Chapter 154: Welcome to the Real Game (Revised)

Yang Yixie was standing downstairs of the apartment building for quite a while, carefully typing out those over five hundred characters, before he sluggishly walked into the hallway.

He glanced at the top‑most Wi‑Fi signal icon on his phone and couldn't help muttering.

"No wonder I suddenly got a message; turns out I'm online."

He hadn't granted data permissions to many apps, especially those that love to pop up notifications; he had basically set them to Do Not Disturb.

He pushed open the front door; the house was silent. He changed shoes, tossed the key onto the coffee table in the living room, and habitually took out his phone for another glance.

A new push notification made him pause the motion of putting the phone down.

【Official Wasteland Era: Dear survivor, we have received your questionnaire feedback! Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions!】

【Regarding the PC‑side experience issue you mentioned, we have provided the latest computer client installer; please click the link to download and experience a broader Wasteland world! (link attached)】

Yang Yixie raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised.

"Efficiency this high?"

The feedback had just been submitted, and he was already upstairs; it couldn't have been more than a few minutes, right?

Moreover, the reply was so spot‑on, directly giving a PC client installer, which suggests they had already considered this.

But usually official replies are just polite talk like "We will seriously consider your suggestion" and then drop a website link, telling you the PC version already exists for you to download yourself, right?

This must be a human, not a bot reply, right?

Since the installer is available, he'll just download it onto his computer to check it out.

He walked straight into his small room and turned on the desktop computer.

The tower emitted its familiar hum, and the screen lit up.

His original plan was to stream for a while, play some games to pad the runtime, then go to bed early; after all, playing too much had started giving him hallucinations.

Yang Yixie plugged in the phone cable, first downloading the installer onto his phone, then transferring it to the computer.

The network wasn't fast, so the installer's progress bar crawled forward slowly.

While waiting, Yang Yixie leaned back in his chair, his fingers unconsciously drumming on the desk.

How to put it, he was at that chuunibyou age, so encountering odd things inevitably made him overthink.

On his way back just now, he kept wondering whether a big truck would suddenly appear and take him to rescue another world.

Who hasn't fantasized about such a story?

That fantasy remains a fantasy; even if it came true, it still couldn't become reality.

If he really ran off to another world to play, his mother wouldn't have entrusted it to his brother without any peace of mind.

But the recent strange incidents—are they perhaps a bit too many?

After a moment of thought, Yang Yixie picked up his phone and opened a chat window with a contact.

He remembered that his gaming "partner" he'd met had some rather unusual information channels.

Yang Yixie organized his words and sent a message.

【Are you there? Do me a favor, there's been a homicide in the Shoudu suburbs, can you get detailed intel?】

After sending the message, it didn't take long before a reply came back.

【???】

【You're playing games? Why are you interested in a 'dungeon' in reality?】

Seeing the word "dungeon", Yang Yixie's eyes narrowed slightly; this guy really knows something.

Not wanting to reveal too much nor be probed for intel, Yang Yixie replied bluntly.

【Send any intel you have over.】

The person on the other side seemed to fall silent for a few seconds.

In that brief silence, he reassessed Yang Yixie's connection to the matter.

Then a new message popped up, its tone not shrinking from Yang Yixie's coolness but sounding a bit regretful.

【Looks like you still don't fully grasp the situation? It's something you could handle yourself… never mind, it's under official control now, but a lot of info still leaks online.】

【If you've played it, you'd understand; anyway, someone's already addicted.】

【The intel has been sent to your encrypted mailbox; remember to check it promptly.】

【By the way, passing along someone's words: you should 'enter the arena' soon! This 'new game' is exciting!】

Watching the jumping text on the screen, Yang Yixie could almost picture the other party's fanatical expression that seemed afraid that the world should be in chaos.

He didn't reply further, instead preparing to log into his mailbox to view the intel he'd received.

Those guys seemed quite happy to see him get tangled in trouble.

At that moment, a soft "ding" sounded from the computer screen.

The Wasteland Era game client had finished installing.

A new icon appeared on the desktop; the PC version's icon looked far more refined than the mobile one.

It was still a broken gear symbol, rusted and stained with blood.

Yang Yixie moved the mouse; the cursor hovered over the icon for a moment.

Though he wanted to test the PC feel right now, he decided to wait until later.

He closed the installation‑complete prompt, opened a browser, skillfully typed a long, complex URL, passed two layers of verification, and finally logged into a stark, primitive encrypted mailbox.

Although the interface was very simple, its security far exceeded that of ordinary mailboxes.

In the inbox, indeed lay a new email, the sender shown as Xi Rensheng, and the subject was blank.

Yang Yixie clicked open the email.

There was no lengthy explanatory text; the body contained a single line of vivid scarlet, as if written in blood‑stained calligraphic English:

"WelcometotheRealGame." (Welcome to the Real Game.)

Below was an encrypted video attachment and a separate decryption key.

Yang Yixie downloaded the video file, imported it into a decryption tool, and entered the key.

The video's image quality wasn't high; it looked like the view from a roadside surveillance camera.

The time was night, and the location appeared to be a relatively secluded stretch of road in the suburbs of Shoudu, with dim streetlights and occasional vehicles passing by.

The video had no sound, only a silent and eerie image.

At first, everything was normal.

Several youths dressed in a flashy, gangster style, looking like street racers or hoodlums, were gathered by the roadside smoking and chatting, with a few modified motorcycles parked nearby.

They were relaxed, some laughing, some gesturing— a typical late‑night street‑loitering scene.

But at the exact moment the time turned to 00:00:00, one of the men, whose back was to the camera and who wore a black skull‑T‑shirt, suddenly froze in his motion.

His hand, which had been about to light a cigarette, halted mid‑air, his body seeming to turn into a piece of clay being kneaded, and he began to twitch unnaturally.

His companions noticed his abnormality and crowded around, apparently asking what was wrong.

But the man gave no response; his twitching grew more violent, and he even began to bend over and retch.