Chapter 233: Your Xinshou Cun and My Xinshou Cun Seem Different

Yang Yixie forced down the nausea churning in his gut and began typing.

【You mentioned the "game" earlier—how much does the official know? To what extent have they intervened?】

About two minutes later, just when Yang Yixie was almost convinced that Xi Ren Sheng wouldn't reply, his phone screen lit up.

【The officials have already set up a dedicated response department; the number of players under their jurisdiction is still sizable, but hardly any are capable of fighting.】

In other words, the officials are not only aware but have created a dedicated department, even though Xi Ren Sheng seems rather disdainful of them.

【Why bring this up all of a sudden?】

After answering his question, Xi Ren Sheng's follow‑up question came immediately.

Yang Yixie walked to the window, carefully pulling the curtain aside a crack; the shadow beside the trash can downstairs was still writhing, but the "feeding" seemed to be drawing to a close.

The creature didn't appear sensitive to others' gazes, but who could tell whether the food it was devouring was enough to fill its belly.

【Grinding Monsters downstairs at my place.】

Yang Yixie tossed a casual reply to Xi Ren Sheng, then exited the chat window and brought up the dial pad.

He pressed the familiar three digits, and a call went out.

"Doo… doo…" the busy tone rang in the quiet room.

Yang Yixie kept his eyes on the shadow below through the curtain crack; the writhing black mass finally halted, its formless "head" turning as if sniffing something in the air.

The call connected.

"Hello, this is ……" a scripted female voice came through the handset.

Yang Yixie inhaled deeply, and before the other side finished, he lowered his voice with a trembling tone and spoke.

"Hello? I need to report a crime! There's a monster next to the trash station in the XX residential area that killed someone! … No, I don't even know what it is! But that monster is definitely not human!"

It was the reaction any ordinary citizen would have after witnessing a violent crime late at night.

The dispatcher on the other end seemed to pause, but her professionalism made her immediately start probing for details.

"Please stay calm and specify the exact location. Did you see any distinguishing features of the attacker? Was a weapon involved? What is the victim's condition? Are you safe yourself?"

Meanwhile, the monster downstairs finally settled on a direction, dragging its heavy, odd gait as it slowly moved toward a neighboring building.

The second‑floor lights of that building were still on, suggesting the occupants hadn't slept yet; perhaps the creature was drawn by the illumination.

Yang Yixie could only repeat the location in a panicked tone, adding that it was a shape‑distorting monster, and then hung up without giving the other side any further chance to speak.

The busy tone lingered in his ears after the call, and his phone vibrated again in his palm—a Message Bombardment from Xi Ren Sheng.

Obviously, the other side cared a lot about his earlier remark, "Grinding Monsters downstairs."

【???】

【You mean an Aberrant Species just spawned right outside your house?】

【That's some absurd luck—just when you said you weren't chosen as a player, an Aberrant Species shows up at your door?】

【Why aren't you replying? Are you observing it right now?】

【…You haven't already encountered it, have you? Calm down—you're a level‑0 rookie. Why don't you send me your address so I can help you Level Up first?】

Aberrant Species? That's what the monster is called?

How fitting—it collided with the game he was just playing.

But the name is already overused, so it's not surprising it showed up.

Surely these monsters didn't crawl out of a pixel game, right?

【I've already called the police; the Aberrant Species hasn't come toward me. Tell me the details about the Aberrant Species.】

【Police?! You'd rather call the police than want me to come rescue you?!】

【But ordinary police can't handle that thing; they'd just cause more trouble or die. Aberrant Species have appeared in the real world only a few times, and the officials probably lack experience with it.】

It has only appeared a handful of times…

That means it did appear, and since it did, Yang Yixie doesn't believe the officials have any preparation at all.

【Give me the details about the Aberrant Species.】

Yang Yixie simply repeated himself: the Aberrant Species moved toward another building, and he was still relatively safe here.

Only those with capability need to consider whether to rescue anyone; as Xi Ren Sheng said, a level‑0 rookie like him helping by calling the police is already quite good.

【Aberrant Species is a generic term for those monsters; they come in all types, but the Aberrant Species appearing in our world are players who died in the game.】

【The intel so far comes from the officials' investigations: there's something called a "Mutation" that directly affects the soul. We players essentially have our souls crossing into bodies in another world.】

【However, if we encounter too much Mutation over there, those Mutations will return with our souls to this world.】

【If we directly become an Aberrant Species over there, we'll naturally return as that kind of monster.】

Oh, Mutation.

Yang Yixie stared expressionlessly at these unusually familiar words, wondering why they sounded increasingly familiar.

【So your starting Xinshou Cun is called Tianmian City, and the antagonist faction is called Dome?】

【???】

Xi Ren Sheng looked at the text Yang Yixie had sent, jumped up from his seat in an instant, drawing disdainful glances from the two people beside him.

Xi Ren Sheng ignored the two's looks, his fingers flying over his phone as he typed out a message.

【No, no, my Xinshou Cun is called Dome, and the antagonist faction is called Church.】

【So my dear partner, you were actually among the new batch of players! I told you this game can't be played without you!!!】

【Why is your spawn point at the Church's old home? That makes our Xinshou Cun far apart, so we can't easily team up to Level Up, sigh.】

Even through the screen, Yang Yixie could almost picture Xi Ren Sheng's expression at that moment.

The phone's light reflected on Yang Yixie's Black-framed Glasses, flickering dimly.

Every character in the passage Xi Ren Sheng sent was familiar to him, and together they formed something he recognized even more.

Mutation, Aberrant Species, Dome, Church.

You say it's fine if the hackneyed term Aberrant Species happens to overlap, but with this many terms all overlapping, no fool would believe it's a coincidence, right?

So the drama of life is playing this pixel game?

Then what about the soul crossing into another world he mentioned—what's that about?

Wait, it seems he also heard that explanation inside the game.

Yang Yixie silently reopened the computer and launched the game.

Although the game can no longer be played further, some of its functions are still usable.

For example, checking the collected data and such.......

After all, there are quite a few research parties who play games; Yang Yixie originally thought this feature was intended for those research parties, so he hadn't used it much before.

As it turns out, it's come in handy now.