"Yiguan, there's another secret I have to tell you this time..."
Beep.
The call with Taotie Clam disconnected automatically.
The communicator immediately began beeping again.
A holographic screen lit up, enormous blue letters floating in the air.
[Insufficient Metaverse data. Please renew your plan.]
The boy tipped his head back, blinked gently, and sighed.
Then he passed the high-tech watch on his wrist lightly over the communicator.
Renewal successful. -2000 Balance: 8654
The boy wiped his high-tech watch. "Without cases from the police station, I'll lose a big chunk of my income. This won't last long."
Qin Yiguan glanced at a corner of the room.
A large pile of edible energy blocks sat there. After all, it was already 2122. Even the abandoned weren't left to fend for themselves; the government still provided the bare necessities.
Those things resembled white butter and packed advanced biotechnology into each block. One could supply all the energy an adult needed for a day.
There was just one problem.
Their taste was in a league of its own. Offer one to a dog, and even the dog would shake its head.
"I'll go get something to eat first."
Ignoring the energy blocks, the boy turned, went downstairs, and stepped onto the street outside his apartment.
The street was pure wasteland punk.
The buildings were old, but eerily flickering holographic screens were everywhere.
It was run-down, yet still held a hint of futuristic technology.
The area where Qin Yiguan lived was called Rust City.
Like Qin Yiguan, its residents were humans who, for one reason or another, couldn't fully enter the Metaverse.
In other words, this was the technological age's slum district.
The streets were deserted at the moment.
Most of the abandoned had a "basic allowance" of login time, some longer, some shorter.
It was now between eight and midnight, the period when Rust City's residents used their limited login time to enter the Metaverse together.
There were no decent businesses left in reality. They had to enter the Metaverse to earn money and make a living.
The boy made his way through the streets, walking a full five kilometers before finally reaching the edge of Rust City.
He looked up into the distance.
The wasteland ahead stretched out unobstructed.
A brilliantly lit city towered ten kilometers away.
That place.
Was called the Central District.
The humans who spent twenty-four hours a day immersed in the Metaverse lived there.
It was also known as the City of Half the People.
Those at the bottom could only ever look up at it.
His expression calm, the boy walked straight toward the Central District. Across the flat lawn ahead, a faint little trail had formed, seemingly worn by repeated footsteps.
The person who had worn that trail was none other than Qin Yiguan.
Now, he walked slowly, neither hurrying nor dawdling.
The Metaverse had become the primary world.
And reality had gradually, almost imperceptibly, become the secondary world.
So the time he couldn't spend logged into the Metaverse was utterly useless. He could hardly squander it, and there was no reason to rush.
An hour and a half later.
The boy stood before the Central District.
The immense wall of white alloy stretched beyond sight to the left, beyond sight to the right, and, looking up, beyond goddamn sight there too.
Whumm...
Whumm...
The sound of vibrating air came from the sky.
A dozen or so white robots flew out from the top of the wall, then dove straight down, surrounding Qin Yiguan in an instant.
Each robot stood a full three meters tall.
Their upper bodies consisted of broad chests and mechanical arms as thick as an adult's waist. One arm carried a beam weapon crackling with blue electrical arcs, while the other bore a rapidly spinning grappling hook.
Their lower bodies had been replaced by magnetic levitation systems, allowing them to hover in midair.
All in all, they looked incredibly fierce.
Qin Yiguan's gaze shifted slightly.
Any one of these central cities housed tens of millions of people, but all their minds had entered the Metaverse.
In effect, the entire city was "fast asleep," never to wake.
How could a place like that go without guards?
No matter how powerful you were in the Metaverse, what good would it do if someone raided your home in reality?
Any Rust City resident who dared approach would have been arrested and immediately sent back. Serious offenders would be sentenced by an electronic judge.
Right now.
These robots had apparently detected an unknown object approaching the wall and deployed at once.
Set into each robot's enormous head was a red mechanical eye the size of a basketball. They all turned toward Qin Yiguan as layer after layer of scanning beams flashed through the air.
Bzzzt...
The beam weapons in the robots' hands charged, scorching the air.
The boy pressed his lips together and lowered his head slightly.
Then he raised it again and stared straight at one of the robots. "What are you staring at? As if you can even see me."
The enormous guard robot tilted its head slightly.
It had clearly detected biological signals, and even sound waves.
Yet through the robots' electronic eyes, the open ground ahead was empty. Only grass swayed gently in the breeze.
Targeting windows and data readings flickered wildly, but the guard robots still couldn't see the boy's body.
Yet Qin Yiguan had no uncanny movement technique, no supernatural ability, and certainly no artificial eye protecting him. He simply stood there quietly.
"???"
The dozen or so guard robots all looked adorably clueless.
Qin Yiguan, however, was long since used to this.
Three years ago, he had discovered to his astonishment that not a single detection device in the enormous Central City No. 003 could detect his presence.
It was as though someone had erased his data from the AI-controlled defense system.
Perhaps that had been his parents' handiwork.
His mom and dad were no ordinary people, after all.
"See you around, you sneaky bastards."
The boy tightened his backpack straps, turned, and grabbed a protrusion on the wall. It was actually a high-precision optical sensor, but he wrapped his hand around it.
Then he planted his foot on another high-precision sonar sensor and slowly began scaling the wall as though he were rock climbing.
The enormous alloy wall was covered in sensors, much like climbing holds.
There were enough to take him all the way to the top.
Some of the sensors even got smeared with mud from his shoes.
Behind him.
The guard robots, unable to make sense of the situation, stared blankly at one another.
The boy climbed the wall like an agile cheetah and vanished.
And in this major city in China, the alarm system throughout Central City No. 003 remained utterly silent.
Before you continue