"Is the male lead always this prone to joking?" Lin Shuang muttered.
She tried to dredge up memories of the novel she'd read, but her brain felt like it had been through a shredder. Forget it. Even if she remembered, it wouldn't change anything; it would just add to the headache. Besides, for now, the male lead didn't seem to have any malicious intent toward her.
The moving company dumped her boxes into the apartment and left as soon as the payment cleared. The place was forty square meters—freshly deep-cleaned, echoing, and painfully sparse, save for a few heavy furniture pieces.
"What do you think?" Lin Shuang asked, standing in the living room after giving Jiang Mo the grand tour. "I put a lot of thought into the design."
The original owner's tastes were high-end, and with an art school background, the renovation had been meticulous.
"It's good," Jiang Mo nodded. Then, he asked, "Are the water and electricity rates commercial?"1
"What?"
"…Do you know what 'commercial rates' implies?"
"Uh? There's a convenience store nearby, and a large supermarket."
Jiang Mo sighed, helpless. He explained the implications of commercial utilities to her, then added, "But Miss Lin isn't exactly strapped for cash, so I suppose you wouldn't mind the higher utility bills and the property status."
Lin Shuang was hearing about this for the first time. In her memories, the real estate agent had babbled on about a million things, but she hadn't been paying close attention. Hearing Jiang Mo's explanation, she finally realized the "young lady" had likely been ripped off.
"And this lock," Jiang Mo said, tapping the apartment door. "A decent pro could get this open with a wire through the peephole."
In the book, the male lead was cold and aloof while inside the survival instances, but here in reality, he was an expert at masking that coldness. Anyone meeting him would likely find him gentle, polite, and stand-up.
That was the extent of Lin Shuang's impression of him. Main God Games wasn't finished yet—the story spanned over a million words, and she'd only read about eight hundred thousand. Her character's relevance probably capped out around the five-hundred-thousand-word mark.
After tidying up the boxes, Lin Shuang's gaze drifted to the newly installed solid wood door.
Today, after Jiang Mo pointed out the flaws with the original door, he'd efficiently taken her to pick out a new door and lock, plus a door jammer with an alarm.
No wonder so many women liked him. A gentlemanly, reliable guy like this? You don't have to worry about mother-in-law drama, you don't have to worry about his health—who wouldn't fall for that?
Lin Shuang sighed. Just thinking about the survival game in two days made her head throb.
The setting was fixed: at exactly midnight on the 15th of every month, all selected veteran and rookie players were sucked into a game instance. Games were played in squads of 2 to 10, entering various scenarios.
Escape, survival, endurance, puzzle-solving, manhunt—the themes were completely randomized.
If a player died in the game, they died in the real world too.
Those who finished an instance appeared in the "Main God Space," where they received monetary rewards based on their rating: 10,000 (D), 30,000 (C), 50,000 (B), 80,000 (A), 100,000 (S).
After that came the lottery. D-rank earned one draw, C-rank two... all the way to five for S-rank. The prizes were also graded by tier; it was a total crapshoot.
Because there was no point-exchange system, every single draw chance was precious.
The reason the male lead was enrolling in exercise classes in the real world was precisely because the Main God lottery couldn't be trusted. Hard physical training was the only thing that felt reliable.
Lin Shuang flopped onto the bed, groaning. (Damn it. She really didn't want to run an 800-meter dash; she didn't want to exercise at all.)
She grabbed her phone and opened Jiang Mo's WeChat.
His avatar didn't match the standard "romance novel male lead" vibe—it was just the flag of a pirate crew from One Piece. His "Moments" hadn't been updated since he was in college, over a year ago.
Presumably, after his parents died, he lost the mood to post or change his avatar. He'd just left it as is.
Should she reach out? It was nine in the evening—he couldn't be asleep yet, right?
If she sent a message, what should she even say?
Lin Shuang rolled around on the bed again, overthinking it. Finally, she snapped out of it. (What's dignity worth? I need to survive!)
Lin Shuang: "I'm really sorry for the trouble today. When you're free, let me treat you to a meal."
Should she add a sticker to make it less awkward?
Forget it. They weren't that close yet. Stickers were… yeah, save those for when they're actually friends.
A long wait followed. In the interim, Lin Shuang showered, brushed her teeth, and applied a face mask.
Finally, the phone buzzed.
Lin Shuang pretended to be cool and counted to three before checking the reply.
Jiang Mo: "Sorry, I was out for a night run."
Jiang Mo: "I'm free whenever, but do the university cafeterias even stay open during summer break?"2
Ugh… Was the "student ID" joke ever going to die?
Lin Shuang: "Stop bringing up the student ID!"
Lin Shuang: "You go for night runs this late? Aren't you afraid of being tempted by all the street food stalls?"
Jiang Mo: "I usually pick routes where there aren't many people. Won't run into any food stalls."
Lin Shuang: "How long do you run for at night? You're making me want to work out, too."
That was a lie, and she knew it. Whether it was the original owner or Lin Shuang herself, she was the type who would rather sit than stand. Hell, the original owner had even paid someone to run the 800-meter physical fitness test for her in college.
Jiang Mo: "Don't follow my lead. You should just buy a treadmill for your place. It's not safe outside."
Lin Shuang: "If I bought one, it wouldn't be three days before it turned into a laundry rack."
Jiang Mo looked at the message, a sudden smile playing on his lips. A moment later, a photo popped up on Lin Shuang's phone.
It was a photo of a treadmill piled high with clothes.
Jiang Mo: "Exactly like this. My treadmill broke down a few days ago. Now it's just a clothes rack."
Broke down?
Oh my god, it's my first time hearing that a treadmill could be 'overworked' to death.
Lin Shuang couldn't help it; she sent a "trembling in fear" sticker.
They chatted for a little while longer until Jiang Mo said he was going to shower and sleep, and they wished each other a good night.
Things were heading in the right direction.
Lin Shuang thought that if she kept communicating with the male lead over these next two days, her survival in the game instance—life or death—would come down to the effort she put in now.
At six in the morning, Jiang Mo was up on time. After washing up, he headed out for an hour-long morning run, then picked up some youtiao and steamed buns from a street stall near the complex on his way back.
While walking back, he ran into Lin Yingnan, who was heading out to the morning market with a vegetable basket.
The fifty-something aunt was known throughout the complex for her "busybody" heart. She greeted everyone and was always the first to help out if someone was in trouble, which made her a local favorite.
"Little Jiang, back from your run?" Lin Yingnan waved from a distance. "Come over for dumplings at my place at noon today! Shuang-shuang is coming too."
Summary:
Lin Shuang navigates her new apartment and her anxieties about the upcoming survival game. She initiates a tentative conversation with Jiang Mo to build rapport before the next instance. The scene concludes with a neighbor, Lin Yingnan, inviting them both for dumplings, highlighting the domestic tension within the horror-survival narrative.
Trivia:
Lin Shuang only read about 800,000 words of the million-word story.
She assumes her character's screen time ends around 500,000 words.
Survival game instances occur on the 15th of every month at midnight.
The apartment status issue implies financial vulnerability of the original owner.
Jiang Mo's casual persona in reality is a sharp contrast to his in-game coldness.
Translation Notes:
1 ↩ Refers to properties registered as commercial, resulting in higher utility costs compared to residential rates.
2 ↩ Student ID card; commonly used for payment in university cafeterias, implying Jiang Mo is teasing her about being young or still a student.
Notes:
• Lin Shuang - A college student who wants to live a life of comfort as a "parasite" to the male lead. A young woman and minor character in an infinite stream game, struggling with anxiety and a desperate need to survive. A young woman who has transmigrated into a character within a survival game novel, struggling to adapt and survive. An outsider who has transmigrated into a cannon fodder supporting role within an infinite stream world. She is trying to navigate her new reality while dealing with the original owner's social ties.
• Lin - A third-year university student who has transmigrated into a cannon fodder role within a survival game novel. She is panicked but uses a facade of bravado and wealth to survive.
• Jiang Mo - A cold, calculating man who hides a predatory nature beneath a mask of playful indifference. A player in the Infinite Stream, detached and highly trained. The male lead of the survival game novel, who masks his cold, aloof nature with a polite and gentle persona in the real world. The male protagonist of the infinite stream story. He is calm, methodical, and surprisingly tidy, currently living alone.
• Jiang - A cynical, survival-hardened former student and game player who has become detached from life. He is suspicious of social interactions and blind dates.
• Lin Yingnan - A friendly, middle-aged neighbor in the apartment complex who is known for her kindness and hospitality. Lin Shuang's aunt, a mother of twins who is eager to play matchmaker for her niece.