The noise outside sounded muffled, as if coming through a thick layer of glass, making it hard to hear clearly.
“…Are you awake?”
“Still… remove… safety…”
“…punishment…”
“…storage component… as long as it isn’t broken… Rong Yi…”
“…execution… immediately…”
Elena, no—she remembered now that she was Rong Yi—Rong Yi opened her eyes and found herself once again submerged in the familiar thick blue liquid. Through a layer of glass, she saw dozens of people in white military uniforms standing or sitting densely outside.
Jennifer was among them.
“Ah.”
Ando Yukimura, who was about to insert a data cable into her, paused and looked up. “Sir, she’s awake.”
“So what if she’s awake?” Jennifer yelled irritably at him. “She’s still going to be killed even if she’s awake!”
Rong Yi tried to move her limbs but found that her newly reattached upper limbs had been removed again. She was back to being just a head floating in the tank like a big jellyfish.
She looked up and saw the data cable hanging above, about to be inserted into the data port at the back of her head.
“Wait!” she immediately shouted. “Aren’t you looking for Rong Yi?”
Jennifer, no longer gentle and kind, frowned angrily and said, “Why did you run? Why did you run? I had you hidden away without any issues, but now everyone knows about you. I’ve broken military regulations by hiding you and have to face punishment myself. From above, they see no more useful information in you and have ordered us to kill you quickly, which is already a lenient treatment for us!”
She shook her head lightly. “Sorry, I can’t protect you this time.”
Rong Yi agilely dodged the data cable in the water. “I can protect you!”
Jennifer sneered. “You’re just a head, a mere NPC. How can you protect me?” She closed her eyes, seemingly unwilling to witness the cruel scene, and waved at Ando Yukimura to proceed quickly.
“I am Rong Yi!”
Rong Yi shouted in the water, “Thanks to that fall, I remembered everything!”
She recounted how she entered the game, the instances she experienced, the people she met, and even Raymond’s past, which the players were most familiar with. Then, to their astonishment, she summoned her glowing blue player status screen.
This was the most powerful evidence. At least it proved she was also a player, an ally on their side.
“As for you,” she turned to the speechless Jennifer, “you said you’re my friend? Sorry, other than you hitting me over the head in Kabukicho, I have no memory of you.”
Ando and Park Sung-soo immediately looked at Jennifer.
They realized now that Jennifer had secretly escaped with Xiao Ai’s words in order to find Rong Yi.
Park Sung-soo cautiously approached and scrutinized her. “…Are you really Rong Yi? But when we enter instances, we retain our original appearances. Why did you—”
“I don’t know either,” Rong Yi admitted. “From the first time I entered the game, I could feel a deep malice from it towards me. Those who watched the livestream should know, I’m a complete novice. How did I end up teaming up with a high-level player like Raymond after just a few instances? Not because I’m impressive, but because the game forced it!”
“It forced me to play instances beyond my level, to fight players much stronger than me, to hover on the brink of death. It even pushed my level up drastically just to get me into high-fatality A-level instances.”
“It always threw various challenges at me. I think this instance is the same. To increase the difficulty of my completion, the game gave my appearance to an ordinary NPC, made me look different, and tightly sealed my memories. If not for this accident, I would never have remembered who I am, and would have fought against you as an NPC until I failed the instance and faced the game’s harsh punishment.”
The three of them listened quietly. Ando suddenly said, “You’re really Rong Yi, that’s great. But you being here now isn’t that great.”
Rong Yi asked, “What do you mean?”
Jennifer sighed, “Stop pretending. I know both of you have the same idea as me. There are too many players in this instance. Even if the total points of the instance are high, if everyone clears it together, the points we get based on contributions won’t be much.”
“But now the player factions have formed. I am the team leader, and you are ordinary team members. The tasks assigned to us are fixed, and the contributions we can make are limited.”
“So, we are all thinking of finding a breakthrough, breaking away from the organization, completing the instance ahead of others, and getting more points.”
Rong Yi understood, “Am I the breakthrough?”
Jennifer nodded, “Yes.”
Rong Yi said, “I had no idea I was this important.”
Jennifer exclaimed, “Don’t you read the forum? You are so popular on there!”
Rong Yi confessed, “Believe it or not, there’s no forum in my system.”
Jennifer regretfully closed the post that read, “A dark horse among new players, a woman who can tame Raymond, possessing mysterious and powerful innate skills, making bosses bow down to her.”
Rong Yi asked, “What does it mean that it’s not great for me to be here?”
Ando said, “We all want to start afresh on our own. Do you think the people above in the organization will agree?”
Rong Yi realized that indeed, this was about snatching points from the established player organization.
“I was planning to find out where you live and go to you quietly,” Jennifer said, looking at Ando and Park Sung-soo. They all shared the same thought and nodded slightly.
“I understand now,” Rong Yi said, “Since you all have this idea, it means my identity must not be exposed here; otherwise, I will be targeted by the higher-ups.”
Jennifer nodded.
Rong Yi continued, “But if you just kill me like this, won’t you lose out?”
The three looked at each other.
Rong Yi said, “Since you all trust my abilities and now I am with your faction, under your control, why waste such a good opportunity? Will you just give it up like that?”
Jennifer hesitated for a moment, “Then what do you plan to do?”
Rong Yi replied, “The signal I sent before contains the coordinates here.”
Jennifer said, “I guessed that. But our base isn’t stationary, and the higher-ups know about it, so the base has already moved from its original location.”
An airborne moving castle? Rong Yi guessed, not flustered, “Then let me send the current coordinates again.”
Park Sung-soo couldn’t help but ask, “Have you been pretending to be a bicentennial for so long that you forgot your true identity as a player?”
“Of course not,” Rong Yi said, “It’s precisely because I am a player that I need to let the Gear know our current coordinates.”
“To let them come after us?” Park Sung-soo still didn’t understand.
Rong Yi smiled, “You all said I always complete instances using unusual methods. If it’s an unusual method, how could it be something you can easily guess?”
“I only guarantee that no matter how many forces come, the fate of the gear will not harm you.”
“They are not here to attack you, but to bring you victory.”
Exiting the interrogation room, the three individuals were still somewhat confused. The ups and downs of life were truly exhilarating, as the recent events quickly transformed their near-failure experience into a potentially successful secret team.
Park Sung-soo hesitated, “Can we really trust her?”
Jennifer’s expression was serious, “At this point, we either trust her and take the risk, or kill her and suffer the consequences. I’d rather take the chance. If you feel it’s too risky, you can leave now.”
“That’s not what I mean!” Park Sung-soo nudged Ando Yukimura beside him, “Hey, do you think she really brought the fate of the gear to help us pass this level?”
Ando remained silent for a moment, “She is undoubtedly a player. At least, she wouldn’t betray her own identity.”
As tensions rose within the Player Alliance, X received her second set of coordinates.
Upon receiving the first set of coordinates, X messaged Fan Xingze, saying that Elena was not dead; however, he did not rule out the possibility of a mysterious force hijacking Elena’s IP address to deliberately lure them in.
The organizational leaders debated endlessly. Some suggested sending a small team to gather intelligence before making a decision, while others advocated for a swift full-team deployment and adaptability upon reaching the coordinates.
There was also a faction that advocated for observing and holding back.
X had no strong opinion. Or rather, his stance was to swiftly rescue Elena at the given coordinates, without escalating conflict between the two organizations or alerting too many people.
“We are not yet at the point of direct confrontation with them,” X, though emotional, retained clarity in his thoughts. “But Elena is an important partner for us and a valuable asset to the organization — I just want to rescue her.”
“You don’t have to go alone,” Ji Yin interrupted coldly. “She’s important, and so are you. If you fall there, we’ll be leaderless.”
“You don’t need me that much!”
This time, X interrupted her. Though usually indifferent, his expression turned rare seriousness, “Currently, all profit operations of the organization are running smoothly, and our external identities are secure. The location for the free territory of the gear life has been identified, and our next step is development. It’s a remote place, away from humans, minimizing conflicts.”
“Although ‘gear life’ contains ‘life,’ our ultimate goal has never been ‘life’ or overthrowing human authority, but establishing our own kingdom within human society, developing our own economy.”
“Earth is currently desolate, with only a few human-occupied cities. Anywhere can be our homeland. Find a place to settle, develop our economy and culture, and as our power grows, everything else will fall into place naturally.”
“I know I’ve always been lazy, but precisely because of that laziness, many tasks have been delegated to you. You’re great and fully capable on your own.”
“It’s not a whimsical decision for me to personally go save her – I’ve wanted to leave for a long time!”
Fan Xingze stared at him in astonishment, “Sir, be cautious with your words!”
X looked apologetically at him, “I know what I’m saying. It’s just us here, think rationally. No one should think I’m ‘shaking the army’s morale,’ right?”
“Look carefully. Considering the recent development momentum and future direction of the organization, do you think there’s a difference whether I’m there or not? If you need me to be the mascot, I can completely create a double of myself that looks exactly like me for you to use.
“In the past, I didn’t have much direction, so you let me lead the organization, and I just did it.” X clenched the piece of paper with coordinates in his hand. “But now, the organization can fully function well without me, and I also have things I want to do—can you allow me to be willful just this once?
“The command room was silent, with only the occasional beep of the large computer analyzing massive amounts of data signals. Indeed, although X, as the leader of the organization, was passive and negligent, during this period of rapid development, he completely stabilized the foundation of the organization and outlined clear future development plans.
“Given his laziness, even if he stayed in the organization, he would never personally engage in the meticulous construction work. Fang Xiaojie had long been prepared for X to be a figurehead. But X leaving—this exceeded his expectations.
“He lowered his head, his voice quiet, hoarse, and desolate. ‘…If you really want to go… we can manage without you, but what about Rong Rong?’
“This was a secret high-level meeting, and Rong Rong wasn’t present. But without a doubt, she would be waiting obediently outside the command room as usual, waiting for X to come out.
“X opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but stopped himself.
“These past few days, he had been tracking Elena’s signals day and night, analyzing her chances of survival, the relationship between enemy forces and the Zheng Mansion, and identifying a vague direction of Elena’s disappearance through that fighter jet, intercepting a weak set of coordinate signals.
“Rong Rong, once a figure from his deeply cherished hidden memories, now materialized into a lively, adorable, and simple Rong Rong in reality, had lost the appeal she once held over him.
“However long Elena had been missing, for that duration, X had paid no attention to Rong Rong. She was now just an ordinary secretary handling his work matters.
“He couldn’t take her on adventures, nor had he thought about where to go after rescuing Elena.”
A mysterious force currently has a considerable number of members showing their presence, but their headquarters cannot be found anywhere.
How can so many people hide? x has also speculated whether the headquarters is underground? Without a main base, do they operate independently? Is the headquarters invisible?
Now, as he sat in the hovercar, his hand lightly reached forward and touched a space surrounded by moisture-repelling rules.
The headquarters of the mysterious force is suspended above the clouds, an invisible moving castle!
No wonder it has been so difficult to find!
He adjusted the frequencies multiple times, finally detecting the physical presence of the moving castle. Following it, he flew all the way up and parked the hovercar at the top of the castle.
x, fully armed, took a deep breath, preparing to find the entrance to the castle when suddenly heard the sound of a airship whizzing past behind him—dozens of heavily armed combat airships revealed their long-hidden forms, landing on the spacious rooftop.
Ji Yin, clad in combat gear, leaped from the airship. x looked at her in disbelief, saying, “You were following me?”
He had long stopped being wary of the heavily armed airships and never thought about checking if someone was following.
Ji Yin nodded, “Leader—even if you don’t want to be, I still recognize you as the leader. Leader, we are not inclined to fight, but the threat of this mysterious force to us is too great. I must seize the opportunity to eliminate them.”
x, anxiously tapping his hovercar, said, “I told you, you can’t defeat them now!”
Ji Yin replied, “Indeed, we can’t defeat them. But we can ambush them.”
Just then, an invisible door opened out of nowhere, and a group of soldiers in white military uniforms emerged, surrounding him.
Jennifer stood with crossed arms at the front of the group, smiling, “Sorry, everyone, this can hardly be considered an ambush.”
Ji Yin saw Elena behind her, connecting the dots and angrily said, “You betray us?!”
“Oh, how can this be called betrayal,” Jennifer kindly reasoned, “She is a player, aligned with us. She’s against you, isn’t that normal?”
x shook his head in disbelief, “Elena…you wouldn’t do this, right?”
Elena chuckled, stepped in front, and said, “What do you want me to say!” As she walked towards the two armies, the soldiers of the heavily armed airships raised their weapons vigilantly, aiming at her.
Elena: “What do you want me to say?”
Elena: “What should I say? You fool.”
Elena: “Being played by the game is acceptable, after all, it’s not what I do.”
Elena: “Even a CTO of a tech company like you can be played, truly naive.”
x: “What are you talking about?”
Elena: “Tsk…I never thought I would have to use this against you one day.”
“Activate, [Meet the Parents]!”
