Chapter 35 Everyday Wickedness

After returning to the real world, Bai Yan was mentally exhausted.

Since he didn’t get any sleep the whole night, he ought to have laid down and tried to sleep. Yet, he didn’t rest, rather, the first thing he did was to save the video taken by the laptop.

He played the video, which was only a minute and a few seconds long, and in it showed him lowering his head and clenching his phone, moving his thumb and pressing the screen. The moment he clicked on a part of the phone screen, his entire body suddenly went rigid, and his eyes looked empty and lifeless as if his soul was dragged out his body, motionlessly sitting on the chair for a full minute.

It wasn’t until he came back from the game’s world that his body began to shake as his eyes had once again regained their focus.

Bai Yan felt his body and touched the tool pouch hanging on him. It was as clean as the clothes he was wearing on his body. When he jumped from the second floor, he landed on the bushes, so his clothes should be fully covered in mud stains and specs of grass. But, the clothes he had on were as if he had just put them on, not having any creases or wrinkles on them.

“So, my conscience enters the game and not my body?” Bai Yan instinctively rubbed his arms. These places should have cuts and bruises on them, but right now, they were unscathed, “Then, what happened during the first level?”

He recalled the first level in the game. When he returned, his entire being was stained by the blood inside the bathtub. He even tried to clean the blood-stained clothes as well as mop the bloody water on the floor, making him spend a lot of effort.

In addition to that, when the next round came by, although his body didn’t show any traces of being soaked in the rain, he experienced a fever that night and was only able to get back on his feet the next day.

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“Uswze kv cl vbyv vbl eyxytlp R lmrlakldnl kd xu nsdpnkswpdlpp nswze cl nyaakle sd vs alyzkvu? Yu blyeynbl kp iwkvl cye.”

Jyk Zyd tasttkzu rasrrle bkp qsalblye. Tl nswze pvkzz qllz bkp elyvb obld bkp blye bkv vbl ryhlxldv, zlyhkdt bkx y ckv kxralpple cu vbl oyu bl ekle. Mbl tyxl’p osaze xyel bkp nsdpnkswpdlpp pvalpple. Tl oyp cyalzu bszekdt sd qsa bkp elya zkql, cwv obld bl alvwadle vs vbl alyz osaze, bkp blye cltyd vs ynbl, yde bkp fskdvp cltyd vs kvnb yde qllz rykd, pkxkzya vs vbyv vkxl obld bl oyp nbsrrle wr okvb y jdkql cu vbyv sze zyeu.

Gqvla bl bye nsdqkaxle vbyv prkakv oyp vbl sdl vbyv ldvlale vbl tyxl, Jyk Zyd iwknjzu vwadle sqq bkp zyrvsr yde nszzyrple sd bkp cle vs tlv psxl alpv.

Gv lmynvzu 7 VY, Jyk Zyd oyp osjld wr cu vbl rkdt sq y pryx vlmv.

Tl nypwyzzu srldle bkp rbsdl yde nyzzle qsa vyjl swv, vbld ldvlale vbl yrr. Rd vbl pryd sq yd yqvladssd, dwxlaswp rspvp byhl prawdt swv sq vbl qsawx, cwv Jyk Zyd eked’v pll ydu vbyv vyzjle ycswv vbl ynnswdvp sq bkp vbkae zlhlz.

Mblal oyp y rsppkckzkvu vbyv Nk Ykdt eke dsv lpnyrl yde ekle kdpkel vbl tyxl. Jwv, bl nswze yzps rascyczu cl vss oayrrle wr kd ralryakdt qsa bkp nszzltl ldvaydnl lmyxp yde eked’v oydv vs oypvl bkp ralnkswp vkxl kd alzlypkdt y rspv, zlyekdt vs bkx dsv rwczkpbkdt yduvbkdt yde dsv tkhkdt vbl rzyula nsxxwdkvu dlo kdqsaxyvksd ycswv vbl tyxl.

Sltyaezlpp kq Nk Ykdt oyp pvkzz yzkhl sa dsv sa kq bl oswze rspv psxlvbkdt, Jyk Zyd oypd’v kd y pbyakdt xsse, wdzlpp kv oyp dlnlppyau.

Jyk Zyd iwknjzu pjkxxle vbaswtb yde qkdkpble lyvkdt cu vbl vkxl bl oyp esdl. Tl vbld zsttle swv sq vbl tyxl’p qsawx yde ralryale vs plyanb vbl olc altyaekdt dlop ycswv vbl tyxl.

The contents in the forum were all comprehensive. But after half a month, he had already come across everything in the forum. Bai Yan tried to search keywords to change the results in the search engine, but the unrelated topics were far too vast, so he couldn’t find even a sliver of relevant information pertaining to the game.

“Is it because there’s already an official forum that the community doesn’t want to discuss it anywhere else?”

Bai Yan stared at the red and blue patterned web page as his excessively pale face incessantly flickered from the bright light from his phone.

After wasting an hour browsing online and changing up a few keywords, Bai Yan still came up empty-handed. At this moment, he suddenly became aware of something, instantly opened his laptop, and tried to upload the one-minute video he had just recorded into the Internet.

Bai Yan hit upload and a new window quickly popped up indicating that the upload was a success. He then pressed on refresh and the recently uploaded video had mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Moreover, even the original video file he had had also vanished as if it were a fleeting dream.

“As it turns out, the app doesn’t allow the players to post outside the forum. Along with erasing the video, it also doesn’t allow it to be uploaded?” Bai Yan gently stroked his chin as he pondered, “Also, no one had talked about using one’s spirit or one’s body to enter the game in the forum. It’s probably not because others haven’t thought of it, but that it was deleted as soon as it was published.”

The app’s grip on the public’s opinion was especially tight as though it doesn’t want anyone outside the inner circle to know more about matters concerning the game.

Right now, Bai Yan knew that releasing opinions on the Internet was completely useless. The app easily controlled the web and any statements about the game online can’t escape the system’s reach. Then, was there another way around this that didn’t use the Internet?

Bai Yan thought about this and opened his drawer to take out a blank sheet of paper, grabbing a pen and writing something down the next second.

He intended to write information about the app on the piece of paper, but as he hung his pen in mid-air, the tip of his pen that touched the paper’s surface created a row of distorted black text, wherein not even half of the text could be deciphered for any meaning.

“Passing information through the Internet isn’t allowed, nor is simple writing.”

Bai Yan changed his style of writing and started drawing the app’s icon. However, since he had this idea, his drawing came out as an incomprehensible lump of scribbles. It was a million miles away from the image he wanted to sketch.

After a series of failures, Bai Yan still hadn’t given up.

He tried to use Morse code, riddles, phone recordings, and even created a secret language to write something about the app, but all of them ended in failures.

Bai Yan had finally put his pen down when he reached this extent.

He already knew that no matter what, he wouldn’t be able to pass on his experiences on the game to another person.

Yet, he didn’t feel dismayed. Towards this private matter, he originally didn’t want to talk to anyone about it. Furthermore, other than that deceased nosy person that loved to get into everyone’s business, he didn’t have any close friends that he could openly speak his mind to.

Bai Yan threw the paper with the messy drawings into the wastebasket and then browsed through the news in his laptop.

He inputted the keywords, ‘sudden death,’ into the search box and came across a large number of articles in the results.

In a shocking turn of events, an 18-year old had oddly died while playing on his phone. The cause of his sudden death was due to a cardiac arrest.

Due to staying up late to play on his phone, a student from XX University died while staying in his college dorm room. While he already had one foot in the grave, the student still managed to hold his phone firmly in his hand and had his eyes glued to the game’s screen.

The aforementioned student’s roommate told the reporter, on May XX, Liu Mou was playing on his phone like any other night. Liu Mou had always been antisocial and had been entranced by his phone’s game for over a month. Every day he was watching his screen closely, not even bothering to acknowledge the people around him. He played until late at night and didn’t reply if he was asked what he was playing.

“In the morning, we were calling him to go to class. We already shouted for him a number of times but still no reply. We instantly knew that there was something wrong when we found him leaning against the wall with a phone on his hand and staring intently at the screen.”

He looked at the comments below. A lot of people were assuming that the game was harming people and that we should be shutting this game down. There were also others that have been more sensible and cautioned people to use their phones wisely and not to stay up too late.

Frequently staying up late led people to feel unwell. Bai Yan used to stay up late a lot, but sleeping late for an extended time could cause heart problems and chest pains, which could easily bring about a sudden death.

However, there were also news reports like these that have reached to almost a thousand within the year, scattering from all around the world. It was such a surprise for these people to unexpectedly collapse in the middle of the day.

Due to the sudden rise of deaths from playing mobile games, all kinds of professors and experts from here and far have been calling and consulting with one another to talk about this mystery.

Yet, no matter what experts say on the value of health and the decrease of staying up late, it still didn’t stop people from playing on their cell phones all night long. Every day, there were always new articles regarding these deaths popping up on the Internet. Everyone proved that even in the face of death, they would still insist on playing mobile games, even at the risk of their lives.

In any case, this was quite abnormal.

Seeing these articles, Bai Yan already understood how the game would kill him off after his defeat.

“For the app’s players to have a higher chance to survive, they will surely browse through the forum’s posts non-stop and study other’s experiences on how they passed the level, and since we are incapable of telling others about the game, all we can do is vent our emotions out on the forum and inevitably stare at our phones the entire day. As for those who don’t know what’s happening internally, the situation looks like a case of phone addiction, and this kind of people’s deaths wouldn’t raise anyone’s suspicions.”

Bai Yan softly mumbled to himself, “That college student died as if he was playing a game. Moreover, it seemed that his phone was tampered with since nobody could see the app. Even if the player was scrolling through the forum, from other people’s perspective, that person would only look like he was browsing an ordinary web page.”

With this in mind, Bai Yan began to test his theory.

He whipped out his phone and quickly ordered some dessert for supper, and when the delivery guy had arrived, Bai Yan tried to open the app and show it to him.

As a result, the delivery guy’s reaction was “You’re crazy! You’re showing me your King X Glory game while your teammates are dying.”

Bai Yan was then only aware that the app’s icon usually displayed on his phone had been long gone and was replaced with an image of a King X Glory game. After the delivery boy was out of sight, the app had once again returned.

Once the delivery boy went away, Bai Yan discovered that the King X Glory page was still open. Without a doubt, he would never play this game. The first two people have already died early, and he didn’t want to stoop to playing this boring game.

Although it was a ranked game, wouldn’t it be better for his teammates to be left miserable?

Since the game already began, Bai Yan easily sent out a few kind words, ‘I’m leaving, you guys should quickly give up,’ ‘Just give up,’ ‘You guys can’t even come close to winning,’ so that his teammates that still want to top the board will completely explode out of anger.

After, he delightfully quit the game, regardless of whether the game will be left with a 4v5 match up and whether his teammates burst from rage from their struggles.

Bai Yan sat back on the chair and ate his midnight snack as he continued to read through the news.

When he opened the new web page, Bai Yan accidentally clicked on a banner ad. He then entered a live broadcasting website that had a bright and colorful cover on it.

With just a glance, Bai Yan immediately wanted to close it, but he stared at the bright.

“I think I’ve seen this person before, who is it?” He whispered as he opened the live broadcast, and appearing on the luminous screen was a made-over woman.

There was a large bowl in front of her and beside it was a large pile of instant noodle packs.

“Afu’s live broadcast.” Word per word, Bai Yan slowly read out loud the name of the broadcast, “Afu, Chu Fu, so it’s you.”

No wonder you showed that you loved eating food a lot, as it turned out, you’re a big mukbang(1) star.

1. A mukbang is known as an eating show.  It is an online audiovisual broadcast in which a host consumes large quantities of food while interacting with the audience. It became popular in South Korea in 2010, and since then it has become a worldwide trend.

T/N: The original translation here was an eating champion blogger, but I felt that mukbang would be a better fit since it’s been trending globally recently.

Based on her gifts and collection, Chu Fu was an upcoming mukbang star with only a thousand or so fans.

Generally speaking, these small-time influencers immensely cared about their rising popularity.

Bai Yan picked up the corners of his mouth and without saying anything else, he signed up for a new account, clicked follow, and favorited her video. Then, he deposited money into this new account, gave two sizable gifts to her, and contacted Chu Fu.

After that, he easily infiltrated Chu Fu’s open group and successfully upgraded himself to get into the live broadcast room. During the stream, Bai Yan continuously sent her a stream of unending gifts.

Bai Yan gave around 500 yen before trying his luck to ask for a live meetup for her.

He genuinely didn’t have much hope. He merely wanted to get more realistic information from Chu Fu, but unexpectedly, Chu Fu agreed for the meetup.

“You still dare accept huh.”

Chu Fu’s reply felt far too straightforward, leading Bai Yan to feel somewhat more alert, contrary to what one might initially feel, and worrying that this was just a trap that she had set up for him.

But, even considering Chu Fu’s hook and bait, he still had to go to this meeting.

He still remembered what happened in the forum.

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