In Su Bai's eyes, did she really seem like such an utter fool?
No matter how Ye Wanwan bullied or sabotaged her behind the scenes, those injuries were not so easily forgotten.
"Don’t worry. When I got close to her just now... I left a little something on Ye Wanwan for good measure."
If Ye Wanwan treated her like a pushover, she’d have to be ready to suffer the consequences.
A few premium Misfortune Talismans—consider it interest on what was owed to the original host.
Ye Shu had always been stingy—whenever someone hit her, she paid them back tenfold.
It was true in the last world, and the same rules applied here.
From the very day she arrived, inheriting Ye Xiaoshu’s memories, Ye Shu became Ye Xiaoshu.
Two days after leaving the game, Lin Qing, uncharacteristically, hadn’t come clinging around.
Instead, Fu Jingchuan came knocking.
Ye Shu considered herself just casual acquaintances with him, but they got along well enough.
"Ye Xiaoshu, you—"
Before Fu Jingchuan could finish, a thunderous crash rumbled overhead.
The sky went black in an instant.
"What’s going on? What is this?"
"The sky’s just turned black all of a sudden."
"Are we about to play a survival game in real life now too?"
Su Bai’s joking remark made Ye Shu’s back go rigid.
She looked out the window, unease clawing at her heart.
Ye Shu sensed it—the game’s system had to be behind this!!
Was the game increasing the difficulty again? Or perhaps…
After that deafening noise, nothing else happened, but the sky remained stubbornly dark.
For all Blue Star’s other shortcomings, at least it had some advantage over the dungeon worlds.
Online, waves of panic surged. Some speculated it was a game glitch; others whispered the game was invading reality.
[Mengmeng Tuboshu: Damn! Now reality’s copying me? I just cleared my first game, don’t mess with me now!]
[Monet’s Canvas: Tsk, game round ten was all about the White Mist Parasites invading... Are we about to become a dungeon in real life? What should we call it—‘Darkness Falls, Close Your Eyes?’]
[Brave Mouse-Facing Difficulty: Trash game is stirring up trouble again? Won’t it let people live?]
[Xiao Yezi: I bet our world is about to become a dungeon any minute now!!]
[Get Rich and Get Skinny: I said it all along, these dungeons are too real—they’re just the real world!]
[…………]
Who hadn’t read a few sci-fi novels these days?
But the game system didn’t respond. With no answers, players let their imaginations run wild.
Ye Shu and her companions waited anxiously, but the survival game seemed locked up tight—even the holographic screen wouldn’t open.
At least, their exchange spaces and items still worked.
It was nearly time to enter the game, but there was no reaction at all.
"Fu Jingchuan, you were just saying... Why did you come this time…?"
Ye Shu felt a bit awkward as she glanced at him.
Fu Jingchuan hesitated. The Fu family’s ties were a mess, and he had actually come here looking for a withdrawal card—but right now… He didn’t know whether he should ask.
"It’s nothing."
"Oh."
Ye Shu gave a muted response.
With no Fu Shiyi to crack jokes, the three of them lapsed into awkward silence.
[Ding! Survival Game 2.0 is commencing installation on Blue Star. Transfer in progress…]
"What?"
"Installation?"
Ye Shu was baffled.
She didn’t understand what the system meant.
Did this mean Blue Star would become part of the game dungeons? Would they, as players, become NPCs?
The next instant, the tiles beneath her feet vanished.
She leapt aside, nearly stumbling into the void.
The room—was vanishing at an alarming speed, dissolving into nothingness.
Reacting faster than thought, Ye Shu grabbed Su Bai by her side and leapt out the window. Fu Jingchuan followed close behind.
Just as she steadied herself, her lavishly purchased villa disappeared without a trace before her eyes.
"This… How is this even possible?"
Ye Shu felt something inside her crack.
That had been such a huge villa!
She’d agonized over every brick and tile.
And now, it was gone in the blink of an eye.
She couldn’t accept it.
"Xiaoshu... Is this what the game meant by ‘installation’?"
"It’s a full-on invasion!"
Even Fu Jingchuan, calm by nature, couldn’t keep the tremor out of his voice.
Curiosity piqued, Ye Shu looked up—and her pupils contracted sharply.
All the surrounding buildings had vanished; the world was sunk in a colorless limbo. Every tree, flower, and bird was gone, even their phones. Countless people rained down from above as though someone had dumped them out.
"Aaaah... Help!"
"My house, my thirty-year mortgage, gone like that?!"
"That’s your worry? With people falling from the upper floors, shouldn’t we call for help—wait, where’s my phone! Did someone steal the new one I bought yesterday? What about the hospitals in a situation like this?"
"How can this be? Did the game really turn our whole world into this? Am I hallucinating?"
"Call for help! If we don’t rescue them… they’ll die!"
"What now…?"
Many who’d fallen from above were dead or gravely injured, and with no means of communication, the chaos only grew.
Ye Shu noticed the game interface finally responded.
The world channel exploded with messages from panicked players.
[Contemporary Mozart: Holy shit! What just happened? I was sitting at home, disaster struck from the sky. In seconds, my home of decades was wiped out—my car too.]
[Floating White Clouds: Man, losing your stuff is luckier than most. My family lived on the 23rd floor; we fell, but thank god I still had one use left on my game shield.]
[Apple Cat: I was squatting in a pit! Damn game even took my toilet paper, now I have to air-dry… Lucky I live on the second floor, or I’d be a pancake.]
[World's #1: Damn game, not even a warning, just outright robbery @#%&!]
[System: World’s #1 muted for three days, minus thirty points.]
"So Blue Star’s become just another dungeon now."
Ye Shu sighed in resignation—all her hard work, her dearly bought house, gone in a heartbeat.
She really should have seen this coming when the system showed her the possible dungeon endings.
"Shushu, you’ve got to have my back now. I’ve lost everything," Su Bai was the first to latch onto her leg.
She remembered Ye Shu’s storage space still had plenty of supplies, enough to keep them eking out an existence even now.
…………
On Blue Star, every building and resource vanished in a blink, leaving record casualties in their wake.
All national systems collapsed utterly.
Most people were left dazed, too numb to even cry.
Some stayed where they were. Others set off in search of hope. But used to technology, with no vehicles or tools, how far could anyone get—and what good was the journey without food?
Mothers clutched bawling infants in bewilderment.
How could a home, cherished for years, be snatched away by invaders overnight?
[Survival System loading complete.]
The mechanical broadcast caught everyone’s attention.
[Ding! The eleventh round is about to begin. Players, prepare yourselves.]
[All those with withdrawal cards will be transported to the Greenhouse; you may opt into survival dungeons as well. Players ages 9–60: wait for directives and be ready for random dungeon selection. Newcomers may choose from the first ten dungeons.]
[The Survival Shop has been updated—with food and daily necessities…]
Player stats now showed a Health value.
Her own status: 85 (Good).
No time for more worry, Ye Shu opened the new sections of the shop, then paused, frowning.
There was plenty of food and supplies for sale, but the prices were outrageously steep.
[Milky White Steamed Bun, price: 1 point. Effect: Just an ordinary wheat bun—carbohydrate, keeps you full for a full 24 hours.]
[Farmhouse Spring Water, price: 1 point. Effect: Regular purified tap water, quenches thirst.]