That day, 11:58 p.m.
Li Haonan lay on his bed with vacant eyes, forcing his exhausted body to stay awake as he stared fixedly at the ceiling... at the wall clock hanging below it.
In his right hand, he held the pitch-black holographic visor, his thumb unconsciously rubbing back and forth over the blue patterns on its surface.
Those patterns, as well as the visor's touch, were warm and smooth, like the skin of some living creature. Every touch felt different, and each one somehow brought a faint response.
He couldn't say what it was. It was just... strange.
And that was one of the reasons he stubbornly refused to sleep, insisting on waiting for the game servers to open at midnight.
Because his instincts told him that this was no simple matter. He absolutely, absolutely could not miss it.
He had already been lying in bed for a full two hours. God knew how someone who had spent the entire day working the assembly line had managed to force himself to stay awake.
Starting from ten that night, he had finished washing up, changed into pajamas, drawn the curtains tightly shut, and then lain motionless in bed waiting.
His phone sat on the bedside table, its screen lit up with the chat logs between him and several other readers who had also received visors.
He had created the group himself. There were nine people in total, all readers he had met in the fan community for the novel Shadow Bear on a certain novel site. They had all received that inexplicable "closed beta access" and visor on the same day, so naturally they had gathered together, noisily discussing just what kind of game it was.
Some said it had to be a scam and urged everyone not