Chapter 50
Chapter 50
A special reward?
Yu Lingling did not lower her guard in the slightest. She did not trust this Horror Game Instance.
But soon, a strange and profound sensation came over her, and a voice appeared in her mind.
“What is the deepest desire in your heart?”
“What is your greatest obsession?”
“What do you want?”
Desire?
Obsession?
What did she want?
Yu Lingling wanted too many things, yet too few. Right now, what she wanted most was to find her brother.
Every memory she had of Yu Huan began playing through her mind like a movie, finally freezing on one particular scene.
Before Yu Huan took her out of the laboratory, Yu Lingling had survived on nutrient solution every day. Only when she cooperated with the experiments and behaved well would she be rewarded with a few crackers.
Back then, Yu Lingling used to miss life at the orphanage. The food there had not been good either, but at least it had been real food.
The crackers were both the most delicious and the most painful thing Yu Lingling ate in the laboratory.
Because she went so long without solid food, the dry crackers always upset her stomach. But she never dared say anything, afraid that next time, she would not even get crackers.
Yu Lingling was confined inside a transparent testing chamber, watching the researchers outside. In addition to the meals provided by the laboratory, they would order takeout for themselves.
Burgers, pizza, fried chicken – food of every imaginable kind.
No matter how hard Yu Lingling tried, she could never catch even the faintest whiff.
The researchers washed and disinfected themselves from head to toe before entering the laboratory. Even if they had just finished eating, all she could smell on them was the harsh sting of disinfectant.
At the time, Yu Lingling’s greatest desire – her dearest wish – was to eat whatever she wanted and have more food than she could ever finish.
Later, Yu Huan brought her out and took her in. He truly made that wish come true.
Once she recovered, Yu Huan gave her anything she wanted to eat.
Yu Lingling suddenly remembered how Yu Huan had coaxed her into going to school by promising to take her there and pick her up every day, as well as buy her delicious food.
After that, whether she was in elementary school or middle school, there was always an entire Snack Street outside the school gates.
Fried food, grilled food, desserts, full meals – it had everything anyone could ask for.
Sometimes, Yu Lingling would come across something online that Snack Street did not have, so she would forward the video to her brother. Within a few days, a new stall selling it would appear.
Whenever school let out, Yu Lingling was the envy of all her classmates.
Yu Huan would come to pick her up, and as long as she wanted something, he would buy it for her.
Well, not everything.
Yu Huan refused to buy her roasted durian, stinky tofu, luosifen, or anything else like that.
He had never actually said she was not allowed to eat them, but Yu Lingling had figured it out long ago.
Yu Huan was not only a clean freak – he also had an image to maintain.
“Come on, Lingling. Let’s go home.”
“If you eat this much, are you still going to have dinner when we get home? Fine, fine. I’ll buy it for you.”
“Don’t put so much chili on it.”
Yu Lingling stood in silence.
“Come on, Lingling. Let’s go home.”
“Lingling, let’s go.”
“Let’s go home.”
“Home.”
In that instant, tears suddenly spilled from Yu Lingling’s eyes. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground. But there was no longer anyone who would rush over with worry written all over his face, help her up, and tell her to be more careful next time.
Yu Lingling curled into herself, her entire body trembling as heavy tears poured down her face. She opened her mouth and gasped desperately for air, yet she still felt as though she were suffocating. In the end, all that escaped her was the whimper of a wounded little animal.
Brother.
Her brother was going to be gone for a long, long time.
She did not know when she would be able to find him again.
Only belatedly did Yu Lingling realize that she no longer had a brother.
Even when she had been strapped to an operating table in the laboratory, watching those people cut into her body with cold scalpels, she had never felt pain like this. Her heart hurt so badly that she could hardly breathe.
Despair, agony, and suffocation closed in around her.
In the end, all that remained was a whisper too faint for anyone to hear.
“Brother, it hurts so much. Why haven’t you come to take me home yet?”
[Congratulations to Yu Lingling on becoming a Full-fledged Player of the Horror Game. You will now enjoy all benefits afforded to Full-fledged Players. Please also fulfill all obligations required of a Full-fledged Player.]
[Congratulations to Full-fledged Player Yu Lingling on successfully activating your Exclusive Skill: Snack Street.]
[The instance will close shortly. Players, please prepare to leave. Three…]
[Beep. Beep. Yu Lingling has been designated an unwelcome player by every resident of Apartment Building No. 444. Apartment Building No. 444 will permanently deny Yu Lingling entry.]
[Two… One… Instance closed.]
Yu Lingling’s emotions were fluctuating so violently that she was immediately ejected from the Horror Game.
She wasn’t actually injured, but as she lay on the rug in her room, her entire body seemed to ache. The taste of blood filled her mouth. Clutching her blanket, she staggered out of her bedroom and made her way to her brother’s door.
Yu Lingling wrapped herself completely in the blanket, not even leaving her head exposed. Curled up on the rug outside his door, she lost consciousness.
After Yu Lingling successfully cleared the instance, the eerie energy fluctuations from the nearby Horror Game Instance disappeared.
Cheng Mo, Cheng Yu, and Liu Jianhui were all ordinary people. Once the Special Department personnel arrived, they left the residential complex. Prolonged exposure to the eerie energy fluctuations of a Horror Game Instance made it very easy to be dragged inside one.
When Cheng Yu saw the Special Department personnel begin removing the security cordon, she stepped forward and asked, “Did she make it?”
“Yes. She’s become a Full-fledged Player.”
Cheng Yu breathed a sigh of relief, but her heart still ached.
The Special Department squad captain walked over. “Go pack your things. You’ll be moving out today. New assignments will be arranged for you afterward.”
Cheng Yu knew this rule existed to prevent them from being dragged into a Horror Game Instance and needlessly losing their lives. “But Lingling just lost her brother. If we leave too, she’ll…”
The squad captain looked at Cheng Yu. “The organization will make other arrangements. Besides, she may have to move as well.”
“Impossible,” Liu Jianhui said. “Don’t try to persuade her to leave. You’ll only anger her and push her away.”
The squad captain knew Liu Jianhui. Before he had become a player, Liu Jianhui had even led him for a time, so he took Liu Jianhui’s words very seriously. “Captain Liu, is that a suggestion, or…?”
Liu Jianhui sighed. “I’ll report this matter to the higher-ups myself.”
The squad captain nodded. “We’ll have to wait until she comes out. We’ll speak with her and ask whether she’s willing to join the Special Department. We’ll need you there when we do, Captain Liu. Having someone familiar nearby may make it easier for her to trust us.”
Liu Jianhui suspected that the squad captain would return empty-handed, but he didn’t want to discourage him now. “Let’s go in and pack. We really shouldn’t stay here any longer.”
And not just them. Every ordinary resident in this complex would probably have to move away.
The only fortunate thing was that, after Yu Huan decided to live here, his unusual nature had meant there were hardly any ordinary residents left in the complex. Those who remained were mostly relatives of Special Department personnel. After all, no one living near Yu Huan had needed to worry about being targeted by a Horror Game Instance.