C103 — Conditions

Blue…

With that thought, Mu Sichen woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw He Fei staring at him seriously.

Mu Sichen: “…”

He suddenly felt like his good mood had been dragged back to reality by that face.

He raised his hand and slapped He Fei’s face away, pushing him aside and saying with evident disdain, “Why are you so close?”

He Fei dodged Mu Sichen’s slap, rubbed his nose, and said, “A kind heart mistaken for ill intent. I heard you talking in your sleep and came over to check on you.”

“What did I say?” Mu Sichen looked at He Fei warily. “You didn’t hear anything you shouldn’t have, did you?”

He Fei curled his lip and replied, “What could you possibly say in your sleep? Just one sentence—‘Give me another little octopus!’ And then you were mumbling something about wanting a blue one.”

Mu Sichen: “…”

He probably wanted to say those things too badly in his dream, so they slipped out in real life.

Thinking of this, Mu Sichen couldn’t help but lift the coat draped over him and look at his shoulder.

On his shoulder was only a tiny tentacle, about the size of a pencil—much smaller than his previous sleeve tattoo.

With such a small tattoo, its power was also very weak. Forget turning into a little octopus—it couldn’t even transform into a single tentacle.

Mu Sichen sighed softly.

It wasn’t that he was especially attached to Qin Zu, but there were so many things he couldn’t say to anyone. If he did, he’d only end up hurting them. So the only one he could talk to was the little octopus.

And the little octopus would always respond—either staring at him with big round eyes or gently tapping his brow with a tentacle, answering with a simple phrase.

The little octopus had been Mu Sichen’s only outlet for his loneliness. As long as it was there, his heart wouldn’t feel so heavy.

After a few moments of melancholy, Mu Sichen pulled himself together and looked around, realizing he was still inside the bar.

All the customers of the bar had already been cleared out. Lin Wei wasn’t there—probably off handling follow-up matters.

He noticed the others sprawled out on the couches yawning, and sunlight streamed in through the windows, falling warmly on them. It was very comforting.

Mu Sichen glanced at his phone. It was already 10 a.m.

“Is there anything to eat? I’m starving,” He Fei said as he rummaged through the bar.

Though Lin Wei wasn’t present, Dan Qi was guarding the place. He took out buns, porridge, and other breakfast items from a thermal box and handed them to He Fei, saying, “Captain Lin said not to eat anything from the bar. I brought food for you all.”

“This is way better than the bar’s desserts. These buns smell amazing,” He Fei said, biting into a steaming soup dumpling.

The aroma quickly filled the bar. As everyone caught the scent, they began waking up and turning to look at He Fei.

Dan Qi laid the food out on a table that could seat seven or eight people and said, “Let’s eat breakfast first.”

Chi Lian got up and said, “I want to wash my face first… huh? Why are my clothes different?”

She glanced around and realized she was the only girl in the bar, and her face instantly flushed.

Dan Qi quickly explained, “Your clothes were soaked. If you didn’t change, you’d get sick. We had a female colleague help you into a fresh set. Don’t worry.”

Chi Lian muttered a shy “thanks” and hurried to the back to wash her face.

Speaking of the clothes, Dan Qi also looked at Mu Sichen and explained, “Your clothes were also changed by the team.”

Mu Sichen had already noticed the change and figured someone had helped him, so he didn’t mind.

What he cared more about was Chi Lian’s mental state. Seeing how relaxed she looked, he assumed that the issues related to Zhuo Huaichu’s corruption had been permanently expelled from her mind along with that seed.

She still remembered what happened before Yang Yunyun’s death, and she remembered that Yang Yunyun had been killed by the people of Origin Town.

But she wouldn’t remember that she herself had also drunk that cup of “Origin of All Things.”

 

She wouldn’t remember that she had helped Zhuo Huaichu sever cognition, nor would she remember that it was through her that Zhuo Huaichu was able to monitor the squad’s movements.

That was just fine. Mu Sichen smiled faintly.

Yang Yunyun’s death, in fact, had nothing to do with Chi Lian—she died from excessive depletion.

Her stomach and X organ became abnormally active under the influence of the seed, absorbing the vitality of other parts of her body, even continuing to function after the rest had died.

And she had actually died when Chi Lian had just entered the game. She should have been found dead fifteen days ago, but Zhuo Huaichu had noticed that Mu Sichen’s squad successfully left the game. Thinking it might be useful to keep Yang Yunyun as a chess piece, he found a way to preserve some of the vitality in her body.

As for the method of preserving that vitality—it was likely by absorbing it from others and from fresh food.

So, starting fifteen days ago, Yang Yunyun’s desire for men became increasingly frequent. Sometimes she would be with more than three in a single night.

Those men who had se-x with her—even though the contamination on them would gradually purify—would still suffer from lasting fatigue. With one to two years of rest and abstinence, they could slowly recover, but if they pushed themselves too hard during that period and continued to rely on medication, they’d likely lose all ability in that regard within two or three years.

Mu Sichen thought for a moment and then sent Lin Wei a long message detailing the situation.

He advised Lin Wei to find someone to pose as a doctor and warn those men. Even if their private lives were messy, they were still victims in this matter and deserved to be informed.

But if they chose not to change their lifestyle even after the doctor’s warning, then Mu Sichen could no longer help them.

Yang Yunyun sustained the vitality of her body this way—until Chi Lian asked her to take care of her. At that point, she temporarily cut off contact with other men, and her body could no longer maintain its vitality, so she had to lower the air conditioning continuously just to preserve herself.

Of course, even if she had continued interacting with men—dead was still dead. This kind of lifestyle wouldn’t last long anyway. Her body would have decayed eventually.

As for the apology Yang Yunyun gave Chi Lian before her death, it likely referred to two things:

First, that she had sent the game link to Chi Lian, dragging her into the game.

And second…

Mu Sichen suspected it had something to do with Yang Yunyun’s ability to leave the game world.

Based on currently known information, Zhuo Huaichu, the bartender, and Yang Yunyun were all players.

Zhuo Huaichu initially had the support of the system—just like Mu Sichen now—and could freely travel between the game world and the real world. The bartender was likely his teammate, and the two moved back and forth together.

After Zhuo Huaichu became a hidden star and was abandoned by the system, he could no longer return. At that time, the bartender was either still in the real world or still had the ability to return to it.

 

Later, before being abandoned by the system, the bartender likely discovered something special about the bar and chose to stay there. Through the bar’s mysterious powers, he kept in contact with Zhuo Huaichu. Over time, he was unknowingly corrupted by Zhuo Huaichu, who had already become a god-level monster, and became a Follower of Origin.

The bartender was responsible for helping Zhuo Huaichu spread the contamination in the real world—so Yang Yunyun and Chi Lian were only contaminated afterward.

Yang Yunyun’s seed sprouted first, pulling her into the game world. Because of the contamination on her, the system placed her in Origin Town. But at that point, she definitely had no way of returning to the real world.

She might have only been able to return to the real world by using Chi Lian as the entry point into the game—except by then, she was already dead.

While eating breakfast, Mu Sichen figured out the full cause and effect of the situation.

He opened the game app, intending to message the system to confirm his suspicions, but unexpectedly, the customer service was still offline.

It seemed the disappearance of the system had nothing to do with Zhuo Huaichu; it was simply that the internal space of this Beyond Bar had some issues.

Upon realizing this, Mu Sichen felt much more at ease.

If Zhuo Huaichu really had the power to suppress the system, that would have put tremendous pressure on him. Once they reached Origin Town, he probably wouldn’t be able to defeat Zhuo Huaichu.

After breakfast, Mu Sichen filled a cup with water from the bar and walked outside holding it.

“What are you doing with that…” Dan Qi asked, looking at the cup of water nervously.

After the strange night they’d just had, even the usually expressionless Dan Qi had become much more emotionally expressive.

“Just running a little experiment,” Mu Sichen said.

He took the water outside and dipped his finger into the cup—there was no sensation of power flowing into him.

It seemed that once the water left the bar, it lost its effect.

Mu Sichen tested this several more times with the cup and discovered that the power could only be activated within a five-meter radius centered on the bar counter. Beyond that range, even within the bar, the power couldn’t be used.

Even water from the restroom—also inside the bar but far from the counter—was just regular water, completely ineffective.

Mu Sichen then asked Dan Qi to get some water directly from a faucet, and again found that any water outside the five-meter radius behaved normally.

No wonder the system had said the power leaking into the real world had minimal impact. If it weren’t for this power being manipulated by the butterfly and Zhuo Huaichu, a five-meter radius zone on its own couldn’t possibly pose any serious threat.

Even if there were any effect, as long as someone moved away from that area, the natural forces of the world would slowly purify them.

After coming to this conclusion, Mu Sichen breathed a sigh of relief and passed the findings to Lin Wei, asking him to find a way to seal off the bar.

Additionally, people who had close relationships with the staff or bartender and spent a lot of time in the bar should be marked with self-monitoring stickers in case they carried difficult-to-purge contamination.

With Lin Wei’s help, these tasks were handled easily.

All Mu Sichen had to do was provide the theory—execution was left to Lin Wei.

Sitting down, he took a sip of sweet cola and suddenly thought of the little octopus that liked to blow bubbles.

Mu Sichen couldn’t help but pat his shoulder, wondering how the little tentacle had ended up there

If it had still been on his hand, he could have put his hand under the faucet and teased the water tentacle a bit.

It probably wouldn’t have hurt much to be bitten by the water tentacle—no wonder the little octopus had voluntarily let him bite it this time.

Thinking of this, Mu Sichen sighed a bit in regret. Why hadn’t he taken the chance to bite it yesterday?

Yesterday, he had been so exhausted he almost felt like never waking up again. But after encountering the little tentacle and then dreaming of Qin Zu that night—getting many of his questions answered—he woke up that morning feeling like a fully charged phone, ready to go for a long time.

Lin Wei had kept them inside the bar without letting them leave, just in case something else happened—he wanted to keep a few capable people stationed there.

Now that Mu Sichen had confirmed the pollution source wouldn’t spread outside the bar, Lin Wei felt reassured enough to arrange for their rest at a hotel.

Everyone had woken up with sore backs and aching bodies from sleeping on the sofa, so the news of a proper rest made them very happy.

It was now already the fourth day—only three days remained before their next journey to Dream Butterfly Town.

Right now, they were all thoroughly exhausted. If they didn’t get proper rest in the remaining three days, their next trip to Dream Butterfly Town would likely be deadly.

Chi Lian had already taken annual leave and was free the whole week. Cheng Xubo had just completed a project, so work was relatively relaxed. He had applied for three days off before coming to visit Chi Lian—neither of them had work to worry about.

Mu Sichen and He Fei were students with over a month of vacation left. As long as someone handled their food and lodging, they could go anywhere without issue.

Only one person, in the car heading to the hotel, seemed out of place—completely different from the others.

He Fei looked at the bar’s server and frowned. “How did you sneak in here?”

The server’s name was Jin Xile. He had a plain but likable face and carried the kind of natural friendliness that comes from long years in the service industry. Standing close to Mu Sichen, he gave He Fei a polite smile.

 

“What the hell are you smiling at?” He Fei snapped. “Sichen, isn’t he a butterfly’s dependent? Why’s he clinging to you like that?”

Mu Sichen recalled the events from the night before and said, “He’s probably now Hope Dependent 004.”

The self-totem Mu Sichen had used on Jin Xile last night was quite powerful—completely different from the ones he had put on others.

After receiving the self-totem, Jin Xile developed an inexplicable sense of attachment to Mu Sichen. He had to stay close to him, or he’d feel unsafe.

“Well, I’m not recognizing this guy as Number Three!” He Fei said. “Only people who’ve entered the game can count as your devotees. Even if he has the totem, he’s just a regular person who can’t enter the game.”

“Um…” Jin Xile raised his hand. “I don’t really understand any of this, but if you’re talking about a game, I actually just got a beta invite for something called My Ideal Town.”

Everyone’s attention turned to Jin Xile—especially Dan Qi, who was driving.

Dan Qi and Lin Wei had been focused on figuring out how to enter Mu Sichen’s world, so anything related to the game immediately caught their attention.

Mu Sichen, however, remained calm and said, “Don’t worry. If I’m not mistaken, you, Captain Lin, the people in the bar yesterday, and all the men Yang Yunyun had contact with, won’t be able to enter the game. Just keep driving—I’ll explain everything once we get to the hotel.”

Dan Qi finally turned back to the road and concentrated on driving.

Lin Wei was already waiting at the hotel. Dan Qi brought Mu Sichen and the others into a small conference room, intending to do a debrief of the incident.

“I’ve had someone seal off the Beyond Bar. Should we cut off the water supply there as well?” Lin Wei asked.

Mu Sichen shook his head. “No need. The water’s just a medium, not the source of the contamination. That space is inherently polluted. If we cut off the water, the contamination might shift to other objects. Right now, at least we know where it is, and water is relatively controllable.”

Lin Wei jotted that down and asked, “Are there other contamination zones like this? How many? Are they all water-based?”

Mu Sichen shook his head again. “I don’t know how many there are or if they’re all related to water. But I do know that this isn’t the only one.”

There had definitely been more than one black dot when he saw them in the sea of consciousness.

Lin Wei furrowed his brow and said to Mu Sichen, “Once you’ve rested enough, I’ll send you all the files on collective incident cases. Hopefully, we can pinpoint the next location and seal off the contamination zone before it leaks. Would you be willing to work with us?”

Mu Sichen was just about to nod when Lin Wei added,

“There’s a salary. Full social benefits. One-year probation period, then you can go full-time. After you graduate from college, if you like the job, we’ll offer you a permanent position.”

“I’d do it even without the money,” Mu Sichen said modestly, nodding with restraint—though inside, he was overjoyed and discreetly clenched his fist in triumph.

Lin Wei, pleased with having successfully recruited Mu Sichen, then raised a crucial question: “Why is it that Dan Qi and I can’t enter the game, but Jin Xile can?”

Mu Sichen squeezed his phone slightly. Just moments ago, after leaving the bar, a flood of messages from the game’s customer service had come through. The signal was finally back, and all of Mu Sichen’s speculations had been confirmed. Now, he could confidently explain everything to the group.

Mu Sichen said, “The game is just a facade. There’s only one real reason someone enters the alternate world—it’s when the pollution on their body reaches the threshold that the world can tolerate. The totems I used on you aren’t pollution. On the contrary, they’re a form of purification. Jin Xile was chosen by the game not because of me, but because he had once been contaminated by the butterfly.”

Everyone was stunned.

Cheng Xubo asked, “So you’re saying I entered the game because I was unknowingly contaminated by something? And you too?”

Mu Sichen nodded with a serious expression. “Yes, me too.”

When the customer service confirmed this, even Mu Sichen was slightly shocked. He couldn’t recall when, where, or how he had been exposed to any kind of pollution. Nor did he know whether there was still residual contamination on him that might continue to draw him into the game world.

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