Chapter 621: Negotiation

In September 20XX, countless city projections appeared in the real world; these phantoms existed for only a few minutes.

Immediately afterward, the projections became reality.

From that day on, everything about the game world that the authorities had concealed was finally made public, and people finally realized that the so-called game was nothing but a battle royale in an apocalyptic world.

Yang Yixie's phone had already popped up a notice from the school about a one-day class suspension; although only an afternoon had passed since this odd occurrence, it practically amounted to a full general mobilization by the authorities.

As an ordinary student, getting a day off might be more noteworthy than the apocalypse.

But Yang Yixie only felt a sudden headache.

They were merely innocent civilians who happened to witness everything; naturally, after Luo Jinyou was taken away, they were evacuated from the plaza surrounded by police tape, each returning home.

Back home, Mother Zhiruo was sitting in a chair watching the latest news on TV.

"...... Please residents of Shoudu stay indoors, do not go out lightly; the authorities are investigating the cause of the unknown black shadows' appearance; please residents stay at home and actively cooperate with the authorities' work......"

"Xiao Xie is back?"

Zhiruo heard the sound of the door opening and immediately gave Yang Yixie a gentle smile.

She knew Yang Yixie had gone out to eat with Sun Yu at noon, but she didn't expect him to return so late.

"Hmm, the mall where we ate was closed off, so we took a detour back."

Yang Yixie glanced around the interior, knowing Yang Yichen was probably busy with Luo Jinyou's affairs, but he still asked deliberately.

"Brother?"

"If it's Xiao Chen, he left at noon saying the company had sudden business; just now he also got a call saying the company's exterior was blocked, so he can't return for the time being."

Saying this, Zhiruo also sighed, but fortunately Yang Yixie had returned safe and sound.

She breathed a sigh of relief, then immediately looked at Yang Yixie and pretended to be cute by blinking.

"Guess who came to see you?"

Yang Yixie startled, then immediately heard a huge sound from behind——

"Surprise!"

Accompanied by a loud shout, plus the blast of a salute cannon, Xirensheng's voice always puts on a forced emphasis, sounding sharp and bright, with a cheerfulness that clashes with the whole world.

He had jumped out of the shoe cabinet—heaven knows how such a tiny space could fit such a big person—and the salute cannon tube in his hand was painted with colorful cartoon patterns.

His face always bore that carefree smile; Yang Yixie looked at the scattering ribbons, and his eyebrows immediately furrowed.

He stood at the entryway, his slippers not yet changed, carrying a single-shoulder bag, and from head to toe he was covered in ribbon debris.

He lowered his head; the small area by the doorway was now littered with ribbons and sequins, some paper strips still stuck to the water marks he had just stepped in, a complete mess.

"...... You'll clean it up later yourself."

Xirensheng was already used to cleaning up the messes he caused; he just grinned and hid the salute cannon tube behind his back.

"Partner~! Surprised? Unexpected?" His eyes curved into two crescents, like a large canine trying to pounce directly onto Yang Yixie, "Did you see my message? I came again to play games with you!"

"Didn't see; I was looking at something else." Yang Yixie reached up, pulled off the ribbon on his head, and threw it on the ground.

All the way here he had been checking player forum messages, or else controlling small robots to invade the official base.

Before, the authorities hadn't popularized rune devices; at that time, carrying out this invasion would have been easy.

But now rune alarms are everywhere; if Yang Yixie himself could use 【Teleport】 to come and go freely, small-robot infiltration could only long-unused turn off invincible mode, and then play the game.

"Did my mom open the door for you?"

"The aunt is very nice!" Xirensheng puffed out his chest with righteous vigor, "I said I came to play games with you, she let me come in and wait, and even gave me orange juice."

He gestured toward the living room; Yang Yixie followed his gaze and indeed saw an empty glass on the coffee table.

Zhiruo rose from the living-room sofa, smiling as she looked toward the entryway.

"Little Xie has been waiting for you almost half an hour; he stood at the doorway for a long time, so I let him come in and sit."

She walked over and brushed off the ribbon debris left on Yang Yixie's shoulder; Zhiruo last saw Xirensheng when he suddenly fainted and was sent to the hospital.

Because he never regained consciousness, Xirensheng lay in the hospital for two days; after coming out, he merely said a word and left c City.

Yang Yixie looked at the suddenly visiting, quite excited Xirensheng, took off his backpack from his shoulder, and changed into slippers.

"First sweep the floor." He threw that over his shoulder without turning back.

Xirensheng happily followed behind; when passing the entryway he perfunctorily kicked the ribbons into the corner with his foot, then plopped down on the sofa next to Yang Yixie.

"Partner~! I'll go sweep the floor later; don't be so cold to me, what's between us?" He leaned in, lowering his voice mysteriously.

"I know about those things that happened outside today; Tianmian City, that white-haired little ghost, your brother even took him away."

Most likely Hua Jian Lei told Xirensheng; the authorities' secrecy measures are really poor; of course, it's also possible they chose not to conceal the entropy increase.

"This time I came to find you, partner, bringing a mission; do you want to check your phone first?"

Xirensheng affectedly blinked his eyes; Yang Yixie glanced at him, then still picked up his phone and opened it.

He had previously harassed Mu Linyuan all around; that guy never replied to his messages; after finally managing to send successfully, the sign representing his customer service 501 dimmed again.

Yang Yixie: "......"

Sometimes I really want to hit someone.

Aside from the large amount of spam messages from Xirensheng on the phone, perhaps only the email from Hua Jian Lei has actual effect.

【Hua Jian Lei:

The authorities invite our entropy increase to also participate in negotiations with the Church and the Dome side; the negotiation time is tentatively set for tonight at 8 PM; do you want to participate?】

Yang Yixie immediately sat up straight; no wonder Hua Jian Lei saw he hadn't replied for a while and specially sent Xirensheng to come find him.

He controlled small robots to infiltrate the official base, wasn't it to obtain first-hand information for negotiations between the official and the game factions?

In the end, there's no need for him to do that infiltration investigation; the information has already been delivered to his hands.

And moreover, 8 PM......

He doesn't have much time left to prepare.