Chapter 247: Game Life: Who's Playing a Single‑Player Game?

Seeing the long‑absent relaxed smile on his mother's face, Yang Yixie felt a little more at ease.

At least in front of his mother, Xi Ren Sheng still knows his limits.

After the meal, Xi Ren Sheng scrambled to wash the dishes, while Yang Yixie kept his mother company in the living room for a while.

Zhiruo asked whether Yang Yichen had called back recently; Yang Yixie said he had, but his brother had been especially busy, and told her not to worry.

Zhiruo nodded, asked no further, and the worry that flashed in her eyes was concealed.

Yang Yixie saw to it that she took her medicine, and after everything was settled, he walked back to the living room and said to Xi Ren Sheng, who was wiping the table,

"I'm going back to my room to play a bit of a game."

Xi Ren Sheng perked up at the words.

"What game? Can we team up? I'll carry you to victory!"

"Just an ordinary pixel mini‑game, single‑player," Yang Yixie said as he headed to his room, "I've been pushing the storyline earlier and want to make some video analysis of it."

"Pixel game? Single‑player?"

Xi Ren Sheng's enthusiasm visibly dwindled by more than half, and he wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"I don't like low‑resolution games; what's fun about them... You play it yourself; I'll keep Aunt company and watch some TV."

He clearly couldn't muster interest in such a 'backward' game, especially after having played more 'realistic' ones.

Yang Yixie nodded and was about to go inside when Zhiruo suddenly spoke, her eyes caring.

"Xiao Xie, playing games this late? It's bad for your eyes; get some rest early,"

She was especially sensitive to the word 'game,' and her tone was unabashedly worried.

Yang Yixie turned around, his tone very relaxed.

"Mom, it's just a single‑player game, like the Tetris you used to play,"

Zhiruo didn't really understand online video production, but she knew her child wasn't straightforward, especially given the notice the nation issued this morning; she was genuinely worried something might happen to her child.

Hearing her son describe it as a Tetris‑style mini‑game eased her worry a bit, yet the trace of concern in her brows hadn't fully vanished.

"Then... don't play too late. I'm watching TV in the living room; keep the door open for some fresh air, don't stay cooped up in your room. Your friend is here too—if you really can't stop, play with your friend?"

She said softly.

"Then never mind, I'll watch TV with you and Aunt," Xi Ren Sheng waved his hands quickly, indicating he preferred to watch those boring variety shows.

Seeing that Yang Yixie hadn't closed the door and the room light was on with the game running, Zhiruo finally nodded and sat back on the sofa.

They couldn't see Yang Yixie's computer screen clearly, but they could see his earnest concentration, and Zhiruo breathed a sigh of relief.

Xi Ren Sheng also switched the channel to an old‑style comedy film and watched it quite attentively.

Yang Yixie glanced sideways at the still‑harmonious pair in the living room, sat at his computer, moved the mouse, and opened the pixel game's launcher.

The screen lit up, an emerald Data Stream began to spin and converge, finally loading the bold title "Wasteland Era" along with the indispensable "Start Game" option.

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The alley remained dim; the Old Street Lamp's halo barely opened a small visible area.

Fang Zhiyan's pocket watch hands aligned precisely at twelve o'clock.

His dark‑red pupils fixed unblinking on Ying Duo's face, catching even the slightest abrupt expression shift, pupil contraction, or change in breathing rhythm.

Midnight, twelve o'clock.

For those who know a bit about 'games,' especially the 'Undead' translocation mechanism, this is a very special temporal node.

According to his research, every seven days at midnight, the consciousness of all summoned 'Undead' briefly detaches from this world's 'shell' and returns to their original world.

Even though it's only a moment for people of this world, for those 'Undead' in an interactive state, an inevitable sense of detachment follows that instant.

After all, it's a sudden shift from one body to another, with the surrounding environment and conditions changing drastically, causing a brief loss of facial control.

And this is the Dome's simplest, most blunt way to identify those 'Undead,' also the hardest to disguise.

Fang Zhiyan had come precisely for this.

After all, Bai Mu Yun's submitted report showed that there were many places where Ying Duo overlapped with those Undead.

Memory loss, treating the world as a game.......

Yet the Heresy Tribunal took the person back for questioning and concluded it was the individual, just a brain issue; Bai Mu Yun examined them and told him Ying Duo only had a brain problem, likely not those Undead.

Logically, the chance of being an Undead should be higher than the probability of a brain illness, right?

Fang Zhiyan also didn't know how the Heresy Tribunal and Bai Mu Yun reached agreement on this.

Could it be because of the Ying Guang Lu that perfectly fused with the Gloomy Fluorescent Stone?

Come to think of it, he recalled that when the Little Ghost showed up, he had been asked to pass along an experimental drug developed for 'Aberrant Arts Awakening,' which had nothing to do with Mutation.

But because the kid somehow got a Mutation Source in his head, he was the one the Intelligence Department requisitioned.

He hadn't originally planned to come in person, but the kid had been causing a big stir in Tianmian City lately, and he had some things to verify, so he made the trip himself.

However—

He didn't see the expected expression.

The boy before him still wore an almost indifferent expression, breathing evenly, limbs relaxed.

As if this special midnight moment meant nothing to him.

Fang Zhiyan squinted slightly, and a deeper interest rose in his dark‑red eyes.

No reaction?

He's not an Old World Undead?

No, that's impossible; his Detection Device clearly detected spatial and temporal fluctuations on Ying Duo, matching exactly the energy wave frequencies generated by those Undead.

Or perhaps... the kid isn't a conventional Old World Undead?

The proportion of the time‑wave frequency he detected on Ying Duo was indeed far higher than that of other Undead.

Fang Zhiyan slowly closed the pocket watch lid, and the "ka‑da" sound rang especially clear in the silent night.

They did not put away the pocket watch, but held it in their hand and toyed with it, their posture elegant yet dangerous.

"It looks like you have strong control over your own body?" Fang Zhiyan's voice remained gentle.

"Or perhaps you're already accustomed to this kind of soul‑level transference? Even able to disguise yourself subconsciously?"

Ying Duo's golden eyes looked at them, offering no answer to the obviously trap‑laden question.

After a few seconds of silence, Ying Duo suddenly asked an especially abrupt question.

"Do you have a mission for me?"

Fang Zhiyan's fiddling with the pocket watch paused, then he raised an eyebrow toward Ying Duo.

"Mission?"