Doll Survival Game

“But what happened to Sky City?” Tian Tang answered and then realized to ask.

Wei Lianlian’s eyebrows moved slightly, she looked at Tian Tang: “Didn’t your organization say that the instance location was in Sky City when they came out from the instance a few days ago?”

Tian Tang nodded, somewhat confused: “Indeed. But it’s nothing, right? Maybe Sky City is like Fairy Tale Forest, with different instances existing in different areas.”

Wei Lianlian shook her head lightly: “But recently, this might be related. Didn’t he say? He was a security guard in that instance.”

Security guard… Tian Tang hadn’t paid much attention to her partner’s story at the time, so she couldn’t recall much now, her expression blank.

Wei Lianlian’s tone was a bit helpless: “The company he worked for is the one that makes full-immersion games.”

Tian Tang was stunned, after a while she said: “Could this full-immersion game be made by his company? That would make the connection quite significant.”

Wei Lianlian smiled: “He didn’t elaborate at the time, we can ask him later… But even without this game, the connection isn’t low. So I’m wondering if the organizational battle’s battlefield might be related to this full-immersion game or perhaps to Sky City.”

Tian Tang jumped up: “Then let’s search for more clues, maybe they’ll be useful later!”

Wei Lianlian didn’t respond, her hand touched the mural–related instances and locations…

She remembered there was a river in Fairy Tale Forest, last week during Luo Yiran’s live broadcast, she saw from a player’s display panel that the river flowed into the sea. If related, might there be a Water City across the sea…

Wei Lianlian paused, then withdrew her thoughts.

…Thinking too much, perhaps each location should exist as an independent space, otherwise some things wouldn’t make sense.

Tian Tang glanced at Wei Lianlian’s slightly furrowed brows–what was the master thinking?

Baige Tower? Or Sky City?

But if the organizational battle is indeed related to the instance they’re experiencing now, then wouldn’t Luo Yiran and others, who are unaware they’re in a full-immersion game, be quite unfortunate?

But maybe they’ll also realize this is a game world.

A pretty real world… but what Su Jingjing just said about full-immersion games should be a hint, suggesting this is a game world, these people are data?

“Tianhong said they’re researching full-immersion games!”

While buying books, Luo Yiran almost touched everything he had, so now he spoke more relaxedly: “Really? But this kind of talk has been around before.”

Next to him, a boy named Lin Chi raised his phone: “Look, it’s this.”

Luo Yiran glanced at the news headline: “It’ll take quite some time to research, right?”

Lin Chi nodded: “Definitely, but I’ll have graduated by the time the game comes out! Then no one will stop me from playing, haha!”

Next to them, a girl named Su Jingjing also looked at her phone, she said: “Don’t you think full-immersion games are quite dangerous?”

Luo Yiran looked at her.

The girl’s gaze didn’t leave her phone: “Look, this introduction is all about pursuing realism, right? What if playing for too long makes it hard to distinguish between reality and the game?”

“And there are games where people kill, and jump from high places. If someone tries that in reality, isn’t it terrifying?”

Luo Yiran paused slightly: “Indeed, it’s scary. But by then, the game will surely have experiments to prove it can help people distinguish, right? And achieving realism requires our senses to fully receive information, which is difficult, maybe it can’t be done at all.”

“True.” Su Jingjing put away her phone, showing a relaxed smile, then said to Luo Yiran: “I’m going back to school with them later, are you going to school first or tomorrow?”

Luo Yiran thought for a moment, then showed a bright smile: “I’ll go home first.” He had just seen on Qiu Qiu’s phone that his parents wouldn’t be back until evening, so he could go home first to gather some information, as most parents can easily recognize if their child isn’t themselves, better to be fully prepared.

After parting ways, Luo Yiran waved goodbye to them with a smile, then once they completely disappeared from sight, his smile faded.

Standing quietly for a moment, Luo Yiran lightly rubbed his cheek–smiles have different types, the smile in the photos taken by Qiu Qiu’s phone felt sunny.

So the facial muscles used were different from the gentle smile he usually showed.

Luo Yiran relaxed his face, then lowered his hand, somewhat helplessly thinking: Where is Qiu Qiu’s home?

The history information in the map app on the phone didn’t have a location like his home.

And the Dead Woman hasn’t appeared yet… but that’s not urgent, she will definitely appear.

But speaking of which, this small instance doesn’t seem dangerous… the only danger might be not being able to leave, right?

But if you can’t leave, living out a life here isn’t bad, as for some people, just living out a life is enough.

Luo Yiran’s face showed no expression, his pupils reflected everything in front of him–the people coming and going should be NPCs? Set quite advanced, no sense of discord.

A pretty real world… but what Su Jingjing just said about full-immersion games should be a hint, suggesting this is a game world, these people are data?

Or is it–the outside Baige Tower is the game world?

From the setting, Baige Tower seems more like it.

Luo Yiran pondered, but he was like wood, his eyes never blinked, pupils never moved, like a roadside ornament.

This was one of his rare moments of reality.

After a quiet moment, Luo Yiran’s gaze began to move, looking around.

No need to think about anything else for now. Even if the outside world is supposedly a game world, the task is still just to get humans to the top of the tower, so it doesn’t make a difference.

What needs to be done now is to escape this small instance.

“……”

Speaking of which, is there any chance Xia Lang is in the small instance?

Probably not. He disappeared directly… Hmm, if Baige Tower is the game world, then Xia Lang’s disappearance might be “disconnecting”?

Did Xia Lang go to the real world?

What kind of place is the real world?

Luo Yiran’s mind was racing, but he wasn’t fixated on thoroughly understanding any particular point first, so his thoughts scattered in all directions.

After thinking for a while, he moved slightly, and then his gaze fell on a milk tea shop ahead. He walked over–he had money on him, might as well buy some milk tea and think while drinking.

Although there was food in his personal space, he couldn’t eat anything when he was a doll, though he wasn’t hungry either.

But food is more often to satisfy the taste buds, right?

Luo Yiran walked to the shop, then without looking up, he spoke to the person inside, “Pearl milk tea, full sugar, hot.”

After speaking, he glanced to his side. This was a shop, unlike the small stalls similar to those at their school gate. The one near their school was very small, and most of the time, there was only one person busy inside, but few people went to buy… because that place was too sweet.

Luo Yiran liked it but rarely went because he wasn’t keen on moving…

“Just the basic pearl milk tea?” A man’s voice sounded in his ear, and Luo Yiran, who seemed to be in a perpetual state of drifting, instantly snapped back to reality, showing a rare and noticeable shock in his eyes.

The magician’s voice?!

Looking up at the man who spoke, Luo Yiran’s lips twitched slightly.

The man was tall, even wearing the same white shirt and brown apron as all the milk tea shop staff, he stood out, especially with that face…

So exquisite that Luo Yiran couldn’t help but suspect he had crafted it himself.

The moment their eyes met, the man curled his lips, and that familiar, dazzling feeling belonging to the magician washed over him, making Luo Yiran unable to resist twitching his lips.

The man raised his hand, took a small card from the counter that read “Customer is God,” and turned it towards Luo Yiran, smiling as he asked again, “This God, is the basic milk tea enough?”

Definitely recognized.

Luo Yiran wasn’t particularly surprised; he mainly hadn’t expected the magician to become a milk tea shop staff… It was too absurd.

“The basic one,” Luo Yiran quickly adjusted, showing a lively smile, returning to Qiu Qiu, but still choosing his own taste: “If possible, handsome guy, please add more sugar.”

The magician visibly stiffened: “…Oh.”

Luo Yiran paused, feeling a bit strange as he watched the magician turn around briskly.

According to the magician’s personality, he should tease him a bit more, especially since he had changed his expression quickly, he should seize the opportunity to laugh…

Or does he have a character setting too?

But that’s not right, the staff are busy, and no one else is watching them, there’s no need to maintain a character setting, and the magician is sometimes quite willful, unless the rules require him to adhere to them, he probably wouldn’t care about any character setting, and this small instance actually doesn’t require…

“Kiddo.” The magician suddenly turned around and leaned over, as if the previous stiffness hadn’t existed, squinting his peach blossom eyes that were very beautiful compared to his own: “If you like my milk tea, please come often.”

…Who is kiddo?

And this shop won’t be visited again.

Luo Yiran thought, but smiled and said, “Sure, if it’s convenient, I will.”

The magician showed a smile that Luo Yiran found somewhat cheeky, giving him a subtle sense of foreboding, and then he heard him say–

“Not convenient, but I can bring it to you after work.”

“……”

This sentence… is a bit off. Luo Yiran waved his hand to refuse, “That’s too much trouble.”

The magician stood straight: “Not at all… Oh right, because I just moved over, so you don’t know yet.”

Luo Yiran’s smile stiffened slightly: “What?”

The magician’s eyes squinted comfortably: “We’re neighbors.”

Luo Yiran: “……”

Luo Yiran’s smile vanished–neighbors?

The magician happily took advantage of Luo Yiran’s stiffness to ruffle his hair, then quickly withdrew his hand and turned to continue making milk tea. His movements were quite fast, finishing and handing it over, showing signs of unfamiliarity, probably having just learned.

Luo Yiran took it, said thank you, and scanned to pay.

“Kiddo.”

The magician suddenly called him.

Luo Yiran looked up.

The magician leaned on the counter, getting very close to Luo Yiran in an instant, but Luo Yiran didn’t retreat a step, not even a natural reflex to back away.

This, somewhat counts as a bit of trust, right? The magician curved his eyes, his voice very small, his breath lightly brushing against Luo Yiran’s face, bringing a strong sense of disorientation because at this moment they weren’t boss and doll.

But human and human.

“There is an invisible special rhythm here, danger might be hidden within, young master, please be careful.”

What about you?

Luo Yiran swallowed the three words he wanted to blurt out, frowning slightly, not understanding the meaning those three words represented, so he just nodded plainly: “I know.”

But in a world infinitely close to reality, unable to use any special abilities, then the danger won’t be special, it might be very, very “ordinary danger.”

But since it’s non-special danger, ordinary humans can deal with it.

No big deal.

…Probably.