A Survival Game Where You Have to Fall in Love with a Madman - Chapter 19

You Yan didn’t retreat, but every muscle in his body coiled with tight tension. The scalpel was nestled securely within the hidden pocket of his sleeve, primed to slide into his palm at a millisecond’s notice.

“It’s just an ordinary accessory.”

“Is it really?” He Yanqing’s fingers lightly caressed the silver stud, the warmth of his fingertips transferring through the cold metal straight onto You Yan’s skin. “I’ve heard that certain special items possess a unique resonance with their wearers…”

Before his voice could even fade, the earring suddenly emitted a faint, distinct pulse of blue light.

Both men froze simultaneously.

He Yanqing was the first to break the silence, a sharp smile carving across his lips—the exact look of a predator discovering prime prey.

“Doesn’t look like an ordinary accessory to me, You Yan… Or perhaps, should I address you as a component of the Main God System?”

You Yan’s heart skipped a definitive beat, but his face remained completely unreadable. He calmly slapped He Yanqing’s hand away. “You’ve had too much to drink.”

“Our dear Mr. Theorist is always so incredibly tedious.”

He Yanqing let out an exaggerated sigh, but then suddenly leaned in close. He was close enough that You Yan could smell the heavy scent of alcohol on his breath, underlying a faint, metallic trace of rust the residual odor of a simulated battlefield.

“Did you know? The NPCs forged by the System all share a very specific common denominator…”

You Yan arched an eyebrow, silently signaling him to continue.

“They don’t possess a body temperature.”

He Yanqing’s hand suddenly cupped You Yan’s cheek. The movement was incredibly gentle, matching the cadence of someone stroking a cat, yet his eyes remained as sharp as unsheathed daggers. “And you, my dear little crow… are as cold as a corpse.”

The scalpel slid cleanly into You Yan’s palm, but he refrained from making a move. He Yanqing’s structural misunderstanding actually provided him with excellent operational cover letting this psycho player believe he was merely a premium, high-tier NPC was infinitely safer than having him discover he was the central maintenance core of the Main God System itself.

“Think whatever pleases you.” You Yan turned on his heel and walked toward the sofa, intentionally slowing his pace to show that he was entirely unbothered by leaving his back completely exposed.

If He Yanqing intended to strike, this was the absolute best opportunity.

Behind him came the soft rustle of fabric, followed closely by the heavy thud of He Yanqing throwing himself carelessly into the single-seater armchair.

“How boring,” He Yanqing grumbled, dragging out his vowels. “I genuinely thought I’d get to see our unflappable NPC look flustered for once.”

You Yan retrieved two cans of beer from the refrigerator, tossing one directly into He Yanqing’s lap.

“Drink up and go to sleep. I have to work tomorrow.” He intentionally utilized the most mundane, ordinary human excuse.

He Yanqing caught the can with textbook precision, hooking his index finger under the tab to snap it open. The carbonated foam spilled over the rim, coating his fingers. He licked it off mindlessly, his eyes remaining locked onto You Yan. “Say… what do you think the System would do if it discovered one of its NPCs had developed independent consciousness?”

You Yan took a long draught of his own beer, the freezing fluid sliding smoothly down his throat. “Format it cleanly, I imagine.”

“How savage~” He Yanqing swirled the beer can. “Though I absolutely love watching the System lose control. The more chaotic things get, the more entertaining it becomes, wouldn’t you agree?”

The stud against You Yan’s earlobe throbbed with a burning heat; the System was aggressively prompting him to purge this anomaly. He completely ignored the warning, tracking the way He Yanqing’s moonlight-blue hair caught the light with an artificial luster.

Just how much does this player know?

To what extent has he bypassed the System restrictions?

And more importantly, why can’t I bring myself to delete him?

“I’m tired.” You Yan stood up abruptly, drawing a definitive line to end the high-risk conversation.

He Yanqing tilted his head to track him, the beauty mark at the corner of his eye looking like a microscopic puncture wound under the artificial lights. “Goodnight, my dear Mr. Monster.” He raised his can in a mock toast, a dangerous edge hiding right behind his smile.

You Yan walked into his bedroom without throwing a single glance back, only allowing himself a long exhale once the door clicked shut.

The blue light of the earring flared once more, and the System interface forced its way into his field of vision:

[System Alert: Anomalous Player ‘GB’ threat index has escalated to SSS-Rank. Immediate clearance is highly recommended.]

You Yan hesitated for a brief moment. His fingers swiped across the empty air, selecting the [Deformed Action: Deferred Processing] option.

[System Query: State valid rationale.]

“Requires further observation. Furthermore, you do not possess the clearance level to interrogate me,” You Yan replied in a soft whisper, completely shutting down the interface.

Leaning his back against the door, he could hear He Yanqing humming a tuneless song out in the living room, followed by the distinct sound of the refrigerator door opening and closing.

That lunatic is looking for food again. You Yan shook his head in exasperation and walked toward his bed.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will definitively make a decision.

The Hidden Ledger

Reaching beneath his mattress, You Yan pulled out a secure notebook and flipped to the latest entry. The pages were densely packed with records he had compiled over the past few months regarding He Yanqing’s operational patterns, capability ceilings, and corresponding system error reports:

• Possesses the capacity to instinctively locate system exploits.
• Demonstrates an anomalously comprehensive understanding of instance architecture.
• Appears to possess prior knowledge regarding You Yan’s true identity.

At the absolute bottom of the page, You Yan had penned a small line of text using a red ink pen:

“How exactly did he manage to discover my identity?”

Roughly three months ago, He Yanqing had materialized inside the instances ahead of him. To achieve his current ranking within such a compact timeframe was undeniably impressive. However, the methods he utilized to execute missions within every instance were consistently extreme. Furthermore, his facial expressions when he first entered the game three months ago did not match those of a green, uninitiated player.

He looked far more like a veteran making a calculated return. You Yan stared at the frozen playback of He Yanqing’s ecstatic, borderline maniacal expression on his screen, sinking into deep contemplation.

Outside, the city lights remained brilliantly vibrant, but on a hidden data layer, a silent war was actively waging between two young men sharing the exact same roof. One fought to preserve structural order, while the other chased absolute chaos and the boundary separating them was growing increasingly blurred, exactly like the periodically flashing earring on the nightstand.

You Yan closed the ledger and slid it back beneath the mattress. He unpinned the silver stud from his earlobe and set it down on the nightstand, its metallic surface reflecting the cold moonlight like a spying eye.

The living room lights cut out, and the sound of He Yanqing’s approaching footsteps echoed softly outside. You Yan closed his eyes, feigning deep sleep.

The bedroom door was eased open. He Yanqing stood framed within the threshold, the moonlight stretching his long silhouette deep into the room.

“Sweet dreams, Mr. Monster,” he murmured softly, gently pulling the door shut.

In the heavy darkness, You Yan opened his eyes. He was rapidly running out of time; he had to make a definitive choice either fulfill his prime directive to purge this anomalous player, or continue playing this high-stakes game until the entire framework collapsed into total oblivion.

The earring on the nightstand pulsed with a faint, weak blue light, as if offering a silent resonance to his unanswerable riddle.

The Main Lobby

You Yan’s descent into light sleep was abruptly broken when He Yanqing shook him awake. Minutes later, the two materialized within the Main Hub Lobby of the Main God space, successfully converging with Liu Xin.

Without warning, the sterile white illumination of the Main Hub snapped into a violent, flashing crimson. A piercing, deafening alarm echoed relentlessly across the expanse of the instance hall.

You Yan massaged his throbbing temples, the silver stud in his left ear glinting coldly under the blood-red emergency lights. The five-hour preparation window had evaporated into nothingness. It was precisely 3:00 AM, and the A-rank instance, The Dark Mist Labyrinth, was officially initializing.

[System Notice: Party Binding Successful.]

The cold, mechanical audio chimed in their ears simultaneously. An identical blue circuit pattern materialized across the wrists of You Yan, He Yanqing, and Liu Xin, burning briefly before dissolving beneath their skin. From this moment onward, their survival metrics were linked.

He Yanqing tossed his head back, shifting his moonlight-blue bangs as the beauty mark at the corner of his eye caught the pulsing emergency lights. “Hey, Mr. Theorist. Try your best not to drag us down this time.” He intentionally leaned in to bump his shoulder against You Yan’s, though the latter didn’t even bother lifting his eyelids.

Liu Xin aggressively pushed his glasses up his nose, his lenses reflecting rapidly updating lines of data. “The standard statistical mortality rate for an A-rank instance sits at a staggering 67%. We had better proceed with extreme…”

“Shut up,” You Yan cut him off flatly. “Numbers are entirely useless here.”

Liu Xin went quiet deflatedly. He was well aware that this duo had cleared the previous A-rank instance, St. Mary’s Charity Hospital, with relative ease, but he remained deeply concerned regarding the lethal threshold of this specific deployment.

After all, no instance could ever be underestimated. In an unfamiliar environment, ‘unknown’ parameters were synonymous with instantaneous death.