Chapter 542: Welcome to Reality

Her reputation!

Meng Kexin gritted her teeth hard; she knew that those rich‑second‑generation girls really would do that, but she was just an honest wage‑earner, and even if she imagined it, she could never actually do it.

She only hoped this scene wouldn't reach her old acquaintances; although she had gone to Shoudu to develop with the boss, there were still quite a few people here who knew her.

Given the current situation, it's uncertain whether she'll continue working under the boss in the future...

"How is he doing?"

Meng Kexin glanced at Bai Mu Yun; before this, his consciousness had been tightly bound by something cocoon‑like, isolating him from the outside world.

Yang Yixie also possessed a fragment of Consciousness Law ability, but it wasn't as strong as Meng Kexin's; he only noticed the phosphor dust lingering on him and failed to perceive Bai Mu Yun's true condition.

It's like a caterpillar that wraps itself in silk before metamorphosing into a butterfly.

But Bai Mu Yun never had the chance to become a butterfly; remaining in the cocoon meant his eventual demise.

According to Yang Yixie's words, Bai Mu Yun's time of death wouldn't be long, and since he himself is also a Consciousness Law practitioner, he shouldn't have been unable to recover for so long.

"... No need to trouble yourself."

Bai Mu Yun gritted his teeth, and his slightly hoarse voice came out slowly.

He only felt tearing pain in his head and chest; Bai Mu Yun could clearly sense the void where his core once was. After losing his Aberrant Species Core, he lost most of his power, and only the lingering Mutation kept constantly repairing his crippled body.

He wasn't sure what the current situation was, but when officials came to investigate earlier, his consciousness was still chaotic, yet he still heard everything they said.

When Bai Mu Yun clasped his head, he could clearly feel a thick scab where horns should have grown, as if someone had violently ripped his horns out while he was unconscious.

He slowly lifted his head, and his golden, nonhuman horizontal pupils scanned the compartment without missing anything.

Especially the youth sitting beside him, curiously sizing him up, wearing Black-framed Glasses.

Unlike Ying Duo, who sported a head of Ying Guang Lu hair and a stiff expression, Yang Yixie's hair was normal black, his mouth curled with a seemingly gentle smile, yet it made Bai Mu Yun see the shadow of Fang Zhiyan in him.

"Ha," Bai Mu Yun couldn't help but let out a cold laugh. He had just thought Yang Yixie's voice sounded familiar, after all, that deliberately innocent tone would never appear on Ying Duo.

Now it seems it really is him.

But aside from Yang Yixie, he hadn't seen anyone else in the compartment.

And his last memory...

Was inside a transport vehicle of the Dome Field Operations Department, where an armed Field Operations Department personnel pointed a gun barrel at his head, and then he lost consciousness.

Bai Mu Yun's subconscious hand rose and felt a small hole on his head that hadn't fully healed.

He could only say he was lucky that he had been pretending to be deep in thought the whole time; if he had lifted his head, Hua Jian Lei's Aberrant Arts influence today wouldn't have been limited to just a few.

"... So, where is this? The Dome... or the Old World?"

It seemed this wasn't the world he was familiar with.

Bai Mu Yun sluggishly realized this; the mutation factor in the air was almost nonexistent, the only trace still emanated from his own body, but because his body was now too weak, anything he emitted was immediately reabsorbed unconsciously.

The wasteland world couldn't possibly have such a clean place.

For a moment, Bai Mu Yun felt somewhat uneasy; he was used to living in a world riddled with mutations and never had to deliberately control his own, since their original world was already saturated with mutations.

But upon suddenly arriving in such a pristine world, he subconsciously contained all the mutations throughout his body, as if fearing to tarnish even a bit of this overly clean world.

"To be precise, it's our real world."

Yang Yixie looked at Bai Mu Yun's existentially doubtful expression and spoke lightly.

Having someone from the game world actually alive and sitting beside you is still quite marvelous.

【Current character: Bai Mu Yun (under control)】

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"Mom, I'm home."

On his way back, Yang Yixie stopped by a nearby market to pick up some cold dishes.

"Come in quickly, are all the matters finished?"

Zhiruo immediately got up, and after seeing Yang Yixie come in, hurriedly tidied everything up.

Since it was almost dinner time, the mother and son simply had a quick dinner together.

They tacitly didn't bring up the conversation before Yang Yixie's departure; for Zhiruo, his safe return already said a lot.

The things that needed to be done are probably all finished...

Zhiruo unconsciously pressed a few crescent marks into her palm, growing increasingly uneasy.

Even though Yang Yixie had already returned safely and mentioned to her the situation of a few online friends he met up with this time, she still couldn't feel at ease at all.

There must absolutely be something... that Yang Yixie didn't say.

"... But there's one person you definitely wouldn't expect: I have an online friend who happens to be Sun Yu's father's secretary."

Details about the others were inconvenient to elaborate; Yang Yixie could only, with Meng Kexin's help, maneuver the conversation toward Sun Yu, then back to high school times, trying to pick some lighthearted topics to amuse his mother.

Gradually, it grew later, reaching the time when his mother needed to rest.

Zhiruo simply rubbed Yang Yixie's head gently with her hand, her eyes softening as she squinted, as usual, saying goodnight to him.

"Alright, Xiao Xie, don't play games too long; go to bed early."

"Okay."

Yang Yixie nodded and returned to his room.

When he entered, Xiri Sheng and Bai Mu Yun had already been hiding in there for a long time.

Considering Bai Mu Yun's weak legal awareness, Xiri Sheng even went to a bookstore to buy books on the subject for him, but when Yang Yixie came in, he found him reading a magazine.

The model in the magazine wore the most fashionable haute couture of the moment; both the photo angles and poses were flawless.

It's a technology that couldn't exist in the wasteland world.

After all, wasteland dwellers are devoted to developing Rune weapons; creating communication devices on the scale of the Dome that ordinary people can use is already an exception among exceptions.

The Dome developed these technologies to control hearts, snatching people from the long‑standing Church, and naturally, no one cared about the entertainment side.

Yang Yixie merely gave him a casual glance, then had Xiri Sheng turn back into a playing card and slip into his Game Backpack, waiting quietly for midnight.