GRMFBS CH130

Back in the dorm, Zhan Yan prepared to browse some gossip, hoping to quickly unlock the second “information secrecy star.”

Before he could browse two entries, he received a message from Qi Ye.

The last time Qi Ye had streamed was before the winter break. She had spent the entire holiday working on the game she was making with Wan Shitong. She was still updating her work diary, though.

The latest entry was posted a few days ago:
“Coconut’s Work Diary 56:
The boss has been so busy lately,
I haven’t seen the boss for over a month.
But the salary is still paid very promptly!”

Underneath was a string of comments urging her to stream:
“We haven’t seen you for over a month either. Are you going to give us money?”
“It’s been over a month, Coconut! Unless you stream with your boss, we’ll never forgive you!”

Ever since seeing Qi Ye’s boss’s gaming skills, everyone had been looking forward to her streaming with him. However, Qi Ye had only streamed with Zhan Suiru that one time, and not long after, she stopped streaming until now.

Recently, the game with Wan Shitong was almost finished. Qi Ye finally had some free time to prepare for a stream, only to find that everyone no longer loved her and only wanted to see her get crushed by her boss.

Qi Ye went to ask Zhan Suiru. Zhan Suiru said she had too many orders these days and had no time.

Seven Big Coconuts: “Tears of envy are flowing from the corners of my mouth. The boss has too many orders these days and has no time to stream, so you’ll have to make do with just me.”

“I’m so curious! Coconut, what does your boss’s work look like?”

“You can’t show that, can you? It would reveal his identity.”

“Who wants to watch you? If there’s no boss, having a little brother is fine too. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the rainbow-farting little brother.”

“No—we want the boss because we can watch the boss crush Big Coconut! This is her punishment for ghosting us for over a month! If we get the rainbow-farting little brother, wouldn’t that be a reward for Big Coconut?”

“That’s not out of the question either. Let Big Coconut and the little brother have a one-on-one battle, and let Big Coconut lose to the little brother without throwing the game!”

“Brilliant!”

“I think that’s even harder than letting Big Coconut beat the boss.”

“Are you guys being polite?”

So Qi Ye came to ask Zhan Yan.

Zhan Yan thought playing some games would be nice. He wasn’t sure if it was because of low blood sugar, but he wasn’t really in the mood to browse gossip today; his head felt heavy.

Zhan Yan: “You have to lose to me? That must be so hard for you, hahaha.”

Comments:
[Not hard at all, not hard at all!]
[Today we’re going to let the little brother enjoy the feeling of being a big boss!]
[Coconut, perform well!]

Seven Big Coconuts: “It’s fine, I think it’s still possible.”

She had a reference case! If the boss could do it, why couldn’t she?

Zhan Yan: “Okay, then I’ll enjoy the big boss treatment.”

And then, he lost.

Qi Ye apologized profusely.

Seven Big Coconuts: “I’m so sorry, so sorry, so sorry! I accidentally got carried away with a combo!”

Zhan Yan didn’t mind at all. “Wow! How did you do that combo just now? It was so cool, so cool! Teach me, teach me!”

Comments:
[Coconut, you’ve disappointed us so much!]
[Don’t you feel guilty hearing so many rainbow farts from the little brother?]
[The boss can do it, why can’t you?]

Seven Big Coconuts: “I know I was wrong, I know I was wrong! I’ll teach the little brother the combo now! Next time, I’ll let the little brother take me down with the combo!”

After playing games with Qi Ye, Zhan Yan remembered something else. Qi Ye had mentioned in their casual chat that she was making a game. Zhan Yan planned to ask her if she could make a game for cats.

Since ordinary toys couldn’t meet his sister’s requirements, what about high-tech ones?

Qi Ye had never had a cat. But Zhan Yan summarized a set of cat preferences. Besides catnip, which attracts cats by scent, the biggest and most common hobby for cats is their hunting instinct. They like to run, jump, and chase. The terrain should be complex and varied, and it would be best if there was a sense of accomplishment.

Qi Ye had an inspiration. “We could design a game with sensor-based projection.”

This would allow the projected objects to interact with the detected movements of living creatures.

This technology already existed, but it had only been used by people before. Now, with a few adjustments, it could be designed for cats to play with.

Coincidentally, Qi Ye was relatively free recently, so she prepared to write a small program for the cat game.

After playing the game, Zhan Yan felt a bit sleepy. Lying on the bed with his eyes closed, Zhan Yan couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not. He felt like he was seeing a starry sky, a starry sky just like the information disk of the gossip system.

In the transparent, clear darkness, stars floated up and down.

Golden, purple, blue, green, and white.

A natural starry sky didn’t have so many colors of stars. Only the information words were classified into various colored levels.

Zhan Yan floated in this starry sky. He felt his vision rising, and the starry sky turned into a huge black crystal, with tiny specks of light shining inside.

This was his world, Zhan Yan suddenly realized.

The world was a “domain” as transparent as a black crystal, and living beings were “spirits” floating in the “domain” like stars.

“Abilities,” “organizations,” and “things” were all derivatives of the “domain” and “spirit.” This was why, after the gossip system classified the information words, it placed “spirit” and “domain” at the top, with the other three below them.

Every living being, big or small, emitted light. Some lights gently diffused around, while some were as sharp as needles of light, like… like…

Zhan Yan hadn’t yet figured out the feeling these needles of light gave him when the black crystal in front of him suddenly slid away, or perhaps he had turned his head, and another world slid into his vision.

That was… a very mottled world. It was covered with rust stains and caked with mud. Inside, it was also filled with dense, fine cracks, so much so that Zhan Yan couldn’t see if there were any stars inside.

If there were no stars, this world would be dead.

So there should still be stars in this world. But they were covered too thickly by the rust and mud, and not a single ray of light could penetrate.

Zhan Yan couldn’t help but look closer, trying to find the stars inside this world… He saw them! The starlight wasn’t unable to penetrate, but just as it was about to, it was swallowed by the mud covering the outside of the world.

Ah. A sense of pity arose in Zhan Yan’s heart.

If these starlights couldn’t shine through on their own, they wouldn’t be able to… wouldn’t be able to what?

He suddenly saw light seeping out from the mottled cracks of that world. More and more light, like sharp blades, split open more cracks, filling the entire interior of the world.

The light grew more and more, brighter and brighter. When it shone on Zhan Yan, he suddenly understood what this light was.

Every star was a living being, and the light emitted by the stars was their spiritual power.

These spiritual powers were the feelers through which each world contacted the outside, but they would also attract the covetous gaze of the greedy.

That small, mottled world was submerged in a vast expanse of light, and Zhan Yan’s vision was filled with a field of white.

When he recovered his sight from this white light, he found himself standing in a field of overgrown weeds.

In front of him was a low-lying building swallowed by vines and bushes.

“Is this that abandoned camp?” a clear male voice said behind him.

Zhan Yan turned around. A man carrying a tool bag and wearing work pants stood to his left rear. He was quite tall, with a straight nose bridge and brow bones, and a pair of peach blossom eyes. Seeing him turn around, he smiled at him. “I thought it would be more dilapidated. Now I see the foundation is still there. It’ll be easy to repair.”

“Can it really be repaired?” Zhan Yan heard himself ask.

Oh, it wasn’t him, but the person whose perspective he was attached to.

It was a slightly low female voice.

“Sister Sui Sui,” the man said complainingly, “don’t doubt my abilities.”

Zhan Yan couldn’t tell if he was calling her “Sui” or “Sui” or something else. In any case, the name of the person whose perspective he was attached to probably contained the sound “sui.”

The complaining man raised his hand and opened his tool bag. “Watch this.”

He took out a strange-looking tool. In his hands, it underwent a series of dazzling transformations like a Transformer, becoming a bizarre object that Zhan Yan couldn’t describe.

Overall, it was filled with the smooth lines and simple, practical beauty of industrial design, but the colorful parts on it made it look like a creation pieced together from scraps found in a garbage heap.

Four mechanical arms extended from the main body of this strange object. Two of them were long arms connected by joints, and the other two were made up of many short metal segments, moving as flexibly as an octopus.

Then this thing walked to the nearest low house, waved its mechanical arms to clear away the weeds and bushes entwined around it, and then hugged the low house with its four mechanical arms.

A special force was channeled into the low house along the mechanical arms. Then, the low house began to vibrate gently. Fallen bricks returned to their places, deformed metal railings straightened out, broken glass window panes went back into their frames…

This low house was repairing itself!

After about half an hour, the abandoned house had become a sturdy and tidy structure.

Beads of sweat appeared on the man’s nose. He wiped them away with the back of his hand and smiled at him, showing a row of teeth. “I’m the best Artisan!”
…

On the other end, Gu Jiancheng, for some reason, felt a sense of unease in his heart. But he didn’t know where this unease came from.

This made Gu Jiancheng want to check on the situation, and most importantly, to see how Yanyan was doing. He had never had problems with low blood sugar before.

Ever since Zhan Yan had a fever last time, Gu Jiancheng had bought a bunch of healing-type items through Wan Shitong’ channels.

Among these items was a rather special one called the “Diagnostic Pen.” By placing the tip of the pen on a person’s forehead and waiting for the progress bar on the barrel to fill up, then taking the pen and placing it on a piece of paper, the Diagnostic Pen could write a diagnosis of the person’s physical condition and provide a treatment plan.

Although the Diagnostic Pen couldn’t directly cure illnesses, its function was more important than those healing items that could restore one’s state.

All veteran players in Infinite knew that all healing items had drug resistance. After using them for a long time, their effects would get worse and worse. Moreover, some healing items had side effects, similar to the principle that “all medicines are somewhat toxic.”

Therefore, while healing items needed to be stockpiled, they also needed to be used with a plan.

Gu Jiancheng wanted to skip class and go back to check on Zhan Yan’s condition, but Professor Miao had already remembered him. Every time he looked back, he would glance at him and even call on him to answer questions.

“That handsome young man, yes, you again. Stand up and answer the question.” Professor Miao called on him again.

Gu Jiancheng stood up and answered the question with a blank expression.

For the first time, he felt it was a pity that he no longer had a deterrent effect on the people around him after his after-effects had healed.

Students he had accidentally intimidated before would still retain some fear, but university professors were more distant from the students. Their lingering impression of Gu Jiancheng was that of a cool, handsome young man who didn’t talk much.

Gu Jiancheng couldn’t very well intimidate the teacher on the spot. After being hard-controlled in the classroom for a while, he couldn’t take it anymore. A shadow quietly extended from under his feet and out of the classroom.

Gu Jiancheng left a shadow clone in the classroom and slipped back to the dorm to see his boyfriend.

As soon as he entered the dorm, he saw Zhan Yan lying on the bed asleep. Gu Jiancheng’s heart tightened.

Zhan Yan doesn’t have the habit of sleeping during the day. Is he sick?

He first touched Zhan Yan’s forehead. It wasn’t hot.

Gu Jiancheng then took out the Diagnostic Pen to use it.

Just as he was about to place it on Zhan Yan’s forehead, Zhan Yan opened his eyes.

Gu Jiancheng’s hand paused.

Zhan Yan opened his eyes to see his boyfriend’s handsome face hovering beside him, and his hand holding a pen, ready to press it onto his face.

Zhan Yan: “…Are you trying to draw a turtle on my face while I’m asleep?”

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