When she opened her eyes, everything was still hazy and fuzzy. She only felt the soft lamplight was a bit dazzling, a blur of white. It wasn’t until her body subconsciously tried to push itself up that her arm moved:
“Ugh…”
A terrible wave of numbness and soreness hit her instantly, and her entire body froze.
Her hands were so numb—!!
Her legs too…!
The muscle strain from the day’s activities, the lactic acid from training that hadn’t been flushed out yet, plus the tingling sensation of poor blood circulation—all of it surged up at once. Zhou Meng’s breath caught, and her expression went blank.
“Mmm…”
Her phone was still vibrating. Ignoring the numbness in her limbs, she lunged onto the bed, sprawled over the covers, and stared at the phone.
The top-left corner of the Eden phone had a black front-facing camera, and the screen was aimed directly at her face.
On it was the feed from the door camera.
Her neighbor was waiting for the elevator in the hallway, staying perfectly quiet, head down and focused on his phone, seemingly unaware that he was being watched.
Because it was nighttime, the tall, slim young man wasn’t dressed as carefully as he had been during the day. Instead, he wore a loose black knit sweater, casually rolling the sleeves up to his forearms.
The exposed strip of wrist had remarkably elegant bone structure.
“…Isn’t this surveillance camera quality a little too high…”
Zhou Meng murmured, half her face buried in the crook of her arm, watching as her neighbor stepped into the elevator. About ten minutes later, he came back out carrying a bag of instant bento, then turned and walked back.
Only after she saw her neighbor return home did she relax her body. She slowly crawled up and opened the Waste Capital on her computer.
The Light Orb popped up at that moment: [Are you still going to play this game today?]
“Mhm.”
Zhou Meng twirled a strand of hair by her cheek with her finger and rubbed it: “It’s not like there’s anything else to do anyway…”
It was fine to relax once in a while.
The game loaded for a bit, and soon the pixel research institute from before appeared.
Except the sun outside the window had set, turning into night.
Her character had undergone a massive change:
The pixel figure in the game wore a white patient’s gown, with soft golden hair cascading down her back, a pair of red eyes, and a silver knife clutched in her hand. She looked more like a boss than a stray child.
And beside her stood the cyborg with black hair, green eyes, and pale skin.
[YUYU: Hello.]
Ah.
He’d been waiting this whole time?
[zozo: YUYU?]
[zozo: Good evening.]
[zozo: Why have I changed?]
Zhou Meng controlled the now very good-looking pixel figure to circle around YUYU.
A string of ellipses popped up above the cyborg’s head, as if he was organizing his words. After a moment, it turned into a patient explanation:
[YUYU: Compensation.]
[YUYU: You’ve become a vampire.]
[zozo: A vampire?]
Zhou Meng felt a strange sense of novelty about this new identity.
It was fresh.
[zozo: So can I suck blood?]
Before he could say anything else, Zhou Meng had already discovered a new action while circling YUYU with her character.
She pressed the skill button, and the golden-haired vampire lunged at the cyborg, hugging him tightly and biting down.
The cyborg’s patient gown was torn open, red pixel lines spurted from his neck, and he trembled twice.
[You attacked YUYU.]
[YUYU: …That’s fine.]
The dialogue box only popped up above his head a beat late.
The calmness of his tone contrasted with the cyborg’s trembling from being bitten, creating a strangely subtle feeling.
[zozo: Sorry about that, Youyou.]
[zozo: ^^]
[You’ve drunk your fill of YUYU’s blood. You feel satisfied.]
After finishing the bite, she circled twice around the cyborg, whose face had turned pale.
Zhang Yunyu didn’t voice any opinion about her actions, but he seemed a bit concerned:
[YUYU: …Youyou?]
[zozo: Yeah.]
[zozo: Switching between Chinese and English input methods is a bit of a hassle…]
[zozo: Is it not okay to call you that?]
YUYU = Youyou. And it sounded kind of cute.
That’s what Zhou Meng thought.
The cyborg on the other end slowly popped up a reply above his head.
[YUYU: Oh.]
[YUYU: It’s fine.]
He calmly responded to Zhou Meng’s earlier apology.
[YUYU: Want to keep playing?]
…?
Did he seem a little expectant or something?
Zhou Meng didn’t think too much about it. She was still observing how this shut-in communicated.
[zozo: Sure.]
YUYU’s cyborg took out a flashlight, casting a halo of light in the dark institute, and led her forward as they groped their way along.
Sparks from electrical circuits would occasionally flare up around them.
This time, when she encountered test subjects, if Zhou Meng swung her knife too many times, a new prompt would appear.
[You’re feeling a bit hungry.]
But that was fine.
YUYU would let her drink his blood.
…
Zhang Yunyu hadn’t teamed up with anyone to play games in a long time.
He usually played some games, but generally he was just randomly matched with teammates, and he never had any extra conversations with others in-game.
The chat room was an accident.
【YU, did you forget the code and the chatroom?】
【YU is already addicted to the game.】
【YU, open the door, it’s zozo.】
【If someone knocks, YU would just pretend not to be home, right…】
Zhang Yunyu glanced at the chatroom and replied in passing while fighting monsters with zozo.
[YUYU: No, I wouldn’t.]
【?】
【Wouldn’t what?】
【Wouldn’t pretend not to be home?】
Zhang Yunyu didn’t reply to them.
He simply thought no one would knock on his door.
That might sound a bit pitiful, but the reality was different from how it sounded—Zhang Yunyu had actively and deliberately maintained this state.
Some people just don’t need excessive interpersonal relationships.
He watched the blonde vampire in the game swinging her little knife to finish off a monster, and as she circled around, he already guessed zozo wanted to drink blood.
Sure enough, the next second, the little blonde figure pounced over.
【You were attacked by a vampire.】
Zhang Yunyu’s hand speed was fast, but he didn’t dodge.
The vampire hugged the cyborg and drank blood again.
Red pixel lines flowed out of YUYU’s neck, devoured by the little blonde figure.
[zozo: ^^]
[zozo: Youyou, did you guess I was hungry?]
Zhang Yunyu stared at that smiley face and lightly typed a word.
[YUYU: Mm.]
[YUYU: After all, zozo is a vampire.]
And that bloodsucking skill was something he had added for her.
The blonde vampire in the game took two more sips, until YUYU’s character trembled a few times, then she let go of the cyborg, letting him collapse to his knees, and circled around him once.
[zozo: Oh…]
[zozo: Youyou is an M?]
“…”
Zhang Yunyu let out a very soft laugh.
The chatroom exploded.
【?????】
【??】
【zozo you!!】
【!!!】
【Sat bolt upright from a dying dream】
【! YUYU is an M (certain)】
[YUYU: Unfortunately.]
[YUYU: I’m not.]
The blonde vampire circled around the cyborg three times, and YUYU quietly watched her.
[zozo: Mm ^^]
[zozo: Shall we keep playing?]
[YUYU: Sure.]
YUYU’s gaming skills were excellent. Moreover, his personality was very stable, and his choice of words in conversation felt distinctive to Zhou Meng—sometimes he’d casually display a languid composure that sent a faint chill down one’s spine.
Although he was a shut-in, he wasn’t a high-intensity meme surfer… YUYU had a peculiar sense of ease about him.
Zhou Meng felt that if he were a manga character, he’d definitely be a popular niche role.
Originally she’d only planned to get a taste of what being a shut-in felt like and then stop, but before she knew it, she’d been playing games with YUYU for a long time.
It wasn’t until the low-battery alert sounded on her phone that Zhou Meng remembered the time.
22:32.
Come to think of it, starting tomorrow, the vacation would be over.
Time to go back to school for classes.
…Time to sleep.
Sleep was also part of body management.
Why was freely disposable time so fleeting?
She bid her online friend farewell with a touch of melancholy:
[zozo: Youyou, I need to rest… I have class tomorrow.]
The cyborg who had just been slowly fighting monsters froze for a moment, and the test subject instantly lunged forward, pierced by Zhou Meng’s little knife.
The black-haired, green-eyed cyborg stood still, a dialogue box popping up above its head:
[YUYU: Alright.]
After saying that, YUYU would normally stop the conversation, but this time, he was still slowly typing in the input box above his head.
After a moment, the cyborg’s head popped out another line:
[YUYU: See you tomorrow, Zhouzhou.]
Huh…?
Zhouzhou.
“…”
Zhou Meng’s fingers even paused. On the screen, YUYU had been drained of blood by zozo, his head slightly lowered, his green eyes quietly glancing toward this end of the screen.
[zozo: Zhouzhou?]
This time, it was her turn to ask.
The cyborg in the game replied languidly, the pixelated figure betraying no excess emotion.
[YUYU: Switching input methods is troublesome.]
[YUYU: Is it not allowed?]
—She’d been countered.
He meant zozo = Zhouzhou, right… just like how she’d replaced YUYU with Youyou.
Zhou Meng stared at the black-haired cyborg on the screen, feeling an illusion of being gazed at by YUYU across the network.
Was it a coincidence?
Choosing that character…
If this were the real world, thinking that way would be fine, but this was a manga world.
And one of the main characters was a hacker.
…Was YUYU also a hacker?
If so, his “Zhouzhou” wasn’t mere coincidence.
It was deliberate.
It was like being lightly touched on the nape of the neck by an unidentified creature, a greeting that sent a chill through you.
【Give me ur data】.jpg
…Just kidding.
Wanting to see her reaction?
Normally, a person would panic at a time like this.
But…
“…”
Zhou Meng lightly touched her own neck with her finger.
The back of her neck was indeed slightly prickling, a small patch of goosebumps rising, an involuntary shiver… but it wasn’t fear.
That anticipated, “finally it’s here” eagerness made her body tremble ever so slightly.
Zhou Meng’s pale pink lips curved up bit by bit, and she typed her response a beat slower:
[zozo: ^^]
[zozo: See you tomorrow, Youyou.]