"I killed an Anomaly?"
Chu Yao only half believed the system's notification. Then she noticed a few minimized panels at the edge of her view, and out of curiosity she opened one of them:
【Player: Chu Yao
Level: Lv. 2
Mana: ???
Strength: ???
Spirit: ???
Anomaly Coins: 2
Skill Points: 1】
The familiar three question marks reminded Chu Yao of the bonus attributes on the Purple-Gold Alms Bowl and the Demon-Subduing Pestle.
"Could it be that I smashed that Anomaly to death just now with the Demon-Subduing Pestle..."
It was a bold guess, but the more Chu Yao thought about it, the surer she became that this was exactly what had happened. After all, the system had listed the Demon-Subduing Pestle's grade as Divine Artifact. Chu Yao had never played games, but after soaking up the chatter of the boys in her class day after day, she knew perfectly well how formidable Divine Artifacts were — just hearing the name told you it was something incredible.
So using a Divine Artifact to smash one Anomaly to death was normal, right?
The realization that she could fight back against Anomalies thrilled Chu Yao. In reality she was being hunted down by Anomalies, but in the game she could finally arm-wrestle them head-on!
"But why can I run into Anomalies in the game too? And just before I entered the game, the screen clearly displayed the game's title as Demon Capital: Night Parade of a Hundred Anomalies, and the main quest it issued was also to uncover the cause of the Anomalies descending on Demon Capital, or to kill a hundred Anomalies."
Once the brief burst of excitement passed, Chu Yao sank into deep thought again. The game's plot matched exactly what she had been through in reality — and that in itself was deeply wrong.
Soon, she arrived at the only possibility.
"All of this was arranged by the internet cafe owner. He knows everything about me, which is why He set up a game like this for me, to let me face Anomalies head-on within it..."
It was the only explanation. As the owner of the internet cafe, He could naturally control the games inside it however He wished. The Purple-Gold Alms Bowl and Demon-Subduing Pestle in her hands proved it — the two things were plainly nothing more than the cup and fork from the instant noodles the cafe owner had treated her to, yet inside the VR game they had become Divine Artifacts.
Even the thick fog that had saved her from the Anomaly's clutches and guided her to the internet cafe was under His control!
The thought sent a shiver of dread through Chu Yao. The more she considered it, the more the cafe owner seemed an unfathomable, mysterious being. She didn't understand what purpose He had in doing all this, but one thing was certain — He bore her no malice.
If He had wanted to harm her, He wouldn't have needed to lift a finger at all. Her life and death had long been held in His hands. Had that been His intent, He wouldn't have treated her to those supremely sacred instant noodles earlier.
"Since He isn't harming me, then He must be helping me?"
Chu Yao took her reasoning further, and before long, a "truth" of her own reckoning surfaced.
"The internet cafe owner learned of my desperate plight, and out of great compassion, He wants to use the experiences within the game to teach me how to deal with Anomalies in reality!"
Chu Yao felt she had figured out the internet cafe owner's intent.
With that understanding, the image of the cafe owner shrouded in that chaos mist instantly grew lofty and holy in her mind — a towering deity delivering people from their suffering. Reverence welled up in her heart!
***
"Jungler, you're f***ing ACTUALLY just jungling!"
Liu Haoming — the very man that high school girl revered as a towering deity — was at that moment pounding his keyboard in a frenzy and hurling furious accusations at his jungler:
"Can't you see how hard the enemy Riven is domi-boobating us? Get over here and gank her already!"
In his excitement, Liu Haoming had made a typo without even realizing it.
The Graves player, who had been dutifully clearing the jungle for twenty minutes, paused for a moment, then replied: "Okay, on my way!"
Half a minute later, Riven's Double Kill flashed up on the screen, and Liu Haoming fell silent.
"This Riven really is so boob-ally fierce, there's just no ganking her at all!" Graves lamented.
"Bro, you should just keep farming jungle."
"Okay, farming now!"
For once, Liu Haoming didn't get into a spat with his teammate. The mood between the two of them was the very picture of harmony and goodwill.
One minute later, however, Riven scored yet another Double Kill on his screen, and Liu Haoming nearly lost his mind:
"Didn't I tell you to keep farming and NOT come up top?!"
"I still wanted to gank her a little..." Graves replied weakly.
Liu Haoming: "..."
The result of this match went without saying — they lost, and lost catastrophically. Riven wrecked the entire team with a single broken sword, and Liu Haoming, laning against her, straight-up fed his brains out.
The instant the Nexus exploded, Liu Haoming's eyes went hollow and vacant, staring blankly at Chu Yao's computer screen in front of him.
On the screen, Chu Yao was intently steering her game character as it brought the Demon-Subduing Pestle smashing down on a white-clothed girl.
In an instant, warm, pure Buddha-light bloomed at the tip of the Demon-Subduing Pestle. Under its glow, countless pale, wriggling maggots came squirming out of the white-clothed girl's body, thrashing and twisting madly, and evaporated into nothingness in the blink of an eye.
Liu Haoming's eyes went wide and he sucked in a cold breath. At last he understood where it had all gone wrong!
"I should've built Thornmail!"
The young internet cafe owner was sick with bitter regret:
"If I'd built Thornmail, I could've absolutely strung Riven up and pounded her flat!"
***
The Demon Capital of the Night Parade of a Hundred Anomalies.
The elevator came to a slow stop on the first floor.
It was the dead of night, and the first-floor lobby held only two security guards. They stared, dumbfounded, as a bald, hulking muscle-man — one hand cradling the Purple-Gold Alms Bowl, the other gripping the Demon-Subduing Pestle — walked right past them and out the building's south gate.
"A build that huge — what did he eat to grow like that?" one young guard murmured in astonishment.
The other, a middle-aged guard, quickly regained his composure and told him matter-of-factly, "Demon Capital's an international metropolis after all — you get all kinds here, tall, short, fat, thin. Even spotting a celebrity on the street's nothing to marvel at. Work here another couple of years and you'll get used to it."
"Oh. Oh."
The young guard nodded again and again, as if he'd been taught a valuable lesson.
Chu Yao heard every word of the two men's conversation, and she rubbed her nose in puzzlement.
Two purely NPC passersby could actually interact with each other? Just like real people talking.
This VR game really was exquisitely crafted — flawless down to the smallest detail!
Chu Yao suddenly understood why the boys in her class were so eager for VR games to come out. They really were fun — even a good, well-behaved girl like her, who never played games, was now brimming with anticipation for what the story had in store.
【Main Quest: Kill 100 Anomalies (Progress 1%) / Uncover the cause of the Anomalies descending on Demon Capital (Progress 0%).】
"Even to uncover the cause of the Anomalies' descent, I first have to find the Anomalies. I've got the two Divine Artifacts the cafe owner gifted me at my side — even if I come face to face with an Anomaly again, I won't be afraid. Besides, this is just a game. Even if an Anomaly kills me in here, I can just respawn."
Chu Yao decided to go on the offensive, and at the same time a certain saying came to mind: Whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger!
Then she opened the minimap on the game's interface. Her own position was clearly marked upon it, and a dozen or so small black dots drifted and floated about the surrounding area.