The timeline shifts back a bit.
Last night, right after the man in military uniform brought three more helmets to Room 615.
Yu Jin left early.
Old Cui was excitedly telling Yu Fei and Brother Gang about how real the Wasteland game was.
At the same time,
he was also explaining to them how to use the helmets and what they should pay attention to after logging into the game.
Yu Fei originally didn't want to play; he planned to go through some online courses instead.
But…
Old Cui's descriptions were just too tempting.
He wanted to get into graduate school, but at his core, he was still just a 21-year-old college student, curious about new things by nature.
So,
with Old Cui's help, Yu Fei put on the helmet.
…
…
[Log into the Wasteland world and start the apocalypse survival from scratch?]
Wu Yufei looked at the words in front of him and chose [Yes].
A moment later,
the darkness before his eyes turned real.
Just like Brother Gang when he first entered the game, even though Yu Fei had listened to Old Cui's descriptions and was mentally prepared, he was still deeply shocked.
He crouched down and scooped up a handful of sand from the ground.
The feeling of the grains of sand slipping through his fingers was sensed by every cell in his body.
"Unimaginable production quality!"
Wu Yufei marveled.
Even though he was preparing for a Master's in Finance, he had a bit of tech knowledge too.
To achieve this kind of "true experience" would require a level of technology that was simply unimaginable.
For a moment,
Wu Yufei even wondered whether Blue Star could really make a game like this.
He didn't think too much about it, and instead started observing his surroundings.
He realized he was standing under a city wall that was at least ten meters high.
"Refuge City?"
Wu Yufei recalled Old Cui's introduction and felt a bit surprised.
He hadn't expected to spawn right at the gate of the Refuge City at the start.
By comparison,
Old Cui had complained more than once about his own spawn point.
Old Cui also spawned in the Refuge City, but… his identity was a refugee cast out by the city.
Wu Yufei put away his thoughts and walked toward the massive city gate not far away.
At the city gate, there were many ragged figures in line, all waiting to enter the Refuge City.
From the conversations of these people, Wu Yufei learned that this Refuge City was called "Alpha".
"Alpha City?"
"A bit awkward to say—maybe it's to cater to Western players?"
With that in mind, Wu Yufei joined the end of the line to enter the city.
But then,
as he waited in line, he was drawn by an old man's shouts.
It was an elderly man with white hair, skin and bones, sitting at the foot of the city gate.
"Someone's survived this long in the Wasteland?"
Wu Yufei was stunned when he saw how old the man looked.
This old man had to be at least seventy or eighty—maybe even a hundred years old.
"Alpha!"
"Don't forget Alpha!"
"You can't forget Alpha!"
The old man shouted out again and again.
The soldiers at the gate seemed to be used to it by now.
"Alpha?"
Wu Yufei was confused.
This Refuge City is called "Alpha", so why does he keep yelling about not forgetting Alpha?
Wu Yufei didn't mind it, thinking the old man was just a little insane and rambling nonsense.
But…
The next moment,
"Outsider!"
The old man suddenly shouted.
Wu Yufei's body tensed up.
Outsider?
In this Wasteland game, wasn't he just an outsider—a player?
He turned his head instinctively, looking at the old man again.
And was shocked to discover—
The old man was staring right at him, his eyes glowing.
"Outsider!"
The man shouted again.
Then suddenly,
that stick-thin body somehow exploded with energy—the old man leapt to his feet, rushed into the line, and pulled Wu Yufei out, not giving him a chance to react.
Wu Yufei was completely bewildered.
He was a young guy of twenty—even if he was a malnourished refugee now,
yet no matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't break free from the old man's grip.
"Could this be a game NPC?"
"Guiding me to start a quest?"
Although Old Cui said the game was very open and had no quest system, Wu Yufei couldn't help thinking this way.
Soon,
the old man had dragged him to a deserted corner at the base of the wall.
"Outsider."
The old man stared intently at Wu Yufei, eyes shining brightly.
"Who are you?"
Wu Yufei was confused, but decided to play along for now.
But he didn't expect,
the old man's next words nearly made his brain crash.
"This is your first time logging into Wasteland, right?"
"Yes, it must be!"
"Only a newly arrived outsider in Wasteland would be so ignorant and clueless, just like you."
The old man answered his own questions.
"NPCs in the game actually know about Wasteland—is this some easter egg left by the developers?"
Wu Yufei snapped out of his daze.
"I come from Alpha Star!"
The old man gripped Yu Fei tightly, speaking excitedly.
"Oh."
Yu Fei replied blandly.
"Alpha Star!"
The old man repeated.
"Okay, Alpha Star,"
Yu Fei continued to play along.
The old man seemed to realize something.
He stopped talking, but instead stared Wu Yufei up and down for quite some time.
After a long silence,
he spoke again:
"You think I'm a game NPC, don't you?"
He didn't wait for Wu Yufei to answer, and continued:
"You also think that I know about Wasteland only because the game's creators left an easter egg, right?"
These two sentences left Wu Yufei even more uncertain.
"No, kid."
The old man stared intently at Wu Yufei, his tone deadly serious.
"It's not what you think."
"I'm not an NPC, and this isn't some easter egg."
"Everything—absolutely everything—is real. Real!"
As he spoke, the old man grew more agitated again.
He gripped Wu Yufei's hand and pointed at Refuge City.
"This is Alpha City!"
"The Refuge City for Alpha Star People!"
"But everyone's forgotten. Forgotten where we came from…"
"Alpha Star. We cannot forget Alpha Star!"
Wu Yufei frowned.
The old man was sounding more and more like a lunatic.
"Where do you come from, kid?"
The old man suddenly asked.
Wu Yufei thought for a moment and answered, "Daxia."
"Daxia?" The old man was puzzled.
Wu Yufei almost laughed.
So, even though the game's designers built such a dramatic easter egg, they didn't program in information on "Daxia."
"Blue Star, Daxia."
Wu Yufei added.
"Blue Star?" The old man was still baffled.
Wu Yufei was getting impatient.
"Virgo Supercluster—Local Group—Milky Way Galaxy—Orion Arm—third planet of the Solar System, Blue Star!"
Yu Fei blurted it all out, then, not wanting to deal with the old man anymore, prepared to get back in line at the city gate.
But the old man reached out and grabbed him tightly.
Wu Yufei struggled, but could not break free.
"Listen to me, kid."
The old man spoke very fast.
"I don't know your civilization's star system naming conventions, but I'm telling you—"
"I was just like you once, thinking all of this was just a game."
"Seventy years ago, I was also a young man—an Alpha Star youth!"
"That year, a game called Wasteland suddenly appeared on Alpha Star. It was unbelievably real—far more real than Alpha Star's technology should have allowed at the time…"
Hearing this, Wu Yufei froze.
This description…
was exactly what was happening now on Blue Star.
When he'd just arrived, he himself had marveled at how real the game felt—could Blue Star really have made this?
And now…
the old man suddenly spouted all of this.
"Kid."
The old man gripped Yu Fei, hoarse with emotion:
"If you're here, that means your planet—your civilization—has also been chosen."
"You, too, will eventually descend here!"
"And—"
"As time goes on—five years, ten years, fifty years…"
"The Pollution of the Wasteland will make you all forget everything about Blue Star—just like my countless Alpha Star compatriots before!"
"They came from Alpha Star, but forgot it. In the end, they didn't even remember how they arrived here, they thought they belonged here from the start!"
Hearing this, Wu Yufei couldn't help interrupting:
"Then how do you remember?"
Wu Yufei had keenly sensed a flaw in the old man's words.
The old man fell silent.
For a long time.
Until Wu Yufei lost patience.
The old man finally spoke again.
"Kid."
"Remember. Remember Alpha Star."
He said these words, then, his head slumped to one side, and right in front of Yu Fei—he stopped breathing!
And at the same time,
a semi-transparent line of text popped up in Yu Fei's vision—
[You have received the Life Sacrifice from the Evolver of 'Knowledge'!]
[You have activated the Attribute—Knowledge!]
[You have successfully awakened and Promoted to Tier One Evolver!]
[As an Evolver with the Knowledge Attribute, the knowledge you possess can immunize you against Pollution erosion until death!]
Wu Yufei's eyes widened, terrified.
He was so scared that he instantly logged out of the game…