Chapter 4 - The Kidnap

The two stared at each other for a moment.

Shu Jun was the type who was only interested in fighting and playing games, one who had been too lazy to ever question the official game plot. It was more practical to look at maps and study major battles than to analyse the NPCs’ emotional affairs, the sort of thing that would make his brains turn sore. About those NPCs such as generals and marshals, he only bothered to remember their names and couldn’t care less about how they looked like.

But even if Zhu Yanchen never showed his face before, Shu Jun could still tell it was him at a glance.

The reason was very simple. Marshal Zhu was quite handsome — The background of [Erosion] was the Earth in its post-apocalypse days, and players must apply their real appearance to their game characters. NPCs couldn’t be all handsome and beautiful, but being a commercial game after all, they needed to put in some good-looking NPCs to raise its popularity.

Marshal Zhu was one of the popular NPCs, and the female members of Blackbird often discussed about this character in front of him.

With this face and this dazzling marshal uniform, the three words ‘Zhu Yanchen’ seemed to be printed right on his forehead. There weren’t many marshals this young in the first place, so it would be difficult for Shu Jun to not recognise him.

By this point, the NPC who tried to persuade Marshal Zhu to leave earlier approached from behind and saw Shu Jun on the window sill. He immediately jumped a few steps back and drew out his gun with trembling hands, looking as though he just saw a venomous spider on his nightstand.

Zhu Yanchen didn’t have much reaction, but his expression was a bit complicated. Shu Jun had no time to ponder the meaning of such an expression since he was busy thinking of a decent way to escape.

He was detected by a marshal-level NPC and it was now too late to find equipment to contact the outside world. The distance between different strongholds wasn’t far, perhaps he should think of another way — 

The important thing was to not be captured again.

Shu Jun quickly gathered his thoughts and released both hands. He summoned the wind between his body and the wall, trying to run away in a flash. But Zhu Yanchen was faster and he firmly grabbed Jun’s wrist.

Once a skill was activated, there was no way to instantly withdraw it. Carried by the wind, a stunned Shu Jun flew to a distance with an expressionless NPC hanging on his arm. Theoretically, an NPC’s intelligence was very similar to that of a real human, and Marshal Zhu was a strategist who shouldn’t exhibit such inexplicably reckless behaviour.

But tightly grasping his wrist right now was that marshal’s hand. The violent wind swept the two of them away and tossed them out of the stronghold.

Seeing that he was about to land, Shu Jun instinctively shielded the other person and acted as a landing cushion. It wasn’t until his back hit the ground that he realised that the person in his arms was an NPC, not a teammate he needed to protect.

An earsplitting siren came from the stronghold and could be vaguely heard from here.

“…The specimen escaped! The specimen escaped! It kidnaped Marshal Zhu Yanchen, I repeat, it kidnapped Marshal Zhu Yanchen…” 

Shu Jun: “…”

Kidnapped? Isn’t it him who caused the ruckus first?

The real culprit quickly stopped pressing himself on Shu Jun. Zhu Yanchen neatly stood up without a single crease on his clothes and a large briefcase in his hand, looking as though he was about to step into a conference room in the next second.

He briefly glanced at the surroundings and stretched out one hand to Shu Jun, who was lying on the ground. That hand was wrapped in a white glove with a little bit of skin exposed from the cuff, which had almost the same colour as the glove itself.

Shu Jun leaned his hands full of mud on the ground and stood up by himself. Zhu Yanchen calmly retracted his hand and started patting the dust on his uniform, his face a blank expression.

Looking at his uniform, Shu Jun decisively made some initial judgement of the guy.

It was the first time he had a close contact with an important and eminent NPC. Marshal Zhu wasn’t wearing a gas mask at the moment and he was indeed handsome, but his face was as cold as frost, making it difficult for anyone to get close.

And it was a poker face. Looking at his expression alone, Shu Jun wouldn’t be able to figure out what he was thinking.

After examining this VIP, Shu Jun didn’t have any particular feeling. He only hoped that this person would have high-level authority and let him contact the game manager. Considering the role of this NPC, he decided to not mention his real-life problem and start with talking about in-game matters first.

“Why did you… Ouch.” He forgot about his mutated fangs and bit his lips again.

“Please pardon my rudeness.”

Zhu Yanchen reached out his hand and very casually pushed open Shu Jun’s mouth. The index finger covered by the glove touched the tip of his fang, followed by the wound on his lips.

As his mouth was invaded by the dry cloth, his tongue felt bitter and Shu Jun stretched out his jaw uncomfortably. If he wanted, he could throw away that hand immediately. It was just that Zhu Yanchen didn’t seem to be making any threatening moves at the moment, so it wouldn’t be wise to get onto the bad side of such an important NPC too quickly.

Luckily, the whole process only lasted about five seconds.

Zhu Yanchen opened the briefcase, whose upper lid blocked Shu Jun’s vision. With sporadic movements, he sealed the blood-stained gloves inside a plastic bag and replaced them with longer gloves that securely covered both his wrists.

Then he took out a cube the size of a die, which quickly unfolded like a blooming flower and turned into a familiar gas mask. With the mask on and goggles in place, Zhu Yanchen’s said with a slightly dull voice: “A  contaminated area is in front. The soldiers will catch up soon, we must leave immediately.”

So the culprit of this whole ruckus still wants to keep going, Shu Jun hissed and took in a deep breath.

“Wait —” 

“Mr. Shu Jun, I know you’re facing a lot of problems. Your team won yesterday but you couldn’t leave the game, and no customer service staff has turned up to serve you. Meanwhile, NPCs are no longer being friendly to you.” Zhu Yanchen’s tone sounded as though it was a speech he had memorised. “I don’t have time to explain now. But if you still want to live, please listen to me.”

This time, Shu Jun wasn’t stunned for too long.

The problem was extremely serious now — NPCs were meant to follow their settings and knew nothing about the world outside the game. Words like ‘game’ and ‘customer service’ shouldn’t come out of Zhu Yanchen’s mouth, let alone Shu Jun’s real name.

A bunch of digital data suddenly jumped across the line and became aware of ‘the reality’. Shu Jun felt cold sweat starting to stream down his back.

Zhu Yanchen fastened his tone: “Follow me.” 

The situation was turning rapidly and there was no time to linger around. Shu Jun decisively hugged Zhu Yanchen’s waist and held the guy closely next to him: “Where should we go?”

“True north, ten kilometers.” Zhu Yanchen didn’t resist.

A hurricane blew up.

Shu Jun was surprised as soon as his hand touched the other guy. He didn’t turn up often at the front line, but ‘weak’ wouldn’t be a word that fit him either. Zhu Yanchen’s waist was thin but sturdy, while his physique wasn’t anywhere smaller than Shu Jun’s, and he was even slightly taller. Shu Jun didn’t notice this in his shocked state earlier, but now that he realised he had misestimated this guy’s weight, he almost flew off-track.

“The place is a bit far away, so bear with it. If you have motion sickness, just let me know.” He was used to moving with the wind, but other people usually wouldn’t be able to stand this kind of movement.

Zhu Yanchen didn’t say a word and stayed as still as a mannequin. Thanks to that, the journey took less time than Shu Jun had imagined.

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The destination didn’t seem particularly safe.

The grey fog was frenziedly spreading on the ground and giant stalagmites were poking out from the fog. Creepy caves scattered everywhere, making the whole area look like a giant maze. The species here had also been morphed into severely odd shapes, signalling that this area was heavily contaminated.

Based on the game settings — but now Shu Jun no longer knew if these damn settings were trustworthy — NPCs had no special abilities like players, and they were very weak against the erosion. Without the support of equipment, NPCs wouldn’t survive long in heavily contaminated areas.

“Are you sure it’s here?” Shu Jun didn’t let go of Zhu Yanchen’s waist, nor did he hide the suspicion in his voice.

“Yeah.” 

“Okay, can you explain now?” Shu Jun paused for a moment and added a form of address: “…Mr. Zhu? Marshal?” 

Zhu Yanchen shook his head and pointed to a cave in the gap between two stalagmites: “I can’t stay outside for too long, let’s go inside and talk there.”

Being familiar with the place, he walked to the depth of the cave and opened a thick metal door, while Shu Jun just dazedly followed behind like he was walking in his sleep. This development was getting more and more outrageous, or perhaps all of this was really just a dream. As he embraced his wish to wake up from this strange dream, Shu Jun twisted his arm vigorously.

This dream wasn’t a dream, but the pain was real pain.

Before he was done with feeling sorry for himself, he was harshly sprayed with disinfectant from the isolation room. The two stood silently in the isolation room for a few minutes before stepping into the actual main door.

There was a small safe room hidden behind the main door, and it could be seen that no one had been here for a long time. The erosive substance was completely blocked out of the door, and the furniture inside still retained its original bright colour. Zhu Yanchen removed the protective equipment and took two glasses of water from the water filter.

“Sit down.”

“…” Shu Jun glanced at the clean sofa, then at his muddy self. “How long do you want to explain?”

“It depends.”

“Is ten minutes enough?”

“Not sure.”

“Then I’ll take a shower first.”

Zhu Yanchen’s expressionless face finally twitched slightly: “…”

“It doesn’t seem like you have good news to tell me.” Shu Jun took the cup and drank the water. “If it’s going to be bad either way, let me hear it when I’m in a more comfortable condition.” 

“The shower cabin is over there. There are spare clothes in it.” Zhu Yanchen sighed, not at all impacted by Shu Jun’s nonchalant tone.

The shower cabin was terribly narrow, its floor was at most one meter square. Shu Jun maximised the water pressure and let the water cruelly hit his skin, till his heartbeat finally became steady.

Even though he might seem composed on the outside, being caught in a situation where he must tag along with an important NPC had stretched his nerves to the limit. If this continued, he wasn’t sure if he could still put up the most appropriate response —  Zhu Yanchen was a pivotal figure in [Erosion], and facing this bizarre circumstance, Shu Jun wouldn’t want to make any hazardous mistakes.

Even though he knew that in front of him was just an illusion, the warm water still made him feel better.

Is it really an illusion?

Shu Jun laughed deprecatingly at himself. This insistent bug had given him a terrible headache, and he couldn’t even recognise what was real and what wasn’t anymore. He subconsciously wiped the water off his face and looked down.

The flow of water was washing away the remaining pieces of his clothes, and the communication screen that came along was still flickering. Shu Jun narrowed his eyes as he wiped away the water steam on the screen, where the point belonging to ‘Haze’ was still lit up, standing motionlessly just a few steps from him.

…This may be the most terrifying ‘bug’ I’ve ever encountered.

Three years ago, he and Haze got to know each other after discussing the strategy of a particular map. Initially, most of their topics focused on combat, where Haze would always give him some sharp insights. Haze was smart and modest, one whom he got along with very comfortably.

After exchanging words back and forth, the two gradually became acquainted and started sending each other a few words every day. Later, casual chatting between them became the norm.

Shu Jun held the title of ‘Undead Legend’, so it was impossible to say that his life was without pressure. He spent almost all of his time at work, and to balance his relationships with everyone in the team, he couldn’t get too close to any teammates.

It wasn’t that Shu Jun had never thought of finding friends elsewhere, but since they weren’t in the same line of work, it was difficult to talk about game strategies and such, so close friends were hard to come by.

Slowly, Haze, who didn’t belong to any team and was good at strategising, became Shu Jun’s oasis. Perhaps their personalities matched, because that person could always give Shu Jun just the right amount of support and care. To talk about what kind of people he wanted to stay with, Shu Jun’s first reaction would be ‘someone like Haze’.

After several years of communication, based on Haze’s words and lines of actions, he could picture Haze’s nature. He believed that Haze was a slightly distant but gentle girl. Even if it was a guy, if he was willing, Shu Jun wouldn’t hesitate to give it a try.

But he wasn’t a kid that had just reached puberty, and he wouldn’t struggle desperately for some affection that he himself wasn’t so certain about. Not to mention, Shu Jun had a lot on his plate everyday and plenty of time ahead, so there was no need to rush to damage their good relationship at the moment.

Only relying on text communication was still not enough a foundation. He wanted to meet Haze after retiring from his career and express his feelings, then whatever happened after that, let’s leave it up to fate.

Shu Jun naturally thought about many situations that would make it impossible for him to confess. For example, what if Haze had a lover or was already married? He even considered the odds that Haze was an old man. But even with all the probabilities that he could come up with, he never expected that ‘Haze’ was an NPC inside the game.

Shu Jun raised his head and let the water slam hard on his face. Brushing aside the issue of gender, his favourite person was first a bunch of data.

…Or there might even be a worse possibility. Shu Jun didn’t want to think about it until he learnt more about this situation.

After receiving plenty of brutal punches in just one day, no matter what Zhu Yanchen said later, Shu Jun was confident that he would remain sensible. Stabilising his emotions, Shu Jun crawled out of the shower cabin and rubbed his grey hair with a towel.

“I’m ready.” Shu Jun said solemnly. He wrapped the towel around his neck and stretched out his hand to pick up the water glass, his expression looking as though it won’t flinch even if death came to find him now.

Zhu Yanchen looked directly into his eyes and got straight to the point: “Everything you’re experiencing isn’t a bug.”

“This world isn’t a game, but your world is.”

Shu Jun only felt that something just exploded in his head. This wasn’t a metaphor; it was a very real feeling.

The pain surged like a tsunami and swept away all his nerves.

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