Gu Jiu woke up from her dream, her face dark with anger, her eyes smoldering.
“Ah Jiu, what’s wrong?” Lu Ji asked with concern. Could it have been the noise from the balcony that woke her?
As he thought about it, a glint of sharp light flashed in his eyes. His glance towards the balcony sent the inhuman creatures outside—silently wrestling with each other—into a state of frozen stillness. They didn’t dare make another move.
Gu Jiu was so disgusted she couldn’t speak for a long moment.
Seeing her reaction, Lu Ji realized things were worse than he initially thought. He quickly poured her a glass of warm water, helping her drink it down, and gently patted her back to ease her tension, afraid she’d grow too upset.
As Lu Ji leaned in, Gu Jiu suddenly cupped his face in her hands and stared at him without blinking.
“Ah Jiu?” Lu Ji was startled and a little flustered. Being stared at so intensely made him feel embarrassed, even mistakenly thinking she was being affectionate.
Her slender fingers gently brushed across his face. After a moment, she finally let out a soft sigh of relief.
“Looking at your face, Ah Ji, makes me feel less nauseous,” Gu Jiu said with emotion. The sickening feeling in her chest eased away.
Lu Ji: “???” What on earth had she seen that disgusted her so much she needed his face as a visual cleanser?
Should he be happy that she seemed to really like his face?
When Lu Ji found out what Gu Jiu had seen in her dream, his fury surged.
Some unknown creature, disguised as him, had appeared in her dream to meet her. How dare it! Even though Gu Jiu hadn’t fallen for it, Lu Ji was livid. He hadn’t even dared to imagine himself as her boyfriend, yet this fish-faced monster had the audacity to claim such a role in her dream?
“Ah Ji, did you dream just now?” Gu Jiu’s question interrupted his rising anger.
Lu Ji’s fiery mood paused for a moment before he replied, “I haven’t slept yet. It’s still early, and I couldn’t fall asleep.”
Hearing that, Gu Jiu said with relief, “Thank goodness you didn’t sleep. Otherwise, you might have entered the dream and run into that fish-faced monster. It reeked of fishiness—absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe it had the nerve to come near me.”
And that’s why she had beaten it up. For the first time, she hadn’t held back, giving the creature a brutal thrashing.
Perhaps it had been so badly beaten that the dream ended abruptly, and she woke up.
Gu Jiu rubbed her chin thoughtfully. It seemed that, despite the eerie appearance of the fish-faced monster, its actual threat level wasn’t high. As long as the players remained clear-headed and recognized it wasn’t their “lover,” they wouldn’t fall for it.
With this in mind, she warned Lu Ji, “Later, if you fall asleep and meet that fish-faced monster in your dream, don’t be fooled by it. Just beat it up—hard. The harder, the better.”
Lu Ji obediently nodded.
Seeing how cooperative she was, Gu Jiu sighed. Yet she couldn’t help but worry that the fish-faced monster might frighten her dear Ah Ji sister.
Ah Ji, while strong, was still a delicate, sensitive craft-loving young girl. How could she handle such a scare? But it wasn’t like she could keep her from sleeping, and this left her deeply troubled…
—
A gentle sea breeze blew in.
Qi Yuheng gazed at the shimmering sea ahead, its surface glimmering with golden sunlight, and pondered a serious question.
At this time, he should have been asleep in the villa, not suddenly finding himself at the seaside. So, he concluded, he must be dreaming.
Having experienced countless game worlds, he was occasionally dragged into dreams by special entities within these worlds. He was calm about it. He only wondered what kind of creature had pulled him into this one.
Just as Qi Yuheng was thinking this, he suddenly heard a soft, eerie voice beside him.
“Boss Qi…”
The speaker was Ge Guang, a typical tough guy with a booming voice. Normally, unless necessary, his tone was rough and unrestrained. He had never, never, called out in such a drawn-out, delicate tone, as if imitating a woman.
A chill ran down Qi Yuheng’s spine, and goosebumps erupted all over his body.
A burly man speaking in such a bizarre falsetto—who was this meant to disgust? Could it be that Ge Guang harbored such strange hobbies in dreams?
He whipped his head around. “Ge Guang, you—”
His words stopped abruptly as he took in the face of the “Ge Guang” sitting beside him.
The two were seated side by side on a rocky outcrop by the sea, close enough for Qi Yuheng to clearly see the “Ge Guang” beside him. Except… this “Ge Guang” had a fish’s face—bulging fish eyes, a gaping fish mouth, and skin covered in dense scales.
Despite the grotesque fish-monster appearance, Qi Yuheng’s heart inexplicably began to race, and he felt an odd throb of affection when looking at it.
His body’s involuntary reaction reached his brain, forcing him to acknowledge it. This sent a wave of nausea through him so intense he nearly toppled off the rock.
“Boss Qi, what’s wrong?” The fish-faced creature wearing Ge Guang’s appearance leaned in with apparent concern. “Don’t you think the sea looks especially beautiful today?”
Qi Yuheng’s voice trembled. “…No, I don’t.”
The fish-faced creature looked puzzled. “What’s wrong with you? You seem so emotional.”
Indeed, he was trembling—shaking violently from head to toe.
As the stench of raw fish filled the air, wafting into his nostrils, Qi Yuheng finally couldn’t hold back. He gagged and retched, vomiting all over the fish-faced creature.
The fish-faced creature: “.…”
Even drenched in filth, the fish-faced creature dutifully continued its act, speaking in a gentle and affectionate tone. “Boss Qi, are you feeling unwell? Come here. Let me hold you. We’re lovers—you can rely on me…”
“Ugh!”
The fish-faced creature was answered by Qi Yuheng’s earth-shaking retching.
Though he was heaving so violently that even stomach acid came up, Qi Yuheng’s keen awareness remained. He noticed the fish-faced creature inching closer to him again. That was the last straw—he finally snapped.
In a burst of rage, a terrifying chainsaw materialized in Qi Yuheng’s hand, and he swung it at the fish-faced creature.
What followed was a scene too gruesome and violent to describe—one that would undoubtedly be censored in the real world. Perhaps because it was so unspeakably chaotic, Qi Yuheng finally escaped the revolting dreamscape.
—
Ge Guang stood dumbly in the sea breeze. Although he thought the wind felt particularly gentle today, something didn’t feel right.
“Ge Guang, what are you staring at? Why won’t you look at me?”
Boss Qi’s voice rang out beside him, yet for some reason, it sent a shiver down Ge Guang’s spine.
There was no doubt that Qi Yuheng was an incredibly charismatic man—handsome, refined, and blessed with a rich, baritone voice that had likely caused countless young women to swoon, claiming it made their ears pregnant. But never, not once, had Ge Guang heard Boss Qi speak in a tone laced with playful reproach and tender affection. It was utterly terrifying!
Still confused about how he had suddenly ended up here, Ge Guang’s fear snapped him into clarity: this had to be a dream.
If it was a dream, then anything was possible.
Heart pounding, Ge Guang turned his head cautiously. When he saw the “Boss Qi” beside him, he let out a sigh of relief.
The figure looked like Boss Qi, dressed like Boss Qi, and even sounded like him—but it had a fish face. The bizarre, scaly fish face attached to Qi Yuheng’s otherwise familiar features struck Ge Guang as absurdly funny.
This was absolutely not Boss Qi!
Once he realized this, Ge Guang relaxed, even finding the presence of mind to ask, “Who are you? Why are you pretending to be Boss Qi?”
The fish-faced man hesitated for a moment.
Although players’ reactions in the dream varied, most were terrified when they saw the figure next to them. Yet here was this man, visibly relieved and now casually interrogating him.
Still, the fish-faced man stayed committed to the act. “What nonsense are you talking about? I am Qi Yuheng. Aren’t we lovers—”
Before it could finish, Ge Guang abruptly fell off the rock and landed face-first in the sand.
The fish-faced man moved to help him up, but Ge Guang quickly scrambled to his feet, frantically waving his hands in denial. “Don’t say things like that! If Boss Qi hears about this, he’ll kill you—seriously! Don’t underestimate a neat freak’s obsession with cleanliness. He’d rather die than let a monster tarnish his reputation. No—he’d rather die just to prove he’s clean!”
The fish-faced man: “…”
It tried to maintain its role. “Ge Guang, what are you talking about? We’re lovers, aren’t we?”
The fish-faced man leaned heavily into its romantic cues, trying its best to evoke feelings of affection in him.
But Ge Guang, oblivious as ever, ignored his body’s subtle reactions. His thoughts remained firmly grounded in one truth: this was not Qi Yuheng.
He waved the fish-faced man off, urging it to stop pretending to be Qi Yuheng and definitely to stop calling them lovers. “You better quit while you’re ahead, or Boss Qi will flip out.”
The fish-faced man: “…But we are lovers!”
If you’re not lovers, then why are you here together? Are you playing with me?
Ge Guang snapped, “I already said we’re not lovers! Are you deaf?!”
Worried that the real Boss Qi might somehow overhear this exchange and lose his temper, Ge Guang decisively pulled out his spirit energy gun and shot the fish-faced man in the head, splattering it into unrecognizable bits.
—
In the dead of night, Qi Yuheng and Ge Guang woke up simultaneously from their respective nightmares.
The room’s lights were still on, and after realizing they were out of the dream, both let out sighs of relief.
However, when Qi Yuheng turned his head and caught sight of Ge Guang’s rugged face, he suddenly bolted out of bed and into the bathroom. Moments later, the sound of retching echoed from inside.
Ge Guang: “.…” What kind of horrifying experience did Boss Qi have in that dream to make him vomit like this?
A sinking feeling crept into his chest.
That feeling turned to certainty when Qi Yuheng emerged from the bathroom, his face pale and his steps unsteady.
Fixing Ge Guang with a complex, unreadable stare, Qi Yuheng finally asked, “What did you experience in the dream?”
Ge Guang cautiously replied, “I encountered a fish-faced man…”
“Did the fish-faced man dress like me and speak in my voice?”
Ge Guang nodded silently, watching as Qi Yuheng turned and rushed back into the bathroom to retch again. It was clear their dreams had been eerily similar—no, it was likely that everyone in the villa had been pulled into the same dream tonight. Each player probably encountered a fish-faced man taking on the guise of their partner, claiming to be their lover…
Suddenly, Ge Guang had a revelation.
Perhaps this dream was also a kind of test. Could it be related to why the players had to act as couples in the villa?
Once Qi Yuheng finally finished throwing up, he and Ge Guang began discussing the dream. Both agreed that it was likely a test for the players, though they still had no clue what the fish-faced monster truly was.
Fearing they might fall back into the dream and be forced to “date” their fish-faced doppelgänger, Qi Yuheng made up his mind not to sleep for the rest of the night.
Outside, the relentless roar of the tides filled the air. Suddenly, the sound of something scratching against the window broke through the noise.
Ge Guang commented, “Boss Qi, those two mermaid dolls are back.”
Like Gu Jiu, Qi Yuheng harbored a strong dislike for the two sinister mermaid dolls. After throwing them off the balcony into the sea multiple times, only to see them crawl back ashore, he had used tools to secure the room and prevent them from entering.
Initially, they thought the mermaid dolls might be the key challenge of the night. Instead, they found themselves ambushed in their dreams.
Qi Yuheng’s face darkened. “Don’t mention anything related to ‘fish’ to me right now.”
From this day onward, he decided he hated all fish-related creatures.
Sensing the tension, Ge Guang wisely kept quiet. Stealing a glance at Qi Yuheng’s grim expression, he thought to himself that when they finally left this game world, he could only hope Boss Qi’s psychological scars would fade. Otherwise, he might never dare team up with Boss Qi again.
The two of them managed to hold out until dawn.
As sunlight poured into the room, Ge Guang wiped away the physical tears brought on by sheer exhaustion and asked tentatively, “Boss Qi, are you hungry? Should we grab some breakfast?”
Qi Yuheng’s gaze swept over Ge Guang’s face. His expression shifted, and he looked like he was on the verge of vomiting but was desperately holding it in.
Ge Guang: “…Boss Qi, are you seriously about to puke just from looking at my face?”
Qi Yuheng didn’t want to respond.
Ge Guang was speechless. After everything the fish-faced man had put him through, Qi Yuheng’s obsessive cleanliness seemed to have worsened. What could he do about this?
—
TL: LMAO Qi Yuheng needs therapy at this point