Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

Three months later.

Jiang Chen sat by the window of the university library, with a copy of "Introduction to Computer Science" open in front of him, but he couldn't read a single word.

It's not that the book is too difficult; in fact, he had already repeatedly practiced much of the content in the book in his bizarre games.

Data structures, algorithm logic, and underlying protocols—these are essential pieces of knowledge in the world of systems.

But in the real world, they are just an exam; once you pass, you're done.

He turned to the first page of the book and saw a line of small print he had written in the blank space: "The underlying logic of the rule chain - see Appendix S."

He paused for a moment, then laughed.

He wrote that in the first few days after he came back. He hadn't fully adapted to the language system of the real world yet, and unconsciously wrote the concepts from the game into the textbook.

He crossed out that line with his pen and rewrote it next to it: "Binary tree traversal algorithm, focus on reviewing."

The sunlight outside the window is bright, and the autumn leaves are half yellow, falling down with a gust of wind.

He looked up at the window and suddenly felt that all of this was unreal.

Three months ago, he was struggling in a world full of monsters and rules, but now he's sitting in the library, worrying about his final exams.

The pages of the book in my pocket were slightly warm.

He took out the book and touched the inverted hourglass with his fingertip—a line of words appeared on the page:

Are you busy?

It is Shiyu's handwriting.

Jiang Chen smiled, picked up a pen, and wrote a line on the page: "Studying in the library, what about you?"

The words on the page disappeared, and after a while, new words appeared: "Just finished a meeting. The system has now created a 'Data Recovery Committee,' I am the chairman, Lin Xiaohe is the vice chairman, and Zhao Yuan is the advisor. There are endless meetings every day."

"That's even worse than studying for exams."

"How's it going on your end?"

"It's alright," Jiang Chen wrote. "Final exams are coming up soon, and I've missed three months of classes, so I'm catching up."

"Did you have good grades before?"

"Neither good nor bad, slightly above average."

"And now?"

"Now..." Jiang Chen thought for a moment, "Now I feel that exams aren't actually that scary. After all, I even made it through the system core."

A string of laughter symbols appeared on the page, laughing very happily.

"Do you need me to come over and tutor you?"

"Aren't you always in endless meetings?"

"I can take leave."

"No need, I can handle it myself."

"Oh well."

The light from the book's pages dimmed.

Jiang Chen put the pages away and looked at the textbook again. But he found that he really couldn't concentrate on it, not for any other reason, but because he suddenly wanted to see Shi Yu.

He hesitated for a few seconds, then took out the page again and drew an inverted hourglass on it.

It wasn't an ordinary hourglass; he had drawn a door beneath it.

The pages of the book emitted a strong light.

Then, on the other side of the table in front of him, space began to distort, like a crumpled piece of cloth.

A few seconds later, the space returned to normal, but on the other side of the table, there was another person—Shiyu.

She was wearing a beige sweater, her hair was loose, and she sat opposite him, holding a book in her hand.

"You..." Jiang Chen was stunned.

"Didn't you say you wanted to see me?" Shi Yu smiled. "I gave myself a break."

"How could you...?"

"You drew the door, so I came over," Shi Yu said. "This is the permission you gave me; you can open the passage connecting the two worlds at any time."

"I just drew it casually."

"But you drew very carefully," Shigure said. "I could feel it."

Jiang Chen looked at her, unsure of what to say.

"Where are you in your review?" Shi Yu picked up the book in front of him, flipped through it, and said, "Introduction to Computer Science. I know this book well."

"Are you familiar with this place?"

"I used to do this, have you forgotten?" Shi Yu pointed to himself, "A core technical staff member of Team 07, responsible for analyzing the underlying system protocols."

Jiang Chen was speechless for a moment.

"Come, I'll teach you," Shi Yu opened the book, "Chapter One, Data Structures and Algorithms..."

She flipped through the book quickly, her eyes scanning the pages and her fingers tracing the words as if she were reading some kind of data.

Jiang Chen looked at her and suddenly felt that the scene was very strange. A person who had once been a living administrator in the system core was now sitting in a university library, teaching a former test subject to review the introduction to computer science.

"Wait, are you really coming to tutor me?"

"Otherwise what?" Shi Yu tilted her head. "What do you think I came here for?"

"...I thought you came to see me."

"That's one of the reasons," Shi Yu smiled, "but since we're here, we can't leave empty-handed. I'll tutor you so you don't fail."

Jiang Chen looked at her and couldn't help but smile.

"What are you laughing at?"

"It's nothing," Jiang Chen said, "I just think it's pretty good."

"What's so good about it?"

"Both worlds are fine."

Shiyu closed the book, leaned back in her chair, and looked at the sunlight outside the window.

"You know," she said, "when I was in the system, I always felt that the real world was a very distant concept."

I knew it existed, but to me, it was like a book that only existed in legends; everyone said it was wonderful, but no one had actually seen it.

"Now you've seen it," Jiang Chen said.

"Now that I've seen it," Shigure said, "it's not quite what I imagined."

"What's different?"

"It's noisier than I imagined," Shigure laughed. "There are car sounds, human voices, and the sound of air conditioners."

Inside the system, everything is quiet except for the sound of data flowing.

But here, there's noise everywhere.

You'll get used to it.

"I'm already used to it," Shi Yu said, "just like when you were in the system, you got used to those rules."

Both worlds are fine.

Shi Yu looked at him with a hint of tenderness in her eyes.

"Yes," she said, "everything is fine."

Outside the window, the autumn sun shines warmly on the pages of the book.

The library was quiet, with only the sound of turning pages and the scratching of pens on paper.

Shi Yu spoke very seriously. She would draw on paper with a pen, marking different nodes with different colors, as if she were drawing a map.

Looking at those diagrams, Jiang Chen suddenly felt that they were very similar to the data flow diagrams he had seen in the rule chain, except that they lacked those dangerous traps and fatal rules.

"Look here, this recursive function..." Shi Yu tapped the paper with the tip of her pen, "Its time complexity is O(n²), but if you optimize it with a hash table, you can reduce it to O(n)."

"So a hash table is just a tool for fast lookups?"

"Yes, just like using scouting skills to quickly find traps in a maze of trust."

Jiang Chen paused for a moment, then laughed: "It's actually easier for me to understand when you use things from the game as an analogy."

"That's good," Shiyu smiled, "After all, the exam won't test your rule chain cooldown time."

Two people from different worlds sat at the same table, arguing heatedly over an algorithm problem, just like two ordinary college students.

In the evening, Jiang Chen escorted Shi Yu to the school gate.

"I have to go back," Shi Yu said. "There's a ton of stuff waiting for me to do with the system."

"When will you come next time?"

"Let's see when you start drawing doors," Shigure laughed, "but don't draw them too often, I haven't finished my work yet."

"Okay, I'll draw it again when I have time."

Shi Yu stood at the school gate, the afterglow of the setting sun shining on her, giving her a golden glow.

"Jiang Chen".

"Um?"

"Thank you."

"What are you thanking me for?"

"Thank you for giving me a second chance at life."

Shi Yu's voice was soft, but every word was clear.

She looked at Jiang Chen, her eyes filled with no sadness or reluctance, only a calm, contented tenderness.

"Do you know, I've thought about this countless times in my 138 reincarnations."

If one day I am free, I must go and see the real world, feel the sunshine, smell the flowers, and eat a meal without worrying about it being poisoned.

"You did it," Jiang Chen said.

"Yes, I did it," Shiyu smiled, "because of you."

Jiang Chen looked at her and smiled.

"Thank you for letting me know that there are still things in this world worth protecting."

Shi Yu smiled, her eyes curving into crescent moons.

Then she turned and walked into the sunset.

Her figure grew fainter and fainter, more and more transparent, until finally, like a gust of wind, she vanished into the golden light.

Jiang Chen stood there, looking at the empty street, and remained silent for a long time.

Then he took the blank page out of his pocket, looked at the inverted hourglass on it, and smiled.

He closed the book, turned around, and walked into the school.

The setting sun bathed the entire campus in gold, and students emerged from the teaching buildings in twos and threes; some were discussing homework, some were making plans for dinner, and some were making phone calls.

Jiang Chen walked through the crowd, across the playground, past the cafeteria, and along the tree-lined path he had walked countless times.

Everything was so ordinary.

But it is precisely because it is ordinary that it appears precious.

He returned to his dormitory, sat on his bed, and took out the page from the book.

The inverted hourglass on the book's pages emitted a faint golden glow in the dim light. He reached out and touched it; the pages warmed slightly, and a line of text appeared:

"Have we arrived yet?"

"We've arrived," he wrote.

"That's good. Do you need to review tomorrow?"

"Yes. I haven't finished studying data structures yet."

"Then I'll come again tomorrow."

"it is good."

The light from the book's pages dimmed.

Jiang Chen put the book pages under his pillow, lay down, and stared at the ceiling.

Moonlight streamed in through the window, casting silvery-white patches on the wall. He closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

There were no nightmares, no system prompts, no rule chains; it was just a normal, quiet sleep.

In his dream, he stood in a golden square, the clock tower's hands stopped at twelve.

Shi Yu stood beside him, a lollipop dangling from her lips, gazing into the distance.

"You've arrived?" she asked.

"Um."

"I didn't ask you to come this time; you came on your own."

"I know," Jiang Chen said, "I just wanted to come and see."

"Then let's watch a little longer," Shigure said. "Anyway, the door is always open."

Jiang Chen smiled.

The door is always open.

Just as he was about to turn around, a very faint light suddenly flashed across the back of the book.

It was like a line of code he had never seen before, which lingered on the paper for less than half a second before disappearing.

He subconsciously turned the page.

The back is clean and there's nothing on it.

He frowned, took another look, and confirmed that he hadn't misread it; something had indeed flashed by.

Shiyu's voice came from afar: "What's wrong?"

He shook his head and smiled, "It's nothing."

He folded the pages, put them in his pocket, turned around, and walked into the depths of his dream.

In the pocket of the book, on the blank space on the back, at an angle unseen by Jiang Chen, a line of extremely fine gibberish slowly appeared and then slowly disappeared.

【OBS-07 - Residual Data Packet】

Status: Active

Then it vanished completely, as if it had never existed.