Gu Zhan couldn’t help but laugh at Qin Yue’s “heroic ambition.”
He said, “There’s no need to go that far in a survival-of-the-fittest mindset.”
The instance was slowly reshaping humanity, though the players might not have noticed it.
But could those who kill recklessly in the instance really return to their normal lives?
Qin Yue, this chubby guy, was characterized by being muddled and having incredible luck.
Perhaps one day, when he had strong power and sharp wit, his good fortune would disappear.
Who knows whether that would be a gain or a loss?
Gu Zhan patted Qin Yue on the shoulder, and everything was left unsaid. “Let’s go, keep searching.”
Today’s efficiency was much lower than yesterday; after searching for half the night, only a few people had managed to leave.
Along the way, they encountered An Heyan and his companion. An Heyan had already noticed the book in Qin Yue’s hand; guessing it was The Forest Spring, he just smiled at Gu Zhan and Qin Yue.
After searching until dawn, Gu Zhan still hadn’t found a second book.
His luck really was terrible.
At this point, only a few people remained in the library, with nothing but pools of indistinct blood by the bookshelves.
Qin Yue felt a bit anxious. “Could it be that there are no more books left?”
Gu Zhan looked around and said, “The number of books must be increasing, but it doesn’t guarantee that no one has borrowed more…”
What a coincidence; he happened to see An Heyan and Xu Ke again.
They were using some kind of prop, a long stick that could directly "pick" books off the shelf. The pages automatically separated, making it very efficient and avoiding punishment.
An Heyan was responsible for searching, while Xu Ke was in charge of retrieving. He was already holding more than two books in his arms.
But he was very vigilant, standing in the dead angle behind An Heyan. It was nearly impossible for others to approach him without being noticed.
Qin Yue, witnessing this scene, gritted his teeth. "Damn it, how come they have so many?"
Gu Zhan thought for a moment and said, "Let's go steal their books."
"Huh? But..." Qin Yue hesitated. It wasn't that he didn't want to steal, but Xu Ke's position made it really difficult to succeed.
In the library, large movements were not allowed.
The sky was almost bright now. He was okay, but if Gu Zhan got caught in the blue light barrier at the entrance, it would be a disaster.
Gu Zhan said, "You don't need to do anything; I have a plan."
What a coincidence; Xu Ke happened to be standing by the wall.
The wall?
Gu Zhan slightly curled his lips and touched his star chart watch.
Great, this isn’t the book world; his watch is still here.
—
In the corner, Xu Ke was holding three books and talking to An Heyan. "This is enough; do you still need to search? It's almost dawn."
An Heyan replied, "This instance is a bit tricky. We might have to look through all the books to piece together the life of that Ferdinand."
He glanced at the sky outside and said, "We still have a little time; let’s try again. The library's rules change every day. If we wait until tomorrow, it might be even harder."
Xu Ke rarely disagreed with An Heyan’s opinions. Since An Heyan said so, he obediently waited nearby.
"Do you need my help?" he asked after a while.
An Heyan shook his head. "Just stand over there. We need to be cautious about others trying to steal our books..."
Before he finished speaking, a hand quietly stretched out from the wall.
Both Xu Ke and An Heyan were focused on the other side, afraid someone would come over.
But no one expected the wall to suddenly "reach out." Xu Ke, caught off guard, had two books snatched away before he could react; the books had vanished into the wall.
"Who?!" he exclaimed softly, feeling helpless.
After all, he was standing next to a wall.
What could a person do against a wall?
But soon, he reacted and said to An Heyan, "Someone used a prop."
An Heyan frowned.
The shop had provided them with many props, but most were useless.
Very few could be used in the instance.
So they hadn’t considered this aspect at all.
Staring at the wall was futile.
An Heyan looked around and noticed Gu Zhan and Qin Yue standing not far away.
Qin Yue had a book in his hand, and Gu Zhan had two.
Those two... looked familiar; they were the ones they had searched for earlier.
An Heyan paused for a moment, then smiled.
He walked up to Gu Zhan and said, "You're quite impressive; you have this kind of prop."
Gu Zhan replied casually, "A give-and-take."
"Good, not bad," An Heyan said. "Thanks to you, we have to start over. As for the rest... let’s talk about it when we get out. See you."
With that, he led Xu Ke away.
They didn’t have much time left.
If they didn’t hurry, they might be trapped in this library forever.
Meanwhile, Gu Zhan and Qin Yue went to the entrance to register and left with their books.
Qin Yue couldn't help but say, "We stole their books, and An Heyan isn’t even angry."
Gu Zhan replied, "Finding books is the most important thing for them right now."
Angry?
Such personal emotions were irrelevant in the instance.
"Let’s go," Gu Zhan said.
He wanted to hurry back and open those two books to take a look.
After leaving the library in the middle of the night, there were no buses back to the city. They could only sit on the steps at the library entrance and prepare to read.
Qin Yue yawned. "If this continues—going to class during the day and coming to the library at night for books—I'll probably be dead from exhaustion soon."
Gu Zhan said, "This game won’t let you die from exhaustion."
This wasn’t real life.
In real life, people could get sick, die suddenly, have accidents, or slip and fall.
But in the instance, those things wouldn't happen.
People seemed to be living freely, but in reality, all their physical indicators were under strict control.
Qin Yue yawned again. "Even if I won't die from exhaustion, I will feel tired."
That was the truth.
Gu Zhan opened the book in his hands and said, "Once you enter the world of the book, you won't feel tired anymore."
Qin Yue asked, "If we open books in the library, we won’t enter the book world. What about now that we're outside?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Zhan and the book disappeared.
Qin Yue: "…"
Okay, so yes, they would.
He could only resignedly open the book he was holding.
—
[Congratulations on accepting the side quest <Difficult Education>. A seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy is the hardest to discipline. Your son is no exception. Although you love him dearly, you cannot allow him to develop bad interests. You’ve tried to advise him multiple times, but he treats your words like mere background noise. You have no choice but to resort to some unconventional methods. These are all desperate measures, after all.]
As soon as Gu Zhan arrived in the book world, he received a side quest.
Today's system description seemed different from yesterday's.
Disciplining a son, huh?
Gu Zhan opened his eyes and found himself standing outside a door.
He observed slightly and realized this was a residential home, and the door he was standing in front of should be a bedroom.
The door was slightly ajar, and a faint light spilled out from within.
The light flickered, alternating between blue and red.
This light was very familiar to Gu Zhan; it was just like when he played games at night with the lights off.
Occasionally, electronic sounds drifted out from inside.
Gu Zhan looked down at himself, wearing a dark gray middle-aged man’s pajamas.
Oh, his “son” was playing games.
In the past, he had always played minor roles in the world of books, helping the protagonist fulfill their wishes.
Was he the protagonist this time?
However, the actions of this protagonist were quite strange. Even if his son was staying up late to play games in his room, there was no need to peek at him like this from outside the door.
It felt like something out of a creepy fairy tale involving villains.
As Gu Zhan was mocking his character design, he suddenly noticed two health bars on the right side of his vision that clashed with the surroundings. One was labeled "Security Level," and the other was "Game Duration."
The security level was green and was slowly decreasing.
The game duration was red and was gradually increasing.
The green health bar didn’t seem too concerning, but the red health bar emitted a glaring light in the dark, giving Gu Zhan an ominous feeling.
He realized the game duration indicated how long his son had been playing games in the room. If it exceeded a certain threshold, something bad might happen.
And the security level... it should also be his son’s stat.
Playing a game was so complicated.
Gu Zhan quietly stood at the door, making no sound, until the security level dropped to zero. Then he suddenly pushed the door open and shouted, “What are you doing?!”
The loud shout startled his son, causing him to drop the controller. The pixelated character on the screen lost control and fell from a height.
“Dad…” The boy playing games in bed was tall and strong, looking more like someone in their late twenties than a seventeen or eighteen-year-old.
Compared to Gu Zhan’s average height of 1.8 meters, this child was huge... He must be at least 1.95 meters tall.
But he seemed to possess an innate respect for his father. After being scolded, he lowered his head and went to shut down the computer.
“Sorry, Dad,” the son apologized.
Gu Zhan coldly reprimanded, “Go to bed right now!”
Then he stepped forward and confiscated his son’s controller.
“Bang!”
Gu Zhan slammed the door shut. When he looked up again, he found his son’s security level had completely filled, glowing the same piercing red.
Meanwhile, the game duration had turned to green zero.
He took a deep breath, walked to the living room, grabbed a random cup, and poured himself a glass of water.
While drinking, the game duration changed back to red and began to slowly increase.
However, the security level remained a high red.
Gu Zhan: “…”
If he didn’t want his child playing electronic devices, did he really have to move them into his own bedroom?
Gu Zhan tried walking towards his son’s room, but perhaps due to the high security level, as he got a little closer, the game duration instantly returned to zero. Yet its health bar was still red, unlike the last time when it had turned green after being reset.
Gu Zhan didn’t open his son’s bedroom door because he knew that opening it now would be pointless.
He simply passed by his son’s door and returned to the adjacent room, which should be his own.
After lying down on the bed, he noticed that the security level had slightly decreased.
Suddenly, the game duration reappeared; clearly, the earlier zero was just a disguise.
Gu Zhan lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, waiting for the security level to drop bit by bit.
But perhaps due to his earlier rough approach, the security level stubbornly refused to decline.
Both the game duration and security level health bars were red, the blinding red light flooding the room, creating a feeling of anxiety and pressure.
Gu Zhan suddenly felt a surge of impulse, wanting to get up right now and confront his son next door, demanding to know why he wasn’t sleeping and why he was playing games.
Gu Zhan guessed that his emotions were once again influenced by this game.
It felt as if he had truly become the main character, anxiously confronting a disobedient son.
After waiting in bed for a while, the game time continued to increase, but the alertness level remained unchanged.
Gu Zhan knew that simply “waiting” wouldn’t work.
He turned over and began to “snore,” the sound just loud enough to reach the neighboring room.
Sure enough, after he started “snoring,” the alertness level began to drop rapidly.
Before long, the alertness level reached zero, while the game time was only halfway through.
Gu Zhan quietly got up and pushed open the door to his room.
The dim corridor had no light, except for the flickering screen light coming from the next room.
Gu Zhan, barefoot, moved like a ghost, slowly approaching the doorway.
The boy inside the room hadn’t sensed the danger; this time, he had learned his lesson and hadn’t turned on the computer but was instead playing a game console.
In the silent room and corridor, the only sound was the clicking of buttons he was pressing.
“Creak…”
Suddenly, the door was pushed open by the wind, and the boy, thinking his father was asleep, turned around unguarded, only to find a face with an uncertain expression staring at him from the crack of the door.
“Ah!!!”
Startled, the boy let out a scream, dropping the game console he was holding.
Only then did Gu Zhan push the door open and step inside.
He picked up the game console that had fallen on the carpet and smiled slightly at the boy: “Aren’t you sleepy?”
In the darkness, all that could be seen were his white teeth and his glowing eyes…
The boy was terrified and quickly rolled into his blanket, trembling as he said, “Dad, I’m sorry! I’ll go to sleep right away!”
Gu Zhan imagined his heart must be racing at that moment.
It was the first time he had stood in the monster's shoes to scare an NPC, and it felt quite fresh.
Gu Zhan took the boy's game console and, before leaving, said to him, “If you’re not sleepy, then don’t sleep…”
His voice was soft and patient.
But in this environment, it was chilling.
The boy trembled under the covers, repeatedly saying, "I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping! I'll sleep right away!"
Gu Zhan smiled slightly and helped the boy close the door.
This time, he did not return to his own room.
He mimicked those monsters, walking barefoot back and forth in the corridor.
He walked slowly and quietly, but it was intimidating for the person in the room.
The boy's vigilance had not decreased, nor had the game time increased.
As Gu Zhan walked, the vigilance value in his view suddenly dropped to zero.
At that moment, both health bars were at zero.
Green light illuminated Gu Zhan's face.
Gu Zhan knew that the person inside had fallen asleep.
It wasn’t easy.
Gu Zhan let out a long breath, returned to his room, and lay down, waiting for dawn.
It seemed that there were really no more tests behind him. As Gu Zhan lay there, he fell asleep.
When he opened his eyes again, it was already dawn.
The house was quiet.
Gu Zhan got up and checked each room.
This was a three-story small villa. The third floor was a storage room, piled high with dust at the entrance and in the corridor, suggesting it wasn’t visited often.
The first floor had a living room and kitchen, while the second floor had two bedrooms—one belonged to him, and the other to his son.
But at this moment, there was no one in the house; his son was missing.
Gu Zhan took a glance into his son's room. The bed had already been made, and the study materials on the desk were gone.
He must have gone to school.
Surprisingly, while his son was not very proactive about sleeping, he was quite enthusiastic about going to school.
Gu Zhan always felt something was off in the father-son relationship, so he searched around his son's room.
It was ordinary, just the kind of room a teenager would have.
Not finding anything unusual, Gu Zhan turned to leave but suddenly noticed a glimpse of white at the corner of the pillow.
Huh? What’s this... a photo?
Gu Zhan bent down and pulled out the photo.
It showed a woman in a white dress, and her appearance... looked familiar.
After some thought, Gu Zhan confirmed that the woman resembled Jane from "The Forest Spring."
Why does she look like Jane?
Could it be that the character he was playing isn’t the protagonist, but his son is?
But he distinctly remembered the teacher saying that Ferdinand was an orphan.
His son was already seventeen or eighteen years old, and yet they were still playing the "Are you asleep?" game; it didn’t seem to fit with the orphan narrative.
Then... could it be that after helping that lost little boy find an adoptive family, his son ended up with a "father"?
Gu Zhan thought wildly and felt that none of the possibilities made sense.
He had no choice but to put the photo back and decided to look elsewhere.
But unexpectedly, when he lifted the pillow of the eighteen-year-old boy, he was stunned.
Underneath the pillow lay a messy stack of photos!
Each photo featured a girl—some with long hair, some with short hair, some in their twenties, some in their teens, and even a few in their fifties or sixties... They appeared in various places and settings, some facing the camera and others showing just their profiles.
Some were candid shots, some selfies, and some taken by friends… there were angles of every kind.
But all these girls had one characteristic in common.
They all looked very much like Jane.
Gu Zhan: "..."
What was going on?
Gu Zhan did not pick up the photos to look at them one by one.
Because there were too many of them—so many that even if there were some differences between individuals, it didn’t matter.
An eighteen-year-old boy keeping a pile of photos of girls who looked alike under his pillow—what did that suggest?
It suggested that he desired a girl he couldn’t have.
This desire wasn’t the kind where he liked someone who didn’t like him back.
Rather... it was that he couldn’t even meet her; otherwise, he wouldn’t have collected so many lookalikes' photos.
Why was it Jane? What was the reason he couldn’t even meet Jane?
Countless questions swirled in Gu Zhan’s mind, and suddenly, a flash of insight struck him. He seemed to understand something and immediately turned back to his bedroom.
He lifted his own pillow, and sure enough, he found a photo underneath.
It was a photo of a man and a woman; one person had eerily identical features to Gu Zhan, while the other... was Jane.
They seemed to have a good relationship; the man had his arm around Jane's shoulder in a possessive manner—there was no doubt that the two in the photo were a couple.
Gu Zhan: "..."
A massive influx of information hit Gu Zhan's mind.
So, Mike was the male lead of "The Forest Spring," and this story was likely about Ferdinand's own love story. He had been with his beloved wife and had a son... The teacher had said that his wife had passed away long ago.
So now, Ferdinand was living alone with his son, only to discover that his son was interested in his mother...????
Gu Zhan: "..."
What on earth was going on?
He tossed the photo back onto the bed and lay down in despair.
Staring at the ceiling and the classical light fixture above, Gu Zhan felt that this Ferdinand was not a good person.
The sense of incongruity was everywhere.
Did Jane really choose to be with Ferdinand in "The Forest Spring"?
From the subsequent story, it seemed that way, after all, they even had a child. After his wife died, Ferdinand went to war and died in the end without remarrying, which indicated a deep affection for his wife, right?
What was off?
Oh, right, the teacher had mentioned Ferdinand's life experiences... later, his son also died.
Died in War.
Gu Zhan turned over and sat up, walking to the window and opening it to look outside.
The time period of this story is very similar to that of The Forest Spring but the people walking on the streets are dressed neatly, showing no signs of being in the midst of a war.
Perhaps novels are different from reality.
Gu Zhan rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
At that moment, there was a sudden noise in the living room.
He immediately went out to check and found that his son had come back.
How long had he been up?
Gu Zhan asked, “Why are you back so early?”
His son, standing there, was indeed two heads taller than him.
His son replied, “Dad, you’re confused. It’s already noon. I came back for lunch.”
“…” Maybe it was because Gu Zhan got up too late, or perhaps the time in this fictional world was off.
Gu Zhan said, “Alright, but I haven’t made lunch yet.”
“It’s fine, I can handle it myself.” The boy rolled up his sleeves and skillfully went into the kitchen.
Before long, he had prepared three dishes and a soup.
During the meal, Gu Zhan chatted with him, asking, “You’re getting older; at your age, do you have a girl you like?”
To his surprise, the boy suddenly threw down his chopsticks, clearly dissatisfied, and said, “Dad, I’ve told you so many times; I only did that because I miss Mom! Don’t overthink it!”
Gu Zhan was taken aback; he was just testing the waters and hadn’t expected such a response.
It seemed that the father and son had argued about this issue many times.
When the boy secretly played games at night, he rarely resisted Gu Zhan. When Gu Zhan scolded him or took away his game console, the boy merely accepted it.
But on this matter, he was particularly irritable.
Gu Zhan said, “Okay, okay, I was just asking. You’re still at an age when you should be in school and not be dating; just know that… just know that…”
The boy frowned and mumbled, “What’s the point of school? Who knows how long we’ll even be alive.”
He then lowered his head and continued eating.
Throughout the meal, neither father nor son spoke again.
After finishing his meal, the boy went back to his room and then headed to school.
After he left, Gu Zhan went to his room and found that the photos of girls under the pillow were all gone.
Gu Zhan rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
---
That evening, the boy returned home as usual.
The two of them sat together at the table for dinner, as if nothing had happened.
After dinner, during the time for sleep, the “security level” and “game duration” that had disappeared for an entire day reappeared in Gu Zhan's view.
It seemed that this game of cat and mouse had begun again.
But this time, the “security level” did not drop to zero.
Of course, the game time hadn’t increased either.
Gu Zhan lay in bed in his room, waiting for half the night, but those two numbers did not change.
If he wasn’t playing games but was always on "security" then what was he doing?
Gu Zhan felt that even he, as a father, was being consumed by the paranoid atmosphere of this book.
He waited for a long time and still didn’t see his son going to bed, so he gave up and fell asleep himself.
As dawn approached, Gu Zhan suddenly opened his eyes.
He immediately looked at the two values in his view; sure enough, the game duration had begun to rise slowly.
And the security level had dropped below fifty percent.
What had his “son” been doing all night?
Gu Zhan quietly got up, like a ghost, and headed toward his son’s room.
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