DTTM 68

Chapter 68: You can only succeed, failure is not an option

Movements in the metaverse, unless as intense and damaging as those in GTC, generally didn’t significantly affect the real body. However, midway through our third round, I was forcibly ejected from the neuro-navigation pod due to neural overload.

With a “click,” the neural connection was severed. I laid inside the hatch, where various instrument data and optical paths flowed, covered in sweat as if I had just been caught in a downpour.

I tried to open the hatch, but found my fingers trembling so much I couldn’t even find a point of leverage. In those two seconds of hesitation, the hatch opened from the outside, and Zong Yanlei, silhouetted against the light, had already emerged from another machine.

“Why did you run away?” He leaned against the door, looking down at me with a languid and teasing tone.

Although my body hadn’t actually experienced anything, my nerves were so excited that they secreted some pleasurable chemicals, causing my flesh and blood to tremble. To make matters worse, a certain part of my body that shouldn’t be wet also seemed to be affected by these chemicals or something else, and began to become moist.

“I owe you one.” I awkwardly crossed my legs and used the edge of the pod to get up.

As soon as I stood up straight, Zong Yanlei leaned his upper body into the pod, grabbed my arm with one hand, and put his other arm around my waist, lifting me directly onto his shoulder.

I struggled a bit, and he immediately slapped my butt: “Behave yourself.”

I froze for a moment. Judging by his reaction, I knew he would never let me go, so I simply gave up struggling.

He carried me through the hallway and bedroom into his bathroom, then gently placed me on the marble sink. The bathtub was already filled with water at the perfect temperature. Like caring for a child who couldn’t bathe himself, he carefully unbuttoned my clothes, removed them, and then gently lifted me into the tub.

Then, he left the bathroom temporarily.

Last time I wasn’t fully conscious and didn’t realize it, but this time, being served by him while fully conscious, I suddenly felt a strange excitement from the role reversal.

This excitement released a weak electric current from the brain’s control areas, spreading along my blood vessels and sending a tingling sensation through my heart, liver, and spleen. My entire chest cavity felt as if it was filled with this current, so full that there was nowhere for it to go or where to release it.

I simply submerged myself underwater, held my breath, and tried to expel these useless physiological pulses.

My chest grew increasingly tight, and the longing for oxygen finally overcame those viscous emotions. I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling it beat faster, but the faint tremors were gone.

Suddenly, a pair of hands reached into the water and pulled me out from the bottom.

The moment I broke through the surface, my mouth and nose started working almost at the same time, and I began to breathe in greedily.

“What are you doing now?” Zong Yanlei frowned and used his fingertips to wipe the water off my face.

“Working out… cough cough… lung function.” I coughed twice.

He stared at me for a long time, then his gaze shifted downwards and lingered on my lips. As if he had thought of something, he chuckled softly, “So you know you have poor stamina?”

“How can it be that I have poor stamina?” I glanced at his waist and hips, leaned over the edge of the bathtub, closed my eyes, and said, “It’s clearly you… who’s unreasonable…”

After bathing me, Zong Yanlei wrapped me in a bathrobe and put me on the bed. Only then did he return to the bathroom to wash up himself.

I watched his back, which was mostly soaked with water, and my eyelids drooped little by little.

Whether it was this inescapable carnal desire or something else entirely, I couldn’t continue to indulge in it…

That night, the sun symbol on the ceiling haunted my dreams. I was awakened again and again, only to fall back into that golden nightmare.

When I woke up again, it was just getting light. I carefully removed Zong Yanlei’s arm from my waist, wiped my face, and left the Zong family early, returning to the team’s dormitory.

Although I left a note, Zong Yanlei still called to question me very quickly after waking up.

I told him that inviting me to stay long-term so soon after his divorce would look bad if word got out.

He scoffed after hearing this and said three words: “Tell the truth.”

“The final race is coming up soon,” I forced myself to speak. “In order to compete in the best condition, I’ve decided to abstain.”

Zong Yanlei was speechless for a moment before finally speaking again: “Does this mean we won’t meet anymore?”

I cleared my throat, suddenly empathizing with those ancient, infatuated rulers who, blinded by beauty, committed a series of absurd acts. Fortunately, it was just a phone call; if he had asked me that in person, I doubt I would have been able to stand my ground.

“Anyway, we can meet in the metaverse,” I coaxed him. “Just bear with it for half a month. After half a month… I’ll pay you back everything I owe you.”

“You said it yourself.” Zong Yanlei reluctantly agreed and said nothing more.

Before hanging up, I suddenly called him back and suggested that we could meet frequently in the virtual space of that old house during this period. To make things easier for both of us, I asked him if he could grant me long-term access.

However, his answer caught me off guard.

“I already did”

While I was still in a daze, he ended the call.

Although I was 80% certain that the sun symbol was the key, I needed to do a final confirmation to be absolutely certain. I arranged to meet Ye Shuer in the metaverse and asked him to develop a key detector specifically for the metaverse version.

“I’ll give it a try.”

He said “give it a try,” so there was a good chance it could be done. As expected, a few days later, he invited me to the metaverse again.

Inside the enormous mirrored church, in front of the towering gray statue, he handed me a gold serpentine bracelet.

“Take it in,” he said. “It can tell whether there’s a key or not with a single probe.”

I took the bracelet, and it instantly flicked its tongue and wrapped itself around my forearm like a real snake.

That evening, I sent a message to Zong Yanlei, asking him to meet me in that virtual space.

I entered the room half an hour early. The moment my foot touched the ground, I took out the golden snake bracelet from my system space. It seemed to awaken from hibernation, it raised its head, its forked tongue searching for signals in the air. Then it jumped from my palm and began to slither across the ground.

I followed it through the garden, the hall, and the corridor, finally arriving at Zong Yanlei’s bedroom. The golden snake circled a few times directly beneath the sun on the ceiling, then coiled up and remained motionless.

It really is right here…

I stared at the shining sun for a long time, then lowered my eyes, summoned the snake back, and locked it back into the space.

About ten minutes later, Zong Yanlei also came in.

“You’re here pretty early.” He leaned against the door frame, his gaze sweeping over the afterimages before settling on me.

Knowing he must have received some notification that I had entered his space, I didn’t mince words and said directly, “I’m very interested in Young Master’s ‘photo album’ and would like to take a look.” Seeing that he was still wearing a tie, I guessed, “Are you still at the company?”

“I just finished a meeting using the company’s neuro-navigation system. If I go home and then come back in, you’ll probably have to wait here for an extra hour. So, is this business or personal?”

“Actually, it’s like this…” I thought for a moment and started rambling, “These past few days, I’ve been training my endurance and feel like I’ve made some progress, so I suddenly wanted to test my results. How about I pay you back today?”

I walked over and took his hand. But he pulled me into his arms instead.

“We’re already in the metaverse. There are only two of us alive here, so why do we have to stay inside?” He looked down at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

That’s a good question.

I blinked. I had a bad premonition: “…You mean?”

He didn’t explain, and just pulled me towards to the garden.

That day, even though I was only making up for one missed session, it still took me a long time to recover in the neuro-navigation pod before I could walk.

The following day, I told Ye Shuer the results of the golden snake detection and asked him for the method of copying the key.

From the very beginning, we were not looking for the key to “take” it, but to “copy” it.

Taking away a big target would easily arouse suspicion and hinder subsequent actions. But “copying” was different; it could be done silently and without leaving a trace.

Ye Shuer pondered for a long time before speaking, “Ge, give me two weeks. I’ll figure out how to safely smuggle out the key data.”

“No.” I pressed him with a blank expression. “You only have one week. You can only succeed, failure is not an option.”

With the final race just around the corner, followed immediately by the 300th anniversary celebration, there was no time for him to take his time.

He paused, looked at my expression, seemed somewhat frightened, and swallowed dryly.

“Okay, just… just one week, I’ll definitely think of a way!”

In the week that followed, while waiting for news from Ye Shuer, Zong Yanlei and I actively prepared for the competition and did not enter that virtual space, which was like a “pool of wine and a forest of meat¹,” again.

During this period, a news story from Fantong made headlines and served as a ‘trigger’.

Royal police officers affiliated with Wuxi Kunpeng forcibly dispersed a protesting Penglai youth on the street. Their rough handling provoked strong resentment from a nearby Wo youth. The conflict escalated rapidly, ending with police officers using weapons to injure the Wo youth and arresting him.

This incident was like a spark thrown into a pile of dry tinder, triggering a series of violent chain reactions.

The protests in Fantong went from sporadic gatherings to daily outbreaks, with Penglai and Wo people taking to the streets almost every day. Slogans, sirens, and loudspeakers filled the air.

But that wasn’t not enough; these voices hadn’t reached elsewhere yet, and it was far from sufficient.

‎

‎

A week later, the final GTC tournament officially kicked off in Langfeng.

Langfeng was considered a major city in Penglai, but due to the martial law imposed by Wuxi Kunpeng, the city atmosphere was quite different. In fact, the finals were even rescheduled for the afternoon.

In past finals, to create a more exciting atmosphere, interactive elements were incorporated, such as an off-field “prop auction,” where the winner could choose which team to donate the prop to. Therefore, the advisors and coaches of the Sun God team unanimously agreed that this tradition would be retained this year.

No one expected that while the interactive segment did continue, it completely changed its nature. It no longer took place outside the racetrack, but instead appeared directly inside the high-speed racing cars via the spectator livestream.

From the moment they entered their pods, all the contestants were forced to become “streamers” in a certain sense.

The various key buffs and survival items on the track no longer spawned randomly, but were locked in a donation system. Only by making the audience happy and getting them to continuously invest money, and by the total donation exceeding a certain threshold, could the players be eligible to “purchase” those life-saving or offensive items.

GTC competitions had never had any taboos or bottom lines. As a result, this interactive segment had become extremely dangerous, even… disgusting.

1. The idiom “酒池肉林” (Jiǔ chí ròu lín) describes the extreme extravagance and debauchery of King Zhou. According to historical records and legends, he ordered a large pond to be dug and filled with wine. He had meat hung from the trees in the surrounding groves to create a “forest.” He would have naked men and women chase each other through this park, indulging in all-night drinking and feasting. ↩︎