dhibooks Chapter 765 - 675: Recruitment Service
Chapter 765 - 675: Recruitment Service
"This is our first meeting, and it certainly won’t be the last."
"I believe we’ll continue to deal with each other in the future, Miss Dark Gold Rose."
"I hope that next time, I can receive your invitation before I come to the appointment."
Deep White Midnight waved a hand, his figure growing farther away as it flickered between illusion and reality, his last words lingering over the room for a long time.
Long after Deep White Midnight left, the surroundings returned to normal. The furniture that had been "bought in terms of value" gradually regained color. The soft light illuminated the outline of Xu Xiaoyou in her corner.
Xu Xiaoyou mulled over the man’s earlier words, sinking into thought.
He said he would kill "Gloomy Blue Tide"?
A battle between Light Prism Tier beings—she didn’t believe something like that could be settled by Deep White Midnight’s one-sided declaration alone.
As for touching rules beyond the boundary...
Xu Xiaoyou faintly sensed that this "rule" had something to do with the "surprise" Gloomy Blue Tide mentioned to her the last time they met.
The White Night Family, head of the five families of the Cosmos; the most Mysterious and ancient clan hidden in the world, its roots intricately entangled with the major houses. She had heard rumors about the Arbitrators: once anyone tried to cross that invisible boundary, an Arbitrator would come knocking to carry out a purge.
Elias Baiye, Deep White Midnight, the only member of the White Night Family to have appeared in public, regarded as the family’s spokesperson to the outside world—his words to some extent represented the White Night Family’s stance.
Xu Xiaoyou watched the chip in her hand gradually turn into pale powder, thoughts flickering in her eyes.
She had fought Gloomy Blue Tide before; even though it had only been a brief clash in Oasis, she could feel the chasm-like gap between their physical bodies, a difference that utterly surpassed any Cleaner she had ever seen.
As for Deep White Midnight, Xu Xiaoyou could clearly tell that his physical skills were on par with her own, consistent with the rumors that he wasn’t good at frontal combat.
The ability to measure the value of all things in the world—is that what he relies on to hunt someone at the same Light Prism Tier?
Or was he still holding back something in front of her?
Beware the Dawn Society, Chichu Chun...
The last scene of the five people in the hall standing guard before the throne flashed by before Xu Xiaoyou’s eyes, and the red-haired twin-tailed girl flickered past her vision.
...
The next afternoon.
Rain City, the port of the world, where people live in stacked elevator-towers, with the surging ocean below. Whenever the harbor horns blared, ships from all over the world would pass through, then be sent to their destinations by the hyper-transmission protocol’s jump devices.
Drizzle fell in a steady patter, a layer of mist hanging over the sea. Drones weaved in orderly fashion between elevator-towers, delivering daily supplies for this Nest City of forty-five million permanent residents; the traffic lanes, open to hover traffic, were like smooth mirrors in the rainy haze, reflecting the billboards’ images.
Inside one such elevator-tower, a NEET girl lying on a floating bed picked her nose.
Her name was Frey. "NEET girl" was an online label, specially used to describe girls like her who stayed home all day, didn’t wash their faces or brush their teeth, let their hair go wild and unkempt, and had no job.
Those people would never get it. Ever since she quit her previous job as a network security engineer and discovered that she got more in unemployment benefits each month by not working than she did when she was employed, she realized just how absurd this world was.
It felt amazing. Just thinking that in the future she’d never have to work again, only needed to hole up in a capsule pod playing games, watching anime, and binging short videos every day, Frey’s grin was almost splitting her face.
What could she do, she had grown up in Rain City. The government here raked in enough in transit taxes every year to feed the entire city. Medical care and education were all free, and the social welfare was insanely good. Just looking through a screen, she almost felt pity for those people who had to live under toxic fumes all day long.
But well, pity was pity; she didn’t actually have that kind of overflowing compassion.
Like those guys from the Life Daylight Umbrella Association, always thinking about sheltering refugees and pleading for death-row convicts—then they stirred up that whole "Umbrella Island" incident. If that’s not asking for trouble for no reason, what is? It’d be best if the new immigration policy never got dragged to the front stage in this lifetime. Let those bigwigs in the Morning Glory Holy Hall and the Umbrella Association argue it out themselves.
Frey wiggled her body, crawled off the bed, hooked her toes over the bedframe, and stretched hard to open the fridge, trying to reach the Su Leshuang on the shelf.
"Life is so good, hehehehehe."
Just then, the curtain on her ear fell to the floor, and an advertisement popped up in front of her.
"Want to experience a completely real second life?"
"Huh?" Frey froze, her whole face making intimate contact with the floor as she planted herself with a full-on face-first fall.
"Are you bored with the step-by-step routine of reality? Do you feel shackled by the chains of rules? Are you troubled by emotions with nowhere to vent?"
Frey sat on the floor, staring at the curtain’s display, cracked open the Su Leshuang, and took a big gulp.
"Join the Simulation Warzone! Here you’ll get a 100% realistic battlefield experience—guns, blades, close-quarters carnage! The widest variety of firearms, the full line of Logic Studio combat suits, all redeemable with points!"
"Become a Warrior in the Simulation Warzone and, together with your inseparable comrades, resist the Insect Race’s Invasion. What are you waiting for? Don’t just be moved—take action!"
"Sign up now to receive a Wanderer head-mounted device for free. A medical team will make house calls to provide one-on-one full-process guidance, and you’ll also get a full-year Life Daylight lapis membership as a bonus!"
Frey’s jaw dropped.
Honestly, life like this was a bit boring. And this ad looked pretty fresh. Simulation Warzone? This was the first she’d heard of it. A completely real second life—it sounded kind of interesting...
As a NEET girl steeped in otaku culture, she naturally had a strong interest in guns, combat suits, and that whole aesthetic.
A free Wanderer helmet, and she’d just been thinking about buying the latest model.
Curiosity drove this poor girl to tap open the Simulation Warzone’s official website.
The big sign-up button was bright and eye-catching in the center, stabbing straight into her pupils.
A sign-up that included a lapis membership? For real? That was a lapis-tier membership—if she was ever in mortal danger, a Life Daylight hovercar would rush to rescue her at all costs.
What if she drank too much Su Leshuang one day and something happened? What if she suddenly got dragged into some underworld Vortex and people started chasing her down?
No matter how she thought about it, there was no room to say no!
Frey’s eyes spun with two little Vortex swirls as, moved by some inexplicable impulse, she clicked the sign-up.
As for the contract—normal people don’t read that stuff. Frey of course didn’t either.
A few minutes later, Frey was lying on the bed, casually tossing the used tissues aside.
Tsk, figures it was a scam.
And she believed some random ad from who-knows-where. What would she do if someone came to her door selling health supplements next time?
With dark circles under her eyes, listening to the rain tapping on the window, the drowsy Frey yawned as her consciousness grew heavier bit by bit.
In a daze, she heard a hovercar horn outside the building.
What the hell, someone must have gone too hard and caused trouble, huh?
Thinking that, Frey scratched her butt, rolled over, and soft snores hovered at the tip of her nose.
Bang!
Her door was kicked open, and a harsh white light shone on her face.
Shitshitshit!
Frey hurriedly yanked the blanket over her bare legs. Facing a group of burly men in white coats, she sat up, her gaze vacant.
"Frey Aurelia?"
The lead man in white nodded.
"It’s her, all right. Take her."