Dawn Guild Headquarters Conference Room:
The projection from the "Nether Mirror" played repeatedly on the central screen, with nearly ten people sitting around the table, analyzing everything in the video.
Tao Shi’s blue hair was especially eye-catching under the dim and shifting lights in the video.
“This was our mistake. We’ll provide a detailed report explaining the issues we encountered.” His tone lacked his usual carefree attitude, replaced by a steadiness uncharacteristic for his age.
Cao Youfeng leaned on the table, listlessly playing with the bandage on his hand. “Who would’ve thought we practically handed Jiang Yan an MVP.”
“Yesterday, when I ran into Yu Jia from ‘Puppet Workshop,’ he snarked about how generous we were… It’s so embarrassing!” Saying this, he slumped onto the table, looking like he couldn’t show his face.
Tao Shi reached out to rub his head, offering comfort.
Sigh!
Could they have been more humiliated?
The entire server knew Dawn Guild was after Jiang Yan, yet they ended up being played by him.
And Jiang Yan wasn’t even a C-level NPC!
“It’s alright; we weren’t the only ones embarrassed,” Tao Shi consoled Cao Youfeng. “Su An and their team got humiliated too.”
Cao Youfeng mumbled a faint “mm” and fell silent again. The conference room lapsed into quiet. Tao Shi turned his gaze toward the man sitting at the end of the table.
“Boss, are we still going to approach Jiang Yan?”
At the end of the table, a young man in a fuzzy blue fish-patterned onesie held a cup of milk tea of an unknown brand, watching the review video while sipping lazily. Hearing Tao Shi’s question, he seemed to snap back to his senses.
“Of course, we’re continuing to approach him! Losing face doesn’t matter as long as we get him. At least Jiang Yan has a decent impression of us now.”
“But we’ve sent him ten invitation emails, and he hasn’t replied to a single one,” Tao Shi said.
“Then keep sending them,” the man replied, setting his milk tea on the table, his tone dropping. “Jiang Yan… has to end up in our hands.”
Tao Shi frowned slightly, hesitated, then finally asked, “Boss, what’s the real situation with this Jiang Yan?”
"...."
---
The morning in S City opened with birds chirping and the honking of disgruntled commuters.
Although Jiang Yan lived in a high-end apartment in S City, his schedule didn’t match the city’s; he usually started his day at noon. But today, he surprisingly synced with the city’s time.
“Isn’t this thing supposed to be a dungeon bonus? Why is it stuck on me?” Jiang Yan sat on his sofa, tone cold and face expressionless as he complained to the person on the other end of the phone.
His hand was on his abdomen, feeling the tendril moving inside him. What exactly was this thing?! Why had something from the dungeon followed him out—especially something that had parasitically attached itself to him?
Yesterday, after discovering this bizarre thing, Jiang Yan even tried going to the kitchen to cut it off, but it was useless!
He struggled with it for half the day, assuming it was some kind of system lag that would reset after a good sleep. But when he woke up, it was still there!
And worse, it seemed like it wasn’t just a single tendril that had followed him; an entire "person" had parasitically fused with his body and returned to the real world along with him.
This morning, when Jiang Yan opened his eyes and saw black tendrils covering the bed, he was utterly shocked!
In the next instant after noticing he was awake, the thing quickly darted back into his body, leaving only a soft tendril around his waist, hugging him affectionately. No matter how much Jiang Yan tried to pull it out, it wouldn’t budge!
With no other options, Jiang Yan tried calling the scrambled-number phone he had used yesterday to contact his personal system. Thankfully, the call connected. But when he brought up the issue, his system stammered, “Uh… about that…”
“Don’t tell me—after you guys dragged me into this lousy game, my body is starting to mutate?” Jiang Yan asked coldly.
“Of course, of course not!” 663 immediately denied it. “How could this be called a mutation?”
“Then tell me what exactly this thing is.” Jiang Yan spoke through gritted teeth. Normally, he didn’t show much emotion, but now, with this thing wrapped around his waist and slowly creeping downward, he was finding it hard not to curse.
If anyone found out, he would be taken straight to a research lab!
663 stammered for a long while before finally saying, “It’s… your husband, right?”
Jiang Yan: “...Are you insane?”
663 quickly amended, “Ex-husband! Ex-husband!"
“Yu Xiu? What does this have to do with him?” Jiang Yan’s mood soured further at the mention of that name.
663 explained, “I just checked with the main system, and the response was that some items from the game can indeed be brought into the real world, provided they don’t violate any moral or legal codes.”
“So?”
“So… It was brought out by you.”
“More precisely, it followed you out. Or you could think of it as your ex-husband’s yearning for you.” 663 rambled.
Jiang Yan let out a mocking laugh. “Yearning? You mean the guy who randomly asked for a divorce and then disappeared?”
"Well…"
Before 663 could finish, he hung up.
The apartment fell into silence.
Yearning? What nonsense.
Sensing Jiang Yan’s off mood, the tentacle emerged from his body and gently began massaging his shoulders and neck.
Now that he knew this thing was related to Yu Xiu, Jiang Yan’s resistance softened slightly.
He reclined onto the soft tendril, opened WeChat, and accepted Tao Shi’s friend request.
As soon as he accepted, messages started popping up rapidly.
[Hey! Jiang Yan! Have you thought it over? Ready to join our Dawn Guild?]
[I’ll send you the application form right now!]
[Our guild not only offers in-game support but also provides real-world benefits like health insurance and retirement plans!]
[No matter where you are, we’ve got you covered. Plus, if you’re a student, we can even provide internship verification!]
Immediately afterward, a 60-second voice message appeared.
Jiang Yan ignored it and typed a reply:
[Not interested for now, but I have a question.]
Tao Shi: [Ah… no worries! Ask away!]
Jiang Yan: [Can dungeon items be brought into the real world?]
Tao Shi: [Certain items that don’t disrupt the natural order or moral laws can be.]
[But even if you bring them out, most are useless! Like Youfeng’s “Medical Bandage”—outside, it’s just a regular bandage. Yuan Xu’s “Nether Mirror” could be bought wholesale for ten bucks.]
[Why? Did you bring out a rose or something?]
Jiang Yan looked at the message, feeling the tentacle’s gentle massage, and fell silent.
If it were just a rose, that would be fine.
Jiang Yan: [If system items can be brought out, can NPCs be brought out too?]
Tao Shi: [How could that be possible?! If NPCs could come out, wouldn’t all the corrupted real-person NPCs be able to return to the real world?]
Jiang Yan frowned. True!
Real NPCs or some players in the dungeon, after failing their missions, either become nourishment for system NPCs or get corrupted, remaining in that dungeon as new system NPCs.
If system NPCs can be brought into the real world, then those real NPCs and players who have been corrupted into system NPCs could be rescued by their companions, right?
In that case, the main system's "corruption" setting would become meaningless.
So... what exactly is this thing?
Jiang Yan was completely confused.
Tao Shi seemed to sense something and quickly asked: [What’s wrong?]
Jiang Yan: [No, just asking.]
Tao Shi: [Alright! If there’s any trouble, feel free to contact me directly.]
Then he added: [If you don’t want to get the guild involved, consider this as personal communication.]
Jiang Yan replied: [Thanks.]
Tao Shi: [No problem! Even if we can't be colleagues, we can still be friends!]
Jiang Yan turned off his phone and began to stare at the thing in front of him.
After a while, he asked, “Can you... understand what I’m saying?”
The tendril nuzzled against him gently.
Good, it could understand him.
Jiang Yan continued, “Are you connected to Yu Xiu?”
The tendril nudged him again.
So it was indeed related to that guy.
Jiang Yan asked, “Are you... a part of that jerk? Like a shadow or a spirit or something?”
The tendril nudged him once more.
Jiang Yan scoffed, “Congratulations on making your dream come true.”
What the hell had that jerk done to end up like this?!
If only part of him was back, where was the other part? The human part?
Had he conducted some kind of biological experiment on himself in the game and mutated?!
Now that Jiang Yan thought back, Yu Xiu’s request for a divorce had come so suddenly.
Could it be that this guy hadn’t gotten involved with the game after their divorce, but had been involved before it? Maybe he brought up the divorce because he was in trouble?
If that were the case, then Yu Xiu must have encountered serious trouble in the game…
Jiang Yan rubbed his temples, staring at the tendril before him.
After thinking for a long time and coming up empty, he decided to just lie back on the sofa. After all, he was in the game now.
That guy’s mind must be sharp if he had managed to mutate himself; it meant he wasn’t easy to kill.
So whether they would meet again in the game would depend on fate.
Seeing Jiang Yan lying back on the sofa, the tendril cheerfully wrapped around him, lifting his shirt and trying to burrow inside…
“Stop!”
Before it could do anything inappropriate, Jiang Yan coldly ordered it to halt.
The tendril immediately wilted, looking dejected.
Jiang Yan showed no sympathy and bluntly said, “Since you’re here, you can start by doing the chores.”
A dangerous smile appeared on his face. “I cleaned that damn specimen room of yours for six months! If you’re not going to take care of it… I’ll sell every last one of them as figurines online.”
Swish!
A shadow darted into the adjacent room and slammed the door shut.
Jiang Yan raised an eyebrow, feeling pleased.
He lay back on the sofa, listening to the sounds coming from the specimen room, contemplating all the bizarre events happening to him.
The strange game, Yu Xiu’s sudden disappearance, his inexplicable entry into the game, and now Yu Xiu returning in this form...
So many things didn’t add up.
He understood that he had to uncover the truth within the game.
At that moment, a notification popped up on his phone:
#Global Volcanic Eruptions: Prophet Predicts the Fall of the Gods #
Jiang Yan swiped away the notification.
Gods? Where would this world even find gods?
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