Killing Time (Part 1)

No matter what, that phone call had been no easier than a grueling entrance exam. Once he hung up, Ronan finally let out a breath and relaxed all at once.

When he turned to look at Zhang Yingying, he was surprised to find her flipping through the notebook he had casually set on the seat. The page she had opened to contained the distorted sketch of the Prison Building. Though Ronan's unconscious scribbles had already ruined it, Zhang Yingying was still studying it intently, even tracing the paths of the lines with her hand.

Ronan frowned and cleared his throat.

Zhang Yingying looked up without the slightest embarrassment. Instead, she asked with great interest, "This is an abstract drawing, right? Why did you draw it? Was it inspired by your time locked up in the Confinement Room? What does the twisted layout represent? And what do those pieced-together violent tools symbolize? The lines around the edges are pretty interesting too..."

Ronan had originally intended to refuse an answer, but when he saw Zhang Yingying's expression, he suddenly recalled the subtle attitudes she had displayed from time to time since they met. Something sensitive within him was struck.

The thought came, and Ronan immediately looked at Zhang Yingying with entirely different eyes. As his gaze swept over her from top to bottom, it carried a little more scrutiny.

"Hey, is it that hard to explain?"

"I just felt like that was how it should be drawn. The feeling came, so I drew it that way."

Ronan was practically talking nonsense off the cuff, yet Zhang Yingying was unexpectedly satisfied with the answer.

"The feeling type. That's nice."

Ronan grew increasingly curious about Zhang Yingying, but he did not want his notebook to remain in her hands for too long. He reached out to take it back, then returned to his seat on his own.

He looked like he did not want to continue chatting, but in truth, Ronan was considering how to further confirm his judgment.

Just then, he heard Zhang Yingying call out to him.

"Hey, want to play a round?"

Ronan looked up and saw Zhang Yingying holding up her soft screen at him. "The PvP mode in Wilderness Ten Days is the real fun. It's way better than playing alone."

Ronan had no mind to play something like that and casually declined. Yet Zhang Yingying was unusually insistent. Right now, she was nothing more than a lively, playful girl, seeming mentally younger even than Ronan.

"Come on, come on. It's great for killing time. Judging by the police's progress, they probably won't be done for another seven or eight hours. We'll be lucky if we can get home by five in the morning."

"...At that point, you might as well take me straight to school."

"Relax, I won't throw you off the warship. The question now is: are we playing, or not?"

Zhang Yingying looked impatient beyond measure. Ronan still wanted to refuse, but when the words reached his lips, he changed them instead. "Then we'll play a few rounds... But just so you know, I'm really bad at this."

"It's fine, it's fine. We're just killing time."

Zhang Yingying beamed, looking casual and innocent—a far cry from the forceful attitude she had put on earlier. She immediately placed her soft screen in front of Ronan, as though afraid he would refuse.

"Come on, come on. First, let's set up your sensor memory. The PvP mode in 'Ten Days' uses gesture controls. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, a little."

Ronan watched layers of green light flash across the soft screen. After hesitating for a moment, he placed both hands on it in turn. Soon, a notification sound announced that the scan was complete.

Zhang Yingying snapped her fingers. "Done!"

"Hm?"

"I mean, the match is starting!"

As she spoke, Zhang Yingying unfolded the soft screen and placed it on the office desk in the room. She sat down on the other side, facing Ronan across the table, then dimmed the lights, making the whole thing surprisingly formal.

At the command, waves of light projected from the screen. A pale blue, arched Light Membrane unfolded, nearly a meter in radius, descending from above. Shifting shades and well-chosen colors successfully created a game backdrop of red earth, blue skies, and vast, desolate wilderness.

Just from the augmented-reality AR effects, Ronan could tell that Zhang Yingying's soft screen had to be one of the finest brands on the market. It had somehow elevated a portable mobile game like Wilderness Ten Days to the level of a medium-sized tactical game setup.

Ronan sat properly outside the game area, watching the boundless wilderness compressed onto a single tabletop, where virtual figures clad in all kinds of Exoskeleton Armor darted and flew about. To say his heart remained completely unmoved would have been a lie.

He was only sixteen, after all. Playing games was human nature—how could he be entirely immune to it?

The exquisite game visuals still made him eager to give it a try. At one moment, he wanted to immerse himself in it and truly roam that wilderness; at the next, he wanted to smear and destroy it at will. Nothing better illustrated the subtlety of human hearts.

Yeah, I really haven't played enough games...

On the other side, Zhang Yingying quickly selected her character. She interlaced her fingers, propped her chin on the backs of her hands, and waited for Ronan's choice with a smile.

"Don't rush. Take your time choosing. I'll go easy on you."

Ronan did not take long. Wilderness Ten Days was, after all, a phenomenon-level mobile game that had swept the world. Its record for peak concurrent players stood at 970 million, still unbeaten to this day. It had also begun moving beyond mobile gaming and launching on all kinds of immersive game platforms. Back when he lived at Aunt's house, his cousins had dragged him into matches before, so he knew the basics.

After only a brief consideration, he chose the classic hero that was easier to handle: Black Tooth, the Earth Army's ace heavy gunner.

According to the profile, this burly sergeant who had been active in the late 80 Year era was practically a walking arsenal with the support of the military's Fire Eye platform. Though his movement speed was painfully slow, his savage and precise firepower was enough to eliminate most enemies from over five hundred meters away.

Once the characters were selected, the game automatically configured the battlefield.

But the moment Zhang Yingying saw his character, she immediately cried out, "What's this supposed to mean? Are you looking down on me?"

"Uh?"

"Fine, you didn't pick Deep Blue. But why not Fantasy or Aberrant? Picking a beginner character—are you just humoring me?"

Wilderness Ten Days had over a hundred playable characters, divided into four categories: Standard, Deep Blue, Fantasy, and Aberrant.

The Standard category was based on military Exoskeleton Armor weapon platforms and famous combat heroes; the Deep Blue category consisted of modifications based on Quantum Corporation's Deep Blue Platform; the Aberrant category selected the most representative Aberrant Species from the wilderness; and the Fantasy category was made up of wildly imaginative fictional armaments.

Although the game company had done a good job balancing things, once it drew from reality, it had to account for real-world circumstances. Among the four categories, Standard characters were undoubtedly at a disadvantage, relying entirely on their personal charm and beginner-friendly nature to hold up their appeal.

In online co-op mode, these Standard-category "uncles" were still fairly popular. But in PvP, unless it was a newbie feeding kills or an expert bullying rookies, no one would normally choose that category.

Ronan glanced at Zhang Yingying. Facing her indignant expression, he twitched the corner of his mouth.

"Not picking Deep Blue?"

"..."

After a strange silence, Zhang Yingying clasped her hands together and exaggeratedly drew out her words, her eyes sparkling like stars. "Oh? You don't like the Deep Blue Platform either? A kindred spirit! I hate blue the most. Looking at too much of it makes my eyes spin..."

Ronan gave one last glance at the young lawyer's sapphire-blue scarf, then lowered his head in silence.