After confirming that her neighbor had obediently gone to work, Zhou Meng went to sleep.
In the evening, Zhou Meng woke up.
Zhou Meng sat blankly on the bed for a moment, then turned on the computer.
The Light Orb watched her sit in front of the computer with dark circles under her eyes, a little puzzled.
[Not going to keep sleeping?]
“Can’t sleep now.”
Zhou Meng said.
“Let me experience what it’s like to be a shut-in.”
She sat in the soft chair, flipping through manga news while searching on the computer, trying to find some clues.
“There’s too little information about the third manga.” She tapped her lower lip: “I want to try getting into my neighbor’s head, maybe I can guess what he’s thinking… It’d be great if we could get along peacefully.”
[That actually makes sense.] It floated lightly and settled on top of Zhou Meng’s head, saying cheerfully: [Are you going to play a game?]
“Yeah. I can give it a try.”
Zhou Meng responded distractedly, her gaze stopping at a corner of the screen.
In the manga, in a dim room lit only by electronic screens, among monitors where countless streams of data flowed, in an inconspicuous corner, there was a computer desktop with a small pixel icon.
It seemed to be a game.
The name was “Waste Capital.”
The icon was a pixel-art doctor character. The doctor wore large square-framed glasses, with black hair covering his eyes, revealing a hint of green beady eyes, looking somewhat sinister.
Zhou Meng searched the web but didn’t find much information, only a forum that simply shared a link.
Has it not been publicly promoted yet…?
Zhou Meng slowly stretched and clicked download.
“Waste Capital” appeared to be a pixel-art adventure role-playing game.
When the game started, an empty metallic room appeared on the screen, surrounded by capsule-like experiment pods and many jars and bottles containing strange specimens.
The player was a street child captured and brought here.
The black-haired sinister doctor, hands in his white coat pockets, asked with a calm expression:
[What should I call you?]
[Enter your codename: __]
Oh! It’s the naming phase!
Zhou Meng was just planning to experience it, so she calmly typed in a line of characters.
【zozo】
The doctor nodded: [Hello, zozo. This test I designed isn’t difficult. You can freely try whatever you like. Good luck.]
After saying this, the sinister doctor walked toward a metal door on the side, heading deeper into the pixel-art research institute and disappearing.
Ah.
Although the art style was simple, it was unexpectedly effective?
Zhou Meng watched the computer screen as her character crawled out of the experiment pod, wearing simple patient clothes, the only somewhat threatening item in hand being a small knife picked up from the ground.
In the bottom-left corner of the game screen, there was an input box, a status bar, and a map icon. Nothing else.
There wasn’t even an equipment slot.
…Seems a bit bare-bones.
Is it meant to be explored on your own?
She picked up her water cup and took a sip, using her other hand to guide the character through the jars and bottles toward the door.
“Bang,” a jar shattered, and a blue slime crawled out.
Let’s attack it.
“Shhk.” The pixel character slashed at the slime with the knife. A health bar appeared above the slime’s head, but no visible change could be seen—only a small 【-1】 floated up.
[The slime attacks.]
“Gulp.” The slime opened its mouth and bit down on Zhou Meng’s character in one go.
For nearly 10 seconds, Zhou Meng could only watch helplessly as her character struggled in the slime’s mouth. No matter how she manipulated the mouse and keyboard, it was useless, and the input box kept popping up, making it hard to operate.
After 10 seconds, the character’s beady eyes turned into “××” and a white soul floated out.
[You failed, zozo.]
The sinister doctor with black hair and green beady eyes rose up on an elevator through the automatically parting floor, looked at the character’s corpse on the ground, and asked with genuine confusion: [You lost even like this?]
Zhou Meng: “…”
She stared at the game screen in shock.
This guy… is so mean!!
It’s obviously a game design flaw.
Didn’t he say it wasn’t difficult?
Where does a player get killed by a minor monster right at the start?
The doctor was oblivious to her complaints: [Want to end it?]
【No】
The doctor nodded: [Then try again, zozo.]
Ending was out of the question.
Zhou Meng got serious, and her dodging speed picked up noticeably.
She spent 10 minutes, grinding down the slime’s health bit by bit.
[You defeated the slime.]
Heh, not so tough after all.
Does this mean she can level up now?
The blue slime turned into a limp blob, gradually disappearing, leaving nothing behind.
Zhou Meng: “?”
She circled around a few more times, but the same process repeated, and nothing happened.
Could this be one of those escape games with no damage, no levels, and no equipment?
Is anyone actually playing this?
Just as she was hesitating whether to continue, the edge of the screen flickered, and a pixel figure appeared in her view.
The person opposite bore the code name “YUYU” above their head, with black hair and green eyes, wearing a mask that covered their mouth, looking like a Cyborg.
On the surface, they didn’t seem to have any equipment either, but they weren’t wearing the game’s starting patient gown—instead, they wore a white long-sleeved shirt and pants.
A player?
After YUYU appeared, they stopped at the edge of the screen, neither approaching nor speaking, as if observing her.
Zhou Meng thought for a moment, then opened the input box in the bottom-left corner.
[zozo: Hello?]
After a few seconds of silence, a small line of text appeared above the black-haired, green-eyed Cyborg’s head.
[YUYU: Hello.]
[YUYU: Are you playing the game?]
Zhou Meng maneuvered her character in two circles around YUYU’s Cyborg, admiring the other’s character design before typing a reply.
[zozo: Yes]
[zozo: Got eaten by the experiment subject 5 times ^^]
[YUYU: How pitiful.]
YUYU handed over a silver dagger, which looked much better than her small knife.
【YUYU has gifted you a [Silver Dagger].】
Ah, being pitied.
Zhou Meng looked at the new dagger in her inventory, paused her movements, and observed the new player who had suddenly appeared.
Black hair, a distinctive mask, and an appearance that covered a bit of those green eyes… this character—
She tapped lightly on the keyboard.
[zozo: YUYU,]
[zozo: Are you the game’s developer? ^^]
…
【WITNESSING HISTORY!!】
【Hahahaha, ah hahahaha】
【What expression does YU have right now】
【YU really didn’t disguise anything…】
【YU, you’re so useless】
【The GM and the alt account look too similar… it’s too obvious!】
Many bullet comments scrolled across Zhang Yunyu’s window. He ignored the people in the chatroom, yawned, cleared the screen, and continued watching the stray child in the game.
Zhang Yunyu was YUYU, the developer of 【Waste Capital】.
Although it looked like a pixel-style game, 【Waste Capital】 was actually also a hacker program.
After all, he usually did part-time work outside, and he needed to conceal his secret.
The chatroom, naturally, was a chatroom for a group of hackers—all of them his followers and challengers.
Because YUYU was the monstrous newcomer who had crushed a neighboring country’s hacker organization last year.
However, YUYU was very mindful of boundaries and had solid technical skills. Even with all the attention, he never leaked information, only communicating through the chatroom and forums.
This time, his part-time job was at a courier warehouse.
He’d originally just gone in as a sorter, but somehow became a supervisor.
As a result, he got home a bit later than usual, only just arriving now. Zhang Yunyu watched the computer while reaching his fingers to his neck, hooking down the sorter uniform he was wearing.
…zozo.
He looked at the other’s IP, fingers brushing across his jaw. The small mole at the corner of his mouth shifted slightly as his lips pressed together.
Seems like his neighbor?
…
The Cyborg with the mask half-covering their face stood still for a few seconds, then a dialogue box appeared above their head. Their lines were still so sparse that it was hard to read them:
[YUYU: Mm]
[YUYU: Is it fun]
The stray in the scene stopped circling around YUYU’s Cyborg.
[zozo: The ways to die are quite novel.]
[YUYU: Thanks.]
Zhou Meng: “…”
No, don’t accept it so naturally.
She was just euphemistically saying it was boring.
[zozo: That wasn’t a compliment…]
[YUYU: I know… zozo, who finds it boring but played it five times.]
[zozo: That’s me.]
[zozo: Chatting with YUYU is more interesting than the game.]
[YUYU: .]
[YUYU: It’s just a half-finished product after all.]
She won, heh.
Zhou Meng’s lips curled upward.
[zozo: Any compensation?]
“…”
All the hackers in the chatroom, along with YUYU, stared at the player on screen who was asking for compensation.
YUYU was a figure close to ruler status. The chatroom was also a gathering place for hackers.
Not many people spoke in the chatroom. Zhang Yunyu silently typed:
[YUYU: Then what do you want?]
【YU agreed…?】
【That’s pretty normal for his style…】
Zhang Yunyu didn’t have much feeling for material life or reality. In a sense, few people truly managed to bother him.
He didn’t wait long before a message appeared above zozo’s head:
[zozo: YUYU]
[zozo: Please give me a new skill ^^]
“Beep beep.”
The washing machine’s cleaning cycle had finished.
Zhang Yunyu decided to open the dryer later and continued replying steadily.
[YUYU: Planning to keep playing?]
[zozo: Mm-hm]
[zozo: I think the visuals and character design are really nice.]
[zozo: It might become quite famous someday.]
The young man who received international attention online rubbed his phone with his fingers.
[YUYU: Sure.]
After receiving his response, zozo became very active, and once again manipulated the stray child to circle around his green-eyed Cyborg twice.
[zozo: ~]
[YUYU: ?]
[zozo: Thank you, I’m feeling better now.]
So that was enough to make her happy…
[YUYU: Still playing today?]
He was waiting for her to log off so he could update the entire program system.
[zozo: Mm, I want to play a bit more.]
[zozo: Do you want to play together?]
Zhang Yunyu stared at the phone screen, his eyes beneath the black strands of hair focused intently.
He typed “Sure.”
[zozo: Then let’s go.]
She maneuvered the messy, disheveled stray character through the pixel-style base. Passing by the refrigerator, she pulled out an apple and made a gesture of handing it to YUYU.
[zozo: What do Cyborgs eat?]
[YUYU: Anything.]
In the game, the Cyborg took the fruit from the stray child’s hand, removed his mask, opened a mouth made of pixel blocks, and ate the red fruit.
Walking a bit further ahead, they entered a laboratory, where a tide of black bats suddenly burst out.
Among the bats was a Vampire. He lunged forward and bit Zhou Meng’s character, red pixel lines streaming from her neck.
Bleeding.
Having to work for the boss during the day was bad enough—there was no way she’d let a Vampire suck her blood in a game too!
Zhou Meng controlled the stray to swing a blade, getting bitten while slashing the Vampire 10 times per second. The blood he lost was far more than hers.
Zhou Meng’s health bar quickly hit rock bottom.
Ah, she was going to die.
But YUYU would never just watch her die.
The cold-looking Cyborg stood still for a few seconds, then suddenly—shing—several metallic bone spikes burst out from his back, whoosh whoosh whoosh piercing into the Vampire’s body. The Vampire let out a cry and melted away.
[zozo: Instant kill]
[zozo: As expected of YUYU]
[YUYU: The privilege of the developer.]
[YUYU: Jealous?]
…She felt like this guy had absolutely no sense of restraint.
[zozo: I want one too.]
[YUYU: Sure.]
The two of them played happily—one kiting enemies with positioning, the other unleashing skills.
Until they took down a canine test subject and the stray and the Cyborg sat down together to rest. Zhou Meng on the other side of the screen glanced at the time.
20:19.
She had first gone through a nerve-wracking cleaning session, practiced in the dance studio all night, then slept for a few hours and gamed for a few more… Before she knew it, evening had arrived again.
…She was so hungry.
[zozo: YUYU, I need to go find food.]
YUYU didn’t say much, replying to her politely:
[YUYU: Goodbye, zozo.]
[zozo: Mm.]
[zozo: Goodbye, YUYU.]
She closed the game.
YUYU looked at the text on the screen. The stray character’s figure flickered and vanished into the program of the Waste Capital. The chat room was also getting rowdy:
【YUYU, give me skills】
【YUYU, give me money】
【YUYU, give me source code】
【YUYU, give me a job】
【YUYU, give me zozo】
【Goodbye, zozo.】
【Okay, zozo.】
Zhang Yunyu glanced at the creatively talented netizens in the chat room and tapped his keyboard.
【Chat room: Waste Capital has been muted】
The chat room fell silent for half a minute. Soon, someone broke through the little virus he’d set up and began attacking him en masse:
【YU, you can’t take a joke】
【YU’s triggered】
【YU, you’ve changed.】
Zhang Yunyu ignored them, rolled up half of his shirt sleeves, and put the clothes into the dryer.
He ate the dinner he’d bought from the convenience store.
After the game BGM in the room stopped, silence immediately fell once more, broken only by the faint hum of electronic devices running.
Zhang Yunyu hung up the clean clothes, walked past a dozen monitors, and slowly made his way barefoot to the window.
Peering through the sheer curtain, the entire apartment building had already sunk into quiet darkness.
“…”
He stared at the neighboring unit with some concern, nearly pressing his face against the glass.
His neighbor’s room was the same—no lights on, probably already resting.
Zhang Yunyu quieted his breathing.
This morning, while waiting for the elevator, he seemed to have startled her.
He thought.
Would she think he was a strange person?
He hoped the game had made her a little happier.
Zhang Yunyu gently lowered the hand that had parted the curtain, stepping away from the window, trying to make his behavior seem less odd.