“Oh…” Zhen Li, sitting behind You Zhengping, sighed lengthily. 

Zhen Li took out his phone and opened the mission prompt that only he could see: Find the final boss who has been hiding in this underdeveloped world for fifteen years and kill him; the victor will become the next clearer, take all the powers and items he has obtained in the game to the real world, and have one wish granted. 

This was a hidden mission the System had suddenly issued a few days ago. It was also called a shortcut mission. 

According to the System’s exacting rules, wanting to clear was total lunacy. A great master had once calculated that to finish the game entirely, you had to go through over a hundred worlds. And the difficulty level gradually escalated, with each world having mortal dangers. Even if you cleared, you probably wouldn’t be human anymore, but a machine without emotions. 

In all of history, only one person had fully cleared, fifteen years ago. After clearing, this person had disappeared. Some people said his powers had reached the level of a god’s. It was likely he could have killed the Chief Deity and become the new ruler of creation. 

Zhen Li didn’t understand that. How could a person who had been tortured by the System for thousands of years choose to become the new Chief Deity and torture other people who were suffering like he had? 

At the time, a temporary teammate who had gone through over ten levels had told Zhen Li that a person who had lived thousands of years and had powers far greater than the average person would probably see ordinary people like ants. You couldn’t analyze his thoughts using an average person’s way of thinking. He had become a god. A god’s attitude towards humanity would only be pitiless and domineering. 

Originally, no one could believe that there was someone who could finish the game. The majority of levelers were like Zhen Li, choosing to get by. It didn’t matter who they got by with. They lived day to day, staying in each world as long as they could. Who knew whether they would die in the next world? 

Until the first clearer had appeared fifteen years earlier and given everyone hope. 

So there really was someone who could escape the System forever. So it really was possible to leave this never-ending cruel survival game. 

Everyone began to strive to finish levels, not getting by passively anymore, but all these years later, there had been no second clearer. 

When Zhen Li had once more given up entirely, a hidden mission had suddenly unlocked. If you completed this mission, you could become a clearer. It wasn’t only Zhen Li; quite a few people had triggered the hidden mission. These people had apparently formed a Clearing League, wanting to clear together. 

But this mission was very dangerous. No one really knew how powerful the final boss was, but this unopened world was illustrious. Over hundreds of years, not a single player had made it through this world alive. No one knew how dangerous this world was, but it was definitely certain death. 

Zhen Li was only a new leveler. While he’d received the hidden mission, he hadn’t dared to go to this frightening world to die. He’d only wanted to keep drifting along, living from one world to the next. 

But he really was unlucky. He had been caught by the Clearing League’s people. The league’s boss didn’t dare to go to the unopened world to investigate for himself, so he had forced Zhen Li to come test the waters; if he hadn’t gone, he would have been killed. 

All around was death, so he may as well go try his luck. What if his luck was good and he cleared? 

So Zhen Li had accepted the assignment and was conveyed to this world. 

Before entering the world, Zhen Li used all the defenses he had equipped from the System, afraid that he would be killed as soon as he entered. 

When he woke up, he found he was lying in a pitch-black room and was so scared he didn’t dare to move. He only dared to get up and turn on the lights after lying down for a whole day. Then he discovered that he had been lying in a basement. 

Zhen Li thought that perhaps this was an extreme survival little dark room game. Of course he couldn’t open the door; if he opened it, there would be a trap, and he would definitely die. 

He searched the room for clues, but this game was too hard. He couldn’t find anything. He could only wait to die. 

Zhen Li was trapped in this basement for fully seven days. He ate all the instant noodles and drank all the bottled water in the room, then began to starve. On the seventh day, he lay on the bed and pulled up the System control panel to pick out an item that would give him a painless death. He didn’t want to die of hunger. 

Just then, there was a knock on the basement door. Zhen Li curled up under the quilt in fear, his whole body trembling. 

After knocking for a while, the person walked in. Zhen Li bit the corner of the quilt and started to request the item and resign himself to his fate. 

Just as he was about to click “confirm request,” someone tore away the quilt. Standing in front of him, the landlady said, “I sent you a WeChat message, and you didn’t answer. I called you, and didn’t pick up. You’re still a student. If you don’t have money to pay the rent, I can give you a two day extension, but you can’t disappear without saying a word!” 

Zhen Li: “…” 

Shaking, he got several hundred yuan out of his wallet and said, “If I give you the money, will you not kill me? Is this enough money?” 

The landlady was astonished. “Why would I kill you? Have you spent too much time playing games at night? There’s still five-hundred missing… Eh, forget it, you can give it to me with next month’s. Also, the estate is taking a survey of residents. Remember to give me a copy of your residence registration booklet.” 

“Residence registration booklet?” Zhen Li looked foolishly at the landlady. 

“What? Have you lost it? You young people are always losing things left and right. It’s all right if you’ve lost it. Go get a residence certificate from the community center, then go to the public security bureau and make it up.” Before leaving, the lady also told him, “You should get out in the sun more. There isn’t a drop of color in your face.” 

When the landlady had gone, Zhen Li pondered for a long time, thinking that he had probably completed the initial mission by surviving in the little dark room for seven days, so the landlady had come to issue his next mission. 

“It’s lucky I resisted going out, or else I’d be dead by now.” Zhen Li inwardly rejoiced that his passive mentality had saved his life. 

After going out and getting familiar with the terrain, he found the community center and had the certificate issued. 

After getting the certificate, no one gave him his next mission. Zhen Li was hungry, so he went to the shopping mall next door to eat. 

He spent some time getting familiar with using his phone. After determining that there was still a good amount of money left in his savings, he started going all over the mall and eating.

Zhen Li’s previous world had been an apocalypse world. He hadn’t been able to eat his fill the whole time. Then he had starved for seven days in the basement. Now he wanted to eat everything he saw. 

So he used his points to equip an alternate dimension stomach that could only hold food, then began to stuff himself in the shopping mall. 

When he had finally eaten to his psychological satisfaction, he passed by the arcade and heard an employee saying that there was an event today. If you accumulated ten thousand game tickets, you would be entered in a lottery; there was a grand prize hidden among the prizes. 

Zhen Li, who was extremely sensitive to missions, thought that this must be a hint for the next mission after getting the residence certificate. If he could only win the grand prize, the prize would definitely be a hint towards the final boss. 

This world really was dangerous. Luckily, he was careful and prudent. 

Wearing his showy and alluring clothes, Zhen Li played Whac-A-Mole for a while in the arcade. He was pretty good at games, but you couldn’t win many tickets playing Whac-A-Mole, and he was tired of playing it, so he got up, left the Whac-A-Mole machine, and followed a native at random. The person he was following went to the basketball throwing area. 

“Basketball…” Zhen Li got out his game tokens. “My throwing technique is pretty good. I can play that next!” 

—

While You Zhengping was in a dilemma, not knowing whether to keep his eyes fixed on the mission target or to follow Yu Hua, he saw Zhen Li get up and follow Yu Hua to the basketball game area. 

Yu Hua chose a basketball game machine and carefully picked up a basketball. He looked hesitantly at the hoop, then slowly tossed the basketball. The basketball flew up vertically for about a meter, then fell down. Never mind getting into the hoop, it didn’t even get into the shooting area. 

At this point, Zhen Li, who was standing next to him, had already made several shots. Zhen Li pumped his fist. Hey, he really was a perfect shot! 

Yu Hua tossed the second basketball. This time, the basketball struggled to the shooting area and fell without touching the hoop. 

Zhen Li noticed the native playing the same game next to him and stopped to watch Yu Hua shooting hoops. He couldn’t resist laughing out loud. 

Yu Hua knew he looked bad now. Since coming to this world, his temper had always been good. He’d never quarreled with anyone. Hearing that someone was laughing at him, Yu Hua slowly turned his head to look at him, saw that he looked young, probably still only a student, and he didn’t make an issue of it. 

Young people always had to show off a little. Yu Hua remembered that You Zhengping had also had that kind of temperament when they had just started dating. He and his friends would fool around in the car, making fun of each other.

When the two of them had parted ways after the blind date, Yu Hua had secretly followed You Zhengping. When they’d parted, he had mentioned wanting to see You Zhengping home, and You Zhengping had refused, saying that it would be embarrassing for a grown man to be seen home. Yu Hua had considerately not insisted, but when You Zhengping had left, he had stealthily followed. 

After all, You Zhengping was too delicate; an ordinary pair scissors composed of iron and carbon could wound his skin. Yu Hua had never seen such a soft and adorable human. He was worried about You Zhengping going home on his own. 

From a distance, he saw You Zhengping come up beside the off-road car. Cen Xiao and the others got out of the car, took off You Zhengping’s wig, and pointed at his rainbow-colored head, laughing loudly. 

You Zhengping wasn’t taking this lying down. He held down their heads and gave them a beating, then snatched away the spray-on dye and sprayed all of their hair. Everyone had rainbow-colored heads; no one could make fun of anyone else. 

Cen Xiao was very vain…and he put stock in attractiveness index. Though he couldn’t measure up to You Zhengping, having this done to his hair still made him livid. He quickly got out a little knife and, with the help of his friends, he shaved off patches of You Zhengping’s hair. 

In the end, no one got the best of it. They went together to the hairdresser’s to get their heads shaved clean and wait for their hair to slowly grow back. 

Looking at their relaxed laughing faces and casual closeness as they played around, Yu Hua was very envious. You Zhengping, surrounded by his friends (getting held down and having his head shaved), seemed to be glowing. Yu Hua yearned for the friendship You Zhengping and his friends had. He knew there was no way for him to ever integrate with others. But there was nothing to be done. He would protect You Zhengping, protect their friendship. That way it would be like he had it, too. 

Clearing his head of his brief recollection, Yu Hua nodded to Zhen Li, who was laughing him, then uncaringly picked up the third basketball to train his strength. 

He didn’t care about being laughed at, but You Zhengping was furious. Zhen Li was a Destroyer. Not only was he threatening the world, he was also laughing at You Zhengping’s husband. It was simply unbearable! 

“The peacock has his eye on the chick, I can’t sit around being a sitting duck,” You Zhengping said to his companions over the walkie-talkie. 

“Peacock” was code for this mission’s target, and “chick” was code for a Protector’s family member. These terms were all part of the Protectors’ coded language; only they could understand it. 

“You can approach the peacock, but you can’t provoke him. You have to protect the safety of the chick and all the birds,” Cen Xiao ordered. 

“All the birds” meant the ordinary people in the mall. 

So You Zhengping, wearing the handsome uncle’s face, went up next to Zhen Li, stared at him, then said, “Young man, you shoot very accurately. Would you like a contest?” 

He wanted to take a risk getting close to Zhen Li, find leaks in Zhen Li’s conversation, and infer the Destroyer’s true aim! 

When Zhen Li saw You Zhengping, his eyes lit up. As expected, there would be a prompt after he went into the arcade. It seemed that if he beat this man, he could get a clue about the final boss! 

The three of them were standing in a row. Zhen Li and You Zhengping went into contest mode, while next to them, Yu Hua slowly picked up basketballs, tossed, missed, tossed, missed. 

Finally a basketball touched the hoop. Yu Hua pumped his fist happily. He had finally found the knack of controlling his strength! 

Next to him, Zhen Li picked up five basketballs at once and said to You Zhengping, “I didn’t expect you to be so awesome. You threw four basketballs at once, and they all went in. Let’s do five!” 

But You Zhengping looked past Zhen Li at Yu Hua’s glad look at getting the basketball to touch the hoop. He couldn’t resist wiping the corner of his eye. 

His Yu Hua really had suffered too much lately. 

---

Author's Note

Zhen Li: A clue will drop if I beat this man. 

You Zhengping: I have to protect my beloved and the ordinary people in this mall. 

Yu Hua: The basketball touched the hoop, I’m glad, yay!