A name slowly appeared on the spirit tablet on the offering table. Brother Bug had to write it several times before the two characters for Gao Ming finally stayed.
"I left your name on an ancestor's spirit tablet in the Fu Family Ancestral Hall, linking your fates together. It will protect you, but it will also scheme to claim your future." After leaving the hidden chamber, Brother Bug became a little more talkative. "Do you believe in fate?"
"No."
"You will someday." Brother Bug and Gao Ming entered the passage behind the Ancestral Hall. Among a pile of discarded equipment, they found two Nutrient Pods that still worked. They looked much like Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals' Brain-Domain Test devices, only far more dilapidated.
"Lie down and relax. If we wanted to hurt you, you would have died countless times already." Brother Bug personally connected all the cables for Gao Ming, then lay down in the other Nutrient Pod. As the indicator lights came on, Gao Ming felt as though his soul were being torn apart and his body were shattering into pieces that fell into some vortex.
Before he could open his eyes, a broken, intermittent voice reached Gao Ming's ears—welcome to Perfect Life.
The smell of paint filled his nose. A hand landed on Gao Ming's shoulder, and he whipped his head around. He was no longer in Fu Family Village, but inside a dark, convoluted building with a bizarre design.
Black fog cut off the sky and the earth. Not a speck of green was visible anywhere. Death blanketed everything, and only one emotion existed here: despair.
"What does this place have to do with anything perfect?" Gao Ming cautiously surveyed his surroundings. He had taken part in Eternal Life Pharmaceuticals' Brain-Domain Game tests, and entering this place felt