A Survival Game Where You Have to Fall in Love with a Madman - Chapter 18

“How about heading to a bar tonight?” He Yanqing suddenly proposed. “I heard the ‘Juqing’ Bar serves as the primary intelligence exchange hub for players.”

You Yan initially intended to refuse, but considering he was bored anyway and it wouldn’t hurt to observe player trends, he offered a slight nod.

“Suit yourself.”

As night fell, the neon lights of the virtual city flickered to life one after another, perfectly replicating the prosperity and decadence of the real world.

The Juqing Bar was tucked away at the dead end of a dark alleyway. It bore absolutely no signage at its entrance; only those in the know could ever locate it.

Pushing open the heavy wooden door, a wave of raucous clamor instantly crashed against them. The bar was packed to the brim with players, the air heavily saturated with alcohol and an underlying current of intense anxiety.

The moment He Yanqing’s towering silhouette crossed the threshold, it drew several guarded, sharp glances from the crowd.

“This way, gentlemen,” a waiter instructed, guiding them toward a secluded booth in the corner.

The second You Yan sat down, he felt a distinct gaze locking onto them. He surreptitiously scanned the perimeter without making a scene, his eyes eventually settling on a familiar figure standing by the counter—Liu Xin, the teammate everyone assumed had perished in the previous instance.

“Look over there,” You Yan said in a low voice.

He Yanqing followed his line of sight, his eyebrows arching exceptionally high. “Fascinating.”

Liu Xin spotted them as well. After a brief moment of visible hesitation, he began weaving his way through the crowd toward them. This 182 cm otaku looked drastically more haggard than their last encounter, the eyes behind his glasses heavily bloodshot.

“Are you two… doing alright?” Liu Xin’s voice trembled slightly.

“We are far more curious about how you managed to survive,” He Yanqing intercepted directly, his fingers lightly tapping the tabletop in a rhythmic sequence that sounded exactly like a specific transmission code.

Liu Xin pushed up his glasses, scanning their surroundings vigilantly before finally taking a seat. “I had a life-saving item… a Resurrection Cross. It cost me a fifth of my total savings.”

You Yan narrowed his eyes. Resurrection items cost a staggering 5,000 points in the (System Store)—something an ordinary player could never dream of affording.

“Where did you get that many points?”

“I…” Liu Xin dropped his voice to an absolute whisper. “I discovered a system exploit. It allowed me to repeatedly complete certain low-level, simple tasks to farm points. Though right after the last instance concluded, that exploit was completely patched.” He then straightened his posture to look at them. “Besides, the majority of my points were accumulated by selling the intelligence in my possession. After all, my designated role is a Scout.”

He Yanqing and You Yan exchanged a swift look. The former expressed genuine amusement, while the latter felt a sharp spike of vigilance as a core entity tied to the Main God, You Yan knew with absolute certainty that such an exploit should never have existed within the framework.

“Tell us what you know.” He Yanqing poured a glass of liquor for Liu Xin.

Liu Xin downed half the glass in a single gulp before finally diving in. “This game is infinitely more complex than any of us realize. The System monitors absolutely everything, but it doesn’t possess full 360-degree coverage. Within the virtual city, the surveillance feeds for specific locations and times suffer from an intentional lag…”

While You Yan maintained an ironclad composure on the surface, a wave of roiling shock surged through his mind. This kind of architectural data was supposed to be classified at the highest level of secrecy.

“Then there’s the item index,” Liu Xin continued. “Not all items originate from the standard store. Certain hidden items only manifest within highly specific instances, and furthermore…” His voice dropped to a near-inaudible murmur, “…some unique items possess the capability to directly influence the System itself.”

He Yanqing’s fingers ceased their rhythmic tapping. “Such as?”

“For instance, temporarily blinding the System’s surveillance parameters, or…” Liu Xin cast a brief, lingering look at You Yan, “…identifying unique players.”

You Yan felt a single bead of cold sweat trace its way down his spine. As a data-driven system NPC, he wasn’t supposed to manifest any physiological stress responses, yet at this precise moment, he was undeniably experiencing tension.

“What do you mean by ‘unique players’?”

Liu Xin shook his head. “I’m not entirely certain. But rumors are circulating that the game platform has been infiltrated by monitors deployed directly by the System, or otherwise… individuals actively rebelling against the system.”

He Yanqing suddenly burst into a bright laugh. “This is genuinely getting more entertaining by the second.” He raised his glass high. “A toast to the next instance.”

You Yan didn’t raise his glass. He had just noticed a player stationed in a dim corner of the bar, pointing a strange device directly in their direction. It bore a striking resemblance to a standard smartphone, but the cascading lines of code flashing across its display made it glaringly obvious that it was anything but a communication device.

“There are exactly fifteen hours remaining until the next instance initialization.” Liu Xin glanced down at the countdown displaying on his watch. “The System just broadcasted the preview—’The Dark Mist Labyrinth,’ an A-rank difficulty setting.”

He Yanqing let out a sharp whistle. “Finally, something with a bit of a challenge.”

You Yan silently cataloged every single piece of information, covertly evaluating every individual in the room. As a system NPC, he should have possessed comprehensive, front-end knowledge regarding the mechanics of every instance layout, but recently, the System seemed to be developing a bizarre sense of… autonomy.

This was highly dangerous, particularly when a volatile anomaly like He Yanqing had already deeply penetrated the game’s boundaries.

“I highly suggest we form a fixed party,” Liu Xin proposed. “A three-man team increases the statistical survival rate by 30% compared to solo operations.”

He Yanqing shifted his gaze to You Yan. “What do you think?”

You Yan knew that outright declining would only invite unnecessary suspicion. “Whatever.” He stood up abruptly. “I’m heading back first.”

He Yanqing made no attempt to detain him, merely offering an incredibly meaningful, lingering sign-off: “Sweet dreams, my little crow. Remember to leave the door unlocked for me.”

The parting remark caused You Yan’s footing to falter for a microsecond, but he didn’t turn back, walking straight out of the bar.

The cold night breeze brushed against his face, and the stud in his left earlobe began to pulse with a dull, burning heat—the definitive physical manifestation of a high-level System Alarm. The virtual city’s night sky was heavily blanketed with countless glittering stars, a view so absolutely flawless it felt sickeningly fake.

You Yan looked up toward the towering Main God Tower. That domain might have belonged entirely to him once, but it was now actively crawling with unknown variables.

He Yanqing, Liu Xin, those mystical items, and the structural system exploits… The game was rapidly slipping clean out of his control.

And what unsettled him most of all was the realization that he was actually anticipating this absolute chaos.

The Apartment

Standing before the grand glass window of his apartment, the shifting neon lights of the city dissolved into cascading, vertical streams of binary data within You Yan’s eyes. The System interface expanded across his retinas, layer upon layer of crimson warning boxes stacking violently until they consumed his entire field of vision.

Positioned at the absolute center of the main warning box was He Yanqing’s designated Player ID: “GB”—followed closely by three blood-red exclamation points.

[System Alert: Anomalous Player ‘GB’ has breached the 7th Layer Restriction and is actively attempting to interface with the Core Database…]

(Note: “GB” designates a certified Psycho/Madman classification.)

The cold, synthesized voice of the System echoed relentlessly within You Yan’s mind.

By all accounts of his prime directive, he should have executed the purification sequence immediately. That was his fundamental duty as a data NPC forged by the Main God System, his entire existence was predicated on safeguarding the core, patching exploits, purging anomalous players, and maintaining the fragile equilibrium between the game and reality.

Yet, his hand hovered over the virtual control panel that only he could see. His index finger rested a mere few millimeters away from the confirmation prompt, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to press down.

Outside the window, the neon billboards shifted color profiles, casting a constantly mutating palette of vibrant hues across You Yan’s detached, handsome profile. The silver stud in his left earlobe caught the light, occasionally reflecting a sharp, icy glint.

It had been a month. Ever since He Yanqing had aggressively moved into this apartment, the frequency of these system alerts had escalated exponentially. You Yan knew he needed to deploy immediate countermeasures, yet he remained entirely stationary.

“Did you miss me?” The sound of the deadbolt clicking open was accompanied by that distinct, effortlessly playful cadence.

He Yanqing walked through the threshold carrying a faint scent of alcohol, his moonlight-blue hair reflecting a bizarre, ethereal luster under the foyer lights. The beauty mark nestled at the corner of his eye shifted upward with his grin, his towering 191 cm frame casting an immense, suffocating sense of pressure across the narrow entryway.

You Yan instantly collapsed the system interface. By the time he turned around, his features had already snapped back into their customary mold of absolute indifference.

“Have fun?” he asked casually. His gaze, however, subconsciously dropped to the crimson string coiled tightly around He Yanqing’s right wrist it throbbed with a volatile wave of energy signatures that definitively did not belong to this world’s parameters.

He Yanqing kicked off his shoes, swaying slightly as he closed the distance between them, a dangerous, unbridled smile spreading across his handsome face.

“Incredibly so.”

He intentionally elongated his words, suddenly reaching a hand out to lightly brush against the silver stud pinned through You Yan’s left ear. “You know, this piece of jewelry is exceptionally unique.”