Chapter 101 Extra 1: Dream City Duo Mode
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“Don’t do this… someone might see us…”
Bandaged man Xie Shiyu laid on the hospital bed, his white sheets bulging under the covers, occasionally rolling around strangely.
Chu Feng was hidden in the sheets by Xie Shiyu, and soon, doctors and nurses might come to check.
“It’s just a hug, we’re not doing anything indecent.”
Xie Shiyu said, reaching out his arms and tightly holding Chu Feng in his embrace.
He buried his head in the crook of Chu Feng’s neck, against the smooth, fair skin of his wife, forgetting all the pain from the surgery.
After spending two years in an island nation in the Pacific, working for a gaming company as a regulator, undergoing hundreds of surgeries large and small, he finally made it to today, piecing himself back together into a normal person.
Ever since the day he regained his memory, Xie Shiyu hugged Chu Feng like this every day, claiming it could speed up the healing process.
“You’re hugging too tightly…”
Chu Feng lightly struggled in Xie Shiyu’s arms. He was afraid that if Xie Shiyu continued to hug him like this, they might end up in a compromising situation right on this hospital bed.
Then, the doctors and nurses who came in for the inspection would witness a scene akin to a battlefield.
That would be a major social faux pas.
Chu Feng shuddered at the thought of how embarrassing it would be.
“Let go a bit…”
He gently pushed Xie Shiyu, reminding him, “The doctor is coming to check soon.”
Xie Shiyu looked at Chu Feng with a smirk, quietly extending his hand…
His fingertips trailed along the branches of the maple tree, gentle like a spring breeze, with a familiar touch.
The maple leaves trembled uncontrollably. Xie Shiyu chuckled softly, asking with a hint of mischief, “Darling, now that we’re both like arrows on the string, should we stop?”
Chu Feng bit Xie Shiyu’s hand back, leaving a small tooth mark. He hid in the sheets and whispered softly, “It’s all your fault for causing trouble.”
Xie Shiyu pinched Chu Feng’s earlobe. Speaking deliberately close to his left ear:
“Do you want to cause a little more trouble?”
Chu Feng was ticklish from the pinch, and slightly sore. Because of the surgery, he could only lie in bed. Even though they were excited to recognize each other, they couldn’t engage in any substantial marital activities yet.
In the next moment, Chu Feng felt something being placed on his left ear, and simultaneously—
Xie Shiyu immediately threw off the blanket covering the hospital bed, exposing Chu Feng to the cold air. Chu Feng was taken aback, more by surprise than anything else.
0.5 seconds later, Xie Shiyu swiftly draped the coat over Chu Feng, deftly pushing him up into a sitting position and placing him in the chair next to the bed. Chu Feng sat there properly, like a well-behaved family member visiting a patient.
Chu Feng was a little confused, not understanding what was happening, when suddenly:
“Hello——”
The doctor, accompanied by a blonde, blue-eyed nurse, came to check on the patients and inquired about X’s condition.
Xie Shiyu, wrapped in bandages, sat calmly on the hospital bed and said hi, indicating that everything was fine, completely unlike a patient who had just undergone both a craniotomy and a skin graft.
The blanket covered Xie Shiyu from his chest to his lower abdomen, while the coat he had just draped over Chu Feng also conveniently covered his crucial areas. The doctor and nurse, focused on their patient, were oblivious to the tension between the patient and his companion.
Chu Feng recalled Xie Shiyu’s recent remark: “Want to get even wilder?” He had a gut feeling that things weren’t that simple.
Xie Shiyu was conversing calmly with the doctor, lying on the bed seriously and obediently, like any patient undergoing an examination. However, Chu Feng heard a faint “beep” in his left ear, a sound that was all too familiar and filled him with a sense of foreboding. Xie Shiyu had just placed a single earbud in his left ear.
This earbud was a tool for connecting to Dream City…
Beep. The blue brainwave connection was successful!
The white hospital bed before Chu Feng gradually faded, replaced by the scenes from the holographic game. A message popped up:
[Congratulations on re-entering Dream City]
In Dream City, the roads, the cityscape, the trees lining the streets, the cars on the main roads, and the sounds of horns all vividly appeared in his senses. It was blazing hot in Dream City, the scorching sun baking his skin. Yet, bizarrely, through the single earbud, he could still feel himself in the world-class medical center in W City, M Country, sitting in the white hospital room with its constant air conditioning and the hard wooden chair pressing against his back.
The mingling sensations of scorching heat and cool comfort intertwined in his mind, creating a dual experience of virtual and reality. Chu Feng was immediately reminded of his and X’s time in the hotel…
Back then, Xie Shiyu was holding him in reality, and now, Xie Shiyu was undergoing a medical check-up. Chu Feng thought that since Xie Shiyu was a patient now, he shouldn’t… and couldn’t do anything, right?
Feeling somewhat reassured, Chu Feng walked through his Dream City, trying to stay in the shade of the trees. It had been a long time since he had visited, having spent so much time caring for Xie Shiyu post-surgery.
This game had fulfilled its purpose and would never need to be opened again. Looking at the familiar scenery, Chu Feng smiled softly.
Now, perhaps, he could go to the player forum and, like those veteran players, calmly post a message:
[Quitting the game.]
In reality, Xie Shiyu had a single earbud in his right ear. While he pretended to be a well-behaved patient in front of the doctor, he logged into the overseer X’s account in the virtual world and began to approach Chu Feng’s Dream City.
Beep—beep—beep—!!
In Dream City, Chu Feng looked up, hearing a sharp alarm blaring in the air. The black spirit system immediately popped out:
“Master, master, something’s wrong! Someone is trying to alter your game mode from the outside with code!”
“What’s going on?” Chu Feng frowned and said, “Send me the details.”
The little spirit flapped its black wings and soon spat out a detailed report from its hair:
“Someone is trying to change your Dream City from single-player mode to dual-player mode. Oh, and they left their signature—it’s… um…”
The little spirit paused for two seconds and then said:
“It’s Regulator X.”
The spirit frowned in disapproval. As a loyal and human-friendly system, it complained:
“Regulator X is violating professional ethics by doing this! How can he arbitrarily change the player’s Dream City mode? Master! Should I report him to the game company and file a complaint?”
“No need,” Chu Feng replied calmly, intrigued by this dual-player mode. “Can Dream City really be changed to dual-player mode?”
“Of course!” the little spirit explained. “Most players usually play in single-player mode, but if there are close players, like couples, best friends, or siblings, they can choose to experience dual-player or even multi-player modes.”
Beep—beep—
A curious sound echoed in the sky. Chu Feng looked up and heard a notification sound in his ear:
[Dual-player mode has been successfully loaded]
[Welcome to the new Dream City experience!]
Chu Feng was still a bit confused about what this dual-player mode entailed when suddenly:
Ding—
A clear bell sound caught his attention. He checked and found it came from the [Little Xie Illustrated Handbook].
He quickly opened the gallery and was surprised to see that the entire gallery had suddenly lit up! Moreover, there was a red +① at the top of the gallery.
All the characters had been illuminated, and even… there was an additional new character?
Chu Feng was very curious. The [Little Xie Illustrated Handbook] automatically issued a prompt:
[Ding dong, congratulations, a new Xie Shiyu has been added to the compendium: Regulator X]
With the addition of Regulator X, Chu Feng immediately saw the collection progress on the compendium jump to 100%! At the same time, the column for character mortality rate disappeared from all character statuses!
“What’s going on?”
Chu Feng was about to ask the system spirit for more details when the “Little Xie Illustrated Handbook” popped up with a series of messages:
[Since your Dream City has changed from single-player mode to duo mode, the other player will inherit the will of all your characters.]
[Since your characters have always been 100% faithful to reality, the compatibility between the new player and the characters is 100%, there will no longer be virtual characters in your Dream City.]
“What do you mean by no longer exist?”
Chu Feng asked the system spirit while holding the “Little Xie Illustrated Handbook.”
The spirit was also amazed: “What’s going on? Why can Regulator X inherit the will of all the characters? Master! Aren’t all your characters 100% faithful reproductions of the real-life Xie Shiyu? If that’s the case, then only the real-world Xie Shiyu can inherit the will of all your characters. Why can Regulator X… did he use some cheating method?”
“This is a bit complicated…”
Chu Feng thought for a moment and decided to be honest with the system spirit:
“In fact, Regulator X, um… is Xie Shiyu.”
“What?!”
The spirit jumped in shock, its tuft of hair trembling in the air:
“So, what does that mean? So, your husband didn’t die?”
As soon as it said this, the human empathy system sounded a red alert in his mind, and the spirit quickly corrected itself:
“So, your husband… has come back from h*ll to be with you again, right?”
“…”
Chu Feng was speechless and could only make a sound of acknowledgment. He asked, “What’s the deal with the current duo mode?”
“If Regulator X is indeed your husband, Xie Shiyu, then it’s easy to understand,” the spirit explained. “The characters in your Dream City were originally 100% replicas of Xie Shiyu from your memory, so the compatibility between the original and virtual characters is also 100%. Now that he’s back, activating the duo mode means his will can freely attach to any character in the city.
“Because now every character in your city can be infused with the true will of Xie Shiyu himself, there are no longer any virtual characters in your city. The best thing about this duo mode is that it eliminates the mortality rate of your characters!”
The spirit felt happy for its master. “Because now every character is essentially the consciousness feedback of the real player, Xie Shiyu, so even virtual characters no longer exist. You and your husband can now enjoy playing in Dream City without worrying!
Play… Thinking of this word, Chu Feng felt a faint pain in his waist.
He came to Dream City just to alleviate his longing for Xie Shiyu. If Xie Shiyu, with his imaginative mind, could play around with his ordinary life in reality, now having a holographic game like Dream City as a tool would surely be even more exciting.
Chu Feng already felt… like his back was breaking in advance.
The best way to escape a bad situation is to avoid it altogether. Chu Feng thought to himself that he should leave Dream City first. With Xie Shiyu’s mischievous mind, who knows what crazy idea he might come up with again.
Especially now with this single-sided earpiece, Chu Feng felt unsafe all over. He still had the experience with X in the hotel last time lingering in his mind, that dual sensation of reality and virtuality intertwining. It was too intense, almost unbearable.
To leave this Dream City, he had to first reach the city gate.
Usually, he could just use the key to teleport out directly, but Chu Feng thought that because of the issue with the virtual character Xie Shiyu having a mortality rate, his Dream City was not safe. So he had already entrusted the Dream City key to his cousin, Lin Lan.
In case Lin Lan encountered any danger when coming to his Dream City, he could use the key to teleport out directly without involving his cousin.
Without the Dream City teleportation key, Chu Feng glanced at the current map. His current location was still far from the city gate.
He looked at the road ahead. It was currently the peak time for people getting off work, with small cars honking their horns incessantly, causing traffic congestion.
Chu Feng sighed and resigned himself to heading to the subway station.
Underground, it was impossible to tell day from night. After waiting for about two minutes, a subway train whizzed into the platform.
Click-clack—
The two doors of the subway opened, and without much thought, Chu Feng boarded the train.
Tick-tock, the countdown began as the subway doors opened and closed, reminding people to get on or off quickly.
The train was quite empty, with only a few Little Xies scattered around. Chu Feng chose a window seat and sat down.
As the countdown ended, the subway doors slowly closed and the train began to move.
An entire row of subway cars confined Chu Feng here, like catching a delicious prey.
And the juicy maple tree sat on the seat, completely unaware, leisurely gazing out the window.
Whooosh— the subway started to speed up, evilly heading towards the dark tunnel.
One station after another passed by, and Chu Feng felt a bit strange noticing that more and more Little Xies were boarding the train.
However, these Little Xies behaved somewhat differently from the previous characters. Chu Feng lightly touched them, but they didn’t react at all.
He couldn’t even touch these characters properly; as his fingers approached them, a blue data light would appear at the boundary.
Chu Feng seemed curious. “Will they all be like this from now on? I can’t touch them.”
The system spirit popped out from behind his shoulder. “Not exactly, but now their consciousness belongs to the real Xie Shiyu, so they need the true Xie Shiyu to input his will for them to come alive again, and for you to be able to touch them again.”
Chu Feng nodded thoughtfully.
“But…” The spirit arrogantly flapped its wings. “You have so many Little Xies in your Dream City. Even if the real Xie Shiyu comes back, he won’t be able to control so many people.”
“What do you mean?” Chu Feng asked.
“I’m not trying to belittle you humans,” the system spirit said, “You know, even though I’m an empathy system, I also have strong rationality. I’m not just a brainless human supporter. To be honest, you also have to admit that humans have some limitations.”
“These characters indeed inherit the essence of the real Xie Shiyu, but, you see, he’s just an ordinary human. His mental power couldn’t possibly be so strong to simultaneously allocate his attention to so many characters.
“Let me give you an analogy: most humans use either their right or left hand to write, very few can write with both hands. If you were given octopus-like eight arms, you wouldn’t actually be able to use all eight hands to write, and each hand would be writing different subjects, while still ensuring everything is correct.”
The spirit felt that its example was very apt, and it satisfactorily concluded its argument:
“In short, human mental power is limited. Usually, an average person can only focus on doing one thing, and sometimes not even that well. Controlling characters is the same. Unless it’s Xie Shiyu himself, who has very precise control over our Dream City game and possesses an incredibly strong, almost abnormal mental and focusing power, only then can he control so many characters simultaneously.
“However, from my observation, the limit for an average human to control 2-3 characters is already the absolute limit.”
Just as the spirit finished speaking, it suddenly felt its wings being pinched!
“Really, the absolute limit?”
A cold voice came from above.
Chu Feng looked up and saw 18-year-old school bully Xie Shiyu standing next to him, grabbing the spirit’s wings.
19-year-old repeat student Xie Shiyu held the spirit’s tuft of hair. 25-year-old CEO Xie grabbed the spirit’s tail from the other side. 26-year-old bus driver Xie Shiyu grabbed the spirit’s other wing.
The system spirit screamed, “How… how can there be four of you! So many!!”
Not only that, but all the Xie Shiyus on the subway suddenly seemed to come alive, each engaging in different activities.
Some were gazing out the window, some were restlessly fiddling with their bracelets, and some were staring maliciously at Chu Feng from behind, their eyes piercing.
Chu Feng: “Xie… Shiyu? You…”
The system spirit: “It… it’s impossible! How could he control so many characters! What kind of abnormal mental power is this?!”
“Enough.” The 25-year-old CEO Xie Shiyu grabbed the system spirit. “It’s time for some husband-wife time. Don’t disturb us.”
The subway arrived at another station, the doors opened, and without hesitation, the CEO Xie stepped forward and threw the spirit out.
Not only the characters, Chu Feng realized, but Xie Shiyu today was wearing a single-sided earpiece, which meant his immersion in the game wasn’t very high, and his mental synchronization rate wasn’t high either.
While controlling so many characters in the virtual game, Xie Shiyu could still simultaneously control himself in reality, interacting normally with doctors and nurses.
This kind of mental power… couldn’t be described as anything less than abnormal.
Looking at all the Xie Shiyus who suddenly came to life in the subway car, Chu Feng felt a bit uneasy and a bit eager. He quietly shifted back a bit in his seat, his hot body containing a mix of fear and anticipation.
The scene on the subway car, he had messed around with the character Little Xie in the game many times before. But… when these virtual characters were infused with the real consciousness of Xie Shiyu from reality, everything became so delicate and shameful again.
Click-clack.
The subway stopped again, arriving at another station.
This time, not many Little Xies got on, only one Xie Shiyu, sitting in a wheelchair:
—Regulator X, the nearly 30-year-old Xie Shiyu in reality.
Chu Feng sat upright on the subway seat, not knowing how he would be treated.
“Make way, please, make way.” Sitting in the wheelchair, Xie Shiyu gradually slid towards Chu Feng, and the crowded people moved aside. Eventually, Xie Shiyu’s wheelchair stopped next to Chu Feng.
“Really, young people nowadays are so rude.”
The 26-year-old CEO Xie sitting next to Chu Feng casually spoke up:
“Seeing a disabled person, yet not offering a seat.”
The Xie Shiyu in the wheelchair cooperatively lowered his head, looking like a disabled person in desperate need of societal care.
Playing multiple roles, it seemed quite believable.
Chu Feng chuckled inwardly, curious to see how he would continue to act. So, he stood up from the subway seat and offered it to the disabled person Xie Shiyu.
“Thank you.”
Xie Shiyu sat in the seat Chu Feng offered, like a stranger with disabilities, receiving the warmth of society and expressing gratitude, without any further words.
Chu Feng didn’t know what Xie Shiyu was up to, and this unsettling feeling of the unknown made him feel even hotter.
It was summer now, and d*mn, the subway didn’t have the air conditioning on. The scorching carbon dioxide exhaled by the people around melted into the air, turning the entire train into an oven.
If it were just the summer heat, Chu Feng might have been able to endure it better. But he felt like he was packed in sardines, surrounded by Xie Shiyu from all sides.
And it seemed like Xie Shiyu himself was controlling these characters, pushing closer and closer to him.
“Wait a minute… Um… Xie Shiyu…”
In the crowded subway, bodies were practically pressed together. Chu Feng was pressed against the Xie Shiyu next to him…
Suddenly, the subway slammed on the brakes, and Chu Feng lurched forward, falling onto the disabled person Xie Shiyu he had just offered his seat to.
“Sorry,” Chu Feng reflexively said. He was about to get up when suddenly he felt a warmth around his waist…
The disguised disabled Xie Shiyu, sitting in the seat, held Chu Feng’s waist.
“Be careful,” he said.
Chu Feng hummed in response. He wanted to get up, but he found himself held firmly around the waist by the “disabled” Xie Shiyu in front of him, who increased his grip, rendering Chu Feng unable to move.
The subway started moving again, clattering…
Chu Feng’s body swayed with the movement of the train. Suddenly, he felt something wasn’t right. He was being held around the waist by the Xie Shiyu in front of him, and the Xie Shiyu behind him was pressing against him, in this position…
“Wait a minute…”
Chu Feng tapped the Xie Shiyu in front of him.
“I haven’t…”
“What’s wrong?” Xie Shiyu chuckled, his tone somewhat suggestive. “You’ve spent quite a bit of time with those virtual folks before, haven’t you?”
Chu Feng’s ears turned red. Xie Shiyu reached out and touched his lips with his index finger, making a shushing gesture:
“My dear, don’t forget about reality when you’re lost in the game.”
This sentence made Chu Feng shiver. Suddenly, he remembered, he was wearing a single-sided earpiece now!
Faint English words came through his ear:
“Hello, are you OK?”
In reality, the doctors and nurses were asking about Chu Feng’s condition.
They found Chu Feng sitting on the chair, motionless, leaning against the bed, which felt a bit eerie.
Usually, when family members are accompanying patients, they would actively ask about the patient’s condition when the doctor comes, rather than remaining silent.
The scorching subway continued to sway rhythmically. Chu Feng had no energy left to deal with what was happening in reality. He could only respond absentmindedly:
“Um… Fine.”
He heard Xie Shiyu in reality chuckle at the doctors a couple of times, explaining that he was too tired, so he fell asleep leaning against the bed.
The doctors and nurses seemed eager to help and arranged for a single bed next to Xie Shiyu’s bed for the family member to rest, so Chu Feng wouldn’t have to sleep leaning against the bed like that.
In the Dream City, the subway continued to move forward…
Chu Feng had almost forgotten about time. This subway used to seem not so far from the gate of Dream City, but now, with Xie Shiyu as the driver of the train, it was heading in a completely different direction, farther and farther away…
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