I really don't want to date a girl addicted to the internet!

"Yes, Teacher Shen." The boy had no choice but to nod obediently.

Having completed this task, Shen Xi issued an order to all formal members of the Corridor Research Department to go online.

"My little darling, I want to hold you and play in the corridor." Cheng Fei pressed against the edge of the shoji door.

"No." Shen Xi tried to close the door, her face cold.

"How about holding hands?" the boy persisted.

"I said no." The girl's eyebrows twitched, and her small hands trembled slightly from the force she used.

"At least lie together?" The boy remained motionless.

"Cheng Fei, let go of my hand." The girl took a deep breath and lowered her eyes.

"Are you angry?" The boy scrutinized her cold little face.

"I told you to let go." The girl gritted her teeth, and with a feeling of unbearable frustration, she raised her soft little foot and smacked him, raising her voice, "If you want to hug me, wait until after we're asleep. Can't you even endure that little bit? Even a mouse has its limit to how much it likes to stick to its owner's feet. Now get back online!"

"I'm sorry?" The boy was slightly shocked and released his hand from the shoji door.

Without hesitation, the girl slammed the door shut.

Through the hazy washi paper, Cheng Fei could see the slender figure turn and leave, the sound of bare feet stepping on the tatami mat barely audible.

In the quiet room, the boy stared at the shoji door connecting to the next room for a second in silence, scratched his head, and then turned around and went online.

……

The group from the Corridor Research Department appeared in the small square where the fountain never stops.

Shen Xi checked the list, her brows furrowing slightly as she said softly, "Some materials need to be farmed on the third floor. It's most efficient to divide these low-difficulty tasks among a group of people."

"Then how should we divide it?" Nagasaki Asuna tilted her head with her hands behind her back, tapping her chin with her fingertips in thought. "It's said to be not difficult, but it's actually quite dangerous without Cheng Fei, right? If you die once, all the skill points you've accumulated will be wasted."

The silver-haired girl paused for a second, then said, "It's simple. Let that rat sneak across and handle the difficult parts by itself, while the rest of us go to the third floor. That way, we'll be absolutely safe."

"Old, rat?" Zhou Han was stunned for a moment, blinked her round eyes, and followed her gaze to Cheng Fei next to her. The boy was staring at the game interface, seemingly unaware of their conversation.

“Alright, with the few of us and Shuangshuang, it should be fine. It'll just be a bit of a hassle for Cheng Fei.” Nagasaki Asuna thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry, Miss Nagasaki, I will protect everyone!" Miriam patted her flat chest vigorously, looking full of energy.

Shen Xi glanced at the unmoved boy, walked over and kicked him, her eyes narrowing slightly, "Trash, did you hear me?"

"Huh?" The boy snapped out of his daze and looked up. "Me, going alone? No problem, just be careful yourselves."

"Then let's get down to business and stop wasting time chatting with random people about meaningless nonsense." The aloof girl glanced at his game interface, then casually looked away, her face showing a hint of displeasure.

"Teacher Shen is right." The boy closed the interface and obediently lowered his head.

He was greeting Tang Yu, and the reporter happened to be online as well.

"Alright, let's go." Shen Xi ignored him and opened her game interface to select teleport.

The others followed closely behind and quickly disappeared from the spot, leaving the boy alone.

Cheng Fei opened the game interface again and received another message from Tang Yu.

"Mr. Cheng seems to have been online quite a bit these past few days. How's it going?"

"I experienced quite a bit of content."

"Is there anything you'd like to ask?"

"have"

"Please speak."

"Even the dust in the corridor looks real; how did they manage that?"

"Is there a problem with that?"

"The required computational load is ridiculously high."

"That's generally true, but anything is possible in this world, isn't it?"

"What's the meaning?"

"For example, current large-scale image models can generate incredibly realistic videos. If similar technology were applied to games, and sufficient computing power were used to generate real-time visuals for players, wouldn't that bypass massive amounts of computation?"

"So this is how avalanches occur?"

"It's just speculation, who knows? I'm not an employee of Avalanche."

"Why did they make me play in the corridor?"

"Mr. Cheng, after playing here for so long, don't you feel that something's missing from the corridor?"

"What is missing?"

"NPC"

"so?"

"Actually, there are other dungeons in the corridor, but they are rather boring and not of interest to players who generally enjoy fighting games, so they are not open to the average player. However, they might be quite interesting for highly intelligent people like Mr. Cheng."

"What instance?"

"It's been added to Mr. Cheng's teleportation options. Try it yourself."

After this reply, Tang Yu's status changed to offline.

Cheng Fei opened the teleportation menu, and in addition to the teleportation points inside the corridor and the crash site added by Isena, there was a new option.

"Dual World"

The boy smacked his lips, realizing that he might not be able to complete the task Shen Xi had assigned him today.

He clicked "send," and a new prompt appeared.

"Warning: Players entering the instance will have their equipment temporarily removed. Do you wish to enter?"

He clicked confirm.

The next second, the boy disappeared from the spot.

……

When Cheng Fei opened his eyes again, the excessively bright sunlight made him squint, but thankfully the hood on his head helped to block out the light.

The boy looked around. He was standing on a dilapidated teleportation platform. Beyond him was a vast plain covered with a thick, dark green grass with leaves that resembled succulents. On the horizon, he could vaguely see buildings that looked like towns.

He looked up again, and whether it was his imagination or not, the sun in the sky seemed big and bright, radiating a scorching heat.

The boy's equipment had been completely replaced with a rough, grayish-white robe, giving it an exotic feel, and his black longsword was gone.

The game interface also disappeared, and he realized that he had entered a smuggling state, but he could still bring up the menu and choose to exit within the teleportation platform's range.

Cheng Fei stroked his chin, pondering for a moment.

If nothing unexpected happens, he should have arrived in some other world, but he doesn't know what the purpose is.

"What kind of place is this?" The boy clicked his tongue and decided to go check out the town in the distance first.

He embarked on his journey and soon became drenched in sweat. He wanted to take off the robe the system had given him, but found that the ultraviolet rays in this world seemed very strong, and the sunlight stung his skin, so he had no choice but to continue wearing the clothes.

Soon, Cheng Fei arrived at the town he had first seen. It was indeed a town, looking primitive and ancient, without any signs of modern civilization.

Outside the town, in the farmland, there were plants that looked like tropical fruits. In a house next to the farmland, the boy met an old local farmer resting under the eaves, or at least he looked like one.

Cheng Fei stepped forward, thought for a moment, and asked, "Excuse me, what place is this?"

"Here? This is Glorious Town." The dark-skinned old farmer, sitting on a wooden stool, glanced at him.

"Radiant Town? Why is the sun so strong here?" The boy wiped his sweat and hid in the shade of the eaves to start a conversation.

"Sunbathe? The polar night might be coming soon, then you won't even have a chance to sunbathe. I don't understand you outsiders." The old farmer rolled his eyes.

"Polar night? Outsider?" Cheng Fei asked, puzzled.

"Someone like you, you can tell at a glance, you don't even know what polar night means." The old farmer looked him up and down, seemingly recognizing something from the boy's clothes, and became even more disdainful.

Cheng Fei could only guess that the so-called outsiders were the players who had come here.

"Does polar night refer to a situation where the sun sets and doesn't rise again for a long time?" the boy thought for a moment.

It's so hot here; I never imagined it was located at the poles of this planet.

"Look, here we go again. Who told you the sun would set?" The old farmer clapped his hands, looking as if he had just expected this.

"The sun doesn't set? So polar night doesn't mean it's dark?" The boy was stunned.

"Of course it's dark during the polar night, otherwise it wouldn't be called night," the old farmer said matter-of-factly.

"How can it get dark if the sun doesn't set?" the boy asked, completely bewildered.

"If the sun goes out, it will get dark." The old farmer looked at him.

The two stared at each other, and for a moment no one spoke.

For a moment, Cheng Fei wondered if he had struck up a conversation with someone who was mentally unstable.

"You mean the sun here will just disappear out of thin air?" the boy tried to imagine.

"Yes," the old farmer nodded.

"How do you disappear, like this, suddenly vanishing?" The boy gestured towards the blazing sun high in the sky.

"Yes, that's right." The old farmer continued to nod.

"Then why hasn't it disappeared yet?" the boy asked, shading his eyes with his hand.

"Who can say for sure about such things?" The old farmer rolled his eyes again.

"Maybe? Random?"

"Pretty much, who can say for sure about the sun?" The old farmer put his hands behind his head, closed his eyes, and seemed to be enjoying the rare sunshine.

"Okay." Cheng Fei smacked his lips and decided to find someone else to talk to.

The boy left the farmland and continued walking towards the town under the scorching sun.

Suddenly, without warning, the world before my eyes was plunged into complete darkness.

813. The reason Shen Xi couldn't guess the system was...

The blazing sunlight one second faded away at an incredible speed the next, eventually disappearing completely.

Despite the lingering heat that made one sweat profusely, Cheng Fei felt a strange chill when a gust of wind, seemingly from nowhere, swept by.

"What's going on?" The boy looked up and found that the sky had become no different from nighttime. He could see the twinkling stars, but the sun, which had been shining brightly in the center of the sky, was nowhere to be seen. It was as if someone had turned off a switch, and he couldn't see it no matter how hard he looked.

For a moment, Cheng Fei suspected that this world was simply a virtual creation by Avalanche for some purpose, but upon closer inspection, he felt it was unlikely, given that it involved completely different technological approaches.

Just as the boy was considering taking out the flashlight from the [Advanced Camping Set], the town ahead lit up with scattered lights, fainter than ordinary firelight. The dim red light, like the embers of a furnace, shrouded the buildings in thick, narrow shadows, creating a bizarre atmosphere.

Using the faint light, the boy continued forward and soon entered a town with gray and white buildings that exuded an exotic atmosphere.

He noticed that the locals used a special berry as a light source. This berry, called the ember berry, was also found in the corridor. When squeezed, it would emit a lasting red fluorescence and grew specifically in dimly lit places.

"Where did everyone go?" Cheng Fei stood on the street, hands on his hips, and smacked his lips.

There were signs of activity everywhere, as if the residents were living normal lives just a moment ago, and then disappeared after dark.

Just as the boy was pondering this, a faint shout reached his ears.

Burn him!

"A stranger spouting nonsense!"

"It's all his fault!"

The boy followed the shouts to a square and saw a man dressed similarly to him tied to a pile of firewood, surrounded by a crowd.

"This world is virtual, everything is a computer program, so of course the administrator can turn the sun off whenever they want. Do you AIs understand? The sun is not a giant, and it doesn't doze off!" The man spat at those around him without any fear.

"Shut up, you're the one who angered the sun!"

"Gag him!"

The locals waved their fists and shouted.