Volume 10 : Extras

 

Protagonist — Lu Mingze. If you don’t like him, please don’t read.

 

After returning home, Lu Mingze stared blankly at the mirror-finished phone case in his hand.
His face was reflected on the surface of the case, and even he did not know whether he was zoning out at his own reflection or at the person who had given him the phone case.

The experiences of the past four months were probably the most dramatic and turbulent period in his otherwise ordinary and uneventful life.

First, he had suddenly fallen into a deep coma.
Experts both domestic and overseas were unable to determine the cause, and he was ultimately diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, requiring nothing short of a miracle to awaken.

Then, after being unconscious for two to three months, the functions of his organs began to recover on their own—starting with his digestive system and gradually extending to his muscles.
Without any special or extraordinary treatment, everything recovered purely through self-healing.

Half a month ago, late at night, Lu Mingze awoke as if he had merely just fallen asleep.
His parents were so overjoyed that they rushed him abroad overnight, seeking treatment from the world’s most authoritative neurology experts.
After more than ten days of examinations, the conclusion was that he had fully recovered—no after-effects whatsoever, even his muscle condition had completely restored itself.
A miracle among miracles.

The foreign doctors insisted on keeping him at the research institute, frightening Mr. and Mrs. Lu into hurriedly arranging a private jet to bring him back home.

These days, Lu Mingze had obediently cooperated with treatment.
When the doctors and his parents were not around, he would quietly tilt his head and look out the window, acting as a quiet, handsome man, leaving the nurses utterly dazzled and flustered.

In the past, when Lu Mingze looked at the window, he was really just admiring his reflection in the glass and sighing, “I’m really too good-looking.”
But this time, he was not looking at himself. His quietness was not an act—it was aimless, unfocused gazing into the distance.

Ever since waking up, he felt as though a piece of his heart was missing.

Whenever night fell and everything grew silent, he would feel an inexplicable loneliness, an emptiness inside.

Lu Mingze reached out to the side of the bed.
The large bed held only himself. In the darkness, he would open his eyes and unconsciously say a few words—yet receive no response, because there was no one else in the room.

He had never had such habits before.
But after waking up, he always felt as if someone had been accompanying him, inseparable.

But there was no one.

The missing four months seemed to have left him with many habits he had never had before.
Yet he had clearly been unconscious—how could such habits exist?

On the plane, gazing at the clouds outside the window, Lu Mingze finally confirmed one thing: He had lost something very important.

It was a feeling of wanting to cry, yet being unable to say why—an extremely uncomfortable sensation.

Lu Mingze thought that if this state did not improve after returning home, he would arrange for psychological counselling.
It was probably a lingering after-effect of being unconscious for too long.

After getting off the plane, realizing that the airport was far from home, Lu Mingze went to the restroom first.

At the sink stood a tall man, originally facing away from him.
After seeing Lu Mingze’s reflection in the mirror, the man turned around with an expression of surprise carefully restrained, removed his phone case, and placed it into Lu Mingze’s hand.

He said his name was Xing Ye.

Lu Mingze froze on the spot.

He had received countless gifts in his life—but never something this shabby.
A phone case! And a used one at that!

Yet why did he accept it without thinking?

Was it because his own face reflected in the case looked especially good?
Because the man giving it wasn’t ugly?
Or because of the man’s deep gaze, as if it hid countless unspoken words?

Or perhaps… it was the name Xing Ye itself.

During his treatment abroad, Lu Mingze occasionally heard his mother mention Xing Ye’s name, saying that their sudden overseas trip had been too rushed and she did not know what Xing Ye must be thinking.
Upon hearing the name, his father would also fall silent, as if struggling with something, before finally saying that they should inform Xing Ye of Lu Mingze’s return date, and that they would not interfere with the two children interacting anymore.

Lu Mingze did remember Xing Ye.

The big brother who, nine years ago, had held him tightly and protected him from being harmed by kidnappers.
Back then, when he followed his father to the hospital to visit Xing Ye and saw that the big brother had been beaten so badly that his face looked different, he had cried embarrassingly hard, terrified that the big brother might be disfigured.

So… had Xing Ye come to visit him again while he was unconscious?

Xing Ye— a name that sounded full of security.

Lu Mingze accepted the phone case and heard Xing Ye say to him: “This time was too rushed. I’ll come visit properly tomorrow.”

Then Xing Ye waited for Lu Mingze to leave the restroom, met Lu Mingze’s parents together with him, politely exchanged pleasantries, agreed on a time to visit the next day, cast one deep, restrained look at Lu Mingze—and then left.

He had a strong presence. Yet Lu Mingze was not afraid of him. On the contrary, instinctively, he felt that Xing Ye was someone who could make others feel safe.

On the way home, his mother looked conflicted, holding it in for the entire ride before finally asking: “Do you still remember Xing Ye?”

“I remember,” Lu Mingze replied seriously, still holding the mirror-finished phone case in his hand.

His mother then let out a long, quiet sigh and murmured to herself: “Let things take their natural course.”

Lu Mingze did not know what to say.
His thoughts were a tangled mess. He clearly disliked the phone case—it was old—yet he could not bring himself to throw it away.

He knew very clearly that at the moment he accepted the phone case, the hollow emptiness in his heart had been partially filled.

Eyes, ears, and even memories can deceive people—but feelings cannot. At the instant he saw Xing Ye, at the instant he took the phone case into his hands, Lu Mingze knew that he was happy. That joy, rising straight from the depths of his heart, made him involuntarily accept the most inexplicable gift in history, clutching it all the way and unwilling to let go.

Why was this happening?

Lu Mingze lay on the bed, staring fixedly at the mirror-finished phone case, intensely curious about his own heart.

Ever since waking from the coma, he felt that his heart no longer completely belonged to himself.

Lu Mingze flipped the phone case over again and again but could not find anything special about it.
After comparing the size, he found that it matched his phone perfectly, so he simply put it on.

The moment the case snapped into place, it lit up briefly. The mirror surface that had been reflecting Lu Mingze changed, and a QR code appeared.

What kind of technology was this?

Lu Mingze froze.

Xing Ye—whom he had only met once nine years ago—had given him a QR code through some black-tech mirror phone case?

Back in college, Lu Mingze had once been confessed to via QR code by a classmate: after scanning it, the words “I love you” would appear.
Could it be that Xing Ye was confessing to him?
Thinking it that way, the mirror being a bit old didn’t seem like much of a problem—after all, black technology was needed to embed a QR code, and it was actually quite thoughtful.

Lu Mingze became inexplicably excited. He grabbed another phone and scanned the QR code on the case.

A prompt popped up on the screen:

Player x8205 invites you to join the bonus stage of the “Challenging Fate Game.” Do you accept?

Huh?
They even specially designed a mobile game?
It actually sounds… kind of fun.

Lu Mingze clicked “Yes.”
Immediately, a dizzying sensation of the world spinning upside down washed over him. He discovered that his body was rapidly breaking down into data. Before he could cry out for help, he reassembled inside a white space. In front of him floated a pure white cube—with two small white wings.

It looked like a little angel…

Lu Mingze wasn’t afraid. On the contrary, the scene felt strangely familiar, as if he had experienced it countless times before.

He reached out a finger and poked the white cube.
The cube cried out “Ouch!”—wait, could it even feel ticklish?

The phone had turned milky white.
Five slender white wristbands appeared on his wrist. The first wristband had five black horizontal lines, the second had three, and the remaining ones had only a single line.

Each wristband also had a name engraved on it. The first was Xing Ye, the second Cao Qian & Linlin, followed by Guan Ling, Yan Hebi, and Qian Jinlai.

These… all look like people’s names?
Xing Ye is here too?

Lu Mingze poked Xing Ye’s name, thinking: Where did you get this game from, and you even invited me in?

The white cube spoke: “Player Lu Mingze, please select your faction on the phone.”

There were factions too?

Lu Mingze opened the phone and saw two options:

a. One favoured by fate
b. One who defies fate

Of course he would choose “one favoured by fate”!
Without a second thought, Lu Mingze clicked option a—but the moment his finger touched the screen, option a turned gray and became unselectable!

Lu Mingze asked in confusion: “What’s going on? Can I only choose b?”

The white cube replied mechanically: “Please select a faction.”

Lu Mingze said: “…Wait, isn’t this forced buying and selling? If you won’t let me choose it, then don’t put it there in the first place.”

White cube: “Please select a faction.”

Lu Mingze: “……”

At that moment, he felt a sudden heat on his wrist. Looking down, he saw that on the wristband engraved with “Xing Ye,” the five black lines had turned into four.

One line had disappeared.

Lu Mingze looked back at the phone. At the instant option a disappeared, one line on Xing Ye’s wristband vanished as well.

He stood there stunned for a while, then a thought surfaced in his mind—

Did Xing Ye help me eliminate the wrong option?

An inexplicable feeling of being protected arose.

Lu Mingze obediently clicked b.

A dialog box popped up:

Player Lu Mingze has selected a faction. Generating ID…
Player ID: x8888.
Congratulations, Player Lu Mingze, you have obtained an account with a one-in-ten-thousand probability. Luck +99%.

Lu Mingze: “?”

Then what was the original luck value supposed to be?

He opened the newly appeared “Challenging Fate” app on his phone.
In the basic rules, it stated that fate-following players had a 99% luck value, fate-defying players had 1%, while Player x8888 had a 100% luck value.

“I’m a fate- defying player, but my luck is even higher than the fate-following ones?” Lu Mingze asked the black-and-white cube in confusion. “Am I cheating?”

Logically, having arrived in such a strange space, Lu Mingze should have been afraid.
But he wasn’t.
Whenever he felt even a little scared, touching the wristbands made the fear disappear.

This time, he looked at the wristbands again and asked doubtfully: “Did you give me cheats?”

The wristbands gave no response.

The white cube said: “Please select game mode.”

A dialog box appeared on the phone:

Welcome to the bonus stage “Journey to Find Memories.”
Please select a game mode:

a. Retrieve only your own memories
b. Retrieve your own memories and your teammates’ memories

Note: Option b is five times more difficult than option a.

Lu Mingze asked: “It’s that hard—will I die? This game looks dangerous.”

The white cube replied: “The bonus stage can only be entered once. During gameplay, time in the real world will not pass. After victory or failure, the player will return to the real world. There is no risk to life.
Victory reward: memories.
Failure consequence: loss of memory of this game.”

“So I really did lose a portion of my memories?”

Lu Mingze recalled the past half month of feeling that a piece of his heart was missing.
He extended his finger and clicked option b— To retrieve both his own memories and those of his teammates.

 

Translator : DarNan