Guan Ling, you can shut up... No, shut your brain!

 

Music can only play a supportive role; adjusting one’s mindset ultimately depends on the individual.

After regrouping, the team continued downward. Floors 17, 18, and 19 belonged to a company, the same one where the body of Xing Ye currently worked and that employed the cleaning lady, Cao Qian.

Having realized that this was actually a mental world, Xing Ye no longer felt guilty.

He had always suspected that the game world might be a parallel universe where the characters were real people and believed that neglecting his work might affect others in the company the next day. But since this was Xiao Hei's mental world, where everything was fictitious and not even a single real mirror existed, they could act freely.

Previously, Guan Ling had stopped Cao Qian from damaging property, but now, to vent their negative emotions, they would scratch the walls and kick the doors. Of course, Guan Ling and Wei Miao only managed to scratch off a layer of paint, while Cao Qian was more like a demolition team.

“You’ve also encountered Di Kuang?” Guan Ling was intrigued by this.

The world is indeed small to meet someone else who had been persecuted by Di Kuang.

“He’s a bastard!” Wei Miao cursed. “I met him in the third world when I was still a newbie and didn’t know much. Di Kuang claimed to be a veteran player willing to help new players and asked us to cooperate with him. We thought we had met a kind person, but he treated us like workhorses. Once we were no longer useful, he killed us for points. It was outrageous!”

Guan Ling thought for a moment and confirmed that this had happened before he had teamed up with Di Kuang. He chuckled, as he had done similar backstabbing things in the past.

Seeing Cao Qian having a blast demolishing things on the 19th floor, Xing Ye pulled her aside and said, “Don’t overdo it. Excessive repression and excessive venting are both bad.”

People need to vent. Reasonable venting, like shouting or tearing up practice books after an exam, can relieve stress without harming others. But excessive venting can turn into something harmful, like someone who throws stones to vent but then starts throwing them at people when stopped.

Everything has a limit; too much is as bad as too little.

Cao Qian realized she was getting addicted to destruction. After smashing the boss's desk on the 19th floor with one punch, she felt a violent thrill, a twisted sense of satisfaction. She knew this wasn’t good and stopped herself.

Xing Ye said, “Normally, this company is where Cao Qian and I respawned, so there usually wouldn’t be any crucial clues here. But if there are...”

“Then they must be hidden in extremely dangerous places, the kind of danger that won’t stop until it kills you,” Guan Ling interrupted.

Xing Ye nodded, pleased with Guan Ling’s understanding.

Wei Miao didn’t understand, so Guan Ling explained Xing Ye’s luck probability theory to him: if you follow the plot, there will be clues; if you deviate, you either stay far from the plot or face extreme danger, but overcoming that danger will surely yield key clues. Risk and reward are proportional.

Wei Miao said, “Then there must be clues on my floor? I almost died there.”

Guan Ling sighed, “Your danger was caused by collective imagination, not individual imagination. How could there be any clues?”

Wei Miao fell silent.

Guan Ling suddenly said, "Huh? I'm a following Fate player too. So, could there be some key information on my 34th floor?"

He looked at Xing Ye expectantly.

Xing Ye replied, "I've checked your floor. So far, I haven't found anything special, but we can't rule out that there might be something we haven't discovered yet. We might revisit the 34th floor later.

"Additionally, there might be a following Fate player on the 20th floor, but they didn't notice the key clue on their floor and left."

"Huh? How did you figure that out?" Guan Ling asked. He had searched the 20th floor thoroughly for QR codes but hadn't found any following Fate players.

Cao Qian thought for a moment and said, "The classroom, maybe? I kicked open the door of a classroom earlier and found that the multimedia equipment was still on, and the power was on too. It's clear someone left in a hurry after class and forgot to turn off the power. In this office building, they take fire safety seriously because a fire on one floor could affect several companies. When no one is around, they always cut off the power and lock the doors.

"Of course, in real life, people might sometimes forget this out of carelessness, but this is the mental world, and all other NPCs are controlled by the world consciousness. If forgetting to turn off the power was done by the world consciousness, it would definitely lead to a major disaster like a fire. But the psychology training centre finishes classes at 9 PM, and we arrived on the 20th floor around 10 PM, and nothing happened. The world consciousness placed the key clue here and likely didn't want the 20th floor to catch fire.

"So, the one who forgot to turn off the power must be someone the world consciousness can't control. Given they were on the crucial 20th floor, they must be a following Fate player."

Guan Ling's mouth hung open as he dumbly looked at Cao Qian and said, "Why do your tone, actions, and analysis just now resemble the boss?"

Xing Ye smiled slightly, "Self-confidence is a good thing."

Cao Qian had been following him and learning. Every time Xing Ye analysed the plot, Guan Ling would completely zone out and just listen. But Cao Qian would take notes frantically, whether she understood or not. In the hospital world, she was the only one able to answer the questions posed by the amnesiac Xing Ye.

Although it wasn't obvious, she had been steadily growing and never gave up on improving herself.

Gradually, Cao Qian had begun to keep up with Xing Ye's thought process, but out of a sense of inferiority, she hadn't spoken up. Now, with the boost of "the ugly duckling turning into a swan," she had the courage to voice her guesses.

She had grown a lot, and this reassured Xing Ye that he could safely move on to the advanced world.

Xing Ye would most likely head to the advanced world after this one. Cao Qian and Guan Ling both knew he was eager to rescue the small mirror and needed to enter the advanced world as soon as possible. They didn't stop him but chose not to follow.

Guan Ling didn't want to rush into the advanced world. Who knew what awaited there? He wanted to see Xing Ye reach the final level and tell him whether the small mirror was saved. Guan Ling placed all his hopes on Xing Ye, much like a gambler betting everything. So, he would continue to team up with Xing Ye until he used his abilities to send Xing Ye to the advanced world. He believed the boss wouldn't forget him and would surely tell him if there was a way.

Guan Ling knew he was incompetent, lacked ambition, and liked to evade responsibility. But Xing Ye had pointed out that he had acting skills, the courage to gamble with fate, and the mentality to be flexible (shameless). Xing Ye had acknowledged his weaknesses and recognized his strengths, which made Guan Ling dislike himself a little less and trust Xing Ye even more.

Cao Qian, on the other hand, hoped to have more interactions with Lin Lin. By the time they entered the advanced world, she wanted their intimacy level to reach 80, so she could use Lin Lin's initial skills, which, although absurd, were undeniably powerful.

They each had their own plans and firmly believed that Xing Ye would win this world as well.

Xing Ye said to Cao Qian, "We could delve deeper into the analysis. For example, why did the following Fate player leave the 20th floor in such a hurry? Did he see something? It’s possible he encountered an animalized person and got scared. But that seems unlikely. We've travelled through many worlds and even faced puppet people. Animalized humans shouldn't be that hard to accept. He managed to stay calm and not get killed by individual imagination from 5:30 to 9:00, which means he was relatively calm and didn’t let his mind wander. In this case, unless something special or dangerous occurred, he wouldn’t have left the 20th floor in a rush."

Cao Qian diligently took notes, while Wei Miao was completely convinced.

He finally understood why Guan Ling, a following Fate player, followed Xing Ye’s every command and even willingly handed over QR codes he found (though Xing Ye later returned them). He had always thought Xing Ye was like Di Kuang, but now he realized comparing Di Kuang to Xing Ye was an insult.

The former used cunning, deceit, and numerical superiority to make players obey him, then killed them for points once they had no more value. The latter naturally earned trust, making people eager to trade points and abilities for his insights and analysis.

This was the difference in intelligence and charisma.

Wei Miao said, "Boss, if you find my teammates, could you help them too? We don't dare ask to team up with you, but we’d like to learn how to clear this level. We’ll be very obedient."

He couldn’t help but join Guan Ling in calling Xing Ye "Boss." Both Wei Miao and Guan Ling had the traits of ordinary people, their sharp edges smoothed by life. This wasn’t a bad thing; it just made them more suited to society.

The three of them walked from the 19th floor to the 17th floor, where Xing Ye worked.

As soon as they entered the 17th floor, Xing Ye felt something was off.

A fly stood in the corridor and said sinisterly, "Xing Ye, it's been four hours. Where's my coffee? Weren’t you supposed to work overtime? Supervisor Ren asked you to work overtime. Why did you run off? I'm going to tell Supervisor Ren and give you a failing grade on your internship report so you can’t graduate. Haha, buzz buzz buzz!"

"That's so disgusting..." Wei Miao hadn’t seen many animalized people so far, but now seeing something this revolting, he immediately covered his eyes.

Xing Ye and Cao Qian's ant forms looked much better than this fly!

Cao Qian wanted to punch the fly, but after looking at it, she took two steps back and whispered to Xing Ye, "Sorry, I don't want to touch it. I’m afraid I'll dirty my fist."

"Then attack from a distance," Guan Ling said, raising his Hundred Percent Hit Gun and aiming at the fly's head.

If it were an ordinary NPC, no matter how ugly or annoying, Guan Ling wouldn’t attack casually. But in the imagination world, appearance represented character and danger levels. Anything could happen. Knowing that everything here wasn't real, Xing Ye had advised him that encountering such grotesque things warranted action.

The bullet accurately hit the fly's brain, but it passed through its body and flew into the unknown distance.

"My weapon doesn't work?" Guan Ling was shocked.

Xing Ye remained calm and said, "I had suspected that our QR codes and initial skills might not be effective in this world. It seems I was right."

"Why?" Guan Ling asked, beginning to feel afraid as the fly approached him.

"Can a bullet penetrate imagination? Can a piano crush a phantom? Can a ring of fire burn a fake fly?" Xing Ye explained, "Our imagination limits most of our QR codes and initial skills. This world is quite interesting."

"Interesting isn’t the word I'd use!" Guan Ling exclaimed, "It’s getting closer to us. What if it suddenly breaks apart into a swarm of flies and covers us? Even if we’re not eaten, we’ll be disgusted to death!"

"Shut up!" Cao Qian slapped Guan Ling, but it was too late.

With his extensive horror movie experience, Guan Ling successfully provided the world consciousness with material. The fly man buzzed twice and said, "You disobey, bringing outsiders to the company. I’ll punish you and take you to see Supervisor Ren to deal with you!"

With that, it really did break apart into countless flies swarming toward them. Cao Qian and Wei Miao felt like killing Guan Ling!

Guan Ling screamed, "What kind of broken world is this? Just saying a word can add a buff to the enemy!"

Xing Ye had anticipated this and didn’t blame Guan Ling. If thoughts could be controlled, there wouldn't be so much suspicion and conjecture.

"Cao Qian, break the glass," Xing Ye reminded, "Our QR codes and skills are useless, but the items in this world should work."

Previously, Xing Ye noticed that Cao Qian could destroy structures in the mental world, which seemed illogical. Why could they break walls but not swat flies? It was actually a way for players to protect themselves; otherwise, they would be completely helpless.

As always, the game wouldn’t leave players without any hope. It was just a matter of whether they could discover it.

Cao Qian initially attacked people, like the cockroach man. She claimed she knocked out the cockroach man, but Xing Ye later found a piece of the bathroom partition broken off.

This made sense. Given her fear of cockroaches, Cao Qian wouldn’t directly touch a cockroach man with her fist. She either used cleaning tools or broke off the door panel. At the time, her mental state wasn’t good, so she didn’t tell Xing Ye, and she didn’t notice it herself.

After listening to Xing Ye, the group turned into a demolition squad, frantically breaking glass and door panels to fend off the swarm of flies. Cao Qian stood in front of Xing Ye to protect him, making it easier for him to draw QR codes. After all, they had found two QR codes in the psychological consultation room before!

While slapping flies, Wei Miao exclaimed, "Damn, these flies bite! Guan Ling!"

Guan Ling replied with frustration, "I was just thinking that flies sometimes are on animal carcasses, so they probably eat meat too."

"Shut up!" Cao Qian snapped. If it weren't for the urgency of the situation, she would have smashed a piece of glass on Guan Ling's head.

Only Xing Ye remained calm and unhurried. Even after being bitten several times by the flies, his hand remained steady as he successfully drew the first QR code.

They hadn't had a chance to test the two QR codes they found on the 20th floor, so they could only guess their use based on the descriptions.

Xing Ye chose the QR code described as: "The music played in the psychological consultation room always calms people down."

“Tranquillity", a mental control QR code, only existed in special worlds and targets the player's mind. It forcibly calmed players, preventing them from overthinking and eliminating all emotional mental damage, lasting for 10 minutes, with a 5-minute cooldown after redrawing.

After using the QR code, the swarm of flies vanished, leaving only one fly-man. Cao Qian leaped forward with the door panel and smashed the fly-man flat, rendering it incapable of further action.

 

Translator : DarNan