Rover looked around and realized he was still in the room, utterly confused.
But the warmth and familiarity steadied him for a moment.
"Rover, are you okay?" Nanoe asked anxiously.
Selina sat beside him too, staring at him with worry, both hands pressed to his chest, looking like she was about to cry.
He held his head, feeling as if someone had smashed it with a hammer.
Rover took a deep breath, forced himself to sit up, then asked, "How long was I unconscious?"
Nanoe and Selina looked at each other, then back at him. Nanoe said, "Not long, but... did the Thousand-Faced Wraith attack you?"
Rover nodded and asked, "What about you? Did the Thousand-Faced Wraith attack you?"
Nanoe and Selina shook their heads. Then Selina spoke up. "Back then, the Thousand-Faced Wraith rushed into the room and went straight for you. It was like a layer of mist, it slammed into your body and then disappeared."
"Slammed into my body?" Rover frowned, bewildered. "What do you mean? Did it merge with my body?"
Selina didn't know how to explain it and looked to Nanoe.
Nanoe soothed him. "Rover, don't worry. Maybe you passed the Thousand-Faced Wraith's trial, so you woke up."
Rover nodded lightly, but then he frowned and waved his hand.
A System panel instantly appeared in front of him. He tried again. The System and his abilities were working normally.
"Looks like... I really did pass the Thousand-Faced Wraith's trial," Rover muttered. "But... a trial... was that even a trial?"
He opened the notification panel. There wasn't a single message from the System.
There weren't many people talking in the chat either. Most Survivors had a yellow dot.
He frowned, feeling like this world was both real and fake.
Rover stood up and wanted to head for the door to take a look, but Nanoe immediately grabbed his hand.
He frowned, looking at her in confusion.
Nanoe shook her head. "Rover, it's very dangerous outside. Don't look."
"Why?" Rover asked. "I want to see... um..."
He didn't even get to finish before Nanoe rushed in and kissed him. Selina hugged him too, and then...
Rover didn't understand why he couldn't push Nanoe and Selina away. His body had no strength at all, letting them pull him to the bed, and then... the room began to darken.
So much that everything around him became pure black, yet he could still feel eyes staring at him, mad and ravenous to the extreme.
So strange... it felt as if he was dreaming.
As his mind slowly grew hazy, a voice suddenly rang out, like lighting a flame of clarity inside him.
"This plan isn't good. Does anyone have another option?"
"Actually, I think this plan is already decent."
"I don't think so. If we're going to do it, we need to be careful."
Rover heard a stream of technical economic terms, unfamiliar yet strangely familiar, and slowly opened his eyes.
"This is..." He jolted, realizing he was sitting in a conference room. His colleagues abruptly stopped talking and turned their eyes on him.
At the center seat, a beautiful woman in a men's-style office dress sat there. Her long blond hair fell loose, her face flawless, her thick brows only emphasizing her powerful aura. She stared at him with obvious annoyance and contempt.
"If you want to sleep, get out," the woman said.
Rover still didn't understand what was happening. He could only apologize and leave.
In the restroom, he washed his face, then looked into the mirror.
In the mirror, he was wearing a white dress shirt and black slacks. His hair was neat, his build a little thin.
Rover braced both hands on the sink and let out a sigh, trying to recall what had happened.
The infinite game, Nanoe, Selina...
All those memories were like a dream, not only blurry but also covered in a layer of fog. He could even feel them growing blurrier by the second, as if given a little more time, they would vanish completely.
Rover held his forehead, splashed his face again with cold water to wake himself up, then left the restroom.
He walked down the hallway and saw a familiar figure, about to call out, "Na..."
Suddenly, his voice stopped because... she didn't seem to know him.
That's right. Standing in front of him was Nanoe. She was hugging a stack of files, her curvy figure wrapped in an office dress, her light brown wavy hair framing a beautiful yet gentle face, her deep eyes like a quiet lake.
Hearing his voice, she looked over and, out of courtesy, dipped her head in greeting. He dipped his head back.
But then she immediately averted her gaze and stepped into the elevator.
Rover couldn't understand it, yet he felt oddly uncomfortable, but... why would he feel uncomfortable?
He'd met her before, but only in a dream. Suddenly, he frowned and muttered, "Wait. What was that dream?"
Rover tilted his head and rubbed his chin, unable to recall what he'd dreamed. He only remembered... Nanoe and Selina were there. Other than that, he couldn't remember anything.
He shook his head, not wanting to think anymore, and got back to work, continuing his ordinary life.
That night, when he finished work, his mood was still like a balloon lost among the clouds, not knowing where to go, not knowing where it would drift.
He suddenly stopped and looked up at the electronic screen on a large building that was playing a video.
When Rover saw the woman in that video, his eyes widened, filled with shock, yet carrying a trace of familiarity.
"Selina..."
He murmured, staring at the woman as beautiful as starlight, her skin white as snow, her body soft and irresistibly alluring.
She was smiling, her finger gently touching a necklace painstakingly crafted by a world-famous designer.
Rover stared for a long time, so long that his legs began to ache. He let out a sigh, then started walking again.
Suddenly, he stopped, a question rising in his mind. "Who is she?"
That's right. Who was that woman just now? Why had he stood there staring at her for so long?
Who was she, really? Did he know her?
Rover carried that doubt into the supermarket, picked up a discounted ready-made meal, and silently calculated whether the money he had left would be enough to last him to the end of the month.
"Eating like that won't fill you up."
A voice suddenly sounded beside him.
Rover turned his head and saw a man wearing cyber-style armor, his face completely hidden behind a helmet.
He jolted, thinking, 'What the hell is this? Cosplay?'
Still, he replied politely, "This... eating like this is enough for me."
The man smiled. "Don't worry, it's on me."
As he spoke, he grabbed two of the most expensive meals along with two cans of beer, then headed to the cashier.
Rover was confused, but he had the feeling this person was reliable, so he followed behind him.
Even though the man was dressed extremely strangely, passersby didn't seem to notice or look at him even once, as if... he was invisible.
Rover and the man reached a stone bench and sat down to eat. The man popped open a can of beer, held it out to him, and smiled. "Drink."
Rover nodded, took the cold can in his hand, and felt something indescribable, as if this man was both familiar and distant at the same time.
Rover frowned and asked, "Have I met you before?"
The man laughed. "Never."
"Then... why?"
"Because I don't want you to lose your way in this illusion."
"Illusion?" Rover frowned, looking at the man in confusion.
"Rover, have you ever wondered about your parents?"
Rover shook his head. "I don't want to know about them."
"Heh!? Why?"
"Because they abandoned me," Rover said.
That's right. From the moment he was born, he'd been abandoned. A kind orphanage raised him, but his life afterward hadn't been all that good.
Of course, he was an orphan. How could the life and ending of orphans be good, except for the ones adopted by a decent family?
And he wasn't one of the lucky ones who got adopted.
Instead, he stayed in the orphanage until he was sixteen. After that, he had to go out and start fighting this harsh world alone.
The man sighed. "If... just if. If they ran into some kind of hardship and were forced to abandon you, then what? After all... in this world, what parent wants to abandon their own child?"
Rover snorted with laughter. "Hahaha... you think this is a TV drama? Or cinema? Come on, the number of parents who throw away their kids is so huge you can't even count it."
"You can go to any orphanage and ask. Were those kids abandoned, or did they volunteer to go there? If my parents had a hardship, then have they gotten through it by now? After all these years, where are they?"
The man let out a sigh and said softly, "Rover, then what do you think they'd have to do for you to forgive them?"
Rover took a bite of meat, chewed carefully, then looked at the massive advertisement screen mounted on a tall building. He pointed at the screen and laughed. "If they give me one... no, ten wives like her, plus a bank account so full I can't spend it all in this lifetime, then I'll forgive them."
After saying that, he laughed loudly, then lowered his head and kept eating. He wasn't exactly money-hungry, but life had taught him that... the only things that wouldn't abandon him or betray him were money and power.
"Hahahaha... hahahaha..." The man laughed so loudly that Rover jolted, almost spitting out the mouthful of meat he was chewing.
"You... what the hell is wrong with you?" Rover leaned back nervously.
The man said, "Then... what if they give you even more?"
"Heh?!"