our moderation team will handle it. I'll retract the messages in a bit. Let's change the subject, everyone. (smile)

(Group mute lifted)

With the group owner and moderators having spoken up, everyone courteously stopped discussing the matter, and the conversation soon veered toward the European Championship.

Ye Wei didn't watch sports—at least, not soccer.

He glanced at the time in the bottom-right corner of the screen. It was already 18:00, right at dinnertime.

After uploading his unfinished major assignment to the cloud drive, Ye Wei pushed back his chair, got up, went downstairs to the cafeteria, ordered a serving of spicy chicken fried rice, and happily finished it.

When he strolled back to the dorm, he saw the cardboard box on his desk and suddenly froze.

A delivery?

"Ah-Wei, what did you buy? That thing's huge."

His roommate leaned over, and the other two animals in the room also turned their attention this way.

They were all civilized people.

Ye Wei hadn't been in the dorm earlier, so it wouldn't have been right to touch his things. Now that he was back, though, it didn't matter.

They were all curious about what he had bought.

"I didn't buy anything... Who delivered this thing?"

The three roommates looked at one another.

"I didn't notice..."

"Me neither."

"No idea. I just went out to pick up my takeout."

Huh.

That was weird!

Normally, deliveries were dumped at the parcel station downstairs from the dorm building, but today it had been brought right to the door.

Even weirder, Ye Wei didn't remember putting down which seat he was at in the dorm in his online shopping address.

Were delivery guys this damn capable now?

He opened the cardboard box and found a helmet lying inside.

It looked a lot like a motorcycle helmet, painted black inside and out, and appeared utterly unremarkable.

If there was anything unusual about it, it was probably the lack of a visor. Once worn, it covered the entire head, leaving the wearer unable to see anything at all.

At first glance, Ye Wei had thought it was a pot.

"What the hell is this?"

The guy at the neighboring desk picked up the helmet and fiddled with it. He put it on, took it off again, then returned it to Ye Wei with a baffled look.

"You're asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?"

Could it really be a pot?

Equally confused, Ye Wei tried putting it over his own head.

His field of vision went completely dark.

Just as he was about to take it off, however, a faint blue light suddenly pierced the darkness and appeared on his retinas.

Waiting for game activation: 71 hours 19 minutes

This...

Could this be that game helmet?!

Holy shit.

Was the shipping really this fast?

Ye Wei was completely dumbfounded.

"You guys didn't see it either?"

Taking off the helmet, Ye Wei looked at the roommate who had worn it earlier.

That roommate, however, was looking back at him with the same bewildered expression.

"See what?"

Ye Wei hurriedly said, "The countdown! It says 'Waiting for game activation'!"

"What? This thing's a game console?"

"Move aside, move aside. Brother Liu's eyes are bad—let me take a look."

Another roommate took the helmet and put it on. After a while, though, he took it off with the same confused look as the first guy.

"There's nothing."

"Let me."

All three roommates tried it, but without exception, none of them saw anything.

They exchanged glances, then all turned to look at Ye Wei with strange expressions.

"Bro."

Ye Wei: "...What?"

"How about... you go get checked at the hospital?"

"Get lost!"

Cursing under his breath, Ye Wei snatched back the helmet and put it on again, unwilling to accept it.

The pale blue words appeared right on schedule.

Waiting for game activation: 71 hours 17 minutes

The countdown had advanced by two minutes.

And not only that...

Just then, he suddenly realized that no matter how he turned the helmet, that line of countdown always remained at the very center of his field of vision.

Even when he closed his eyes.

Ye Wei took off the helmet, looking as if he had seen a ghost.

Holy shit?

He really had seen a ghost!