The woman spoke, raising her hand, her cool fingertip gently caressing Wen Nan's cheek.
The woman carried a faint scent of freesias, mixed with a hint of sandalwood.
Wen Nan didn't move, like a statue of Buddha, sitting cross-legged on the ground, allowing the woman to act as she pleased, his gaze firmly fixed on her face.
The woman's smile deepened and she asked, "What's wrong? Why are you looking at like that?"
As if unable to withstand his gaze, the woman raised her other hand, covering Wen Nan's eyes, then leaned closer, intending to kiss his lips.
Just before their lips t, Wen Nan abruptly raised his hand, grabbing her shoulder and pushing her away.
The woman's slender body was roughly pulled back, her smile sowhat diminished as she lowered the hand that covered Wen Nan's eyes, looking at him in confusion, "What's wrong?"
Wen Nan's brow furrowed slightly,
"Are you now... a player?"
The woman gently shook her head.
"Strategy Character?"
The woman shook her head again.
"NPC?"
The woman shook her head a third ti.
Wen Nan was puzzled.
The woman smiled again, kneeling upright, moving closer to Wen Nan again, stopping just before their noses touched, whispering, "I ca here for you, and nothing else, I am no one."
The two were very close, and from Wen Nan's angle, he could clearly see the open collar of her shirt revealing a pair of prominent collarbones, and below...
Quickly, Wen Nan lowered his gaze, avoiding looking at her chest and finally fixed his eyes on her wrist.
The woman placed her palm over Wen Nan's hand, gripping it tightly, and wore a minimalistic, thin silver bracelet on her wrist.
The chain, under Wen Nan's gaze, slowly stretched out, like a slender little snake, wrapping around Wen Nan's wrist.
The cold chain tightened more and more, almost digging into Wen Nan's skin, causing him so pain.
This slight pain jolted Wen Nan awake, his pupils constricting sharply—
It was a dream!
With all his might, Wen Nan pushed the woman away from him, then rolled his body to the side, crashing onto the floor.
Thud!
A dull thud sounded.
Wen Nan suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.
He found himself fallen from the sofa onto the floor, glancing around, realizing he was still in the rented living room, a not very large room, with a sofa, coffee table, and TV stand, and on the coffee table lay an admissions letter and an empty wine glass.
Was that... a nightmare?
As he pondered, a "clanging" alarm sounded in his mind, followed by a countdown in urgent red flashing before his eyes—
[00:00:03—]
[00:00:02—]
[00:00:01—]
9527: [Main mission 1 has ended, please return to the refresh point within 15 minutes to proceed to mission settlent, failing to comply will make you ineligible for this settlent, please be aware.]
9527: [Entering mission settlent countdown—]
[14:59—]
[14:58—]
Wen Nan: ?!
The first main mission has ended?
That can't be right, there should still be over three hours left...
Wen Nan pulled up the system panel to check the ti and found it was already eight in the morning.
He had accidentally fallen asleep, thinking only five minutes had passed, but actually, it had been three hours?
In the top right corner of the panel, the guild chat group blinked furiously with a "99 " red dot.
Wen Nan opened the group chat and found it was full of mber inquiries.
So were questioning where the G. point was, others asked the guild leader to appear quickly, and so inquired where the guild leader's instance address was, suspecting sothing happened in his rental, wanting to co rescue him...
Scrolling to the top, Wen Nan saw his last ssage sent out, remaining on the single word "Yes."
So, the subsequent revealing ssages he edited were actually sent in his dream, and the mbers never received them?!
His head was still groggy, as if waking from a drunken stupor of downing a dozen beers the night before, with his head feeling twice as large.
The lingering sandalwood scent in his nose made Wen Nan feel a bit nauseous.
The finale settlent countdown continued to flash before his eyes, reminding Wen Nan that he was running out of ti.
Wen Nan shook his head, striving to focus and quickly sent a ssage in the group—
[Nine: I'm fine]
[FireFireFire: Damn! I almost cried! Damn it, Boss, you're okay! I thought you were gone! Thank goodness! If you weren't here, I couldn't handle this!]
[Yao: But the first main mission has ended, Boss, there's no ti left, our guild is going to fall together on this first mission]
[Nine: There's still ti]
[Nine: Get to the G. point quickly]
[Yao: Where exactly is the G. point? How do we get there?]
[Nine: Find Zhang Tianyu]
[Nine: The place he wants to go but can't reach is the G. point]
...
...
In the reception hall on the first floor of the Erin Group Headquarters Building, Hu Jiayao stood by the sofa, confused by the ssages in the chat group from the guild leader,
"Zhang Tianyu? Who's Zhang Tianyu?"
Sitting on the sofa, Gu Jinxing replied in a low voice, "The newest mber we personally brought into the guild."
Hu Jiayao suddenly rembered, "The bugged NPC who ran into walls?"
Gu Jinxing corrected him with a serious expression, "That's not an NPC, he's a player like us."
Three hours ago, with a hint from the guild leader, Gu Jinxing should have realized it—
An untouchable, invisible, inaudible, untraceable place that ordinary players like them didn't know, Zhang Tianyu would surely know.
Based on Zhang Tianyu's abnormal behavior, he was likely a previous player who never t the completion target for the strategy each ti a mission finished, triggering all five soul threads, eventually inducing the [Reverse Star] plot.
His body was controlled by his Strategy Character and didn't belong to him, wandering like a marionette.
Even if it ant injuring himself, the destination he desperately tried to reach was undoubtedly where his subconscious desired most to go.
With this thought, Gu Jinxing stood up, replying in the group chat [Received, heading to the location imdiately], sprinting full speed towards the corridor where Zhang Tianyu was located.
...
...
In the living room of the rented place.
Receiving Gu Jinxing's reply, Wen Nan closed the group chat.
His heart, which had just started to settle, was suddenly tightened again by a sharp pain from his wrist.
Lowering his head to look at the source of the pain, he discovered the silver bracelet from the dream still bound to his wrist, the delicate chain cutting into his skin.
Raising his wrist for a closer look, he realized it wasn't a tal chain but so kind of material with a very unique silver thread.
This is... a soul thread?!
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