In any case, this phone call wasn't much different from a harsh entrance exam. Luo Nan let out a breath of relief after hanging up, his body relaxing all at once.
He turned his head to look at Zhang Yingying and unexpectedly discovered that she was flipping through the notebook he had casually placed on his seat. The page she had opened to was the distorted sketch of the prison building. Though it had already been ruined by Luo Nan's unconscious scribbles, Zhang Yingying was still studying it very seriously. She even traced the direction of the lines with her finger.
Luo Nan frowned and coughed lightly.
Zhang Yingying raised her head, completely unembarrassed. Instead, she asked with interest, "This is a fantasy diagram, right? Why did you draw it? Did you feel something while sitting in the confinement room? What does the distorted layout represent? And those tools of violence—what do they symbolize? Even the outer lines are interesting…"
Luo Nan had originally wanted to refuse to answer, but when he saw her expression, he suddenly recalled the subtle attitude she had displayed since they met. A sensitive chord in his heart was plucked.
He looked at Zhang Yingying again, this time with a completely different gaze, sweeping her up and down with a probing look.
"Hey, is it hard to say?"
"I just felt that I should draw it this way. The feeling came, so I drew it like that."
Luo Nan was clearly talking nonsense, yet Zhang Yingying seemed very satisfied with this kind of answer.
"Feeling it—very good."
Luo Nan grew increasingly curious about Zhang Yingying, but he didn't want his notebook to stay in her hands any longer. He reached out, took it back, and sat down again as if nothing had happened.
It looked like he didn't want to talk, but in reality, Luo Nan was pondering how to further confirm his suspicions.
At that moment, Zhang Yingying suddenly called out:
"Hey, want to play a round?"
Luo Nan looked up and saw her raise her flexible screen toward him. "Ten Days in the Wilderness. Combat mode is the best—it's way more fun than playing solo."
Luo Nan wasn't in the mood, so he casually declined. But Zhang Yingying was unusually persistent. Right now, she seemed more like a lively young girl than a professional lawyer—her mental age almost younger than his.
"Come on, come on. It's just to kill time. Judging by the police's pace, this won't be over for another seven or eight hours. We'll be lucky if we get home by five in the morning."
"…At that point, just drop me off at school."
"Relax, I won't throw you off the warship. The real question is—are we playing or not?"
Zhang Yingying looked impatient. Luo Nan was about to refuse again, but suddenly changed his mind at the last second.
"Fine… a few rounds. But I'll say this first—I really don't know how to play."
"It's fine, it's fine. I'm just killing time anyway."
Zhang Yingying beamed, her expression open and innocent, completely different from her earlier pretentious demeanor. She quickly pushed the flexible screen toward him, afraid he might change his mind.
"Come, come. Let's register first. Ten Days uses gesture controls—you know that, right?"
"Yeah, a little."
Luo Nan watched the green scanning lights flicker across the screen. He hesitated briefly, then placed his hands on it one after the other. Soon, the confirmation tone sounded.
Zhang Yingying snapped her fingers. "Done!"
"Huh?"
"I mean—let the battle begin!"
As she spoke, she unfolded the flexible screen and placed it on the office desk. Then she sat on the opposite side, facing Luo Nan across the table. She dimmed the lights, making the setup feel surprisingly formal.
With her command, light rippled outward. A pale blue arc-shaped dome, nearly a meter in radius, expanded from the screen. Colors shifted and layered, forming a vivid scene of red earth beneath a vast blue sky.
Just from the AR effects alone, it was obvious her device was top-tier. It had transformed a portable mobile game into something resembling a mid-scale wargame.
Luo Nan sat upright outside the projection field, watching the miniature wilderness unfold across the tabletop. Armored figures moved back and forth in the distance. It would be a lie to say his heart remained completely calm.
He was only sixteen. Playing games was part of human nature—how could he be immune?
His fingers itched as he watched the detailed visuals. For a moment, he wanted to immerse himself in that wilderness. For another, he wanted to wreak destruction across it. Such subtle fluctuations of the human heart were only natural.
Yes… he really didn't play games enough.
Zhang Yingying quickly selected her character and rested her chin on her hand, smiling as she waited for him.
"Take your time. I'll let you win."
Luo Nan didn't hesitate long. Ten Days in the Wilderness was a global phenomenon, once peaking at 970 million concurrent players. He had some basic familiarity from playing with his relatives in the past.
After a brief thought, he chose a classic, beginner-friendly character: the Earth Army's firepower ace—Heiya.
The data described this veteran officer as a walking arsenal, supported by the military's "Fiery Eye" system. Though slow, his overwhelming long-range firepower could eliminate most enemies within five hundred meters.
The battlefield initialized automatically.
But the moment Zhang Yingying saw his selection, she burst out: "What is this supposed to mean? Are you looking down on me?"
"Huh?"
"It's fine if you don't pick Deep Blue, but Fantasy or Mutant would've been better! Why pick a beginner character? Are you just trying to brush me off?"
There were over a hundred characters in Ten Days in the Wilderness, divided into four categories: Standby, Deep Blue, Fantasy, and Mutant.
The Standby class was based on real-world military platforms and heroes. Deep Blue came from Quantum Corporation's tech. Mutant featured creatures from the wilderness. Fantasy included imaginative, unconventional designs.
Despite the game's balance, reality still influenced perception. The Standby class was generally considered the weakest—easy to learn, but limited.
In co-op, they were popular. In PvP, however, they were rarely chosen unless a skilled player was crushing a beginner.
Luo Nan glanced at Zhang Yingying. The corner of his mouth twitched at her indignant reaction.
"You're not choosing Deep Blue?"
"…."
After a brief silence, Zhang Yingying clasped her hands together, her voice turning exaggeratedly sweet as her eyes sparkled. "Huh? You don't like Deep Blue either? I hate the color blue—it makes me dizzy…"
Luo Nan glanced at the sapphire-blue scarf around her neck one last time, then lowered his head, completely speechless.