Yang Wanqing gnawed on a rib held between her chopsticks, her phone in her other hand as she read the Origin World's operating instructions.
With her mouth full, she mumbled, "If you die in an instance, do you really have to wait a year? No way to undo it?"
"No." Chen Hao took a sip of soup. "That's how it was designed."
"But what if you accidentally enter a high-difficulty instance, and then..."
"Choose carefully."
"...Could you elaborate a little?"
Chen Hao set down his soup bowl and glanced at her. "Before you choose an instance, the system gives you a difficulty rating. Use that as your guide. If you insist on skipping the rating and barging in, that's your problem."
Yang Wanqing pursed her lips and put her phone away.
Ying Wenjie finished gnawing the last rib clean and stacked the bones neatly along the edge of his plate.
"Master, we've got a mission tomorrow. We'll head out."
Chen Hao grunted an acknowledgment without looking up, still checking his phone.
Qin Xiaoyu stood, pushed her chair back in, and walked over to Chen Hao. "Master, Jingzhou wants to bring in a batch of Origin Worlds as teaching aids next semester. About that..."
"Talk to Jingwen."
"Oh." Qin Xiaoyu fell into line.
Wu Tian and Ye Chendong were already changing their shoes in the entryway. Wu Tian had big feet, and it took him a while to dig his pair out from the bottom shelf of the shoe cabinet.
Ye Chendong already had his on and leaned by the door, waiting for him.
"Senior Sister, Aunt-Master, we're leaving..." Qin Xiaoyu waved toward the living room.
Yang Wanqing sat cross-legged on the carpet, the helmet still beside her legs, discussing the looks of a certain NPC in an instance world with