Infinite: Dawn Game

Outside the door, Yang Hua stood on the steps, holding a paper bag in his hand.

She looked much better than yesterday, but her eyes were still slightly red.

"Can...can I come in?"

Yang Hua looked at Chen Yi by the door and asked in a low voice.

Chen Yi looked at her for a few seconds, then stepped aside and said gently:

"come in."

Yang Hua then entered the lounge, his movements appearing somewhat restrained.

"Want something to drink?"

Anjie sat at the table peeling an orange, then turned to look at her and asked.

"They have a pretty good selection here; you can find whatever you want to drink."

"No, no need." Yang Hua was a little embarrassed by the question. She lowered her head and placed a paper bag on the table full of various notebooks and papers, and took out several exquisitely packaged small boxes from it.

"This is what Sister Fang told me before."

Yang Hua said, "If she... if she doesn't have much energy after she gets out, then let me hand these over to you."

All five people, including He Lingling who was slumped on the sofa with her eyes closed and resting listlessly, opened their eyes and looked over.

The box contained several props.

A small earplug that can temporarily enhance hearing, a bottle of fluorescent powder that glows in the dark, a few pebbles that can set a simple alarm, and a worn-out notebook.

“These are all things that Sister Fang collects,” Yang Hua said in a low voice. “She said you might find them useful.”

Anjie wiped her hands, which were covered in juice, got up, walked to the table, picked up the notebook, and opened it.

Inside were Fang Youhua's handwritten notes, recording key information and coping strategies for various dungeons she had participated in. Her handwriting was neat and elegant, but occasionally there were some trembling strokes, as if she was trying her best to suppress something.

"she……"

He Lingling, slumped on the sofa, looked at the notes and suddenly didn't know what to say.

Yang Hua, sitting at the table, sniffed and whispered:

"Sister Fang said she was actually very happy to be able to do this dungeon with you, even though... even though we're rivals..."

He Lingling's complexion was not very good. Her eyelids were drooping, and the dark circles under her eyes were unusually clear under the light.

Yang Hua paused, his voice lower: "Actually, Sister Fang has been in a lot of pain. She was pulled into the Dawn Game because she couldn't survive in reality... The 'Thumbelina' instance... reminded her of many bad things. She told me that it would be good to take this opportunity to completely destroy those memories."

The rest area was completely silent.

After a long silence, He Lingling finally spoke: "Is she alright now?"

The price of death in guild battles is that the player's mental state will fall into a prolonged state of collapse and madness.

Yang Hua nodded: "It's alright, but the mental damage is too severe. The guild said it will take at least half a month of treatment. Once Sister Fang is better... I will tell her that you have received these things."

"Thank you," He Lingling said.

Yang Hua shook her head and said no, then turned to leave. But as she reached the door, she suddenly turned back and looked at Yu Shijiu, who was scratching an orange peel with her paws at the dining table.

"Um... how's your hand?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Shijiu raised his left arm and shook it.

"That's great, having a claw hand is pretty cool."

Yang Hua was amused by him, although the smile on her face only lasted a short time.

"That's good." Yang Hua politely said goodbye to the five people in the room. "Goodbye."

She gently closed the door as she turned around.

The five people stared at the props and notes on the table, and no one spoke for a long time.

Finally, Xu Han coughed several times, breaking the silence.

"Fang Youhua...she's actually a good person, isn't she?"

As Xu Han spoke, he secretly glanced at He Lingling, who was sitting on the sofa with a cold face and no words.

...Why did he feel that He Lingling wasn't telling them the truth? Did He Lingling and Fang Youhua really not have much of a relationship? It seemed like Fang Youhua cared about her quite a bit...

Despite thinking about it, Xu Han still didn't dare to say it out loud.

"In Dawn Game, the line between good and bad is very blurred."

He Lingling lowered her eyelids and said softly, "...But at least, Fang Youhua did do the right thing in the end."

Anjie put away the props and handed the notebook to He Lingling.

"Here you go, keep it, you might need it later."

"Ah."

He Lingling did not refuse.

After finishing his orange at the dinner table, Yu Shijiu slowly wiped his hands, and immediately raised his hand after finishing.

"Brother Chen."

Yu Shijiu patted Feifei's belly and said sincerely, "Feifei is hungry."

The chubby creature whose belly was touched: "? Meow?"

Hungry? Hungry, meow? This cat isn't hungry—

The meowing in Fatty's throat suddenly stopped.

It raised its head and glanced at Yu Shijiu, its pupils contracting and then dilating. Finally, it helplessly changed its position and lay down, meowing softly.

Yes, yes, yes, meow... It's because this cat is hungry, meow!

Chen Yi chuckled: "Okay, okay, I'll go cook, I'll go cook..."

Xu Han, standing nearby, immediately gave Fei Fei and Yu Shijiu a thumbs up, winked, and whispered, "Awesome!"

Feifei noticed his gesture, licked its paws disdainfully, and turned to burrow into Yu Shijiu's arms... Although, in Xu Han's eyes, Feifei seemed to be a whole size bigger than Yu Shijiu...

After the group finished dinner, the night had completely fallen.

Xu Han muttered as she carried a pile of dishes to wash them, while He Lingling went back to her bedroom to rest. Only Yu Shijiu, An Jie, and Chen Yi remained in the living room.

Anjie pressed her temples, looking at the piles of documents in her hands, feeling a dizzy and uncomfortable feeling in her head.

"Chen Yi".

Ange suddenly shouted.

Chen Yi put down his book, looked up blankly, and asked, "Sister An?"

Anjie: "You organize these documents, I need to rest for a while."

Chen Yi: "..."

He glanced at the thick stack of documents on the table and instantly got goosebumps all over his body.

"Sister An, I actually haven't received much formal education..."

“I only finished third grade,” Ange interrupted him, her eyes narrowing beneath her blue hair. “I remember you said you went to high school.”

Chen Yi: "..."

Chen Yi smiled somewhat awkwardly, then nodded with a gentle expression.

"Well... actually, what I wanted to say was that I haven't organized any data in many years, so it's good for me to organize it now and take a look at it more often."

Anjie nodded in satisfaction: "You're right, it looks great, doesn't it? From now on, I'll leave this matter to you."

Chen Yi's gentle smile froze, and he paused before saying, "Leave it all to me?"

Anjie: "Is there a problem?"

Chen Yi paused, and a thick layer of cold sweat slowly appeared on his chubby face.

"Actually, I'm not very bright, Sister An, you know. I'm just a chef who cooks... If I were really smart, I wouldn't have had to learn to cook..."

Chen Yi wasn't just saying that for his own comfort... He was quite self-aware of his abilities, and if asked to act as a "wall" to protect his teammates, he would definitely not refuse... But this kind of task requires extremely high mental effort...

Chen Yi felt like he was suffocating just thinking about it.

He's really not cut out for this...

Anjie also remained strangely silent for several seconds, her eyes unconsciously glancing at the tightly closed bedroom door.

“…” Anjie was silent for a few seconds before sighing, “Lingling is smart, but she needs to rest now…”

Chen Yi sighed upon hearing this, "The side effects of 'Ghost Eye' are too great. This time, it's only thanks to Thumbelina's generosity that the props were just right for each of us, otherwise Lingling..."

Chen Yi didn't elaborate on what followed.

Anjie pursed her lips and didn't say anything more.

Chen Yi's mood also became much heavier. He reached out and grabbed a pile of documents, forcing himself to read them carefully.

When Chen Yi first saw the dense black characters on the paper, he felt a little nauseous—he had always hated studying when he was a student… otherwise he wouldn’t have dropped out of school so early.

Anjie seemed not to see Chen Yi's chubby face scrunched up in a frown, and glanced back at Yu Shijiu sitting on the windowsill.

After having breakfast, Yu Shijiu sat by the window with Feifei.

He was holding a small knife in his right hand, whittling a piece of dead wood he had brought out from a Thumbelina game instance.

He was very focused on carving, wood chips falling with his movements, his mutated left hand holding the block of wood firmly, his claws carefully avoiding the blades that occasionally slashed at him.

"What are you doing?"

Anjie got up and walked to his side, asking in a low voice.

"Make something small."

Yu Shijiu continued his entertainment without even looking up.

A few minutes later, a rough but discernible small wooden carving was completed—it was a dandelion.

Although it looks a bit strange and ugly.

Anjie looked at the ugly "wooden dandelion" for a while, considered her words carefully, and whispered:

"This is... a dandelion?"

Yu Shijiu picked up the wooden carving he had painstakingly carved over a long period of time, looked at the starlight outside the window, and then placed it on the windowsill.

“Yes.” Yu Shijiu nodded. “In memory of those Thumbelinas who couldn’t fly away, and those Thumbelinas who finally flew away.”

Fatty, perched on the windowsill, curiously stretched out its paw and gently touched the dandelion wood carving, letting out a soft "meow".

Outside the window, the black starry sky simulated by the Dawn game shines as brightly as ever.

Anjie stared at the wooden dandelion on the windowsill, speechless for a moment.

Her gaze lingered on the wooden dandelion for a long, long time before finally landing on Yu Shijiu, who was holding Feifei and watching the night view.

The streetlights outside the window reflected off the boy's profile, and in the flickering light, Anjie suddenly realized something very important.

That's Yu Shijiu... Actually, he's changed a lot.

From the initial recklessness and disregard for consequences, to the current relaxed and natural state—

"Sister An?"

Yu Shijiu suddenly turned around and looked at An Jie with a puzzled expression, "Why have you been staring at me?"

Anjie: "..."

Her hand, hanging by her side, trembled unconsciously, but she only smiled and said, "I was just spacing out."

"Oh."

Yu Shijiu had no doubts, obediently nodded, and was about to speak—

The second round of the guild competition will begin in three days.

The game system notification sound suddenly rang in everyone's ears, calm and cold.

Xu Han in the kitchen and Chen Yi on the sofa stopped what they were doing at the same time.

Anjie's eyelids twitched, and a sharp light flashed in her eyes.

"Break time is almost over."

she says.

Yu Shijiu swallowed the words he was about to say, clenched the mutated beast claw on his left hand, and a smile of excitement appeared on his lips.

"Just right."

he said softly.

"I'm also a bit...bored."

As soon as Yu Shijiu finished speaking, the relaxed atmosphere in the rest area suddenly became tense.

Anjie turned away from the window almost immediately, walked quickly to the pile of documents that Chen Yi had rummaged through and made somewhat messy, and said in a deep voice:

"We only have three days left, Chen Yi. The key to data screening is to find information on the opponents we might face in the next round, as well as feasible solutions for stabilizing Shi Jiu's arm."

A rare solemn expression appeared on Chen Yi's chubby face.

He nodded, pushed aside the papers analyzing the dungeon mechanics that He Lingling had specially selected, and began to focus on searching for information related to "guild tournament opponents" and "player body mutation control".

Xu Han was frantically rinsing the foam off the dishes in the kitchen, peeking out with her wet head.

"My goodness, how could it be so fast? I haven't had enough rest yet!"

"Games don't give you much time to breathe."

He Lingling's voice came from the bedroom door.

She leaned against the door frame, her face still pale, but her pupils had returned to their usual size, no longer almost filling her eyes as they had a few days ago.

“Especially after Fang Youhua won a game in that ‘self-destructive’ way, the game system may think that we need some ‘more challenging’ opponents to ‘balance’ the game.”

Yu Shijiu pushed the wooden dandelion on the windowsill toward Feifei, letting the big orange cat curiously paw at it.

He then jumped off the windowsill, his mutated left arm drawing an arc with afterimages under the light.

Does it matter who the opponent is?

Yu Shijiu tilted her head, her right eye clear, while the yellow vertical pupil of her left eye contracted slightly with excitement. "Even if I'm matched with the 'Black Robe Church' or the 'Inspection Team,' it won't make a difference, right? I'll have to fight anyway."

"Very important."

Anjie didn't even look up, her fingers quickly swiping across the information stream on the virtual screen. "Especially your current state, Shi Jiu, if your mutated arm is used in a targeted manner by your opponent, it could become their breakthrough point."

“And then there’s Shi Jiu,” Ange paused, then added tactfully, “with our current ranking in town, it’s impossible for us to be a match for the ‘Black Robe Church’ and the ‘Inspection Team’.”

Yu Shijiu: "..."

He pursed his lips, looking somewhat displeased, but didn't say anything in rebuttal.

Hmm... because Ange is right.

As they were talking, Anjie pulled up a document and projected it onto the center of the living room.

"Based on the existing ranking and matching algorithm within the town, and our performance in the first round, our most likely opponents in the next round are these guilds—"

The screen quickly displayed the names of three guilds and brief guild information.

"Echo" - The captain/guild leader's talent is suspected to be related to mental pollution and hallucination creation. The team composition is unknown. The win rate is moderate, but the methods are ruthless and disturbing.

"Iron Fortress"—just like its guild name, it is known for its extremely strong defense and positional warfare, excels in attrition warfare, and has a very strong ability to launch frontal assaults.

"Shadow Stalker" - All members are highly mobile and excel at ambushes, intelligence gathering, and rapid infiltration. Overall, they are rated as assassins.

"..."