Pei Ye's forehead throbbed with pain. Her eyes felt as though they were glued shut by something heavy, refusing to open no matter how hard she tried.
That "something" was probably eye crust.
"The patient is awake—"
Struggling to open her eyes, she was greeted by a snow-white ceiling. The strong, pungent scent of disinfectant filled her nose.
As she twitched slightly, the muscles in her limbs groaned like a rusty, obsolete machine on the verge of scrapping, emitting a teeth-aching creak. It had been years since she last felt this drained of energy. Pei Ye's immediate reaction was that her physical condition had deteriorated again. However, she quickly realized that this was not the Federation Hospital. In fact, it was a place she didn't recognize at all.
She looked around. There was a bed on either side of her, but she was the only one in the room.
She was a retired Legion Commander of the Federation. Even if she was living incognito on an Edge Planet, her residence was a high-end apartment with top-tier security. If she had suffered a relapse and been sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, the conditions couldn't possibly be... this shabby, could they? Even a rural clinic on a remote planet would be equipped with one or two secondhand medical machines. Yet, this place had absolutely nothing.
Pei Ye then recalled the female voice she had heard upon waking, and her brows furrowed deeper. It was a language she had never heard or learned before, yet she could somehow understand it perfectly?
Unfamiliar footsteps approached from outside the door.
"Patient in bed twenty-three, what's your name?"
"Where is this?"
They spoke at the exact same time.
"My name is Pei Ye."
"This is a hospital."
Pei Ye appeared calm on the surface, but a stormy sea of shock churned in her heart. The words she had just blurted out were not in the Federation's universal language! An entirely foreign language—not only could she understand it, but she could also speak it and even converse fluently?
Pei Ye worked hard to suppress her emotions, asking the nurse with feigned calmness. "This is a hospital? Why am I here?"
Out of the corner of her eye, the nurse glanced at the massive, colorful full-sleeve tattoo on Pei Ye's right arm. The bizarre patterns stretched from her shoulder all the way to the back of her hand, instantly marking her as a delinquent girl running with the wrong crowd. Still, she was a professional nurse. Even with her private suspicions, she couldn't show any outward judgment.
"You were found sleeping on the side of the street in the early hours of the morning and brought here," she answered casually.
What decent girl would sleep on the side of the road in the middle of the night? She had probably gotten blackout drunk at a club and been picked up by some creep. Young girls these days had no self-respect and didn't know how to protect themselves. Sigh.
The nurse thought she had hidden her judgment well, but how could Pei Ye fail to notice?
The nurse reminded Pei Ye to go pay her medical bills later.
"Pay?" Pei Ye asked.
"The person who brought you in only paid a deposit of one hundred. It's not enough to cover the IV drip and hospitalization fees. You need to make up the difference."
"I'll go pay it in a bit. Thank you," Pei Ye brushed her off.
The nurse checked her temperature and pulse, instructed her on some basic precautions, and finally left. Only after the nurse walked away in her perforated slippers did Pei Ye throw off the blanket and get out of bed.
When the soles of her feet touched the freezing tiles, an icy chill shot straight to her head. The one hundred percent authentic tactile and visual sensations made her frown deeply. Federation holographic games had a maximum simulation rate of eighty percent, and the Heavenly Brain network peaked at ninety-five percent. These were safety measures designed to ensure people could distinguish reality from illusion. Yet, Pei Ye found that her current surroundings were one hundred percent realistic. The people, the language, and the environment were all completely foreign to her. Just where exactly was she?
"Is there a door here?" she wondered aloud.
She stared at the doorknob and reached out to twist it...
CRACK!
The fragile doorknob instantly detached from the door. She stared at the broken handle in silence for two seconds.
"Even cheap knockoffs have better quality than this."
Tossing the broken knob back onto the bed, she pushed the door open. The setup behind it was incredibly simple: a toilet, a sink, a trash can, a mirror, and a showerhead. It took Pei Ye a long time to recognize that this room was a restroom.
"Where on earth am I?"
The objects in front of her were all exhibits from historical museums. Rumor had it that they were antiques used by the Human Federation before they left their primitive home planet. Seeing the unfamiliar face staring back at her in the mirror, her forehead wrapped in gauze, several images suddenly flashed through her mind.
A pitch-black study, a shameless friend, a scam of a game...
Pei Ye remembered now. She had slipped and clicked "Enter Instance" right before losing consciousness. Even if she had been forced to retire from the military due to her physical condition, it didn't mean she was so weak that anyone could just slaughter her at will. She refused to believe that someone could knock her out, transport her here, and even swap her body without her noticing a single thing!
Unless there was something bizarre about that game.
Pei Ye took a deep breath, suppressing the surging rage within her. "This must be a virtual space created by the Heavenly Brain. Only that thing has the authority to craft a one-hundred-percent realistic virtual environment..."
However, she quickly overturned this deduction. No matter how realistic a virtual space was, it could only deceive the five senses; it could never trick her spiritual perception. This was the real world! A real world, yet not the one she was familiar with.
BEEP BEEP BEEP.
An abrupt sound echoed in the cramped space. Pei Ye instinctively reached into her pocket, her fingertips brushing against a cold, flat, box-like object.
"A cell phone?"
Yet another ancient relic. The screen lit up, revealing a clean and minimalistic interface. All the other app icons were unfamiliar, save for one that made Pei Ye so angry she wanted to smash the phone. It was a flashy pink heart icon with a title beneath it.
[Love and Raising Puppies]
"This trash game is still here?"
She wanted to chuck the phone across the room, but her finger honestly clicked on the app. She had no choice. Having woken up in a completely foreign environment, this app was the only thing she recognized. It might hold some clues.
Opening the app, she was met with the same familiar little room. The egg sitting on the stool still had the words [Ah Zai] floating above it.
"No clues?"
She tapped on a skull icon, and the screen finally changed.
[Congratulations, Player, for entering the instance: (The Beauty of the Red Envelope Group)]
Pei Ye stared at the screen, speechless. She continued tapping, and a few more lines of text popped up.
[Epic Battle! Hero: The Beauty of the Red Envelope Group!]
[Party: 2/2]
[Completion: 0/6]
[Explore the mystery of the seventy-year-old lady's tragic death (Incomplete)]
[Explore the mystery of hundreds of sows screaming nightly (Incomplete)]
[Explore the mystery of the convenience store's missing condoms (Incomplete)]
[Explore the mystery of the stolen panties in the girls' dormitory (Incomplete)]
[Explore the mystery of the stolen bedsheets in the dormitory (Incomplete)]
[Explore the mystery of the blossoming youths' rears (Incomplete)]
Pei Ye stared in utter disbelief. Was this game serious? She had thought it was going to be a proper horror mystery, but the tone had turned completely ridiculous in a single second.
[Reward: 2,500 Merit points, 100 Qi Fortune points]
[PS: As the player "Your father" looks at the words "Merit" and "Qi Fortune," an unusual thirst arises in your heart, and you decide to work hard to complete the missions.]
Pei Ye felt her eye twitch. What kind of idiot wrote this copy? Since when did she feel "an unusual thirst" just looking at Merit and Qi Fortune?
"I want to leave!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, a few more lines popped up on the phone screen, successfully extinguishing her thoughts of quitting.
[Name]: Pei Ye
[Birthday]: May 14th
[Height]: 178cm
[Account ID]: Your father
[Partner Puppy]: Ah Zai
[Age]: A 333-year-old woman who lies about her age to act young
[Merit]: -9,987,241,001
[Qi Fortune]: -5,201,314,999
[Status]: Sinful Curse of Heavenly Punishment
[PS: Looking at these numbers, the player "Your father" faintly realizes that Merit and Qi Fortune are related to the collapse of your own Spiritual Domain. In order to uncover the truth and find a way to prolong your life, you decide to work hard to complete the missions. (Game Developer's Warning: All rights of interpretation belong to the Heavenly Brain. Even if you're pissed, you can't hit me!)]
"Heavenly Brain," Pei Ye swore, "I [bleep]ing curse your ancestors!"