Having set her up with a free computer, Liu Haoming pointed at machine #1 and said, "Just sit there. If you get tired, you can push two chairs together and lie down for a bit."
It was the same machine Li Xi had used last night.
"Thank you, I'll never forget your immense kindness!" Chu Yao meant it from the bottom of her heart. To her, not being thrown out of the cafe was the same as having her life saved.
"Don't mention it, it's nothing." Liu Haoming waved a hand. He was just letting a girl use the internet — nowhere near anything you could call immense kindness.
He hesitated a moment, then went on, "After the darkness comes the dawn. Tomorrow will be better."
He didn't know what desperate circumstances she was in, but comforting her like this surely couldn't be wrong.
Chu Yao froze. Tomorrow, would it really be better?
When she thought back to being hunted and cornered by the Anomalies during the day, her whole life seemed steeped in despair and darkness. Until the day she found a way to deal with the Anomalies, she would never be able to wake from this nightmare.
"I hope so..." Chu Yao's smile was full of bitterness and reluctance.
Then she walked over to machine #1 and pressed the power button.
"Tonight, I'll just fall asleep listening to music," she thought to herself.
She hadn't had a single drop of water all day while the Anomalies hunted her, and she was utterly exhausted. Now that her taut nerves had finally eased, she had no interest at all in gaming or watching a movie — she just wanted a good night's sleep.
Chu Yao sat down in the soft, comfortable gaming chair and reached for the headphones, which were bigger than half her face. The instant she put them on, a tearing, electric jolt shot up from beneath her rear. She tried to scream on instinct, only to find she couldn't make a sound.
Then something even more bizarre happened. She hadn't touched the mouse, yet the screen jumped to a game interface on its own, and after a few flickers a line of chilling, ghastly text appeared:
【Welcome to Demon Capital: Night Parade of a Hundred Anomalies.】
Bzzzt!
A shudder ran through her brain, as if her soul were being torn out of her body. Chu Yao's vision went black, and the screen changed with it: a modern international metropolis appeared from a drone's overhead view, every detail as lifelike as a big-budget film.
At that very moment, Liu Haoming took a cup of Master Kong noodles down from the shelf behind the counter, noticing nothing amiss with the girl.
***
【You have entered the game. Please select your character's gender:】
【Male.】
【Female.】
【Intersex.】
When Chu Yao opened her eyes again, she found herself in a strange blue space, with this row of light-panels floating before her.
"I'm in the game?!"
Chu Yao could hardly believe it. She looked down, but the peaks on her chest blocked her view — she couldn't even see her toes.
I just put on some headphones to listen to music, and now I'm in a game!
Chu Yao looked at her own hands again — incredibly realistic. A guess suddenly rose in her heart: "Could this be a VR game?"
At school, Chu Yao had heard the boys in her class talk about games plenty of times, and lately VR games were what they talked about most. Supposedly the Empire was developing VR gaming, and if the research succeeded, you could hook it up to a computer and enjoy a fully immersive experience — the world inside VR would be no different from the real one, right down to faithfully simulated pain.
Remembering this, Chu Yao gave herself a hard pinch, and sure enough, it genuinely hurt.
"It really is a VR game..."
Chu Yao's expression grew complicated. This Origin Internet Cafe was truly mysterious — not only was it wrapped in unfathomably deep fog, and not only did the owner look so bizarre, but it had even mastered the VR technology the Empire was still developing. Just what was the owner's background?
Could he be the one who had controlled the fog and guided her here?
【Please select your character's gender.】
The light-panel popped up to hurry Chu Yao along, cutting her speculation short.
"Then I'll just give it a try, I suppose."
Chu Yao was rather glum about landing in a VR game so inexplicably. She couldn't get out no matter what she tried, so she would have to play along. After some hesitation, she chose to be male.
Being hunted by the Anomalies had taught her just how much real power mattered. If she had been an enlightened monk, would the Anomalies from that day have dared to run wild in front of her?
She wished she could turn all the spare flesh on her chest into strong, hard muscle.
【Gender selected successfully. Please sculpt a face for your game character, or match randomly.】
The light-panel popped up again, and a faceless male model appeared before Chu Yao.
"I even have to sculpt a face."
Picturing an enlightened monk, Chu Yao began sculpting the male model's face. Under her skillful hands, a bald, hulking man 2.2 meters tall, muscles bulging all over, gradually took shape.
"This game seems pretty fun — the face-sculpting is even this realistic!"
Chu Yao murmured to herself in surprise. Sculpting a face felt so real that it was a truly novel experience, and she was starting to enjoy herself. If it was this much fun right at the start, wouldn't it be even more fun once she was properly in the game?
"Miss, have a cup of noodles."
At that moment, the cafe owner's voice, grand and sacred as the toll of a bell, suddenly sounded in her ear.
***
Chu Yao turned toward the voice, and in a daze her soul slipped free of the game space and returned to the cafe. The cafe owner stood before her, His face shrouded beneath a chaos mist. Two tongues of flowing flame burned within His pupils, and in His hand He held an exquisite little cup from which the fragrance of food drifted.
Once the girl's noodles were ready, Liu Haoming turned around and saw her at the computer, wholly absorbed in sculpting a game character's appearance, and for some reason he felt relieved on her behalf.
If she was still in the mood to take a game this seriously, her situation probably wasn't all that bad. All that talk earlier about dying had likely been an exaggeration.
***
The wonderful aroma drifted up to her nose and instantly roused Chu Yao's appetite. She couldn't help swallowing, and, blushing crimson, said, "Thank you — thank you, boss!"
The boss knew she had no money on her, so he must be treating her. But... what were instant noodles? She had never eaten anything called instant noodles before. Noodles, of course, she had eaten.
"Don't mention it. Eat your fill, then play." Liu Haoming smiled faintly, set down the cup of noodles, and returned to the counter.
Chu Yao gazed after him with boundless gratitude, then eagerly picked up the cup. Rosy light burst from inside the exquisite little cup, and every strand of noodle glittered gold, utterly extraordinary — it simply didn't look like food that could exist in the mortal world.
"So this is instant noodles?!"
Chu Yao was utterly astonished. Never in her life had she seen such divine, wondrous food. After a whole day baking under the sun, she could hold back no longer — she picked up the fork, speared a bite of noodles, and stuffed it into her mouth.
The next moment, a deliciousness beyond compare, carried on surging spirit energy, exploded in her mouth. Every cell in her body cheered with bliss.
"How can it be this delicious?!!!"