“Is that so? That’s great.”
The girl’s face was always flushed, her cheeks unable to hide her joy. She tilted her head slightly, a faint smile playing on her lips.
“You know, your feelings are written all over your face,” Xu Xiaoyou said. “Be careful next time. Don’t hurt your hand again.”
She had, of course, noticed the piglet band-aid stuck next to the girl’s thumb, identical to the one on her own index finger. The other girl truly loved things with piglet elements.
“Because this kind of thing really makes me happy—having my hard work recognized by others makes it feel like everything was worth it,” Tang Xin said. “I really like this feeling of being acknowledged.”
She seemed to have more to say, but her thoughts drifted away along with the aroma of the food.
Observing the girl’s small expressions, Xu Xiaoyou nodded thoughtfully. “If that’s the case, you could be a chef in a restaurant. If the customer base is large enough, there will always be someone who recognizes your work.”
Tang Xin’s face fell. “I cooked, so I’m not doing the dishes. Also, it’s your turn to clean the room today. No more making excuses.”
After dinner, Tang Xin lay sideways on the sofa watching a drama. Xu Xiaoyou helplessly scrubbed the bowls at the kitchen faucet. The water splashed over the ceramic bowls as she heard the girl’s bell-like laughter from the living room; she must have seen something funny. This sense of quiet tranquility was something Xu Xiaoyou found quite nice.
It was just that in this weather, washing dishes made her hands ache from the cold.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
She put down the bowl in her hand, walked to the door, and was somewhat surprised by the person she saw upon opening it.
The youth wore a polite smile, just as she had seen him on the curtain. He was dressed in a black trench coat, with melting white spots on the shoulders and a checkered scarf around his neck.
His most iconic features were the tear mole at the corner of his eye and those heavy dark circles that made one feel exhausted just by looking at them.
“Miss Xu, I didn’t expect you to be living in a place like this.”
Jian Liu hesitated for a moment, his tone calm. “I did quite a bit of psychological preparation before ringing the bell, fearing I had gone to the wrong place and would disturb someone else.”
“Don’t tell me the company sent you.”
Jian Liu’s expression stiffened, showing a hint of embarrassment. “Miss Xu truly predicts things like a god.”
The youth’s gaze grew unusually serious for a moment. “It’s Diamond 9.”
“I owe him a favor. He hopes you can participate in this afternoon’s...”
“S-rank employee mutual aid exchange meeting,” Xu Xiaoyou finished for him.
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“For such a small matter to have the director of the Dawn Agency personally make a trip, that Diamond 9 surely overestimates me,” Xu Xiaoyou said.
“Perhaps. For the company, every S-rank employee is an irreplaceable strategic-level talent.”
As he said this, Jian Liu looked up at the doorplate of the security booth again.
“Then the company might as well just send me a set of martial arts manuals and an apartment in the Black Swan District instead of hypocritically sending harassing messages to get me to attend some mutual aid meeting,” Xu Xiaoyou said coldly.
Jian Liu replied, “They care very much about the growth of an S-rank employee.”
“In any case, Diamond 9’s intention is for you to reconsider.”
“How do I go? Don’t tell me they’re sending me a ticket right now?”
At this, Jian Liu handed over the bag he was carrying.
“Use this.”
“An Oasis consciousness immersion helmet?” Xu Xiaoyou blurted out when she saw the Into the Night Dreams logo on the packaging of the item inside the bag.
“The latest neuromancer. One set is worth tens of thousands of inspiration. This is also a gesture of sincerity from Diamond 9.”
Xu Xiaoyou pondered for a moment before finally taking the bag from him.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave, Miss Xu.”
After watching the youth walk away, Xu Xiaoyou returned inside. Tang Xin, on the sofa, cast a curious glance. “What’s that?”
After Xu Xiaoyou gave a brief explanation, the girl showed a look of realization and nodded.
“Oasis? That virtual hive city? I only learned about that kind of thing in textbooks.”
“Keep an eye on the outside for me. Alert me if there’s anything unusual.”
With that, Xu Xiaoyou went into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed.
The immersion devices for Oasis, like the curtains, were usually bound to personal identity and equipped with technical locks. The company had most likely already bound her information when they sent the equipment.
Removing the packaging from the bag, a black head-mounted consciousness immersion device was presented before her, similar to those she had seen in anime and movies.
Taking it up to inspect it, she didn’t find it particularly sophisticated. It looked like nothing more than a plain, unremarkable black helmet.
However, thinking that even spatial teleportation technology could be crammed into a small ticket, Xu Xiaoyou stopped overthinking it. She chose to put on the helmet and lie flat on the bed.
Once the countdown ended, a burst of brilliant, colorful light flashed before her eyes. Her consciousness felt as though it had plunged into a pitch-black, deep ocean in an instant, slowly sinking.
The world was reconstructed before her eyes.
As she slowly opened her eyes, a completely different scene presented itself.
She appeared to be in an alleyway so dark she couldn’t see the end of it. Reaching out, she could only vaguely see her own fingers.
Looking up, a golden, majestic city hung inverted in the sky. Every architectural tower was like a star in the brilliant night sky. The entire golden firmament seemed to be pressing down. The stars of the universe were either dim and extinguished or rising with a shimmering glow, inviting one into a beautiful dream from which they would never want to wake.
It wasn't that the city was in the sky; rather, the alley she was in was located in deep space, thousands of meters above that city.
The world she was in was upside down, yet she was unaffected by gravity and did not fall toward the city below.
Xu Xiaoyou was not surprised, because anything could happen in Oasis. If one could think of it, it could be done in Oasis.
She tried moving her body, walking a bit, then jumping. All her senses were no different from the real world. She could smell the rust in the alley and feel the cold wind blowing from the hazy darkness at the corner.
Just as she intended to explore forward to see if she could find any items like in a game, a grid-like air wall gradually emerged, blocking her path.
[You do not have permission to enter Oasis.]
Xu Xiaoyou called up the system panel in Oasis. As expected, most permissions were locked.
Things like guilds, personal information, honors, the arena, and assets were all locked, grayed out and unclickable.
Even the character she was currently controlling was just a temporary registration. It had skipped the process of character creation, facial sculpting, and naming, arranging her starting point directly in this place called the “Abandoned Alley.”
As for why this Abandoned Alley was located above Oasis, one didn’t even need to think to know it was because the modelers for Oasis were lazy. They were reluctant to delete the models for discarded scenes but didn't know where to put them, so they simply dumped them into the sky above the city of Oasis.
In that city where everyone was immersed in a golden dream, everything was radiant and colorful.
Gold and jewels were everywhere; no one would look up to gaze at the dark, boring sky.
The damn company really wasn’t that kind-hearted, giving her a set of consciousness transmission equipment without an Oasis pass.
Looking at the water collected on a nearby trash can lid, Xu Xiaoyou could barely see what she looked like now. She had no features; her face was completely pixelated. Dim golden hair draped over her shoulders, and her entire lower body floated in the air like a wandering soul.
She felt that she looked quite terrifying right now, enough to easily make children cry.
After a helpless sigh, Xu Xiaoyou clicked on the only map that was lit up.
“Oasis City: Insufficient permissions, unable to teleport.”
“Tower of Eternity: Insufficient permissions, unable to teleport.”
“City of Sin: Insufficient permissions, unable to teleport.”
[...]
None of the iconic regions could be teleported to. All that remained was the most inconspicuous option at the bottom of the teleportation list: “S-rank employee exchange room: Teleportation allowed.”
Xu Xiaoyou had no choice but to select it and click confirm.
Her body deconstructed into deep blue particles, scattering into the darkness of the alley.
Rate on N.U.
