Shao Yuye: [Bullshit.]
Yu Cheng: [I was wondering how your sister’s gaming skills improved so dramatically all of a sudden. Turns out she had someone carrying her.]
Yu Cheng: [Look. See who she’s been playing with lately?]
Yu Cheng: [(screenshots.jpg)x9]
The series of match history screenshots nearly blinded Shao Yuye.
But sure enough, every single one featured the same ID: [guest10876]
Obviously one of the game’s default usernames.
Shao Yuye paid special attention to Mr. 876’s stats.
They were… painfully awful.
His sister’s record looked far better than 876’s.
Shao Yuye: [I don’t think you’re right.]
Yu Cheng: [?]
Shao Yuye: [At the very least… there’s no way she’d fall for a scrub like this.]
Yu Cheng: [… I’m saying, has it occurred to you… maybe his whole appeal is sincerely accompanying the girl instead of showing off?]
Shao Yuye was already about ready to throw his phone.
[…Shut up.]
Yu Cheng: [You’re not actually getting mad, are you?]
Shao Yuye: [I’m not.]
Shao Yuye: [He’s probably just a paid gaming companion. My sister wouldn’t be interested in a noob like him.]
Shao Yuye: [Anyway, I’m done talking. My sister’s about to chat with me.]
In reality, Shen Wanwan was still engrossed in her phone, completely oblivious to the emotional roller coaster her brother was going through beneath the covers.
Qi Luozhou: [Do you like it?]
Shen Wanwan: [It sounds really nice.]
She picked one of her favorite photos from her album and sent it to him.
[A mature fiancé should know how to change his own wallpaper.]
Seeing the photo she sent, Qi Luozhou let out a quiet laugh.
In the picture, the young woman was wearing a lotus-pink sweater. Behind her, the pitch-black night was illuminated by dazzling city lights.
There was no question that she was stunningly beautiful.
Qi Luozhou gazed at the photo in silence, his expression gentle.
The room was quiet except for the soft music drifting from the speakers.
He saved the picture, exited the chat, then took a screenshot of his current wallpaper and sent it to her.
It turned out to be a photo from when the two of them had been teammates, sitting together at the café.
Back then, he’d borrowed the café owner’s camera and taken plenty of scenic shots.
Unexpectedly, she’d wandered into one of them.
She wasn’t posing at all—just casually holding a cup of coffee, her eyes not even looking at the camera. Her long hair, hanging loose behind her, had curled slightly in the breeze.
Yet somehow, Qi Luozhou had captured her so vividly.
Everything else in the world seemed frozen.
Only she remained the most vibrant splash of color within his field of vision.
Looking at the photo, Shen Wanwan clicked her tongue inwardly.
—A guy who knows how to take pictures really earns bonus points.
—Just how many surprises is he still hiding from me?
Shen Wanwan: [Taking candid photos of me comes with a fee.]
Qi Luozhou chuckled and was just about to reply when a game invitation popped up on his screen.
Stranger [AAA Professional Cookie Puncher] has invited you to join a match.
Without a second thought, he swiped the notification away.
But for some reason, this ‘Cookie Puncher’ seemed possessed, sending invitation after invitation—
Stranger [AAA Professional Cookie Puncher] has invited you to join a match.
Stranger [AAA Professional Cookie Puncher] has invited you to join a match.
…
The constant stream of notifications made Qi Luozhou frown slightly.
He had long since gotten into the habit of disabling notifications for almost every app on his phone.
Only people who truly mattered were marked as priority contacts.
Everyone else—and everything else—was irrelevant to him.
The only reason notifications for this game were still enabled was because Shen Wanwan would occasionally log in and invite him directly.
He simply entered the game and turned off every setting that allowed strangers to contact or invite him.
Meanwhile, Shao Yuye was busily spamming invitations when the pop-up message suddenly became a little longer.
He froze before reading the text.
[Sorry. This user has enabled a private account. You are unable to invite them.]
—What the hell does that mean?!
—That little brat logged in just now… only to make his account private?!
—You punk!
—Do you have any idea whose invitation you just rejected?!
For perhaps the first time in ages, the invincible top celebrity Shao Yuye tossed his phone aside, feeling a tiny sting of defeat.
His little sister was twenty-two now.
Not too young, not too old.
She really had reached the age where dating was perfectly natural.
In the days ahead, her emotions might be affected by every little thing that man did…
If he was a good man, then fine.
But if he turned out to be a scumbag…
Rolling onto his side, Shao Yuye stared at the snow-white wall and let out a long, heavy sigh.
Next door, Zhang Yiran and Jiang Yuan’s late-night ghost story session was still going strong.
“…Just then, at that critical moment, Jiang Jian pulled out a gun—”
*Bang!*
The loud sound came from outside the window.
Zhang Yiran and Jiang Yuan stiffly turned to look at each other, both seeing the same trace of fear in the other’s eyes.
“…Did you hear that?”
Jiang Yuan swallowed nervously.
“You heard it too, right?”
Just as Zhang Yiran was about to speak, another sharp, abrupt *bang* sound rang out. It was followed by a faint but piercing scream that stood out all the more in the now-silent house.
Jiang Yuan yelped and burrowed under the blanket.
“Ahhh! Damn it! This is actually getting kind of scary!”
Shen Wanwan had heard the sudden noise too. She quickly put down her phone and asked warily, “Brother, did you hear something just now?”
The soundproofing here wasn’t very good. From the room next door came Jiang Yuan and Zhang Yiran’s loud cries as well.
Though, to be fair, those two had been making the same kinds of noises all last night too.
Shao Yuye slowly opened his eyes and looked at her with a gloomy expression.
“What sound?”
The sound of his heart shattering?
Shen Wanwan: “…”
Three words might as well have been written across her brother’s forehead.
Naive. Innocent. Simple-minded.
The siblings stared at each other for two seconds. In the end, Shen Wanwan sighed helplessly and waved a hand.
“It’s nothing. Maybe I heard wrong.”
It seemed that the main storyline hinted at by yesterday afternoon’s hidden mission had officially begun.
Night fell heavily over the island.
The director watched with satisfaction as the actors portraying NPCs disembarked from the large boat one after another.
Starting tomorrow, the Hunters would infiltrate the island.
This was the grand surprise he had prepared especially for Shen Wanwan.
—Come on…
—I refuse to believe she’ll be able to crack even this!
Thanks to the production team’s careful arrangements, everyone unlocked the hidden stage on the second day and received a secret note titled ‘Escape the Deserted Island’.
Zhang Yiran clicked his tongue.
“Getting off work early?
“You think the director would be that kind? This has to be a huge trap!”
Jiang Yuan nodded in agreement.
“Definitely fishy.
“The two of us should just stick to the plan, clear the levels quietly, and leave the island after the final day.”
They had figured it out.
If they didn’t want to be manipulated by the production team, all they had to do was think the opposite way.
The more the director urged them to leave early, the less they should be tempted. Maybe that was the real way to beat the game.
So easy!
The livestream chat was speechless.
[With IQs like yours, just give up on trying to outsmart the production team already. LOL.]
[Meanwhile, Shen Wanwan and Shao Yuye have already unlocked the second clue! Hurry up and get moving, you silly kids!]
[HAHAHA! The production team: Never expected two idiots to willingly walk into our trap!]
Inside the pouch that Shao Yuye and Shen Wanwan opened was ‘Clue #2’.
[Escape the Deserted Island: Early New Year Plan (2)
[Tips: If you’re caught by a Hunter, you might end up trapped on this island forever~]
Although realizing the previous night that his little sister might be in love had left Shao Yuye depressed for a while, after a night’s sleep he was back to his energetic self.
—My sister is way too picky.
—There’s no way she’d date a college kid.
—Especially not a rookie college kid who’s terrible at everything.
Shao Yuye easily convinced himself with that reasoning.
Now all his attention was focused on the storyline the production team had prepared.
“Hunters?”
The NPC merely smiled without answering.
Beside him, Shen Wanwan suddenly spoke.
“It should be something like a battle royale mode.”
A classic deserted-island variety show gimmick.
She looked toward the camera and curled her lips into a cold, mocking smile.
As if to say—“That’s it?”
Watching everything unfold from behind the monitors, the director fell silent.
—…Feels like I got provoked again.
—Heh.
—But very soon, Shen Wanwan won’t be smiling anymore.
“So what you’re saying is,” Shao Yuye said, “we need to clear the levels before the Hunters show up?”
Shen Wanwan nodded.
“That should be what it means.”
Shao Yuye immediately became fired up, cracking his knuckles loudly.
“Then let’s blast through a hundred levels and head home today!”
Shen Wanwan shot her brother an approving glance.
“Mm!”
That look of trust from his little sister instantly ignited all of Shao Yuye’s fighting spirit. With a grand wave of his hand, he declared, “Let’s go!”
The two immediately rushed toward the next challenge.
Hidden behind the monitors, the director smiled in complete satisfaction.