Chapter 12 Fire Rescue
Shoutout to nyanmaru for the commission!
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“Hurry, the fire here is too intense, the beams will collapse!” The system spirit wailed, its scorched bald head emitting a pungent odor.
Bang bang—!
The charred door frame collapsed, consumed by the flames and reduced to ashes. Curtains, bedding, mattresses, everything was engulfed in a blazing red, with all flammable materials crackling and popping like never-ending firecrackers. Thick smoke billowed, and high concentrations of carbon monoxide filled every corner.
Chu Feng, carrying an oxygen cylinder and holding the Popsicle Little Shiyu in his arms, both wearing oxygen masks, ran through the sea of fire and grabbed the system:
“Go and smash open the window glass.”
“What? How dare you, a human, order me… Ah ah ah!”
Chu Feng swung the system spirit like a meteor hammer:
Swoosh—!
The window glass shattered, and the oxygen-rich air outside rushed in, causing the flames in the dormitory to spew outward. The system spirit was scorched by the flames, its hair even balder.
It crouched on the window ledge, the aluminum window frame glowing red from the heat, and the system spirit yelped in pain, wanting to curse Chu Feng but not daring to.
Chu Feng rushed over with Popsicle Little Shiyu in his arms; outside the window was the vertical elevator.
“Take him down.”
The system grunted, wanting to say something threatening, but then thought better of it:
“What are you going to do?!”
Chu Feng: “There’s still one more inside.”
“Are you crazy?! He’s just a game character!” The system spirit pounced on Chu Feng’s firefighting protective suit:
“Hurry! If you die in the game, I’ll be held accountable! You have so many Little Shiyus in your city, what does it matter if one dies! There are only 6 minutes left for the rescue, you don’t even know where he is, are you rushing into the fire to die?!”
Suddenly, there was a tug on his sleeve.
Chu Feng turned around, and the Little Shiyu on the elevator struggled to wake up, grabbing him weakly and speaking:
“Elev… elevator…”
Chu Feng: “Is the other one in the elevator too?!”
The Little Shiyu nodded weakly, wearing an oxygen mask.
Chu Feng remembered that there was a toy room on the third floor of the kindergarten, where Xie Shiyu used to love borrowing water guns and returning them before the end of the day.
Chu Feng turned back and plunged into the sea of fire.
The scorching heat waves hit him.
***
Outside on the balcony, the evening glow was as red as blood.
Lin Lan, watching his elder cousin lying motionless on the bed, tremblingly opened his phone:
120! 120! 120 Emergency Phone!
“Hello! My… my cousin fainted and won’t wake up! We’re currently at Room 2708, Building 3, Xin Qiao Garden, 58 Donghua Road. Can you send an ambulance?”
“Right away. May I ask the patient’s age, medical history, and current symptoms?”
“Uh… it’s not that. He… he’s playing the Dream City game, and he can’t come back to consciousness.”
“…”
Lin Lan felt the other party subtly pause, probably mistaking his cousin for a troubled internet addict.
“I’m sorry, this is the emergency center. Even if you bring the person to our hospital, we won’t be able to treat him.”
Lin Lan opened his mouth but had nothing to say. Indeed, his elder cousin’s physical body in reality hadn’t suffered any damage; no hospital would be able to treat him.
“If your cousin is addicted to gaming long-term and unable to face reality, we suggest you contact a rehabilitation center for internet addiction. If your cousin is in danger in Dream City, you can contact their Regulatory Center. We, at 120, can’t help with that.”
“…Alright, sorry for bothering you.”
Lin Lan hung up the phone. His palms were sweaty.
He definitely couldn’t go to the internet addiction rehabilitation center, and he couldn’t even reach the Regulatory Center in reality. Only in the game could he call that number. If his cousin needed help in the game, he would have already made the call himself. Last time, his cousin was so skilled in playing with the Regulatory Center. If he didn’t call for help this time, it must mean that calling the police wouldn’t help either!
What to do, what to do?
Lin Lan stood for a moment, then suddenly turned back and opened the closet in Chu Feng’s bedroom, desperately searching until he found the spare headset for Dream City.
If his cousin had been unconscious for so long, something must have happened in Dream City.
Lin Lan laid on the ground with the gaming headset in hand. There was only one method left now: he had to enter Dream City himself and see what was happening—
Wait.
As the blue brain waves were about to connect, Lin Lan hesitated for a moment.
There were only two people at home now. Chu Feng had already encountered trouble in Dream City; even his awesome cousin had encountered trouble. If he, someone so inexperienced, went in, could he carry the entire team to save his cousin?
If he went in and encountered trouble too, then there would be no one left to wake up his cousin in reality.
If his cousin really couldn’t wake up, at least he could stay behind to help take him to the hospital, get some nutrients injected, and take care of his cousin’s body. If he went in and failed, then there would be no hope. The two of them, as cousins, would just lie here waiting for the neighbors to call the police to collect their bodies.
—The best thing to do now was for him to stay and watch over his cousin’s body while a very capable person could enter his cousin’s Dream City to see what had happened.
In Lin Lan’s mind, the image of a gray iron cloak and a silver gun that never missed floated up—
—Great god X!
***
Bang—
In a training room at a regulator center on a Pacific island country.
X took off the gaming headset for the thirteenth time today, returned to reality, opened his phone, and checked WeChat:
Messages: 0
A profile picture of a beauty with a big black cat doll on his head silently topped the chat list.
He clicked on it, and in the chat box was the invitation he had sent to the dance party.
—No response.
X turned his head and switched to another page, searching on Google: time difference.
The last time he saw the little beauty, they had a Chinese appearance and spoke Chinese. They should be in China, and the time difference here shouldn’t be too big compared to China’s…
It was also possible that the little beauty was a Chinese living abroad, and was currently in a country with a significant time difference, so they hadn’t seen the message.
X exited WeChat and re-entered, repeating it multiple times, but the message count remained at 0.
This sense of anticipation was very novel to him, and X felt strange because, due to amnesia, he had never shown such a keen interest in anyone or anything before.
Knock knock.
“X, are you done with the training room?” A knocked on the door from outside.
“Yeah.”
X put down the gaming headset, turned the wheelchair, and slid out of the training room.
Beep beep. As soon as he left, the doorplate of the training room announced:
Highest Regulator X, today’s total usage time is 183 minutes, total training time: 13 minutes, total time spent on WeChat: 170 minutes, title acquired: [Inefficient].
X: …
ABCD outside the training room: Wow~
***
In a place far away, China.
Lin Lan picked up Chu Feng’s phone, fortunately, he had stopped his cousin from deleting X’s WeChat! Now if only he could contact—
He pressed the phone: Enter password.
Lin Lan: …
What’s the unlock password?
Lin Lan was stunned.
“Cousin…”
He lowered his head and saw Chu Feng’s brows furrowing slightly, sweat beading on his forehead, as if he was uncomfortable.
—What exactly happened in Dream City!
Lin Lan was in a panic, pulling at his hair. He didn’t know the situation, didn’t know what to do, and just when he thought of a solution, he didn’t even know the unlock password! He was going crazy!!
***
In the sea of fire.
“Hey—! Are you crazy! Come back!!”
The system spirit shouted after Chu Feng, but his cries were quickly swallowed by the roaring flames of the fire.
Chu Feng disappeared into the crimson flames without looking back.
The spirit jumped in anger. It couldn’t stop the player Chu Feng and could only carry the 5-year-old Popsicle Little Xie onto the elevator, muttering to itself:
“Crazy, they’re all crazy… Humans are truly insane when they go mad!”
The elevator started, taking [Popsicle Little Xie] away from the scene of the fire.
Amidst the raging fire.
Black smoke billowed.
Chu Feng sucked in oxygen vigorously, orienting himself.
The elevator was located outside the back door of the dormitory, in the southeast corner.
The fire was too intense, the roof began to collapse, chunks of concrete falling with a clatter, and if it burned for a while longer, even the steel bars would start to melt, and the entire building would collapse.
Chu Feng wore his helmet, bent over, and rushed towards the elevator.
***
Outside the game.
Lin Lan, who was spinning in circles with anxiety, glanced and saw the photo wall in his cousin’s bedroom again, where each picture of Brother Xie hung vividly on the wall.
Lin Lan stared at them, looking and looking, and suddenly, it struck him!
The password is six blank spaces.
Lin Lan entered Xiao Xie’s birthdate into the phone screen: XX1109
Click—
The main screen appeared, the phone unlocked successfully!
***
In the midst of the inferno.
The elevator doors were tightly closed.
As Chu Feng ran over, he still harbored a glimmer of hope. He didn’t know which floor Little Shiyu’s elevator was stuck on, or exactly where it was in the elevator shaft…
But when Chu Feng saw it with his own eyes, his heart chilled.
Through the crack in the elevator doors, Chu Feng could see clearly, inside was a flickering red glow of fire.
The elevator shaft was completely on fire! Little Shiyu was trapped in the elevator, with nowhere to escape.
Thoughts of relevant firefighting knowledge involuntarily popped into Chu Feng’s mind. During a fire, using the elevator for escape was absolutely forbidden. The elevator’s materials couldn’t withstand high temperatures; after being engulfed in flames, the elevator would be prone to losing control, deforming, getting stuck, and even pose a risk of electrocution. A fire in the elevator shaft would create a chimney effect, pulling smoke upwards, exacerbating the threat to the people inside the elevator and accelerating the spread of fire throughout the floors.
What was even more unfortunate was that the elevator car was likely stuck between two floors, and Little Shiyu inside couldn’t escape. It would be difficult for him to enter and rescue him from the outside…
Rescue time remaining: 5 minutes.
Chu Feng took out a large wrench from the fire backpack and began to pry open the tightly closed elevator doors—
For the first time, he wished there was a professional firefighter in his Dream City.
***
Outside the game.
Lin Lan quickly opened Chu Feng’s phone’s WeChat, clicked on contact X, and sent a message:
Are you there?
Lin Lan thought for a moment, but forget it, it was urgent. He directly made a voice call.
—He felt nervous, after all, Great God X, was just an online friend of his cousin’s. X seemed very low-key and focused on privacy, so he probably wouldn’t like to receive voice calls from strangers. Most importantly:
What if Great God X wasn’t there!
Ding—
The WeChat voice call was just initiated, but before it even started ringing, it was answered instantly.
— Almost before Lin Lan thought he hadn’t connected.
X: “Hello?”
His voice was hoarse and somewhat charming.
“Ah! Great God X!” Lin Lan quickly said, “I’m the cousin of the player you saved last time. I’m really sorry to bother you like this! My cousin is trapped in Dream City right now and can’t wake up. I really don’t know what to do…”
X on the other end immediately understood his meaning and instantly provided a solution:
“If I haven’t given you any response after one hour, take your cousin to the hospital for a nutrient injection.”
“Okay, okay!” Lin Lan still had a bit of doubt: “When will you roughly go to my cousin’s Dream City? I hope it won’t take too long for you. I just want you to help take a look…”
X: “I’m already there.”
Lin Lan: ??
Is he really that efficient?!
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