T0 Gaming Guild Saves the World.

Chapter 552, Section 551: Cyber ​​Immortality
In the same year that everyone graduated, a restaurant called "Anna" appeared near the university town.

They cook mostly home-style dishes; a glance at the menu reveals that they're mostly dishes that go well with rice.

Eggplant casserole, shredded pork with garlic sauce, tomato and egg, braised pork with potatoes...

Take scrambled eggs with tomatoes as an example. The large plate size allows high-energy high school and college students to eat until they are stuffed with unlimited refills of rice. It basically rivals the ready-to-eat dishes from my hometown.

Its price is 6 yuan.

For an extra 5 dollars, you can upgrade to a set meal, which includes a whole plate of stir-fried shredded potatoes with vinegar, packed with carbohydrates, and a complimentary bowl of soup.

It's usually seaweed and egg drop soup, but it actually contains both seaweed and egg drop.

The portions of both meat and vegetables are generous, making it suitable for both a small treat and taking leftovers home for breakfast, lunch, or dinner the next day.

In the prime commercial area of ​​the university town, where land is incredibly valuable, Anna Restaurant stands out as an anomaly.

The chef's skills are also quite good; he can handle both large-scale meals and elaborate dishes with ease.

Many regular customers have also been lucky enough to get to know the chefs and try the hidden dishes on the secret menu.

Of course, over time, these hidden menus were also made public in the menu bar.

Even the best restaurateurs can't figure out how they make money with such low prices.

After calculating the costs of water, electricity, rent, and labor again and again, we could barely come to a conclusion.

If they want to operate stably in this area, with the current low prices and sales channels, their ideal situation is to break even each month, or at least minimize losses.

They were convinced that this approach couldn't last, and that Anna Restaurant would eventually burn through its cash flow and then find itself in the dilemma of being rejected for raising prices.

Six months have passed, and Anna's restaurant remains consistently excellent, with its large portions still earning it widespread praise in the university town area.

When I see negative reviews on campus communities or online, they are usually from friendly forces acting in reverse.

For many students, this place has become the common canteen for all the schools in their university town.

During mealtimes, you can always see countless people rushing out of the campus like hungry tigers pouncing on their prey, helping to reserve seats or acting as dorm godfathers, single-handedly packing food for others.

Anna Restaurant does not offer online delivery; you can only order by dining in.

Everyone understands this inconvenient rule.

University students already have very limited living expenses. Being able to eat a full meal for 6 yuan, and those with small appetites can even save the money for the next meal, couldn't be better.

When you're short on cash, the name Anna Restaurant will naturally come to mind.

"How exactly do they make money?"

"We can't just not make any money, or even lose money, can we?"

Professional catering staff are completely baffled.

They tried every means to find out about the owner behind the scenes from the restaurant staff, hoping to learn about his business acumen.

The answer they received, however, left them bewildered.

“We’ve never actually met the boss; he’s always been in contact with us through a young man.”

Since Anna Restaurant appeared, its affordable prices and generous portions, which allow college students to eat their fill, have become a hit on online communities.

In today's era of trending topics and online sensations, a steady stream of influencers are coming to check in, and their products are highly praised for both their price and craftsmanship.

Unless this boss is completely immune to online traffic, he should know how much traffic he can gain by making a public appearance at this time.

baffling.

It's just like Starfire, the company that made Proof of the Stars; they won't make money.

Because the Anna restaurant shares the same name as Anna, the country where the main storyline of the phenomenal game Stellaris takes place, many players occasionally visit the restaurant in person.

When they get together, they often joke that maybe the restaurant is located on the boundary between reality and fiction.

After all, once they achieved financial freedom, they all settled into a quiet life and rarely appeared in public.

When we meet in the game, they're always busy making strategy guides. Even just exchanging greetings makes me feel excited, like I'm being looked after by an idol.

If it were offline, the person people would most often encounter would be the prison guard.

This guy has been posting erotic pictures in the group for years, and even commissioning erotic pictures at his own expense.

Many people suspect that he has a relationship with Tencent, otherwise how come other groups are bombarded with lewd pictures, while he consistently posts them at a high frequency without being harmed?

After Anna Restaurant operated stably in the Guangfu University Town for a year, becoming the envy of university students in other places, they seemed to hear everyone's voice.

The first branch of Anna Restaurant was established near the university where I used to study.

Then there's the university where Orange Tea is located.

Same menu, same recipe.

The exact same decor and setup... oh no, while the branch was being established, the main store underwent some changes in its decor.

On the walls of Anna's Dining Hall, the logos of the professions in the game "Proof of the Stars" are hung.

These correspond to Berserker, Magic Warrior, Summoner, Elemental Mage, Shadow Assassin, Flawless Wall, and Necromancer, respectively.

In addition to these symbols, a new dark elf has been added, holding a lit candle in one hand and a mural of a black carp leaping in the water in the other.

And the black sun hanging high above their heads.

It was just a guess before, but now the case is solved.

The true boundary between reality and illusion operates behind the scenes.

They just didn't quite understand what the dark elves, candles, and black carp represented.

The Black Sun doesn't seem to appear in the main storyline of the game. Could it be a side quest they haven't seen?
The idea of ​​running a restaurant came from Jiang Heyi, and unsurprisingly, it received a positive response from everyone.

We all came from the miserable days of college, and we know very well how difficult it was back then.

Eating is the desire that most desperately needs to be satisfied.

The restaurant didn't earn a single penny from the virtual-real boundary. Occasionally, due to overstocking, there would be losses, and they would even incur losses that month, requiring them to cover the costs themselves.

However, for them, this expense is no longer a big deal.

All they did was for the sake of the goodness they were taught, and also to pray to the elusive nature of fate itself.

This unpredictable and ever-changing "fate" connects them to the ruler, and also to the broken world they have never physically visited.

Having no experience in the catering industry, Yuan Huanye planned to send people to help, but everyone resolutely refused.

They had to do this themselves, and they were willing to suffer losses and pitfalls.

After a year of stable operation and everything going smoothly, they finally brought their innermost thoughts into the open.

If you keep something in mind, it will surely resonate. I'm willing to believe in the boundary between reality and illusion, just as I believed in orange tea—to believe in it to some extent.

"It's a true dynasty at the boundary between the virtual and the real. I've read many analyses. With this kind of operation, the ideal situation is to break even without making a profit, and the unideal situation is to suffer a pure loss."

"Burning money at one store wasn't enough, so they opened three more and burned through cash like crazy. It's practically charity now."

"Sigh, it reminds me of the Tower World era. In the early days, when public opinion was suppressed and we couldn't share freely, they would share their strategies with everyone in private."

"Now that you mention it, six years have passed. Time flies so fast." "Back when I watched the launch of StarCraft and the opening of Tower World, I was still a struggling college student. Now I'm a corporate slave. Sigh, it's only been a blink of an eye."

“I’m different. Back then, I used my family’s phones to watch clips of the boundary between reality and virtuality every day. I had just graduated from elementary school, and now I’m a senior in high school.”

"Hey, get out of here, you high school seniors! Go back and study, do your practice problems!"

"I need to balance work and rest, and I definitely need to do practice questions. My dream at this stage is to get into the university of President Potato and Tea God. I also won the Stars qualification this year after watching Tea God's video. As soon as I log in, I will play Berserker and follow the path of Sister Potato."

This pilgrimage mentality has persisted since the game gained fame at the boundary between the virtual and real worlds. Instead of being gradually forgotten as they faded into obscurity, it has become part of the symbolism of game culture, possessing a vibrant vitality in the virtual world.

In the words of the jailer, this is called cyber immortality.

A century later, when people once again peruse the vast information databases of the internet and conduct extensive searches by key figures in the notes of crucial timelines, his name will certainly not be overlooked.

The name "Prison Guard Bro" alone is enough to associate it with a series of abstract behaviors.

As for how future generations will evaluate it...

Hehe, anyway, he's already dead, so it doesn't matter.

The pilgrimage to sacred sites that takes place on the boundary between the virtual and the real world revolves around the life stories of several individuals.

University, as an important stage in their lives, became the best target for their pilgrimage.

During his five years at university, Tea God helped promote the streaming account of his department, Animal Medicine, by appearing on camera in many episodes.

Her five years at the school coincided with the peak enrollment period for the entire department.

After the college entrance examination, inquiries from students poured in. Aside from the usual questions about employment prospects and faculty, the most frequent question from students, and the one most often heard by admissions officers, was…

"Will I be able to meet the Tea Master?"

The Tea God also achieved cyber immortality.

Later generations cannot avoid her when searching through chronologies.

A person who repeatedly attaches good fortune to himself as a symbol.

This is clearly a character design that is most likely to collapse, yet it has stood firm and become more resilient through numerous events both inside and outside the game.

Compared to her, even the lucky charms of koi fish pale in comparison.

Her presence directly forced the school to strengthen its teaching staff, and teachers who heard the school's name always readily agreed.

In just five years, the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Tea God has become the top department listed in the admission brochure.

The "Tea Goddess" effect persisted even after her departure.

Jiang Heyi's former residence is also part of the pilgrimage to the holy site.

As someone who can bring together everyone on the boundary between the virtual and real worlds into a team, he is widely regarded as having a strong leadership charisma.

As a result, abstract things began to happen one after another.

Various quirky startup owners bring their employees here to check in, defining this place as "the place where one rises to prominence at the boundary between the virtual and the real world."

If that's all there is to it, it's not so bad.

They also casually conduct corporate education here, a bizarre operation that would get them thousands of "idiotic" comments on short video platforms, making him frown.

Just as he was hoping that the snow water fried noodles could help solve the problem, unfortunately, the old town was being renovated, and the house, which was full of his childhood memories, became a historical ruin, interrupting the group's pilgrimage.

In addition to schools and some wonderful places at home, these places were also included in the pilgrimage.

Qiling Lane.

An alley that even locals might not know about has become a popular internet hotspot because of a story told in bed about how he scolded Du Jingwen and then went out to catch squid.

People who came to take photos initially did so purely to mock Du Jingwen; they took photos together under the street sign that read "Qiling Lane".

Attached are titles such as "Pilgrimage to the Holy Land: Du Jingwen's Loser Places".

Or it could be "the site of an ancient battlefield, where the Emperor in the Bed fought Du Jingwen to prove his Dao."

However, as the meme spread widely, its original playful and sarcastic tone was somewhat diminished, and the place instead became a popular spot for couples to take photos.

Knowing that things had turned out to be interesting, she couldn't help but mutter to herself while lying in the squid's arms.

"What's with couples taking photos here? They're hoping that one of them has been tormented by Du Jingwen. That's just too mean. I don't understand."

Actually, as the main figures, the two of them had also secretly checked in at the event.

It was proposed by the squid.

He got his marriage certificate with his wife, fell in love, got married, and enjoyed a truly normal marital relationship. He felt calm and grateful.

He was grateful that Du Jingwen was rotten enough that he had no regrets.

I'm grateful that the bed pulled me out of my mind, even though I probably wouldn't consider getting married again.

He never told anyone that after the divorce, he had no hope for love or marriage anymore, and he was emotionally exhausted.

It was as if the blankets had suddenly burst in, forcefully pulling him out of the mud.

Hehe, she's so nice, so soft and fragrant~~~
The community's discussions, centered around Anna Restaurant, have extended to the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds and have continued for a long time.

"So many years have passed, and they are still the same as they were back then, so I am relieved."

"I don't know about others, but I'm a beneficiary of the university town. After I've finished enjoying this, I'll have to add a line: 'May good people live a long and peaceful life on the boundary between reality and illusion.'"

"I've seen this sentence structure used in other contexts."

"Sigh, your divergent thinking is just like that of the jailer."

"Stop tainting the meaning of the words, get out, jailer, get out!"

"Honestly, I'm really curious about what they're doing now, after all these years."

"Yeah, everyone's reminiscing about the Tower of Trials from back in the day. In two years, it'll be the Proof of the Stars, a world-class event that happens every eight years. Aren't you going to do anything about it?"

"Those of you on the boundary between the virtual and the real world, you must be spying on community news, come out and say something."

"Everyone really misses you all."

"There's one more thing that I've been curious about since back then."

"what?"

"Tea Master, who was the person you liked back then? Did you end up together?"

"Maybe it's the prison guard. After all, they've all been dealt with internally. It's been so many years, the kids are probably old enough to talk and walk by now."

"Sigh, if that's really the case, everyone's tanned goddess of good fortune has been taken by a stupid goblin. *crying*"

"Brother Jailer it is. Tea God's liking is the best thing. I just hope everyone on the boundary between reality and illusion will have good luck. After all, he accompanied me for two summers, and I really miss him."

"If the prison guard wasn't so abstract and bizarre, he wouldn't be so bad. It's unreasonable for you to discriminate against him. His family is rich, and he's a total shut-in. People who want to play with flowers have their energy diverted by anime characters. If he likes the Tea God, he'll definitely be devoted to him."

"Seeing you all like this, hoping that everyone in the anime you're watching will have a happy ending, I suddenly understand."

(End of this chapter)