Sunlight pierced the gap in the curtains, dancing across the floor and bathing the room in warm light. The sky was a pristine blue, and after the rain had cleared, the earth gave off the fresh fragrance of grass.
The street vendors downstairs had begun calling out their wares. Upstairs, a neighbor taking their child to school clattered down the stairs, while birds perched outside the window chirped away.
Xie De struggled to open his eyes. Exhausted, he reached out to check the time: 7:25 a.m.
He'd actually woken up this early?
"Actually, host, you slept for a day and two nights. It's already the day after next. Don't you need to use the bathroom?"
455's voice came from the Xiaodu speaker on the bedside table.
A day and two nights? Sleeping that long really did leave him exhausted and hungry. Xie De felt as though it was his body that had woken up, not his soul. Yet he also felt that his soul was already awake, while his body was so utterly drained that it lay stiff as a corpse.
He got up like a walking corpse and headed into the bathroom. Cold water splashed against his face, wetting his loose silver hair and soaking his skin, the shock finally bringing him some semblance of clarity.
Looking at his own face in the mirror, he suddenly felt as though a lifetime had passed.
"I'm still alive."
The corpses, flames, monsters, and perpetually foul air of the instance kept surfacing in his mind, leaving him unbearably drained. Waves of burning pain rolled through his stomach.
But he'd already thrown up enough.
I don't feel like cleaning up. I could probably lie down a little longer.
With that thought, Xie De turned and lay down on the sofa, fumbling around to light himself a cigarette. Smoke rings drifted in the air, revealing tiny particles in the sunlight. His expression gradually turned vacant.
Only when he felt something moving in his hand did he come back to himself. He looked down to find little House Centipede holding a cockroach, about to put it in his palm.
!
Xie De bolted upright as though resurrected from his deathbed and jerked his hand back. "What are you doing?"
The moment he spoke, his voice came out horribly hoarse.
Little House Centipede trembled and looked up at him in confusion.
455 said, "You've been lying there too long. Little House Centipede thinks you'll croak if you don't eat soon. Don't forget, house centipedes eat cockroaches, so it's sharing its own food with you. Hurry up and say thank you."
"...Thanks, but I don't eat those."
Xie De went to pour himself a glass of water. While drinking, he noticed a pile of things on the table.
"What's all this?"
The pile consisted of two talismans that looked anything but ordinary, a box of ammunition, a brand-new pistol, and a sniper rifle. All dangerous stuff.
455 explained professionally, "These are the beginner rewards for clearing the instance. They're incredibly generous! I think it might be because we perfectly uncovered the storyline, plus we got lucky. That's why we received so much. Seriously, host, even the protagonist didn't get rewards this good!"
"The most valuable things here are those two talismans, called Door God Talismans. Whether you're in an instance or the real world, stick one on a door and ghosts won't be able to enter. How long it works depends on how powerful the ghost is, but it'll definitely last much less time in an instance than in reality."
"This box has a full thousand rounds, enough for you to practice with."
"This is an Austrian Glock 17 Pistol. It has a nineteen-round magazine and an effective range of fifty meters."
"This sniper rifle is an SSG 3000, jointly developed by Germany and Switzerland. It uses a barrel and receiver made by Krupp and is renowned for its exceptional accuracy."
455 whooped like an excited monkey. "This is all great stuff! You can finally work on your shooting! Hahaha, now we have something to protect ourselves with. One step closer to becoming a big shot!"
Xie De idly handled the weapons, his mouth twitching. "They certainly are some nice, illegal things. 455, has it occurred to you that I might end up in prison the second I take these outside? Where am I supposed to practice?"
455 froze, then said glumly, "...Then find somewhere really remote. Host, you have to build up your skills. You've seen how terrifying the instances are. I'll be straight with you: you'll have to enter another one in two months."
"Ugh."
Xie De let out a long sigh. "I don't want to move."
Then, as though remembering something, he dug out his leather coat and took the revolver and gold from it.
He really had gained quite a lot from clearing one instance.
But right now, the only thing that could solve his immediate problem was that piece of gold.
Xie De got up and made himself presentable, putting on a hat, glasses, and a mask to thoroughly conceal his face and anything unusual about him.
He picked up the rubbish he'd left to one side and went downstairs. The fresh morning air washed over his face, and he listened to the bustle of pedestrians on either side of the street. At last, he felt grounded in the reality that he'd lived to see another day.
Spring was giving way to summer. The crabapple trees in the roadside greenery were in full bloom, their fragrance drifting through the air. Birds flashed across the sky, and an elegant black cat leaped from a box in an alley onto the wall. Its green eyes curiously followed Xie De as he passed, then it gave a lazy yawn.
Two days later.
It was five in the afternoon, deep in a remote mountain region.
A bullet struck a starfruit a thousand meters away with precision, sending juice flying.
The man, covered from head to toe, held the sniper rifle firmly in place. His stance was correct and his core steady, leaving him unaffected by the recoil.
His long silver hair was tucked beneath a baseball cap, though a strand or two still hung against his cheeks. He looked fierce and cold.
But a second later...
Xie De tossed the rifle aside. "I hit it, I hit it! I'm done practicing! My hands hurt, my shoulders hurt, everything hurts."
The phone beside him displayed a scornful expression.
"ε-(≖д≖﹆) Are you kidding me? You've only practiced for three hours since this morning! And I've even been giving you special cheats!"
Unable to take it anymore, Xie De snapped back, "Three hours of shooting, plus I ran twenty kilometers! Does all that time climbing the mountain and setting up the tent not count? Anyway, I'm done."
Xie De turned and crawled into the tent. First, he poured out a pile of mealworms for little House Centipede, then lay down, took out his phone, and started scrolling through the funny videos he'd downloaded beforehand.
He hadn't even been scrolling for a minute.
455 jumped from the Xiaodu speaker into his phone and took over the entire screen.
"Get back to training!!! Stop slacking off!"
And guess what?
Xie De simply switched off his phone, forcing 455 back into the Xiaodu speaker.
Heartbroken, 455 pleaded earnestly, "Host, I'm doing all this for your own good. Why won't you listen to me?"
Xie De frowned. "Why does that sound so familiar? Oh, right. Chinese-style parenting. You win."
"Host!"
The man and the system were still bickering when little House Centipede abruptly stopped eating, jumped onto Xie De, and began hissing frantically, its gaze fixed in one direction.
"What's wrong?"
Was his luck really that bad? Had they run into a wild animal?
Little House Centipede was a pet from an instance, after all. Such unusual behavior had to put him on his guard.
455 fell silent.
Xie De picked up the pistol and carefully walked over.
The bushes rustled wildly, and something suddenly burst out. Xie De snapped his gun up and pressed it against the thing's head. At the crucial moment, he saw what it was, and his trigger hand trembled.
Huh!?
What was a child doing out here in the middle of nowhere?
Before you continue