Memory Alteration

Xiao Fan was shocked. Had he been discovered?

"What should I do?" Xiao Fan forced himself to calm down.

"I'm just a kid, these players shouldn't do anything to me, right?"

"Aren't you coming out yet?" Xiao Yi's voice turned dangerous.

Xiao Fan took a deep breath and was about to go out.

Just then, footsteps came from behind the big tree next to them, and then Xiao Fan heard what sounded like someone coming out.

He paused.

It turned out that Xiao Yi hadn't discovered himself.

Fine.

Although Xiao Yi is his uncle in reality, in the current storyline, he is just a player with an unknown identity.

Xiao Fan breathed a sigh of relief, but was also somewhat worried.

He didn't know when this person had hidden behind the tree, or whether he even knew he was hiding in the bushes.

What if he finds out and exposes me to Xiao Yi?

"Don't even think about beating the game, it's pointless." It was a woman's voice.

There was no panic in her tone; you could tell she was very calm.

"Why does this voice sound so familiar?" Xiao Fan was taken aback and peeked through the gaps in the bushes.

"Auntie!"

Although Xiao Fan could only see the woman's profile from this angle, her face was all too familiar!

It's my aunt, Liu Xiujuan!

Xiao Fan's heart was once again filled with turmoil.

The plot of this secret realm is becoming increasingly absurd to him!

"You're a player too?"

Xiao Yi's voice rang out.

"That's right, I'm just like you, a player who didn't have time to log out before the game update, and I've been in this secret realm for three months now."

"Three months? You're the player who disappeared during the update three months ago? Haven't you found a way to clear the dungeon in all this time?" Xiao Yi frowned as he looked at Liu Xiujuan.

"How to get through? There's absolutely no way to get through! Once you enter this secret realm, don't even think about getting out." Liu Xiujuan's voice was somewhat agitated.

"Can't get out? Impossible! Absolutely impossible! How could you not get out? How could there be no way to clear the game's secret realm? You just haven't found it yet!" One player shook his head, refusing to believe it.

"Believe it or not! Didn't you notice that after entering this secret realm, game skills can't be used, and the game interface can't be opened anymore?" Liu Xiujuan retorted.

At this, Xiao Yi and his group fell silent.

The strangest thing about this secret realm is that after they enter, everything about them related to the game disappears, leaving only their enhanced attributes.

A long time.

Xiao Yi's hoarse voice rang out. "What do you know?"

Liu Xiujuan raised her head and sighed almost imperceptibly, "If nothing unexpected happens, we'll never be able to return to Mercury."

Xiao Fan:!!!

Mercury! Xiao Yi and his group, along with Liu Xiujuan, weren't actually from Blue Star, but from another planet, Mercury, which might also have been invaded by the game.

In other words, the game <Cloud Sea> invaded not just one Blue Star, but two or even more.

Xiao Fan's mind went completely blank from the shock.

Since entering the game, he has discovered that <Cloud Sea> has more content than he imagined.

He had considered this before: what was behind the game invasion? Could the appearance of <Cloud Sea> be some kind of game from an advanced civilization? He had even thought about exploring the truth behind the <Cloud Sea> invasion after becoming stronger.

However, after encountering Zijin and the newly opened Monster Region, Xiao Fan realized that his strength was still very weak, and perhaps he was not yet worthy of touching the conspiracy behind the game.

Unexpectedly, he discovered such a crucial clue in this secret realm.

<Cloud Sea> did not only invade Blue Star; it had even invaded other planets, such as Mercury, where Xiao Yi and his group were, for a period of time longer than ten years ago.

"Etc!"

Xiao Fan's thoughts were jolted, and he shook his head, muttering to himself.

"This is just a secret realm. Perhaps what Xiao Yi and the others described was just the plot of a secret realm, and it doesn't actually exist."

After all, in reality, Xiao Yi is his uncle and Liu Xiujuan is his aunt; they are not the so-called Mercury players.

"What... we can never go back to Mercury? You're not kidding, are you?" Xiao Yi and his group of players were filled with disbelief.

"Listen up, I'm not kidding. Three months ago, during the update, many of our players entered this secret realm, and now most of them are part of the game," Liu Xiujuan explained.

"What does it mean to become part of the game...?"

"It means... they will completely forget that they were ever players, become characters in the dungeon, and be trapped here forever."

Xiao Yi and his group turned pale.

"No! I don't want to stay here! My grandma is waiting for me to come home, I can't stay here!" one player cried out, clutching his head in despair.

"My wife and children are waiting for me to come back. I can't stay here. There must be a way out, right? Tell me, there is a way, right?" A middle-aged man suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Liu Xiujuan, and asked with red eyes.

"Old Wang, calm down!" Xiao Yi quickly pulled the man away and looked up at Liu Xiujuan.

"I'm sorry, but we can't accept this. Is there really no way to leave the secret realm?"

Liu Xiujuan lowered her head and remained silent for a long time before speaking, "If your team listens to me, I can tell you a possible way to get out of the secret realm."

"Ha! I think this is what this woman really wants. All that talk about a way to permanently exit the secret realm is just a ploy to get us to do her bidding. Brother Yi, don't believe her. I refuse to believe our Carefree Squad can't find a way to clear the secret realm," one player couldn't help but sneer.

"Whatever, believe it or not. I only said there's a way out of the secret realm, but I didn't say we could go back to Mercury." Liu Xiujuan finished speaking and turned to leave.

Only after she disappeared from sight did one of the players in Xiao Yi's team finally speak up.

"Brother Yi, what do we do now?"

Xiao Yi watched Liu Xiujuan's departing figure and sighed softly.

"Let's keep looking. Since she was able to find a way out of the secret realm, maybe we can too."

Xiao Yi and his group talked for a while and then rested before leaving.

Xiao Fan waited carefully for a while, and only after seeing that no one had returned did he emerge from the bushes.

"If those conversations were part of the dungeon's storyline, then what exactly is this dungeon trying to convey?"

For Xiao Fan, the most unacceptable part of the plot was the identities of Xiao Yi and Liu Xiujuan.

They came from a planet called Mercury that had been invaded by the game. Because they didn't log out of the game before it shut down for an update, they were trapped in this secret realm.

The name of this secret realm is <Blue Star Game Invasion>.

They're players who entered the secret realm, so what am I? An NPC?

"This plot is so malicious towards me, it feels like it's completely targeted at me."

Xiao Fan simply couldn't believe such an absurd plot.

He carefully sorted through the original owner's memories, including those of his uncle and aunt from childhood to adulthood; it was nothing like the storyline portrayed.

Besides, if his uncle and aunt were truly Mercury players, why would they impersonate the relatives of an orphan?

The Mercury game invaded earlier than Blue Star. Since Uncle and his friends were veteran players when they arrived Blue Star, how could they have become level 20 players there?

"Yes, it's just part of the story."

Xiao Fan was certain in his heart.

But the forum post about memory manipulation kept replaying in his mind.

What if his memory has been altered?

No! It can't be!

"And what about my younger cousins? According to the timeline, they're already five years old. How come my uncle and aunt only just met them?"

"These are all fictional scenarios; I can't let the game fool me!"