Vanguard

Chapter 40: Vanguard Player

"Cousin, what are you doing? We're relatives! I mean, I really admire you, but if you try to do anything funny to me, I'm not going along with it!"

"Shut up!" Xu Huo checked her shoulders. No number.

He made her face him, then cut his own palm with a small knife and squeezed out a string of blood right in front of her.

Yu Qingqing stared at him in shock. "Cousin, I haven't seen you in a few days, and now you've picked up a hobby of self-mutilation..."

Xu Huo let out a small sigh of relief. Good.

"Aren't you afraid I'll eat you?"

Yu Qingqing waved a hand dismissively. "I believe you won't hurt me. Besides, there are so many people out there—you wouldn't go after your own family, right? As long as I'm fine, what do I care if other people live or die?"

Xu Huo's head began to ache.

Yu Qingqing was his stepmother's niece. In name, they were cousins, but they shared no blood. His relationship with his stepmother was cold, and he rarely saw her side of the family. Yu Qingqing was the exception. She'd been clinging to him since high school. Later, when he moved to Ting City to settle down, she dropped out of university halfway through and came to become an actress. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get rid of her.

"Don't ever say things like that again," he warned. "Unless you want to go see a psychiatrist again."

Yu Qingqing stuck out her tongue, then complained, "What's wrong with people being born selfish? I don't get what Mom and Dad are thinking, making me see a doctor. It's not like I've committed a crime."

"By the time you commit a crime, it'll be too late," Xu Huo said. "Watch fewer dark movies and TV shows. If you dare to do something wrong, I'll personally take you to the police station myself."

Yu Qingqing shrank her neck. "I'm not talking to you anymore! I'm going to sleep!"

With that, she hurried into the bathroom.

Xu Huo sat down at the computer and logged into a forum using the URL and account number Nie Xuan had given him. It was called "Vanguard Player."

The forum already had quite a few informational posts about Evolvers and Players. The content matched what he already knew, but the official announcement hadn't disclosed the dangers of stopping the Evolution Potion. Nie Xuan clearly knew about it.

Xu Huo understood the officials' reasoning—they were afraid that the Evolution Potion would become the next resource Players would fight over, just like the Tickets. But if Players knew that missing a single instance would result in being sent to a random instance three months later, probably not many would bother trying to grab the Evolution Potion first.

Being sent to a station without a Ticket still left a chance to fight. But if an instance ended without obtaining a Ticket, the likelihood of being stranded in the instance was high. And whether you'd meet other Players afterward or manage to snatch a Ticket was anyone's guess.

The Dimension Rift game couldn't be measured by current time. It claimed to travel between three and five dimensions, possibly existing across different times and spaces. The Head Chopper Demon instance was an example. It was now a closed instance, but it hadn't always been. That suggested two possibilities.

One: the instance's location was actually in real space. If the instance wasn't closed, then not only Players but also non-Players could enter. That meant instance locations could appear in any country, any city in this world. Besides Players, non-Players could also become targets of slaughter.

Two: the instance had a single, unique game space. In that case, the stations connected the game's internal locations. If these internal locations could also be open, then "non-Player" could mean "a Player not from this instance." This suggested the game's internal world was open, and Players should be able to travel to any instance city via the trains.

Regardless of the scenario, if a Player was stranded in an instance city, finding other Players smoothly would be extremely difficult.

Xu Huo had a feeling that closed instances like Hot Spring Villa wouldn't be common.

Missing just one instance would trigger the game to notify the Player about a random instance three months later, starting at B-class. That was a death sentence.

He wasn't sure if the officials knew this, because he didn't know exactly when Evolvers had first appeared in the world he now lived in.

But they'd find out sooner or later.

Xu Huo didn't dwell on it. Instead, he scrolled through the official Player rankings.

The list only showed ratings for those who had completed one instance. The highest was a Player with the nickname "Golden Crow," an official staff member. He had safely led eight Players out of the game and received a B-class rating. The officials had also announced his rewards—besides various benefits for his family, he was given an item.

Most of the Players below him were rated E (Ordinary) or D (Good), with a few C (Excellent). That was impressive for newcomers who were completely in the dark. And they had a shared title—Vanguard Player.

Dare to be the vanguard. Willing to be the vanguard.

The thread below was in an uproar. Many people who had become Players were unstable, worried about losing their lives and leaving their families with no one to care for them. But if they joined the official ranks, as long as they performed well, the country would provide resources and money. Even if they died, their families would receive compensation. All their worries were gone!

It was clear that many Players were tempted. The thread was red-hot, completely drowning out the posts below that offered to trade Tickets or buy items and potions at high prices.

There were also some trying to sell Tickets and items, but anyone with eyes could see they were fishing.

"Cousin, what are you looking at?" Yu Qingqing, still damp with steam, walked up behind him.

Xu Huo closed the page and glanced at her bare legs. "You should know that right now, you look like a piece of pork to me."

Yu Qingqing was wearing a large T-shirt she'd dug out of his bag. She pouted. "My clothes were dirty. What was I supposed to wear?"

"Oh, and why do you have a razor blade in your pocket?" She held up a small silver fragment, half the size of a fingernail. "I almost cut my hand on it. You didn't actually go kill someone, did you?"

That was a fragment that had chipped off the Head Chopper Demon's axe. The game had taken the axe, but the fragments hadn't disappeared.

Xu Huo reached out and took it. Then he opened the ticket booking interface. "If you don't have clothes, have your assistant bring them. Stop going through my things. I've booked your ticket. Go home early."

"It's not that easy to break the contract. I might even have to sue the company," Yu Qingqing tried to argue.

"You won't have to sue. You won't even have to sign anything. I'll handle it. Go home and study. Stop running around causing trouble," Xu Huo said coldly.

"Xu Huo! You're being unreasonable!" Yu Qingqing glared angrily. "Even my parents don't say anything!"

"Tomorrow, either walk yourself home or go home in a wheelchair. Pick one." Xu Huo stood up, his face expressionless as he looked at her.

Yu Qingqing's angry and pitiful expression instantly vanished. Her eyes turned cold as she stared at him for a few seconds. Then she jumped onto the bed, pulled the covers over herself, and muttered, "I hope you don't have a girlfriend for two years!"

Xu Huo turned off the light and lay down on the sofa.

The next morning, an assistant brought clean clothes. While packing up Yu Qingqing's dirty clothes, she cut her finger on a razor blade that fell out.

"Let me handle it." Xu Huo told her to go treat the wound. He removed the three blades sewn into the collar and hem of the dress and threw them all into the trash.

After seeing Yu Qingqing off at the airport and watching her board the plane, he returned to the city and went to the entertainment company she had signed with.