[The beginning | Wedding Invitation]
In early September, as autumn began, the summer heat had yet to subside.
Lin Qingchi was standing in line at a bakery to buy cake.
The cakes here were delicious, and the place had a great reputation nearby, drawing a crowd of dedicated customers every day.
Lin Qingchi was tall and slender, standing out noticeably among the people waiting in line.
Several shop assistants were already very familiar with him. After all, it was rare to see someone who came to buy cake three times a day and ate desserts as his main meals.
What’s more, this dessert lover was a striking, cold-and-fair-skinned handsome man.
“What would you like to get today, sir?” the clerk asked warmly.
Lin Qingchi scanned the cakes in the display case and said, “One Black Tea Basque, one Green Grape Jasmine Mousse, and one Matcha Towel Roll.”
“Alright, that comes to 67 in total. QR code or cash?”
Lin Qingchi scanned the code to pay.
The assistant at the pickup station packed the cakes quickly and even slipped in an extra cat-shaped jelly cake for him on the house, smiling warmly as she said, “This is a new item launched today. Give it a try! If you like it, feel free to get it again next time.”
Lin Qingchi blinked his eyes as he looked at the cute little cake.
“Thank you.”
Carrying the box of cakes in his hand, he walked out of the bakery and raised his head to look up at the sky.
Far off in the sky sat a vortex.
Unlike the azure blue surrounding it, this vortex was black.
It looked like a black hole, yet also like a passage connecting to another dimension.
There were tens of thousands of such vortices scattered across the globe.
A year ago, on September 17, 2026, a sudden anomaly occurred in the Earth’s atmosphere, bringing violent winds and torrential rain that raged for a full half-month.
That extraordinary storm not only left tens of thousands of pitch-black vortices hovering over humanity’s heads, but also seemed to bring some unknown, contaminating substance.
Ever since, regional environmental contamination and mutations began occurring one after another across various areas worldwide.
Fortunately, the situation in China was not severe.
People went on living, eating, and drinking as usual. It was just that traveling to foreign scenic spots was off the table, and all international flights and ferries had been grounded.
Scientists from all over the world had conducted numerous studies on this abnormal storm and the black vortices in the sky. However, even the most cutting-edge satellite radars were unable to gather accurate information through scanning the vortices, and drones dispatched for exploration lost all signals the moment they entered.
No one knew why the storm had occurred, nor what truly lay inside those vortices.
For Lin Qingchi, however, the night the storm arrived had been an exceedingly unusual one.
That evening, while he was working, his phone sitting nearby suddenly lit up for no apparent reason, automatically downloading an app right before his eyes.
The app’s icon was a black vortex.
At the time, Lin Qingchi had not clicked the icon out of curiosity.
Due to his line of work, his phone was equipped with the country’s most advanced firewall, capable of blocking almost any network virus intrusion in the world.
Thus, the sudden appearance of this app was exceptionally suspicious.
He checked his phone and found that he couldn’t locate the app’s installation package, nor could he uninstall it by any means. He couldn’t even force the phone to shut down—even though he had removed the phone’s battery as quickly as possible upon noticing the anomaly.
It defied science, and it defied logic.
Just as he was contemplating whether to disassemble the phone using tools to inspect it further, the app seemed to grow annoyed by his tinkering. In an instant, the entire phone screen turned into a vortex.
The vortex unleashed a powerful suction force, dragging him straight into another world.
[Ding! Welcome to the Divine Chosen Game (Closed Beta Version)!]
[Congratulations on becoming the 1,000,000th closed beta player in the China Region!]
[Player’s Current Clear Points: 0 / 10,000. Current Player Ranking: #1,000,000. (As the very last player to enter the game in this region, shouldn’t you hurry up and put in some effort?)]
[Please work hard to clear the game, earn points, and strive to return to the real world as soon as possible!]
That was how it all began.
Lin Qingchi retracted his gaze.
Carrying his cake box, he walked back to the Dollhouse he ran.
The Dollhouse he operated was very close to the bakery—an old-fashioned, multi-story building that could be reached by crossing a street, entering an alley, and taking a left turn.
Right now, a middle-aged man with a weathered face was standing outside the building.
The moment he saw him, the man quickly stepped forward to greet him, speaking up, “Are you Mr. Lin, the owner of this Dollhouse? There’s something I’d like to ask you about.”
Lin Qingchi: “And you are?”
The man retrieved a badge from his inner coat pocket and flipped it open for Lin Qingchi to see.
[Su City Contaminant Investigation and Management Bureau, Investigator: Zhang Xintong.]
The Contaminant Investigation and Management Bureau was an official agency established after that storm.
Normally, people from this organization rarely made public appearances. Most of the time, they existed only in the discussions of netism online, shrouded in mystery.
Lin Qingchi’s gaze rested on the information on the man’s badge for a second. He nodded and said, “Let’s talk inside the shop.”
Zhang Xintong followed him into the Dollhouse.
He carefully sized up the tall, slender, and upright youth before him, while sweeping his gaze across the decorations throughout the Dollhouse.
This was an old-fashioned Dollhouse with dim interior lighting. The wallpaper was a muted dark green, decorated in a deeply retro style, with various display shelves packed with all kinds of dolls.
Zhang Xintong reached his right hand into his coat pocket and gripped the contamination detector inside.
The detector didn’t emit any warning vibration.
This place was safe.
Lin Qingchi led Zhang Xintong over to two single velvet armchairs near the window, casually setting the cake box down on the round side table next to him, and said, “Please, take a seat. What is it you wanted to ask?”
Zhang Xintong sat down on the armchair, pulled up a photograph on his phone, and showed it to Lin Qingchi.
“Boss Lin, I’d like to ask—did this person buy anything in your shop previously?”
The photograph showed a neat, bright-looking young man wearing black-rimmed glasses.
Sitting in the armchair beside him, Lin Qingchi tilted his head to take a look and said, “Yes. Three days ago, he bought a doll from me.”
“Could you tell me what kind of doll it was?”
Lin Qingchi pondered for a moment before answering, “Oh, it was a rather well-behaved little rabbit doll.”
“Well-behaved?” Zhang Xintong was slightly puzzled. Very few people used personified adjectives like “well-behaved” to describe a doll.
The corners of Lin Qingchi’s lips curled up slightly as he explained, “I mean, that doll looked quite gentle and sweet.”
“Ah, I see.” Zhang Xintong understood.
It sounded like it was just an ordinary little rabbit doll.
For Zhang Xintong, the doll was not the main focus of today’s inquiry.
“Did this man say anything to you when he bought it?” Zhang Xintong asked further.
Lin Qingchi recalled for a moment. “He said he was getting married soon, that his wife was the most beautiful woman in the world, and he even showed me a photo of her.”
Zhang Xintong’s expression shifted drastically. “He showed you a photo of his wife?!”
Lin Qingchi gave a quiet “mm-hmm.”
Zhang Xintong immediately pressed with a stern expression, “Then, Boss Lin, did you think the woman in that photo was beautiful?”
Lin Qingchi thought about it and said, “She was… pretty enough, I suppose?”
The look on Zhang Xintong’s face grew even more solemn. “Then did you start longing for her day and night ever since, dreaming about her at night, and wishing above all else to see her in person?”
Lin Qingchi gave him a strange look. “Why would I long for a woman I don’t even know day and night?”
Zhang Xintong said, “Because she’s beautiful.”
Lin Qingchi: “She is indeed beautiful, but not so beautiful that I’d change my sexual orientation for her.”
Zhang Xintong froze, then broke into a fit of heavy coughing.
Looking at the long-haired youth before him, he realized he seemed to have asked a rather foolish question just now.
“Besides,” Lin Qingchi rested his chin on one hand, his brows carrying a faint touch of weary indifference as he added, “it’s not like I haven’t seen someone better-looking than her. For instance, my ex.”
His deadbeat ex, who doubled as his mortal enemy.
Setting aside the grievances and debts between them, that lord ghost deity did possess a handsome face that suited his aesthetic tastes to perfection.
Well, aside from the face, every other part suited his personal preferences exceptionally well, too.
Zhang Xintong: “Ahem… Boss Lin, I have a general idea of your situation now. Let’s move on to the next question.”
He tried his best to straighten his expression. “During the time the man in that photo bought the doll in your shop, did he hand you his wedding invitation?”
“An invitation?” Lin Qingchi tilted his head slightly. “No.”
“Are you certain there wasn’t one?” Zhang Xintong asked. “According to the investigation records, this Zhao Tingsheng went to the same high school as you. He should be an alumnus of yours. The two of you probably ran into each other in the past.”
“Is that so?” Lin Qingchi said. “I don’t really recall. And even if we were alumni, there’s no reason for him to send me a wedding invitation, is there? We aren’t close.”
Zhang Xintong observed his demeanor carefully. Seeing nothing amiss, he breathed a small sigh of relief. “It’s good that he didn’t.”
Saying that, he still didn’t dare to be careless, asking Lin Qingchi a few more detailed questions. Only after confirming that he truly had no further contact with Zhao Tingsheng did he take his leave.
Lin Qingchi watched Zhang Xintong depart with a casual gaze, then retracted his eyes. Opening the cake box on the table, he picked up the small cat cake inside and sank into the armchair, eating it at a leisurely pace.
‘…Hmm? Sweet and sour—it’s actually quite delicious.’
‘Guess I’ll buy it again next time.’
Deep inside the Dollhouse, in a half-open drawer of the front counter, a dark-red wedding invitation lay sitting there quietly.
Leaving the Dollhouse, Zhang Xintong walked with hurried steps, making a few turns until he reached an ordinary-looking van.
He opened the door, slid into the driver’s seat, and said, “Confirmed that Zhao Tingsheng is indeed the target selected for this upcoming wedding by Contaminant 139.”
This vehicle had been modified: while looking like a regular van on the outside, its interior was encased in a dark blue metal. The rear seats had all been removed, replaced on the left by an iron rack stacked with weapons, and on the right by a monitoring station composed of over a dozen display screens, where two people sat inside.
“What is the contamination status of that contact?” asked a short-haired woman sitting before the control panel.
Zhang Xintong: “The contact saw ‘a photo’ of 139 on Zhao Tingsheng’s phone, but he did not receive a wedding invitation. Based on my observations, the contact’s mental state is stable and his mind is clear. We can tentatively conclude he is uncontaminated.”
“He saw the ‘photo’ but wasn’t contaminated?” A brown-haired youth assembling firearms beside the weapon rack raised an eyebrow. “Then his mental strength must be fairly high. Is he a psychic?”
Zhang Xintong shook his head, pulling a detector from his pocket. The number displayed on it was only 97 as he said, “The psychic reaction on him is extremely faint—at most F-level. In all likelihood, he’s just an ordinary person.”
“An ordinary person could look at the ‘photo’ without being bewitched by 139?” The brown-haired youth sounded skeptical. “Captain, you didn’t get fooled by someone, did you?”
The corners of Zhang Xintong’s mouth twitched as he put it tactfully, “His situation is somewhat unique.”
Slightly puzzled, the short-haired woman tapped her keyboard to pull up the contact’s file. After looking at the photo and pondering for a few seconds, she voiced her agreement: “Hmm… for someone like him, having a higher resistance to 139 actually seems quite normal.”
“What do you mean ‘someone like him’?” The brown-haired youth stuck his head over out of curiosity to take a look at the photo, completely stunned. “Woah… people online wouldn’t even dare Photoshop themselves to look like this! This guy actually looks like that in real life?”
The short-haired woman stroked her chin. “If he became a celebrity, I’d instantly switch to stanning him as my top bias.”
“Alright, that’s enough,” Zhang Xintong said helplessly. “You two hurry up and log the contact’s information. Zhao Tingsheng still has quite a few contacts we haven’t investigated yet. We need to do our best to locate and contain all contaminated individuals within today. After all, the next wedding date is tomorrow.”
The brown-haired youth’s expression turned serious as well. “Which wedding is this now?”
“This is the 9th wedding monitored since Contaminant 139 first appeared in the East China Region a month ago. The count of victims has reached 128 people,” the short-haired woman said. “Both the speed of contamination and the number of people are still rising.”
“Hasn’t the Execution Bureau sent anyone over to clear out the source of contamination yet?” The brown-haired youth felt a massive headache coming on. “We discovered and reported 139’s existence half a month ago!”
“Contamination incidents have been occurring frequently lately, and the Execution Bureau is short-staffed,” Zhang Xintong replied. “In short, let’s pick up the pace on our end.”
He stepped on the accelerator, and the van immediately sped off down the road.