“If you keep playing games, I’m divorcing you! Go live with your games then!”
Song Xu slammed the door with loud thuds. “Liang Yan, open this door for me!”
A muffled response came from inside the small room: “Stop making a scene, I’m busy…”
Song Xu’s eyes turned red. “It’s been almost two months! You play games day and night, turning your sleep upside down, and you won’t even go to the shop! Do you want these games or do you want this family?!”
“I’m at a critical moment right now. I left some porridge on the table for you. Eat up and head to the shop first…”
Grit with anger, Song Xu pounded on the door and cursed, “You little bastard!”
In seven years of marriage, raising their five-year-old daughter, they had never fought like this before.
Liang Yan was a typical Northeast man—strong-willed on the outside, but gentle to his core, loving his wife more than anyone in the world.
He was even better to their daughter; there was nothing to fault him for.
Yet recently, Liang Yan had suddenly become obsessed with playing games. Always diligent and capable, he had actually turned into a hands-off slacker.
He ignored the household, ignored their sick child, and didn’t even care about the shop anymore.
Day and night, he hid in that small room playing games.
Hearing her daughter’s crying coming from the bedroom, Song Xu wiped the corner of her eyes and hurried over.
Her daughter, Baobao, was five years old, but she still couldn’t speak or sit up by herself.
She suffered from a rare hereditary genetic degenerative disease, abbreviated as NBI Type 6. Although doctors said the hope of a cure was slim and the child might not live past the age of ten, neither of them had ever given up.
After helping her daughter wash up, feed, and braiding two pretty pigtails for her, Song Xu pulled out the baby carrier. She strapped her frail, thin daughter onto her back and rushed out the door.
At four in the morning, as dawn was barely breaking, she went to the morning market first to buy twenty catties of minced meat, forty catties of white flour, and some fresh vegetables.
Carrying a large pile of supplies, she caught a motorcycle taxi and arrived at Ping’an Steamed Bun Shop amidst the driver’s discontented grumbling.
This small shop, less than forty square meters, was the sole source of income for Song Xu’s family.
Although it could only fit four small tables and the environment was somewhat humble, Song Xu’s steamed buns tasted delicious, clean, and hygienic, drawing many regular customers from nearby.
Placing her daughter in the stroller behind the cashier counter, she squeezed into the cramped kitchen.
Rolling up her sleeves, she began kneading dough, chopping vegetables, mixing filling, and wrapping buns. She worked until her back ached, cursing Liang Yan the entire time she labored.
The day passed quickly, and Song Xu returned home exhausted.
After coaxing her daughter to sleep, she knocked on the small room’s door, her voice raspy: “Liang Yan, come out. Let’s have a proper talk…”
*Thud.*
*Thud, thud, thud!*
“Liang Yan, do you hear me!”
“Get out here!”
Song Xu couldn’t help but twist the door handle with force.
To her surprise, the door that had always been locked from the inside was pushed open by her in one go.
There was no one inside.
Subconsciously, she ran to the bathroom. “Liang Yan?”
Not in the bathroom, not in the kitchen. Did he go out?
Song Xu looked toward the entrance in confusion.
His coat and shoes were still there, and his keys hadn’t been taken either.
Pulling out her phone, she dialed his number, but a harsh ringtone rang out from the bedroom instead.
She rushed back in and found Liang Yan’s phone—the one he had bought second-hand at a flea market—wedged in the gap of the bed.
Song Xu’s heart sank.
It was so late. Where could he have gone without saying a word, leaving even his phone behind?
During this period, she had felt that Liang Yan was acting very wrong, almost like a completely different person.
He never used to play games, but now he played night after night without end.
At first, she thought he might be under too much pressure and just wanted to relax.
Later on, he played until he lost all sense of day and night, and his temper grew increasingly irritable. They had argued and made scenes; Song Xu even suspected he was having mental issues.
Looking at Liang Yan’s phone, which had its passcode changed again, the veins on Song Xu’s forehead throbbed.
She had long asked what kind of game could be so addictive, but every time she checked his phone, there were only two single-player games: a tile-matching game and a snake game.
The screen of this lousy phone was already scratched up, costing only a hundred and fifty yuan when bought. It lagged even when playing normal videos, let alone running single-player games smoothly.
Song Xu didn’t believe those brainless mini-games could addict Liang Yan to this extent.
Since Liang Yan wasn’t here now, Song Xu wanted to look through it again.
After trying a few passcode combinations, she opened it.
Sure enough, it was still a combination of their birth dates, just in a different order.
That idiot.
Even when changing the passcode, he didn’t know how to set one she couldn’t guess.
Unlocking the phone, she first checked the call logs and WeChat.
The recent calls were all from her, and WeChat was even cleaner—just two women: one was her, and the other was the old woman who delivered tofu every day.
There were barely any apps. Song Xu flipped through for a long time without finding any new game.
Sitting blankly for a while, Song Xu went downstairs to search around, then called Liang Yan’s friends, but none could be reached.
Liang Yan was born into an ordinary working-class family; his parents had passed away early, and he had no relatives to keep in touch with. He only had two friends whom he didn’t contact often.
Song Xu began to panic.
She rushed to the police station, only to be told that an adult had to be missing for 24 hours before a case could be filed.
By the time she returned home dazed and confused, it was already midnight.
Exhausted in both body and mind, Song Xu felt no sleepiness whatsoever.
She sat on the small bed her husband had slept on, her shoulders trembling.
“Sob… You bastard, where did you go… without even leaving a word! Just wait until you come back… see if I don’t…”
The time hit exactly twelve o’clock midnight.
A flash of white light suddenly flared before her eyes!
Immediately after, Song Xu collapsed straight onto the bed as if struck by lightning.
Yet her consciousness was falling rapidly downward!
Opening her mouth to shout, her throat felt as if stuffed with cotton, unable to make a single sound.
*Thud!*
Song Xu landed right on her bottom, her internal organs trembling from the impact.
A clear electronic voice sounded in her ears:
[Welcome to “Dawn Era.” Congratulations, you are about to start your second life. Whether it is wealth, status, health, or even lifespan, everything can be earned here and brought back to your world.]
[Player ID: Song Xu]
[Login successful. Current Zone: Novice Canyon No. 0627]
[Detected that player possesses Skill Card x1. Use immediately?]
Song Xu propped herself up on the ground and sat up, the dizziness making her dry-heave a few times.
“Where… where is this? What skill card…”
She grabbed the moss beneath her bottom; it was sticky with a muddy, earthy smell.
The clothes she had been wearing were gone, replaced by a cotton T-shirt and shorts.
Looking up, three giant eyeballs hung in the sky, emitting a cold light like moons.
The blood-red pupils on those orbs seemed to still be rolling around. Song Xu couldn’t help pinching her thigh hard.
“Ouch!”
The pain made her realize this was not a dream.
Looking around, twisted dry-tree forests were everywhere, with the faint outlines of mountain ranges in the distance.
“Skill card?”
Song Xu stared in astonishment at the playing card that had mysteriously appeared in her palm, utterly stunned.
Isn’t this the card that begging old man dropped during the day?
She remembered that when the shop opened this morning, a filthy begging old man had approached.
Seeing him looking pitiable and drooling while staring at the steamed buns, Song Xu had given him a few buns.
After taking the buns, the old man didn’t leave; instead, he sat down at a small table.
It was quite cold on a late autumn morning, and Song Xu didn’t have the heart to drive him away.
She figured he would leave after finishing his meal.
Who knew that old man would actually sit there eating for over an hour.
When he finally left, Song Xu found this King of Clubs playing card while clearing the table.