Naturally, the coupon did not allow him to take someone along.
What would happen after he used the coupon was also unknown, so Lu Qi never considered using his survival points to exchange for another one from the mall for Shen Meiren.
The disappointment of Shen Qingcheng, who had received a negative answer, was visible to the naked eye, and even his hair seemed to have lost its spirit and begun drooping.
Lu Qi stayed in the game space for three days, and when Shen Meiren entered another copy, he opened his terminal to find the coupon and clicked to use it.
…
Daqin, Xianyang Military Region General Hospital.
Several nurses were chatting in the break room.
“It seems that no new patients have been transferred recently?”
“Hey, if you hadn’t mentioned it I wouldn’t have noticed, but you seem to be right. I hope other hospitals are experiencing the same, and that no one will be falling ill for no apparent reason again.”
“Has the research team figured out the cause?”
“Probably not? I heard that a patient on the third floor passed away, and I had to notify the family to collect their body.”
“It’s so weird. They suddenly fainted for no reason, and then died silently during their coma. Do you think it’s a special parasite or something?”
“Impossible, there’s no way a parasite wouldn’t be detected!”
“But this is too weird. The backgrounds of the patients sent to our hospital are not simple, so it’s understandable that the hospital attaches great importance to them, but,” the speaker lowered their voice, “The other people who fainted were also taken away immediately and the news was restricted! Why do you think that is?”
“I heard that those people who fainted have something to do with the live broadcast app that suddenly appeared on our terminals.”
“Really?”
“I just told you that’s what I heard!”
“Oh dear, it’s four o’clock already! I’ll talk to you later, I need to go back and do my rounds.”
A chubby little nurse bid farewell to her friends and hurriedly returned to her area of responsibility.
The patients in this area were very special, with special identities and special causes of illness: they had all fainted suddenly one day and never woken up again.
As mentioned earlier, the patients who had suddenly died while in a coma belonged to this special category.
There were many such patients in the General Hospital, and she was only responsible for a very small portion.
The little nurse checked the patients in each ward one by one, and finally came to the quietest ward upstairs.
She always liked to come there last to check on the patient, tuck their quilt in, and see if their IV had been hooked up. To put it nicely, it was being meticulous; to put it directly, it was dawdling.
Alas, the person sleeping in the ward was so handsome, one look could make her excited all day!
That face, that figure, ao ao ao,she could do it!
“Come on, don’t try to eat duizhang's tofu, duizhang‘s tofu belongs to his future wife!” The short-haired man who was standing in the corner said rudely.
Conversations like that happened almost every day.
The nurse turned her back to him, rolled her eyes, and glanced at the handsome guy lying on the bed, feeling better again.
After checking, she was about to leave when suddenly–
“Hey! He,” the nurse’s voice trembled with excitement, “he moved his hand! His hand moved!”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“!” The short-haired man rushed over and pushed the nurse away. He knelt nervously in front of the hospital bed, “Duizhang? Duizhang?”
Oe Hl kbxf eq. Coafg atgff wbcatr, tf tjv kbxfc eq ogbw atf ujwf jujlc.
Ktlr kjr atf obegat alwf Oe Hl tjv kbxfc eq.
Ktf wbwfca tf bqfcfv tlr fsfr, atf wfwbglfr bo tlr olgra atgff jkjxfclcur oibbvfv yjmx atgbeut tlr, atf jwbeca bo lcobgwjalbc wjxlcu Oe Hl’r tfjv jmtf.
He frowned.
The news of Lu Qi’s awakening quickly spread among certain groups, and the top ranks of the hospital were in chaos. A group of people in white coats rushed into the ward and began to use various instruments to examine Lu Qi.
Tense, efficient and quiet.
It didn’t take long before there a few more military vehicles arrived downstairs, and a few big bosses who could normally only be seen on TV entered the hospital in a low-key manner under the protection of their guards.
After his last examination, Lu Qi pressed a cotton swab to the crook of his elbow, where a blood sample had been taken, and returned to the ward. The three gray-haired bosses in the ward were waiting for him.
He raised his hand and gave a standard military salute. His aura rose sharply, like a drawn sword, “Lu-yuanshuai, Zhang-yuanshi, Yuan-suochang.”
The leader, the old man surnamed Lu, was energetic and had a steely temperament. When he saw Lu Qi’s state, he nodded with satisfaction, “Your condition is better than we expected.”
Zhang-yuanshi next to him smiled kindly, “Sit down, sit down, let’s chat a bit.”
Yuan-suochang was a thin old man. He didn’t wait for Lu Qi’s slow movements, going over to sit down with him and nimbly taking out small tools from various places on his body, giving Lu Qi another simple examination.
There were only four of them in the ward, and everyone patiently waited for Yuan-suocheng to finish his examination.
Finally, Zhang-yuanshi asked, “How is the situation?”
Yuan-suocheng shook his beard and looked at Lu Qi’s eyes, which were so bright they almost seemed to be glowing, “From the results of my inspection, Lu Qi’s physical fitness is several times better than his own peak data.”
Lu Qi himself said, “I feel very good.” There was no feeling of weakness at all from lying on a hospital bed for three months.
“Sure enough,” Lu-yuanshuai sighed, explaining the results of the scientists’ most recent research, “The function of the horror games is to explore the potential of the human body.”
Twenty years ago, Daqin’s satellites had detected a square black box the size of a school desk on the surface of Mars.
The relevant researchers had immediately learned through monitoring that the black square box should have been buried in the depths of Mars; as the dust on its surface was blown away by the wind, the black square box had been exposed.
After the high-level officials of the Daqin government discussed and confirmed the safety of making a move, the astronauts on mission on the space station received the order to retrieve the box and bring it back to the space station.
Afterwards, it was disinfected and sterilized… The square box was transferred from the space station to a fort-like research institute built for it in a remote mountainous area of Daqin for five years.
The square box belonged to an unknown civilization with a higher level of technology than the Earth. That was what scientists had determined after five years of research, so they called this unknown civilization Fangxia.
One after another, scientists spent their precious time on this black square box. They absorbed the new knowledge gained from the square box, and new technologies were constantly invented.
In the past fifteen years, Daqin’s technological level had developed rapidly, but it was only the tip of the iceberg of the knowledge that they had learned from Fangxia.
This square box, similar to the Earth’s computers, was not only loaded with some unknown knowledge, but an endless ocean of it.
A year ago, the square box had been activated, and an accident happened.
At first, only a very small number of people fainted. There was no reason behind it and no other symptoms could be detected. Later, this phenomenon spread all over the world, and the number of people who fainted gradually increased.
At the same time, the “Horror Game Live APP” began to appear overwhelmingly on the Internet. Everyone was discussing this app that was downloaded to their terminals or computers for no reason, discussing why it could not be deleted, and discussing the live broadcast content.
The news on the Internet quickly reached the ears of the scientists at the Fangxia Research Institute. They looked at the research data, and then looked at the live app, and understood.
It turned out the square box was originally just a game console.
A malfunctioning and discarded game console.
But even a malfunctioning game console still had unparalleled research value for them, or even greater value.
Those whose mental bodies appeared on the live broadcast after fainting for no reason were evidence.
The role of the horror games was to explore the potential of the human body.
Lu Qi, who had recovered his memory of the first three times he had awakened, had already realized this, and was not surprised.
Zhang-yuanshi said: “An intact square box should be controllable. Humans can decide whether to enter the game to exercise, and even if they failed in the game, they would not die. Those apps that cannot be deleted are also by-products of the square box failure.”
He sighed helplessly. A game console that had been thrown away by others could give them a headache for so long: this was the gap in technology.
Lu Qi: “How is the situation now?”
Zhang-yuanshi: “The news online has been completely blocked, and there are special places for people who fainted to receive treatment, so there haven’t been any major incidents. I have good news for you: the research institute has closed the channel for connecting the square box to brain waves.”
This meant that there would be no newcomers to the horror game.
“The guy who should be in the last group, the one who is following you,” Zhang-yuanshi thought hard, “What’s he called?”
The impatient Yuan-suocheng said directly: “The young man who always follows you, the one who looks good, what is his name, the beauty? You two’s CP is very popular on the Internet recently!”
Lu Qi: “…Do you have official orders about it?”
“It’s fine, it keeps them from discussing the game and adding to our workload,” Zhang-yuanshi smiled while holding a cup of hot water, affirming his guess, “We know you dislike it, so just treat it as a task.”
Dislike? Lu-yuanshuai glanced at the expressionless man across from him.
During the conversation, the results of Lu Qi’s physical examination report had been quickly sorted out by the hospital. As the former director said, Lu Qi was very healthy and his physical fitness was better than before.
This news soothed several big bosses who had been concerned about the square box accident. If the square box could be repaired, the horror games in it would undoubtedly become a weapon for Daqin’s military training.
5 minutes later, Lu Qi followed the several bigwigs to leave the hospital by car, and 40 minutes later, the group arrived at the command center of a military headquarters in Xianyang City.
In the huge office, besides Lu-yuanshuai, Zhang-yuanshi, and Yuan-suocheng, there were also several more people in charge of other work in front of the U-shaped table, the projection on the wall showing a live video of Lu Qi playing the horror game.
“Lu Qi,” Lu-yuanshuai said with a serious expression, “How long has it been since you last came back to take a break.”
Lu Qi: “15 copies.”
Lu-yuanshuai: “Why didn’t you come back earlier?”
Lu Qi: “I had no memory of returning to the real world.”
There was a commotion at the U-shaped table.
Lu-yuanshuai continued to ask, “That’s why you turned off the live broadcast?”
Lu Qi said calmly, “I didn’t take the initiative to close it.”
As they accumulated more cleared copies, the players gained more control in the horror game, including over their live broadcast.
But even if Lu Qi didn’t have memories of returning to the real world, he would not turn off the live broadcast, because that was the only channel for him to convey information to the real world.
“Ahem,” the original director stood up, “it was us. We adjusted the box before, just to solve the problem of amnesia, but unexpectedly something went wrong and the live broadcast was closed.”
“Don’t worry, you won’t have amnesia when you go back this time!” He promised.
Lu-yuanshuai nodded, “Lu Qi, do you have anything to report?”
Lu Qi: “Yes, I met Le Songlin.”
Marshal Lu: “Your team member?”
Lu Qi: “Yes.”
“And then?” Lu-yuanshuai looked at him sharply.
Lu Qi was silent.
Pa! Lu-yuanshuai slapped the table, “Lu Qi, answer me!”
Lu Qi, who had never looked sideways while reporting, avoided Lu-yuanshuai‘s gaze for the first time. He narrowed his eyes slightly, “I met a person, he is… very special.”
The projection screen changed, and it suddenly became a live video of “Alluring Beauty” in the “Masquerade” copy.
The screen showed Shen Meiren leaning over a table and drawing something, and the Lu Qi next to him asked, “What did you just draw?”
Shen Meiren replied, “It’s a talisman.”
Then there were several other clips, each including Shen Meiren saying that the methods he used were collectively called Taoism, his occupation was a tianshi, and he was from China…
The final clip was frozen in the sea of fire from the “Death Route” copy. Half of Shen Meiren’s face was reddened by the firelight, his eyes slightly squinted and the corners of his lips slightly raised.
Lu-yuanshuai said: “We have verified that there are no civil servants named Shen Meiren in the world, let alone those who meet the conditions for fainting. This does not rule out the possibility of him lying, but the means he used cannot lie.”
“Tianshi, Taoism, talismans, do you know where we found the relevant information that fit those situations?” Lu-yuanshuai raised his head and looked directly at Lu Qi, “Some novel settings and ancient legends.”
“Now I want to ask you, after you found out about his situation in the “Masquerade” copy, you said you wanted to talk to him. What did you talk about?”
What had they talked about?
Lu Qi remembered the conversation from that afternoon stroll in the forest.
All he said was, “He’s not from our world.”
Everyone at the U-shaped table began to discuss in a low voice.
Someone asked: “Is it possible that he is from ancient times? The square box can pull people into the game across space, or maybe it spans time.”
Someone retorted, “Space and time are not the same concept.”
“Without evidence, this possibility cannot be ruled out. He chose to leave the copy at the last minute after each copy–did he want to use this to familiarize himself with the modern environment?”
“The test copy wasn’t broadcast live. If he really wanted to pretend, the test copy was a good opportunity.”
“He was an ancient person, so when he returns to the present world, wouldn’t he directly return to the ancient world? Alas, I really want him to demonstrate his Taoism in person. Will this be a new kind of science?”
Everyone seemed to have already decided that Shen Meiren was an old antique from ancient times.
Zhang-yuanshi said to Lu Qi cheerfully, “Hehe, although Shen Meiren is the only accident in the horror game, don’t be too nervous. Maybe he’ll be the key to our breakthrough. Don’t be too vigilant about his existence, just get along with him like a normal friend.”
An old man next to him also said, “That’s right, don’t keep your expression cold as if you were performing a mission. Ancient people are also human beings, so we don’t want to discriminate.”
“By the way, Lu Qi, when you get along, remember to be more intimate, interact more, and send more candy like what those girls said. These girls are much more excited than our network department. That basically counts as helping our work, and I’ll give you an award when the matter is over.”
“Yes, yes, you can put your arms around each other, or hold hands! These are all useful tactics. I think Shen Meiren has done a good job at this point; you have to learn from him!”
Lu Qi: “…”
Lu-yuanshuai couldn’t bear it anymore and closed his eyes.
Omg??? I expected him to somehow be linked but this was definitely not how I thought it would go. I hate the idea of Shen Meiren feeling used by him, hoping that misunderstanding won’t happen🤝
LOLOL not the big bosses asking Lu Qi to sell rot 😂😂 poor shen meiren is being dissed and he doesn’t even know 😂
I wonder if we’re gonna get to see anymore Tianshi appear in the game and if any will know or recognise SM.
😂😂 I greatly enjoy this book, thank you for the chapters
I wonder if Beauty will send 7 with a vial of blood or something to see if he’s still “human” to this other world?
Thanks for the update ❤️
Beauty without her partner ((((
Thank you for your translation 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
I feel that Lu-Yuanshuai is his father ⊙.☉
Lol is Lu-yuanshai Lu Qi’s father or something?? He can definitely read Lu Qi’s “expressionless” face and he knows Lu Qi doesn’t dislike our Shen Meiren~ 🤭
😂 Thanks for the chapter!!
✨💖✨💖