Guo Yun: Plays Ye Shunguang, teammate Ye Shiyuan

The wind rushed in through the empty windows of the unfinished building, its sound whistling through the exposed steel frame like a sob, and it also brought with it—two figures that terrified the group of people.

Ye Shunguang's gaze coldly locked onto nine figures, who were raising their hands haphazardly from behind cover, their movements stiff and flustered.

Like a wildcat whose tail has been suddenly stepped on, or a nocturnal animal caught in a searchlight, it instinctively adopts the least aggressive posture.

Ye Shunguang was somewhat surprised.

She initially thought it was a sniper lying in wait—after all, the neighborhood was a bustling area, and this place was an unfinished building, so it was hard not to suspect that.

She had already planned ahead before even stepping onto this floor: if they still showed any sign of resistance, she would knock them all unconscious here in the shortest amount of time to avoid the gunshots causing more trouble.

But the scene that came into view at this moment... didn't look like those desperate criminals at all.

The way those people raised their hands was too awkward; some even raised their hands backwards, with their right hand on top of their left, as if they were doing some kind of non-standard calisthenics.

Their posture was loose, with no concept of tactical formation. Some hid behind load-bearing pillars with only half their heads showing, while others simply stood straight in the open, their legs trembling slightly.

More importantly, Ye Shunguang quickly scanned the items scattered around them—several cameras, two DSLRs with telephoto lenses, several binoculars, and maps and notes scattered on the ground…even the traces around them looked like they had just been gathered recently.

What is this?

Without any decent offensive weapons, they were sneaking around in the unfinished building, observing her and her brother, or rather, Hoshimi Miyako or Master Yixuan's movements.

To call it surreptitious filming? Nine people is far too much of a fuss, and surreptitious filming doesn't require hiding in such a place, nor does it require using so much equipment at the same time.

Suppose they were tracking her? Given these people's physique and reaction speed, they'd be detected in less than three seconds. Ye Shunguang had absolute confidence in her perception abilities.

If it's goodwill, why hide in the shadows and point binoculars, gun scopes, and cameras at them?

A well-intentioned person should take the initiative to come out and greet you, and state their purpose, instead of sneaking around behind cover and only raising their hands in a panic after being discovered.

Contradictions are everywhere.

Ye Shunguang remained vigilant, but her muscles had relaxed slightly from a state of readiness. Her slightly lowered center of gravity returned to normal, and the power gathered in her fingertips dissipated. Regardless of the nine people's motives, given their unarmed state, they posed no real threat to her and her brother.

She could subdue all nine of them in two minutes by herself, without even using the Azure Sea Sword.

But these people stood there, hands raised, and in their eyes, besides fear, there was something deeper and more complex.

It was as if they were looking at something they had heard of before, but had never seen with their own eyes.

Ye Shunguang frowned.

She couldn't remember doing anything heinous that made them so afraid of her.

Ye Shiyuan, standing opposite him, also looked bewildered.

He stood half a step behind his sister, his posture upright like a pine tree, like a silent guardian.

His gaze steadily swept over his sister's shoulder, carefully examining the nine people.

There were nine people, both men and women, aged roughly between twenty and thirty.

Judging from his facial features and contours, based on the memories implanted in Ye Shiyuan, he has typical Western European characteristics—high cheekbones, deep-set eyes, and a narrow nose…

Their faces were etched with exhaustion and tension.

Some people have chapped, peeling lips with white dead skin showing; some have dark circles under their eyes, as if they haven't slept well for days; and some have obvious stains and holes in their clothes, as if they've been on a long journey without changing.

But when their gazes fell on Ye Shunguang, a complex emotion flashed in everyone's eyes—warning, fear, curiosity, and something Ye Shiyuan couldn't quite understand.

It's like... resignation?

"Xiao Guang, do you know who they are?" Ye Shiyuan leaned down slightly, got close to his sister's ear, and asked in a low voice.

His voice was deep and steady, carrying a reassuring power, but in the empty, unfinished building, anyone on the other side could hear it if they just perked up their ears.

However, Ye Shiyuan didn't care—it didn't matter if the other side heard, since they couldn't cause any trouble anyway. His only concern was his sister's safety; as long as Ye Shunguang was alright, nothing else mattered.

Ye Shunguang did not answer immediately.

She narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly, her gaze sweeping over the nine people one by one, as if examining a somewhat discordant painting.

Her gaze moved from the face of the blond man on the far left to the brown curly-haired woman in the middle, and then to the bearded man on the right who looked like the leader.

"To be honest, I don't know—" Ye Shunguang started to speak, but suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence.

Because at that very moment, she saw countless comments flooding the live stream like a bursting dam.

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! They just came from the other livestream room! They're players from France, Johan, and Hans!"

"What's going on here??? A three-nation alliance???"

"It can't be the coalition forces, can it? Look at how pathetic they are, they don't even have weapons. Would the coalition forces act like this?"

"But they've set their sights on the Chinese players, and that's definitely not a coincidence. I suspect they're targeting the Chinese players—after all, the Chinese team is so strong, it's hard not to notice them, right? If I were in their shoes, I'd be keeping an eye on them too."

"But looking at the way they raised their hands in surrender, why do they seem so terrified? It's clearly three people targeting one person, but it looks like one person is surrounding three?"

"What do you know, upstairs? This is Ye Shunguang! Didn't you guys see that battle that looked like a dungeon raid? He single-handedly took on the entire dungeon boss! The dungeon boss was right there beside him. Wouldn't you be scared?"

"Wait, I went to check next door, and Hans's live stream has exploded. Their viewers are spamming the chat telling the player to run, but the player doesn't dare to move at all, hahaha."

"The situation in Gaul was even funnier. Their host said directly in the live broadcast, 'We suggest that the contestants maintain their current posture and not make any movements.' I really can't believe it. Considering their previous resumes, it actually seems quite appropriate."

"Let me give you a heads-up: each of the three countries lost one of their national team players, so all nine of them are now present. If you were in the leadership of the opposing team, wouldn't you panic?"

"If you hadn't told me sooner, I would have been terrified."

The barrage of comments was still flooding the screen, scrolling at a rate of dozens of messages per second, with text of various colors weaving together into a torrent of information.

Ye Shunguang's expression didn't change much. She merely raised an eyebrow slightly, and her lips twitched almost imperceptibly, as if she were chewing on some expected yet somewhat absurd truth.

This means that the national teams of these three countries not only did not act separately, but instead chose to unite in one place.

According to the rules of the national fortune system, this is permissible. The system does not prohibit cooperation between players; in fact, cooperation is largely encouraged.

After all, even on the surface, it has advantages over a single-person team in exploring unknown areas, collecting resources, and dealing with sudden dangers.

This is a rather wise choice—if they were facing ordinary adversaries. Forming alliances can reduce risk, share intelligence, and facilitate division of labor. In the perilous realm of national destiny, fraught with uncertainty, such a choice is perfectly understandable.

But at this moment, these nine people, who represent the elite forces of three countries, are in an unfinished building, facing a young girl and a young man, raising their hands in unison.

Ye Shunguang suddenly felt that the scene had a subtle sense of absurdity, as if he saw a group of kittens surrounding two lions and then lying on the ground to expose their bellies.

Just as the barrage of comments was still flooding the screen, an even more eye-catching message appeared in the center of the light screen, displaying the distinctive gold border and bold font of a national-level notification after the national fortune system had been updated again.

The gold border slowly rotated in my field of vision, exuding an undeniable sense of authority, like a steel stamp on an official document.

National-level notice:

The leaders of the four countries—China, France, Germany, and Germany—completed an emergency video conference five minutes ago and reached a preliminary consensus on the current situation.

Dragon Kingdom players Ye Shunguang and Ye Shiyuan: Please maintain your current state and, before receiving further instructions, refrain from any aggressive actions against the opposing player.

Regardless of the opposing team's previous intentions, any act of force at this stage will have an unpredictable impact on the diplomatic relations and strategies of the four countries.

The four countries have reached a consensus in principle on the framework for athlete safety, intelligence sharing, and follow-up actions. Specific details are being drafted and are expected to be communicated within fifteen minutes.

Please understand and cooperate. To reiterate—please do not take any further action. This concerns not only your individual circumstances, but also the strategic balance between four countries, and even globally.

—Emergency Notice from the Dragon Kingdom National Destiny Strategic Command Center

The gold border lingered in the center of my vision for a full five seconds, each word seeming to leave an imprint in the air.

Ye Shunguang was also surprised that the government had released such a long message, and was momentarily stunned.

Ye Shiyuan naturally also saw that national-level notification.

He hadn't been a member of the Dragon Kingdom for long, and strictly speaking, he couldn't even be considered a true "Dragon Kingdom citizen"—his identity, his memories, everything about him was incompatible with the country's conventional understanding.

But he was already familiar with the interface of the national destiny system; the text and numbers floating in his field of vision had become part of his daily perception.

The golden notification text still lingered on his retina, like a faint burn mark, carrying a sense of official, unquestionable authority.

His gaze shifted from the light screen to the nine people opposite him—they had clearly also received notifications from their respective countries, and their expressions were undergoing subtle changes: the fear was still there, but something else was added, like… a sense of relief?

Then he turned back to look at his sister's profile.

The setting sun cast its rays upon her silhouette, outlining a soft curve in her profile.

"Dragon Kingdom... reacted so quickly?" he said in a low voice, his tone revealing an undisguised surprise.

This was the first time he had witnessed the efficiency of the Chinese national machinery.

In his mind—or rather, in the memory of the real world implanted in him—such emergencies involving multiple countries and complex diplomatic relations usually required hours or even days of discussion before the news was released to the public.

Not to mention that the examples I remembered were from the conflicts in the Middle East in recent years, so naturally my first impression was much worse.

Regarding the implanted memory, his previous understanding was limited to a brief overview of the situation in the real world regarding the sudden appearance of the national destiny system.

He believed that the real world would be caught off guard and helpless in the face of such a sudden situation—after all, the emergence of the national destiny system itself is a variable that exceeds everyone's expectations, and the response mechanisms of various countries are established hastily, lacking coordination, experience, and tacit understanding.

But now, he has gained a greater understanding of the global system called the "United Nations".

Within minutes, calls were made with other countries. This may not be surprising, given the efficiency of modern communication technology.

But in the real world, a world much larger than New Ellito—a world with nearly two hundred countries and regions, billions of people, and intricate geopolitical relationships—achieving this level of sophistication is truly remarkable.

Furthermore, judging from the wording of the prompt, a certain degree of consensus and exchange of interests has been reached; otherwise, they would not have so explicitly asked their own players "not to take further action."

Moreover, if they were to make a move now, those nine people would surely die.

Ye Shiyuan had absolute confidence in his sister's and his own abilities, and was also confident in their teamwork.

According to the memories implanted in the national destiny system, if a contestant dies in the forbidden area, their country will suffer a national destiny punishment—a systemic, irresistible punishment that directly affects the overall fortune of the nation. For any country, this is an unbearable burden.

This explains why a consensus was reached so quickly... After all, they were the ones in a hurry, and the UN system was created by Westerners, so it's reasonable that communication was faster.

Xiao Guang's strength is undeniable. His previous performance, combat data, and overall evaluation have all been thoroughly analyzed by intelligence agencies of various countries.

Now, Ye Shunguang, with his extraordinary combat power, has come before them because of the reckless actions of those nine people...

It's easy to imagine that the leaders of Gaul, John, and Hans would be like their own wives whose water has broken, urgently seeking the "doctor" of China to mediate the behavior of the Chinese athletes.

After all, they can't control the thoughts and actions of players from other countries just by looking at the screen; it's not like they're playing Red Alert, is it?

All they can do is release information in the live stream and let their own players make their own judgments and take their own actions.

When their player has already raised his/her hands and is in a completely passive state, the only thing they can and can look for is the Dragon Kingdom.

Ye Shiyuan didn't want to think about it anymore.

Based on the memories implanted in me, many details cannot be used as a reference—those memories are too general and too abstract, lacking real life experience and diplomatic common sense from that world as support.

So he asked, "Are we just going to stand here and wait?"

"Just stand and wait," Ye Shunguang said crisply, his tone as indifferent as if he were saying, "The weather's nice today." "Anyway, we're not the ones in a rush."

Her voice echoed briefly in the empty, unfinished building before being carried away by the wind.

The nine people opposite clearly heard what he said. Several of them visibly relaxed their shoulders, but they still kept their hands raised, and none of them dared to lower them.

After saying this, Ye Shunguang, seeing the situation, simply focused his thoughts on his system.

To be honest, my own system really doesn't feel like it exists.

Since entering the forbidden zone of national destiny, it has been like some kind of background noise, quietly staying in the corner of my vision. Occasionally, I only open a part of its functions because of my habitual check-in. Most of the time, it remains silent.

If she hadn't remembered that the Azure Sea Sword was forcibly bound to her, she would have really thought that the system had broken free of the binding on its own.

Looking at it now, wow, it turns out that Do Not Disturb was inexplicably enabled by default.

Ye Shunguang silently complained to himself.

She remembered that she had never set Do Not Disturb, and she didn't know when the feature was activated.

But upon closer reflection, it makes perfect sense – during combat and exploration, system pop-ups can indeed be distracting, so automatically turning on the do-not-disturb mode is actually a thoughtful design.

However... this humanization is a little too subtle.

She reopened the system, and was immediately greeted by a barrage of notifications that points had been credited to her account, densely packed together like a long-overdue delivery slip.

A pile of materials were waiting for her to organize in the warehouse, and she even saw several functions that were automatically upgrading—the progress bars had already completed most of the upgrades without her noticing, and were about to enter the next stage.

This system is almost unbelievable.

Ye Shunguang checked his panel... to be honest, the operation method was now exactly the same.

Level 60, 01, no core upgrades, no skill points, not even a plate... I was able to beat my brother with this stats before? What will happen if I upgrade it?

Thinking of this, Ye Shunguang glanced at his stamina bar.

Battery capacity: 1200/240, backup capacity: 2400, battery reserve: 120.

……no?

I understand everything else, but why did the battery level exceed the limit?

Is there a system bug? Or... what exactly was updated in the system while I was away?!

She quickly flipped through the system update log—something she had never paid attention to before, but now it seemed to record quite a lot.

"System version updated to v3.2.0"

New Feature: Automatic Resource Acquisition (Activated)

New Feature: Intelligent Fitness Management (Activated)

"Optimization: Do Not Disturb mode is enabled by default."

"Optimization: Automated coffee collection - The system will automatically collect and consume coffee resources from 06:00 to 08:00 daily, without manual operation."

"Fixed several stability issues"

Automatic coffee dispensing?

That's good.

Without time to hesitate, Ye Shunguang glanced at the core skill page. There were six core skills, each with multiple levels to upgrade. She casually clicked on the first core skill—

—And then all six suddenly filled up??

Ye Shunguang: ?

Her eyes widened as she watched the six core skills light up one after another from their grayed-out, unlit state, like a chain reaction of dominoes.

Each time a core is lit up, a faint light effect sweeps across the interface, accompanied by a gentle notification sound.

After all the sounds were activated, she glanced at her stamina bar.

Battery level: 360/240?!

Wait, why is this stamina bar showing a deduction? Oh no, it's been depleted... wait, it just showed 1200, now it's 360, which means—

It consumed 840 points of power in one go?!

Ye Shunguang quickly calculated the total amount of electricity required to power each of the six cores…

What?! It's an automated material farming system with one-click max-out?!

Ye Shunguang was overjoyed. The system's level of automation was far higher than she had imagined—not only was it automatic coffee dispensing, but even the core upgrades were automatic? Did that mean that the other functions followed the same logic?

She then looked at the drive area—could it be that each one could be flashed with a magic disk?

Upon clicking through, I discovered that the material used for orbit determination had been replaced with electricity.

It's not those special materials that required spending money or grinding to obtain, but rather—electricity.

It's the amount of power she automatically replenishes every day, which can be recharged with coffee and batteries.

The primary attribute of orbital positioning requires 60 energy, and a secondary attribute of orbital positioning requires 120 energy...

Wow, it would be great if it were like this in a game.

She glanced at the number of gold plates again—12750.

Well, we'll never run out of it in this lifetime.

Everything was ready except for luck. Ye Shunguang stopped thinking about it and started flashing the driver disk.

During this process, her facial expressions were automatically taken over by the system.

This is a new feature she hadn't noticed before—when a player deeply immerses themselves in the system's operations, the system takes over the management of their facial expressions, maintaining them in a preset state.

This preset state is set to "change according to the situation" by default.

Therefore, at this moment, in the eyes of the nine people opposite him, Ye Shunguang's face was as cold and stern as a sculpture, his gaze as sharp as an ice blade, his lips slightly downturned, and his whole person exuded a suffocating sense of oppression.

……

The oppressive feeling emanating from Ye Shunguang standing still was still very strong.

The nine people opposite them clearly felt the pressure as well. They raised their hands, maintaining a gesture of surrender; none of them dared to lower them, and none dared to make a move.

Time passed second by second, and their arms began to ache. Some of them couldn't help but tremble slightly, but then forced themselves to steady themselves.

It seems that their national leaders also informed them of the current situation through the live stream—they are negotiating with China, they need to maintain the status quo, not provoke the China players, and await further instructions.

So even though their arms ached as if they were about to break, and their legs were starting to feel weak, they gritted their teeth and persevered.

The expression on their faces gradually changed from initial fear to embarrassment, and then embarrassment to a kind of numb waiting—as if they were waiting for a trial to be held, and they could do nothing but raise their hands.

This feeling of powerlessness is probably more agonizing than direct combat.

The Three Kingdoms live stream room:

"...Those Chinese are despicable."

"Exactly! Let's go put pressure on them through that live stream!"

"Aren't guys supposed to be brainless?"

"What's this Chinese guy doing here? We don't want to see you!"

"?"

"666, I couldn't hold back anymore. Your contestants are still saying things like, 'Chubang soy sauce is delicious and fresh, sun-dried for 180 days!' How dare you say such a thing? Are you out of your minds? If you really can't stand it, I'll give you some money to get treatment. I can't stand seeing idiots."

"F*** you!!! You...you..."

"What do you mean, 'you'? A bunch of brainless idiots who even need to think long and hard to come up with a curse word. Do you really think you're invincible just because you've put on some trashy label? Putting aside your extremely short-sighted thinking, you still dare to come here and cause trouble. If the negotiations fall apart later, you'll be in for a world of hurt."

"It's good to curse, brother, it's good to curse!"

"Son of the sun and sand! I will have you shot!"

"Whether I live or die is another matter. Are you sure that with our country's current border control measures, we can bring in guns? And even if we do, what then? It's worth it if I alone get the mercenary organization that dares to hire me put on a global wanted list by our country. Don't think I'm incompetent just because I'm saying this. If something happens to me, you'll just have to wait and see."

"Holy crap! Sir, you're so righteous! You're risking your life for this!"

"Pear blossoms falling... no, why would I give them pear blossoms falling?"

……

Seeing this, Ye Shiyuan had no choice but to step aside and look in the direction of Liu, Xing Jianya, and Yi Xuan. He could see them clearly from a distance of seven hundred meters—this was his advantage in eyesight, which had come in handy many times in the forbidden area of ​​national destiny.

The three people were standing on a floor of another building, seemingly talking in hushed tones. Their expressions…

Ye Shiyuan narrowed his eyes slightly and observed carefully...

...Somewhat somber?

Ye Shiyuan had some doubts, but he didn't say them here.

First, there are outsiders here—although the nine people on the other side seem harmless, they are ultimately players from other countries, and no information should be revealed to them.

Secondly, they didn't know what had caused the three of them to look so unwell, and it wouldn't be good to tell their sister if she became suspicious.

So the group could only wait for the top officials of the countries in the real world to make a decision.

……