Guo Yun: Plays Ye Shunguang, teammate Ye Shiyuan

In the original game setting, rope craftsmen are folk technicians who are responsible for connecting the Void with the real world. Through special equipment and skills, they can provide remote support, ether concentration monitoring, and even emergency rescue for explorers who venture into the Void.

But in Ye Shunguang's memory, 6th Street was only associated with a brother and sister.

Zhe and Ling.

The brother and sister play a crucial role in the game's main storyline.

According to the original storyline, after being attacked by a hacker organization called "White Noise," the brother and sister were forced to abandon the Phaethon account they jointly managed.

In order to save "The Cunning Rabbit House", either the brother or sister made a dangerous decision - to directly connect to a super AI hard drive called "Fairy".

In the game, thanks to the protagonist's aura controlled by the player, any problem encountered along the way can be perfectly solved.

But in this real-world timeline...

What did Caesar just say? "He only knows that his sister seems to have disappeared in the void"?!

Missing.

This word struck Ye Shunguang's consciousness like a heavy hammer.

In the original game storyline, Rin did encounter danger, but was ultimately rescued.

But in this world, Rin might have disappeared during a Void Disaster while buying videotapes, and her brother, who was already connected to Fairy at the time, couldn't find her...

Then everything makes sense.

Why is the situation in Wildfire Town so bad? Why is the threat from the Void so severe? Why has Mukuro been inexplicably strengthened?

Because there is no growth of the "protagonist".

There is no one who can fight his way in and out of the most dangerous voids and resolve one crisis after another.

There was no Sixth Street succubus to help the agents through the crisis and keep them connected.

In this timeline, it was probably around the point in time when Rin disappeared that everything began to slide into an irreversible abyss.

Although Zhe has joined Fairy, he has lost his sister and his carefully cultivated veteran account, and he simply cannot afford to support this super money-devouring beast in a short period of time.

More likely, however, is that without the protagonist's intervention, many of the Praise Society's conspiracies that should have been resolved were not.

Ye Shunguang felt a chill rise up his spine.

She initially thought it was just a typical post-apocalyptic transmigration, but now it seems she might have been drawn into a world line heading towards destruction. And the starting point of this world line's collapse is very likely related to the rope craftsman in front of her.

If this world is truly a continuation of the game world she knows, if the people here are indeed the characters she spent thousands of hours with on the other side of the screen...

She couldn't just sit idly by.

……

Thinking takes only a moment.

Ye Shunguang didn't even wait for Caesar and Lucy's response. Her quick movement of pushing back her chair and standing up stunned everyone.

The wooden chair legs creaked and groaned against the stone floor, sounding particularly jarring in the quiet room.

"...Excuse me, I'd like to go see that rope craftsman first!"

Before she finished speaking, she had already turned and walked towards the door. The hem of her white outfit drew a clean arc in the air, and her brown tail rose slightly behind her as she moved quickly, the fur at the tip of her tail gleaming softly in the dim light.

"Huh?" Caesar hadn't fully reacted yet. She looked at Lucy for help, her grayish-yellow eyes filled with confusion. "What's wrong with her...?"

Lucy crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, her golden side ponytail swaying gently as she shrugged. "What are you looking at me for? How would I know?"

But Lucy's gaze followed Ye Shunguang's departing figure, a thoughtful look flashing in her bright eyes.

She noticed the change in Ye Shunguang's expression just a moment ago—it wasn't ordinary eagerness, but rather a kind of... urgency as if he had learned some major secret.

Lucy had only seen that look in her eyes on very few occasions, so it left a deep impression on her.

Ye Jianguo, Chen Jianjun, and Zhou Liming exchanged a glance.

"I'll go and see," Zhou Liming said softly. Even though he wasn't in the military, he instinctively felt that Ye Shunguang's sudden action might be hiding important information.

Information about this world, about why they came here, and perhaps even about how to get back.

Ye Jianguo nodded, his voice low but exceptionally clear: "Be careful, don't interfere with her actions, but report immediately if anything unusual happens."

"clear."

Zhou Liming got up, his movements as light as a cat's. He didn't go straight to the door, but instead went around to the window, observed the street outside through the broken glass, and only after confirming that there were no suspicious people or danger did he quietly push open the door and go out.

Ye Jianguo watched Zhou Liming leave, then looked back at Caesar and Lucy, and calmly said, "I apologize, my team members were a bit rude. We can continue our conversation. I'd like to know more details about the Hellfire Ride and the other issues you're facing."

His voice was steady and powerful, carrying a reassuring aura. It was a composure that only those who had been tempered in countless crises possessed—a calmness that seemed capable of holding up half the sky even if it collapsed.

Caesar's attention was drawn back. She took a deep breath and nodded. The pain made her unconsciously purse her lips, but her expression remained resolute.

"Okay, let's continue..."

Lucy walked to the table, unfolded the huge map again, and pointed to the area marked with a red circle: "The Hellfire Ride mainly passes through..."

……

Outside, the twilight bathed Wildfire Town in a golden-red hue.

The setting sun was slowly sinking below the distant horizon, the sky ablaze with a tapestry of orange and dark purple, like the final, magnificent strokes of a wild painter who had used up all his paint. But beneath this splendor lay dilapidated houses, dusty streets, and a faint, lingering smell of blood and decay in the air.

Ye Shunguang strode across the town square.

Her footsteps rang crisply on the stone pavement, each step firm and powerful. The setting sun cast a long shadow behind her, which stretched and distorted with her movements, as if chasing after something.

Her red eyes appeared even more vibrant in the setting sun, like two truly burning flames. Those eyes were fixed intently on the house diagonally opposite—a two-story cottage that looked newer than the other buildings around it.

The windows of the house were fitted with glass salvaged from the ruins; although cracked, they at least kept out the wind. On the windowsill sat several empty jars, each containing a few wildflowers—small, tenacious, pale purple flowers rarely seen in the wilderness.

The house chimney was not smoking, which seemed unusual at this time of nightfall and when the temperature was starting to drop.

Ye Shunguang stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath.

The air was filled with a mixture of smells: the distant smell of cooking smoke, the earthy smell of soil, the rusty smell of metal, and... a very faint, ozone-like electrical odor. The smell was so faint that an ordinary person would likely not notice it, but Ye Shunguang's keen senses detected it.

That's the distinctive smell of precision electronic equipment in operation.

Her heart started beating faster involuntarily.

She had no idea what lay behind the door, no idea what state Zhe was in, and no idea how far this world had deviated from the original plot.

But she needs to know.

If Zhe really is, as she suspected, one of the key figures in this world...

If Rin's disappearance truly was the starting point for this world line's collapse...

So she may have found a breakthrough—a breakthrough to understand the world, and perhaps even change it.

She raised her hand and knocked on the door.

knock knock knock.

Three soft sounds rang out clearly in the stillness of dusk. Night fell quickly in Wildfire Town, and by this time there were hardly any pedestrians on the streets, only the occasional bark of a dog and the sound of the wind in the distance.

There was a response quickly coming from inside the door.

Instead of opening the door immediately, there was a soft footstep—a very light, cautious footstep, as if someone was deliberately making a fuss. Then, a small observation hole in the door was opened.

But what appears behind the observation hole is not a human eye.

It was a round, metallic mechanical eye, with a faint green glow flickering in its pupil. It rotated nimbly, scanning Ye Shunguang up and down outside the door, emitting an extremely faint "buzzing" sound.

A bonnet.

Ye Shunguang immediately recognized the little thing. In the game's setting, Bangbu is a commonly used auxiliary robot for rope craftsmen, usually responsible for basic monitoring, communication, and simple equipment maintenance.

They come in various shapes and sizes, some cute and some practical, but their core functions are all pretty much the same.

Bomb peered at Ye Shunguang through the observation hole for a few seconds, then the light in its "eyes" flickered a few times, as if it were performing some kind of identification or analysis. Next, it emitted a series of soft "beep" sounds, as if transmitting information to the people inside the room.

A few seconds later, the cloth behind the observation hole was removed.

A pair of human eyes replaced the mechanical eyes.

They were dark green eyes, appearing deep and unfathomable in the dim light. The owner of the eyes was clearly wary; he only revealed a small portion of his field of vision, enough to see the person outside the door, but without revealing his full appearance.

"Wow, what kind of high-tech is this? Robots guarding the gate?"

"The world's technology tree is a bit off-center. On one side, there's a desolate post-apocalyptic landscape, and on the other side, there are these advanced robots."

"Perhaps this is what's called 'broken technology,' a legacy left behind by a previous civilization."

"Look at that person's eyes! Dark green! So unique!"

"Why do I feel there's something inexplicably off about these eyes?"

"Who are you?" a voice asked from behind the door. It was a young male voice, slightly hoarse and tired, but mostly wary.

Ye Shunguang could feel those dark green eyes scrutinizing her closely—from her face to her clothes to the slightly swaying tail behind her.

She quickly considered her options. A simple self-introduction? Explaining her purpose? Requesting entry?

No, that would be too slow, and we might get rejected outright.

In this post-apocalyptic world, the arrival of strangers often means trouble, especially for technicians living alone. Zhe must be very vigilant to have survived this long.

She needed a faster, more direct way to break down his defenses and get him to open the door and talk.

"I know Fairy."

Ye Shunguang didn't want to waste too much time on such a trivial matter, so she directly revealed her trump card.

This statement was made softly, but it was clear enough.

The person behind the door was clearly frozen in place.

The pupils of those dark green eyes contracted sharply, and her breathing—though faint through the door—became rapid in that instant. Ye Shunguang could even hear a barely perceptible gasp from behind the door.

silence.

There was about three seconds of deathly silence.

Then, the sound of the door being opened quickly rang out—not just one lock, but at least three different locks: a traditional bolt, the beeping of an electronic lock, and the hissing sound of a gas lock.

The door opened inwards.

A boy with gray hair appeared behind the door.

He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a handsome face and sharp, clean features, but all of this was masked by an extreme weariness.

His face was unnaturally pale, not a sickly white, but a paleness caused by long-term lack of sleep and high mental stress.

He had very obvious dark circles under his eyes, so deep they looked like they had been painted with ink. Those dark circles weren't just pigmentation on his skin; they also conveyed a weariness that seemed to seep from his very bones.

What is most striking are his eyes—dark green pupils, a color that should be full of vitality, like the deepest lake in a spring forest, clear and full of layers.

But at this moment, those eyes seemed somewhat empty and lost, like a thin layer of ice covering the surface of a lake, isolating them from all emotions and light.

His gaze was unfocused. Although he was looking at Ye Shunguang, his focus was not entirely on her. It was more as if he was looking through her at something distant, or... at someone who was no longer here.

He wore a dark gray work jacket, the fabric faded from washing, with two rough patches on the elbows. Underneath, he wore a black shirt, the collar slightly open, revealing his equally pale neck.

The sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, revealing slender but well-defined arms—arms typical of technicians who perform delicate operations for long periods of time, not strong, but stable and flexible.

There were several fresh abrasions on my arm, the edges of which were still red, as if I had been injured just a day or two ago. The wounds hadn't been properly treated; they had only been simply cleaned, without even the most basic disinfection.

Zhe stood there stunned for a few seconds.

His gaze swept over the girl before him, a mechanical and slow process, as if he were running a pre-programmed sequence: from her crimson eyes to her distinctive brown hair, and then to the white outfit she wore that seemed out of place in Wildfire Town—the material of the clothes looked very special, not ordinary fabric, and shimmered with an extremely subtle silky sheen in the dim light.

Finally, his gaze fell on the slightly swaying brown tail behind her.

The tail has thick, soft fur, with a small tuft of lighter-colored fur at the tip that trembles gently with her breathing and slight movements.

Why do I feel like I've seen her somewhere before?

Zhe's brows furrowed slightly, not with vigilance, but with confusion and a struggle to recall.

But the ripples quickly disappeared, like a pebble thrown into a lake; the ripples were blocked by the ice before they could fully spread, and the lake returned to calm.

Weak and listless.

This was Ye Shunguang's first impression of Zhe. It wasn't physical weakness—although his physical condition was clearly not good either—but more importantly, a kind of mental exhaustion and confusion, as if half of his soul had been emptied out, leaving only an empty shell barely functioning.

The person standing in front of her now had almost no light in his eyes.

"My God, this young man looks so pitiful..."

"It looks like he hasn't slept for three days and three nights."

"Those wounds on your arms haven't been treated yet. What if they get infected?"

"In the apocalypse, medicine might be more expensive than life itself, there's nothing we can do about it."

"The way he looked at Ye Shunguang was so strange, like he knew him but didn't."

Ye Shunguang's heart involuntarily tightened as he looked at Zhe.

It was a very complex feeling—a mix of sympathy, understanding, and an indescribable sense of responsibility.

"Excuse me... is there anything I can help you with?" Zhe asked, his voice soft and slightly hoarse, with a hint of shock in his tone—perhaps because Ye Shunguang had directly used the keyword "Fairy"—but without any hostility or enthusiasm, more like a mechanical inquiry.

Ye Shunguang tried his best to keep his voice steady, but a hint of urgency still crept into his words.

"...I have something I'd like to talk to you about," she said, speaking a little faster than usual, "about the work of a rope maker, and...some other things."

She paused for a moment, then added, "Can I go inside to talk? It's not really convenient here."

This statement was made very naturally, but its meaning was clear: the matter we are about to discuss is sensitive and not suitable for discussion in public.

Zhe was momentarily stunned by these words.

His expression went blank for a moment, as if his processor had suddenly frozen.

Then instinct kicked in—as a rope maker, his workshop contained too much sensitive equipment: the instruments salvaged from 6th Street, the terminals connected to Fairy, the data links he was still trying to repair… none of which were suitable for strangers to see.

Those things are not just equipment, but also his past, his failures, and his irretrievable losses.

Protecting them is like protecting the last shred of dignity.

But just as he was about to refuse, his gaze fell on Ye Shunguang's face again.

Some vague memory was triggered.

It's not a clear image, not a specific event, but a feeling—a feeling of "having seen this face somewhere before." Not the feeling of having seen it face-to-face in reality, but in some kind of record, in a data stream, in…

Zhe's brows furrowed even more, a hint of confusion flashing in his dark green pupils. His lips moved, but no sound came out, yet Ye Shunguang read the words through lip reading:

"...Virtual reality files?"

His voice was so soft it was almost inaudible, as if he were talking to himself, or as if he were confirming something.

Ye Shunguang had excellent hearing; she caught the word.

Virtual Reality Archives—this is the official system used by Neo Elidu to record combat data of Virtual Hunters. It's a vast database storing all combat records, tactical analyses, capability assessments, and more from all Virtual Hunter missions. Access is extremely restricted; ordinary technical personnel have no access to it whatsoever.

But philosophy is different.

He connected with Fairy.

Did Zhe access those files through Fairy?

"Do you know me?" Ye Shunguang asked directly, without any beating around the bush.

Zhe remained silent for a few seconds.

In those few seconds, his eyes underwent a complex shift: confusion, recollection, confirmation, and then a calm understanding.

He nodded slowly, then shook his head, his movements slow, as if he were going through a thought process that required a lot of energy.

"I wouldn't say we know each other..." His voice was still soft, but with a hint of certainty. "But I've seen you in the data records. You're Kyokui Yoru Shunko, right? The one who disappeared three months ago in the Hollow Disaster in Northern Neo Elido."

His tone was calm, as if he were stating an objective fact, without any emotional fluctuation.

It's as natural as saying "It's a cloudy day today".

"Yes," Ye Shunguang admitted without hesitation, "but I'm back now. And I need your help, Zhe."

She called him by his name directly.

When Zhe heard his name being called accurately, his pupils contracted slightly, but the difference was so small that Ye Shunguang's keen observation skills would have made it almost imperceptible.

His shoulders were extremely stiff, a natural reaction to the body's momentary tension.

But after staring at Ye Shunguang for a few seconds, the wariness on his face relaxed a little.

This is a very contradictory psychological state: a stranger knows your secret (Fairy), knows your name, which should make you more vigilant.

However, if this stranger is someone you "know"—even if you only "know" them in the data records—and if this stranger has an officially certified and respectable identity (a virtual hunter), then a delicate balance will be formed between vigilance and trust.

Zhe was clearly weighing his options quickly.

His gaze swept over Ye Shunguang again, this time more carefully, as if he were conducting some kind of risk assessment.

Then he glanced at the street—the street was deserted at dusk, with only faint voices coming from afar.

Finally, he stepped aside to clear the doorway.

"...Come in," he said, his voice still soft, but with a hint of compromise. "But please don't touch any equipment."

……

The house looked much more crowded inside than it did from the outside.

The entire first-floor space was almost completely opened up, leaving only a few load-bearing columns supporting the second-floor floor. What was originally the living room, dining room, and bedroom area has now been entirely transformed into a workspace.

All sorts of equipment were piled up in every corner, leaving almost no room to move around. Wires spread across the ground like vines, some carefully taped to the floor, others scattered haphazardly, forming dangerous tripwires.

The worktable is the tidiest area in the room—if the word "tidy" even applies in this setting.

It was a long, rectangular workbench made from an old-fashioned metal table, with an anti-static mat on the surface and at least ten different types of terminals placed on it.

Some terminals had their screens lit up, displaying complex data streams and waveforms; others were in sleep mode, with their screens completely black.

Between the terminals were various disassembled devices: exposed circuit boards, tangled data cables, scattered chips and components, and several holographic projection interfaces that flickered with faint light, suspended in mid-air, with dense streams of data rolling across them—these data streams were so fast that they were dazzling, and ordinary people would get dizzy after looking at them for a few seconds.

The air was filled with a mixture of smells: the distinctive ozone smell of heated electronic devices, the faint chemical smell of coolant, the musty smell of old paper, and... a very faint smell, similar to disinfectant.

Ye Shunguang's gaze quickly swept across the entire room.

Her attention was quickly drawn to a particular area in the center of the room.

There was no cluttered equipment; instead, a relatively tidy space was reserved. An insulating mat was laid on the floor, and on it sat a computer tower that looked quite high-end.

She could sense a certain "presence" emanating from that device. Could this be the equipment Fairy currently possesses?

Furthermore, she noticed that Fairy's operational power was clearly suppressed. After all, when Fairy's name was called from outside the door, this AI should have appeared immediately and assessed its own danger.

Clearly, Zhe was intentionally controlling Fairy's power consumption.

In this power-scarce environment, maintaining a super AI at full power is virtually impossible. Fairy is an "electric beast," a setting explicitly mentioned in the game—its computing power is strong enough to handle the data stream of the entire New Elidu, but at the cost of staggering energy consumption.

Zhe obviously can't afford to keep it now.

The rest of the room was even more cluttered.

Several metal boxes were piled up in the corner, labeled with things like "6th Street - Emergency Evacuation - Number 07". The lids were open, revealing more equipment and parts inside: old server racks, broken monitors, bundles of fiber optic cables, and various specialized tools whose names I didn't know.

In another corner stood a simple bookshelf, crammed with paper notebooks and printed documents. The notebook covers were worn, the edges curled, clearly indicating they had been frequently read.

A simple folding bed stood by the window, covered with gray bedding that was folded fairly neatly, but the sheets had obvious wrinkles, as if someone had recently slept on it.

The room gives the impression of being both a haven for a technological genius and a refuge for someone who has lost everything.

Zhe pulled over two folding chairs—the only two usable chairs in the room, the others were occupied by equipment. He gestured for Ye Shunguang to sit down, while he himself sat on a toolbox opposite her.

The toolbox was made of metal, with many dents and scratches on the surface, and the paint was almost completely peeling off. It was obviously uncomfortable to sit on, but Zhe seemed to have gotten used to it.

His posture was somewhat stiff, with his hands on his knees and his back very straight—a deliberate posture that was trying to show that "I am still normal".

But his shoulders slumped slightly, revealing an undeniable weariness. It wasn't the fatigue of just a day or two, but a deep-seated exhaustion accumulated from long-term mental stress and lack of sleep.

"Well then," Zhe began, his voice still soft but exceptionally clear in the quiet room, "what brings Lord Xu Shou to my aid? If it's about the rope-making support work in Wildfire Town, I'm already working with Miss Caesar. Hollow ether concentration monitoring, remote navigation for personnel entering and exiting, emergency rescue signal relay... I'm already doing all of that."

As he spoke, his eyes weren't fully focused on Ye Shunguang, but rather slightly averted, as if he were reciting a work report. His speech was steady, but lacked inflection, like a tape recorder playing pre-recorded content.

He paused, then added, "Although the results may not be as good as expected. The interference inside the cavity has been too strong lately, even affecting Fairy's data link."

This statement was made with some difficulty, as if it were an admission of some kind of failure.

"I'm not here to talk about work in Wildfire Town," Ye Shunguang said slowly, deciding to get straight to the point without any beating around the bush. "I'm here to talk about your sister, Ling."

The name sounds like a switch.

Zhe's body suddenly stiffened.

It wasn't just simple stiffness; it was a stiffness where all the muscles in his body tensed instantly, as if his blood had frozen. His hands, which were resting on his knees, clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, and the veins on the back of his hands standing out.

His dark green pupils contracted sharply, focusing instantly from their previous unfocused state, staring intently at Ye Shunguang. The weariness in his eyes was replaced by something deeper...

It was pain, self-blame, terror, and a hint of wariness and... anger at having the deepest wounds touched?

It was not an aggressive anger, but a defensive anger stemming from a violation of one's personal space.

His breathing became rapid, and although he was trying to control it, the obvious rise and fall of his chest and his slightly enlarged nostrils betrayed him.

Ye Shunguang could even hear the slight grinding sound of his teeth clenching.

The air in the entire room seemed to freeze.

Only the hum of the equipment and the spinning of the cooling fan continued, and those sounds seemed particularly jarring at that moment.

"..."

Zhe's lips moved, but no sound came out. His throat bobbed, as if he were swallowing something difficult.

It took him about five seconds to finally find his voice.

The voice lowered, carrying a suppressed tremor—not a tremor of fear, but a tremor of emotion on the verge of collapse.

"...How do you know about Rin?"

He neither denied nor evaded the question, but asked it directly.

This means that Ling's disappearance is not a fact that can be denied to him, but an unhealable wound that hurts at the slightest touch.

Ye Shunguang did not avoid his gaze.

She stared directly into those dark green eyes, which were now filled with pain and questions.

"I know a lot of things," she said, her tone calm but firm. "Phaethon, Ies, the shepherd, and the hacker who attacked you."

With each word she uttered, Zhe's face grew paler.

His lips lost all color and trembled, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. His hands clenched tighter, his nails almost digging into his palms, but he seemed to feel no pain.

Ye Shunguang softened his voice, not as a deliberate performance, but as genuine sympathy.

"Ling disappeared during the Void Disaster while buying the videotape, right?" she asked, her tone not accusatory, but confirming. "And you had already connected with Fairy and found an agent to search the Void, but you couldn't find her."

This statement was like a precise scalpel, cutting through the last line of defense.

Zhe's breathing became extremely rapid.

He lowered his head, his graying hair falling down, obscuring his eyes and most of his face. But his shoulders were trembling, an uncontrollable tremor, as if his whole being was collapsing from the inside out.

Ye Shunguang could see the back of his neck—the muscles there were taut, and the blood vessels under the skin were throbbing.

The room fell silent again.

The sky outside the window had completely darkened, and the night in Wildfire Town was eerily quiet. Occasionally, the sound of wind drifted from afar, like the mournful wail of the wilderness.

A long time passed—maybe a minute, maybe five minutes, in that silence, the sense of time became blurred—and then Zhecai raised his head again.

His eyes were a little red, but no tears were falling. It was a dryness, the emptiness left after all the tears had been shed. There were bloodshot veins in his eyes, not many, but clearly visible.

He looked at Ye Shunguang, but his gaze was unfocused, as if he were looking at her, or as if he were looking at some distant place, at someone who was no longer here.

"……yes."

He admitted it, his voice hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against metal.

The pain in that voice was almost overflowing; every syllable trembled, accompanied by suppressed gasps, as if each word required the utmost effort to utter.

Then he began an incomplete narrative, a fragmented, piecemeal monologue interspersed with self-reproach.

"I'm such a useless older brother..."

He said his voice was very low, almost as if he were talking to himself.

"I couldn't protect my sister..."

I paused, took a deep breath, and tried to control the trembling in my voice, but I failed.

"No... we saved her..."

The sound began to break, and uncontrollable breathy sounds appeared, as if she was about to cry, but she forcibly suppressed it.

"Take her home..."

The last few words were almost inaudible, as if they had been swallowed back down the throat.

Every time Zhe spoke, he had to try hard to restrain his urge to shout, to smash everything, and to question fate.

That restraint distorted his voice, his expression, and put his entire body in a state of extreme tension.

After a moment of silence—during which Zhe closed his eyes, took deep breaths, and unconsciously gripped his knees with his fingers.

He seemed to suppress his most intense emotions and continued speaking in a slightly more normal tone.

That "normal" is relative; the voice is still hoarse and tired, but at least it can speak in complete sentences.

"From then on, the disaster on 6th Street began to spread," he said, looking at the ground and the scattered power lines. "I tried to use Fairy to help others evacuate, but the hole expanded faster than anyone expected."

His tone was filled with deep helplessness and self-blame.

"I should have done more... I should have given earlier warnings... I should have..."

He shook his head, leaving those "should have" unsaid.

"In the end, the entire north fell, including 6th Street. I could only escape here with the equipment that could still be salvaged." He looked up at the boxes in the room. "Thankfully, with the help of the store managers, we were able to bring out the most crucial parts... everything else was destroyed."

"The other store managers have all left, after all, they all have more important roles, but I have already lost mine."

So, after wandering around Guangying Plaza for several months, I realized that this wouldn't work, so I called a taxi, gave the driver all the savings I had, and came to the outer ring road.

Upon arriving at the outer ring, I learned that the Fire Hell Ride had ended, and the outer ring was in chaos. After the acting overlord Caesar was rescued, I also lost my chance to prove myself.

But Miss Caesar took me in and let me continue working as a rope maker before I revealed that I had once been the most legendary rope maker in the industry. There was a hint of gratitude in his voice, but more of numbness. "She said Wildfire Town needed technical support, and I needed to... needed to do something, or I would go crazy."

After Zhe finished speaking, he seemed to have all his strength drained away, his shoulders slumped, and his back was no longer straight.

He stopped looking at Ye Shunguang and stared at the ground, at the wires, at the dust, as if there was something there worth studying, something that allowed him to escape reality.

His profile looked particularly vulnerable under the light, his jawline was taut, and his Adam's apple bobbed occasionally, as if he were swallowing some bitter liquid.

The only sound in the room was the operation of the equipment.

"Oh My God……"

"This is too heavy."

"He lost his sister, his home, everything... How old was he?"

"I could feel that sense of self-blame even through the screen."

"Something needs to be done, or I'll go crazy..." Hearing that made my heart clench.

"What kind of hell is this world anyway?"

"Although I don't know what Fairy is, just hearing about this kind of experience is enough to make me feel hopeless."

"What on earth is this thing called 'Hollow'? How can such a bizarre thing exist in this world?!"

"@I'm the best at swearing, bro's back!"

"I'm number one at cursing: keep it low-key, but it really made me angry. When I got to his building, I found out that he had already been locked up by the police as a spy, making my trip a waste."

"666"

"If there are any more of these kinds of rapes next time, let's crowdfund for our boss so he can go offline and see for himself what they've done to them."

"I agree!"

"If you have any requests, just let us know here, and we'll add you on WeChat and QQ, and give you money to contact them!"

"No need, I've already booked him out."

"@Kakawa, who is it again?"

"Kakawa: Don't be obsessed with me, I'm just a legend. All you need to know is that the cost of his first-class ticket last time was only 1/5 of what I earn per hour."

"?"

Please enter text.

"I've mistakenly entered the imperial palace..."

"May I ask about the celestial palaces..."

"A pair of mandarin ducks play on the water's surface in the rain..."

"Look, you're singing again."

……