Xu Shu smiled. “Don’t worry. Items can only be exchanged voluntarily or gifted willingly. If anyone uses force or any other non-consensual means to take someone’s item, they’ll suffer a severe backlash. If anyone tries, you just wait—after the backlash, the item will return to your possession. The [Ghost] system is very fair.”
He glanced at the screen, which showed only two minutes remaining on the countdown. “There are two minutes left. If any of you want, you can trade items here. Aside from the guaranteed rewards, the two items that require points are randomly refreshed each time. If you don’t get the item you want, you can always pre-arrange trades with other players.”
Li Zhi replied, “I’m fine.”
The other three shook their heads. “No need.”
Xu Shu nodded. “Alright then, last minute. Anything else you want to ask me?”
When the countdown ended, he would be transported back to his world, and they would likely never meet again.
Over the past few days, they had experienced countless things that shattered their understanding of reality. Now, looking at this human companion from a parallel multidimensional world, they felt a strange sense of camaraderie.
Lian Qinglin patted his shoulder. “Even though I don’t really like you, I still wish you a safe journey.”
Xu Shu’s mouth twitched. “…Thanks.”
Li Zhi suddenly asked, “How can we make the [Ghost] system leave our world?”
Xu Shu paused. It seemed like he had never considered this question before. After a moment of thought, he shook his head. “No one can do that. It won’t leave. From the moment it descended upon your world, it became a new world entirely. My advice to you is to accept it and adapt.”
The countdown reached ten seconds. The safe house was about to close.
Xu Shu gave Li Zhi one last look. “You will definitely become the god of your world. When that time comes, you will need the system more than anyone. I hope you reach the top soon.”
Three, two, one.
A flash of white light, and when Li Zhi opened her eyes again, she was back in her bedroom, the same place where she had disappeared before.
The first thing she did was reach into her pocket. Feeling the cool, hard texture of the Black Tortoise Shell, she let out a small sigh of relief.
It seemed everything was as Xu Shu had said.
The rewards and items from the instance could be brought out into the real world and used. The gears of a new reality had already begun to turn, and there was no going back.
Following the instructions for the Black Tortoise Shell, Li Zhi focused her mind. The golden tortoise shell vanished from her hand, and her childhood home trembled slightly. Something invisible changed, though it quickly returned to normal.
The subtle tremor startled the three people in the living room. Li Feng was the first to react, striding towards her bedroom. “Zhi Zhi?”
Li Zhi walked out. “Brother.”
Li Feng’s sharp features softened as he examined her from head to toe, checking that she hadn’t lost any limbs and that her temperature and heartbeat were normal. Only then did he finally relax. “Good, you’re out.”
Even though he had seen her clear the instance safely, he couldn’t truly rest until he saw her in person.
Behind him, Li Shuang screamed with excitement and pounced on her. “Sis! Sis! You were amazing! So brave! You’re my idol!”
Li Zhi allowed her younger sister to jump on her like an overexcited puppy, and sure enough, before she could say anything, Li Feng expressionlessly dragged Li Shuang away. “Your sister just got out of the instance, and you’re trying to exhaust her even more?”
“Zhi Zhi!” Shang Jinru’s eyes were still swollen from crying. If it hadn’t been for her two children comforting her, she would have cried herself blind over the past few days while Li Zhi was in the instance.
Li Zhi walked over and gently embraced her. “Mom, I’m fine. You were watching me, weren’t you?”
Shang Jinru choked back her tears. “That’s exactly what made it scarier! I was so afraid you’d be gone in the next second. You silly girl, there were so many people in that instance, but you had to take on all those dangerous tasks. Do you know how worried I was…”
Li Shuang chimed in, “Mom, you can’t say it like that. Sis didn’t have much popularity or a fan base. If she hadn’t performed well, no one would’ve voted for her. What if she got eliminated because of low popularity? But now, look at her! She’s famous! She even has a fan club now!”
Li Zhi: “…”
How curious. After six or seven years, it was the first time she had ever had something like a fan club.
Li Zhi comforted her mother for a while, then explained to her family about the reward she had received, the Black Tortoise Shell. Given that ghosts had begun to appear more frequently in their world, having this protective barrier at least provided some level of safety for her family.
After spending several tense days in the instance, her nerves had been constantly on edge. Now, back in the real world, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion quickly took over. After a shower, Li Zhi collapsed into bed and fell into a deep sleep, not waking until the next morning when the bright sunlight streamed through the window.
Lying in bed for a moment, she finally reached for her phone, which had been on silent. To her surprise, there were over a dozen missed calls from an unfamiliar local number. Squinting, she dialed back.
After just two rings, an excited voice came through the receiver: “Zhi Zhi! It’s me, Chi Yi! I had to ask so many friends in the industry to track down your number!”
Li Zhi smiled and sat up in bed. “What’s going on?”
Chi Yi lowered her voice. “Zhi Zhi, my completion reward was a team card. The instructions said this card allows me to bind with another player so we can enter the same instance together next time. The system said the reward was based on each person’s deepest desire. At that moment, I was thinking that if I’m destined to keep entering these instances, I’d want to go with you. Maybe that’s why I got the team card.”
Team up?
The thought of players being able to form teams flashed through Li Zhi’s mind, and she could already imagine future alliances forming. Without revealing her thoughts, she asked calmly, “Did you tell anyone else about this?”
“Of course not!” Chi Yi replied quickly. “I’m not as dumb as Lian Qinglin! But while you were sleeping last night, many other players completed their instances, and some weren’t as tight-lipped. This morning, there are already posts about the safe house and the rewards appearing online. Do you have any idea how chaotic things are right now? People are outraged, asking why only celebrities get the chance to enter the instances.”
Li Zhi wasn’t surprised. “I expected that. These rewards brought into the real world were bound to stir things up.”
Chi Yi sounded worried. “Zhi Zhi, I don’t think this world is going to get any better. The official announcements say they’re actively researching ways to break the system, but with little effect. For now, players are on their own. You and I have garnered a lot of attention, and like Xu Shu said, we’re likely to get pulled into instances more often. I was thinking, could we use the team card and bind together?”
Afraid that Li Zhi might refuse, Chi Yi quickly added, “I’ll work hard to improve myself during this time so I won’t drag you down! I even exchanged points for an exorcism knife that can be used in instances, and I can share the item with you!”
Li Zhi liked Chi Yi’s sweet and sincere nature, and without much hesitation, she agreed. “Sure.”
Chi Yi let out a cheerful “Yay!” and added, “I’ll come over later! Let’s bind as soon as possible in case an instance suddenly pulls us in!”
After setting a time to meet, Li Zhi got out of bed. After breakfast, the three Li siblings crowded on the sofa to explore the live-streaming app.
Since the previous day, as more players completed their instances, the app’s homepage had begun updating a global popularity leaderboard. It only displayed the top 100 players, and the rankings shifted constantly as players cleared instances.
As expected, the top ranks were dominated by internationally famous superstars. Even with over two million popularity points, Lian Qinglin, despite his massive fan base, only managed to place in the 80s.
With only a little over 100,000 popularity points left, Li Zhi had no chance of making the list.
In addition to the leaderboard and live-stream categories, the bottom right corner of the app’s homepage featured a small window displaying “My Popularity.”
Li Zhi’s popularity in the app was approaching a million and still climbing, but her siblings’ phones displayed significantly lower numbers—Li Feng’s showed 1,200, and Li Shuang’s had only 480, with no real-time growth.
Pondering for a moment, Li Zhi analyzed, “The system mentioned when I entered the instance that I was chosen because I’m a popular celebrity, with enough attention from the public. I think this ‘popularity’ is the system’s standard for determining whether someone qualifies as a celebrity player. Once you reach a certain level of attention, you qualify to enter an instance.”
Li Feng furrowed his brow. “So that means anyone could potentially enter an instance? As long as they can attract enough attention, they could qualify?”
Li Zhi noted her brother’s quick ability to identify the core issue. “Yes, it seems so. People are already protesting online about the unfairness of it all. This is likely [Ghost]’s goal—it wants everyone in the world to become instance players.”
Li Shuang hugged herself, trembling. “But why? What’s the system trying to achieve?”
Li Feng, who had served in the military for several years and was now a veteran, let out a cold laugh. “What else could a high-dimensional technology invading Earth be after? It’s obviously for conquest.”
Li Zhi stared at the constantly bustling live streams on the app’s homepage. After her group of players had cleared their instance, new players were immediately pulled in, ensuring the flow of content never slowed, never stopped.
Xu Yi had said that there was no going back, only acceptance and adaptation.
They had to accept a world where humans coexisted with ghosts, and adapt to the transformation from ordinary humans to players. In Xu Yi’s world, the [Ghost] system had been around for ten years. What would their world look like after a decade of the system’s invasion?
Out of curiosity, Li Zhi randomly clicked on a live stream. Inside, a player—an actor she had collaborated with earlier this year—was being torn apart by zombies.
The live chat was a frenzy. Some viewers were cheering for the thrill of it, while others were crying in horror.
Li Zhi attempted to send a comment criticizing the [Ghost] system and the instances, but a notification popped up immediately:
—Your message does not comply with the rules of this live stream and has been rejected. Please maintain civility and enjoy your viewing experience.
Hah. This [Ghost] system was even sneakier than she thought.