Invasion of reality (10)
An eerie silence spread throughout the cafe. The owner seemed completely unaware and turned away, satisfied, then left.
Chen Li carefully picked up the menu. Gu Fu immediately looked over and smiled brightly, saying: “Want your favorite latte? They even have rabbit-shaped ice cream today.”
The familiarity in his tone made Fu Moyang’s expression darken, though he didn’t show it. He reached out and rubbed Chen Li’s head gently: “You ate so much this morning, be careful you don’t end up with a big belly.”
Chen Li, seriously reading the menu, snapped back: “I’m not that stupid!”
Fu Moyang chuckled softly, indulging him: “Mm.”
Now it was Gu Fu’s turn to scowl. He gritted his teeth and asked: “Did you two have breakfast together?”
Fu Moyang’s mood suddenly brightened: “We were together all last night when you sent the message.”
And since they had breakfast together, that basically meant they were living together.
Gu Fu’s face turned utterly sour. He didn’t know how many days he’d been in the ICU or what had happened around Chen Li in that time, but whatever it was, it was definitely a change he didn’t want to see.
It felt like something important was about to be taken away from him. This unease completely pushed away the vague fear he had of Fu Moyang, replacing it with extreme irritability.
Sensing the atmosphere turning strange again, Chen Li quickly closed the menu and said to the owner: “Two spring lattes, please.”
“Alright.” The owner, who had been dozing off, turned around to prepare the drinks.
There were no other customers in the cafe—very quiet and relaxed.
Chen Li couldn’t help but ask: “Aren’t you going to close and take a break?”
The owner replied: “Worried about the dirty things outside? Hmph! I’m an old man, they can come if they want.”
He was a man with a rather strange temper.
The owner added: “It’s just that no customers come anymore. Everyone’s scared. People like you two are really rare.”
After placing the lattes on the table, he went back to dozing off.
Chen Li stared at the latte in front of him, his mood visibly sinking. He felt once again the changes the Horror Game had brought to the real world—everyone was afraid of the supernatural. Even if you never encountered it, life was still changing.
Human resentment and hostility were growing year by year. Ghosts and monsters were only increasing, never decreasing. Soon, the whole world would become bleak and tense, with everyone looking over their shoulders.
Seeing his odd mood, the two who had been bickering at the table lost their energy and instead tried to cheer him up.
Fu Moyang was blunt: “Why did you call us here?”
Gu Fu showed no expression: “Just so you know, I only invited Lizi. You came along by chance.”
He naturally wouldn’t admit that he actually needed Fu Moyang’s help.
Turning to Chen Li, his expression softened: “Lizi, you’ve probably heard of the Supernatural Regulation Bureau, right?”
Chen Li nodded and widened his eyes: “Yeah. Are you part of it too?”
Gu Fu suppressed the corners of his mouth: “Yeah, I’m the leader.”
Chen Li was stunned into silence.
Gu Fu glanced at Fu Moyang: “The only way the government can access information about this game is through players. Almost all the top twenty players on the leaderboard have been recruited into the special unit—except one player. We’ve never been able to contact them.”
Then he suddenly raised his eyes to Fu Moyang and coldly twisted his mouth: “Number one ranked player, Fu Moyang, do you have anything to say?”
Chen Li was shocked. He never expected it to go this far.
Fu Moyang had just come out of the Forbidden Area yesterday, so naturally, no one had been able to find him.
If he got discovered now, it might even expose his identity as the Ghost King…
No, wait.
Who knows how much the authorities already knew?
In the last instance, several players had seen Fu Moyang suddenly appear as an NPC. Maybe his non-human identity had long since been leaked.
If he had known Gu Fu was in the special unit, he definitely wouldn’t have recklessly brought Fu Moyang here today.
It was all his fault.
Chen Li’s face paled slightly. Suddenly, his hand under the table was grabbed.
Fu Moyang: “What do you want with me?”
The sarcasm in his eyes made Gu Fu’s expression sour, as if his thoughts had been seen through.
He couldn’t deny it—after all, he was indeed tasked with finding Fu Moyang but had no choice but to meet through Chen Li, who was familiar with him.
Who knew this would just end up exposing him—and using Chen Li in the process.
He came without any doubt and naively thought he was just here to check on his safety.
With his body still not fully recovered and a sudden surge of guilt, Gu Fu’s face instantly turned even paler than Chen Li’s. He opened his mouth weakly but didn’t know how to explain himself.
Any explanation would just sound like sophistry.
In the heavy silence, Fu Moyang was the first to break the atmosphere: “Ask whatever you want to ask.”
Gu Fu dared not look at Chen Li’s disappointed expression. Taking a deep breath, he said: “How much do you know about the Horror Game? And how did you become an NPC in that game?”
Hearing the word “NPC” made Chen Li shiver slightly, just as he felt a gentle scratch on the palm of his hand.
Fu Moyang answered seriously: “I only know a little more than you do. As for the second question, I used a certain item.”
“How…?” Gu Fu hurried to speak but suddenly his eyes locked with the silvery-grey eyes in front of him.
His pupils dilated for a moment, and he muttered: “An item… right, it’s an item.”
His eyes cleared up again, no longer dwelling on the question. Instead, he asked: “Will you cooperate with our investigation and tell us what you know?”
His doubts about Fu Moyang’s identity slowly began to fade, as if some invisible hand was rewriting his awareness.
System 001, who had been watching quietly on the side, suddenly spoke up: [Host, you don’t have to worry about Father getting exposed. He has his own ways to fool everyone.]
Chen Li breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at Fu Moyang with a smile.
Fu Moyang returned his gaze with softened eyes.
Between them, there seemed to be a barrier no one could break through.
Gu Fu clenched his fists little by little.
System 001, floating nearby, suddenly felt a bit of sympathy for this big brother who was eating “dog food” alongside him.
Fu Moyang: “In the world, there was no concentrated resentment, so there were no ghosts or monsters. All supernatural things were just human imagination—until one day, a small mistake happened, and then the Horror Game appeared. It absorbed all the excess resentment in the world. Since resentment comes from complex human emotions, the game’s instances are all based on human society.”
“Including—but not limited to—horror stories, scary settings, and even extensions of real events.”
Chen Li’s eyes lit up: “So that thing you mentioned before, ‘□□ seeing ghosts,’ actually works?”1
“Mm, very clever.” Fu Moyang reached the key point. “What the authorities want most now is probably how to stop it.”
Hearing this, Gu Fu straightened up, pressing his lips tight and silent.
Fu Moyang wasn’t in a hurry. He stretched out his legs slightly, openly radiating an imposing aura—as if born to dominate negotiations.
Finally, Gu Fu couldn’t hold back: “Do you have a way?”
Fu Moyang: “Not exactly a method. You’re at least the second-ranked player, so you should know that everything the Horror Game creates—NPCs, instances—they all have a core.”
He deliberately emphasized the “second.”
Gu Fu’s face darkened: “I’ve heard a little about it.”
“So the Horror Game itself has a core,” Fu Moyang casually dropped a bombshell, “If you want to drive it off this world, you have to crack its core—like solving a game.”
Gu Fu frowned: “You make it sound easy. Where do you find its core? And what’s inside?”
Fu Moyang thought for a moment: “Probably all the fear it has collected so far.”
It would be a scene like hell itself.
Silence fell again in the cafe. Gu Fu clenched and unclenched his hands, his voice rough: “If we just leave it alone…”
“This world will become hell itself.”
After saying this, Fu Moyang pulled Chen Li up and said: “I’ll give you half a day to think it over.”
This time, Gu Fu could only watch helplessly as Chen Li was taken away, unable to say a word.
Chen Li didn’t understand the silent exchange between the two, so once he got into the car, he couldn’t help but ask: “What exactly was he supposed to be thinking about?”
Fu Moyang replied: “For an ordinary person, going into the core is basically risking your life. He could have chosen a safer route—for example, securing his position in the special unit and only stepping in when something spirals out of control. Even though lives might still be lost from time to time, at least there wouldn’t be a massive drop in population within the next couple of years.”
But after two years, who knows? The Horror Game grows stronger by absorbing fear.
Before Chen Li could get too anxious, Fu Moyang added: “But that’s for ordinary people. I’ll handle cracking the Horror Game, so you don’t need to worry.”
There was no way he’d tolerate ghosts everywhere eyeing his little lamb.
This was his sacrifice, his prey—meant to belong to him entirely.
As for why he deliberately told Gu Fu, of course, it was to watch his rival’s expression when forced to come to him for help.
What surprised him was how strongly the little lamb reacted. Chen Li almost immediately said: “I want to go too!”
Fu Moyang refused outright: “No, it’s too dangerous.”
Chen Li: “Oh.”
So obedient?
Fu Moyang glanced at him—and sure enough, he saw Chen Li’s back of the head puffing up in frustration.
Chen Li stared out the window: “Then I’ll go in with Gu Fu and the others.”
Fu Moyang’s eyes darkened: “How can you be sure he won’t back out and pretend today’s conversation never happened? Do you really know him that well?”
And that cafe today—that was a place Fu Moyang had never stepped into. It was part of Chen Li’s past.
“I…” Chen Li’s words trailed off as his eyes suddenly widened, staring at the swirling black mist outside the car window.
“Don’t worry. No one is paying attention here right now.”
In the cramped car space, a glowing ball was tossed out.
It silently drifted away from the scene, planning to wander around for a couple of hours before coming back.
In the slightly dizzying sway, Fu Moyang stared without blinking and said: “I want to invade your future—I want every memory you have from now on to include me.”
He was just that selfish and obsessive.
Overwhelmed, Chen Li choked back tears and reached out to wrap his arms around Fu Moyang’s neck: “Then don’t ever let me go.”
Never leave him behind.
The hard-won clarity shattered into chaos.
It wasn’t until much later that Chen Li finally heard a soft, low “Mm.”
Author’s note:
Someone has always been afraid that the little lamb would reject his possessiveness, but the little lamb was willing to offer himself up (?) from the start. His love is obsessive in its own way, too.
These two were made for each other.
- The original text: 陈栗双眼一亮:“所以你之前说的□□见鬼才真的有效。”, maybe some of you can guess it? ↩︎