Questioning

Nan Yue thought for a moment and added the person as a friend.

Perhaps because she was using the ID "Strongest A-Nan in History," the friend request was accepted in seconds.

"Nan Yue?"

"It's me."

"That's great, you saw my post. I'm Bi Danyuan. I just wanted to thank you for giving me that last pull."

Nan Yue lay in her warm, soft bed, her expression softening. "You saved yourself."

The other side took a moment to reply.

"I'm in City State W. If you ever come here, I'll definitely treat you to a meal."

Nan Yue put away her phone and lingered in bed for a while longer before getting up to wash. When she reached the lobby, she overheard the conversation between Gu Xiang Kai and Zhu Xi Ning.

"Do you think we should wake A-Nan up? She's been sleeping for so long; she should eat something."

"If you want to call her, you do it. She's terrifying when her sleep is interrupted."

Nan Yue: ...Am I?

It seemed like she was... she did a bit of self-reflection, then quietly walked up behind Gu Xiang Kai... and gave his shoulder a heavy smack.

Gu Xiang Kai, a tall and sturdy guy who usually feared nothing, let out a low yelp of fright and even kicked over a stool in his panic.

Zhu Xi Ning laughed until tears came to her eyes.

"You're awake."

Gu Xiang Kai scratched his head, feeling like he had been caught talking behind someone's back.

"I'm up. Let's go out for a meal to celebrate."

The three of them were in total agreement. They rarely visited the bustling South District, but for some reason, the temperature there was freezing today. Many people were dressed in winter clothes.

On the street, many girls wore beautiful short skirts paired with sweaters and scarves, their makeup exquisite.

Many shops were decorated in red and green, with snowmen piled at their entrances. Lighthearted music drifted from inside the stores.

"Damn, why is it so cold!"

The real world didn't have four seasons like the mission worlds; the temperature was supposed to be perpetually comfortable. Why was it so cold here?

"Hello, this is our restaurant's Christmas set menu. Would the three of you like to take a look?"

A man wearing a red velvet jumpsuit, a red hat, and a glued-on white beard handed them a flyer.

"Christmas...?"

Gu Xiang Kai and Nan Yue were completely bewildered, but the well-traveled Zhu Xi Ning clapped her hands. "Ah! Christmas! The one from the mission worlds?"

The man in red smiled. "Yes. The city states above the letter cities often imitate interesting things from the mission worlds to enrich our lives. Today just happens to be Christmas."

Zhu Xi Ning explained to Nan Yue that this was a holiday from the mission worlds. She wasn't exactly sure what it celebrated, but it was basically a day for eating, drinking, and exchanging gifts.

"In that case, let's give it a try."

Mainly, it was too cold outside, and Nan Yue wanted to enter a restaurant with heating.

The three of them followed the man into the simply decorated restaurant. There were only three set menus to choose from. Gu Xiang Kai ordered the steak, Zhu Xi Ning ordered the roasted pork chops, and Nan Yue ordered the roasted chicken.

Although the taste wasn't as refined as the Blooming Media Company's cafeteria, it was still much better than ordinary restaurants.

"So they even learn to celebrate holidays from the mission worlds."

Nan Yue sighed. Although she felt some resistance toward the polluted mission worlds, she had to admit that the lives of the people there seemed more interesting.

They weren't fixed onto a single path like the scavengers; they could choose the lives they wanted, and their world had infinite places to explore.

If there were no pollution...

Nan Yue felt that the kind of life in the mission worlds was something to be longed for.

"Yes, our lives are primarily focused on purifying pollution. We don't have any gods to beg for salvation, so we haven't developed any legends or holidays."

Zhu Xi Ning used her knife and fork skillfully, her eating manner very elegant. Compared to Gu Xiang Kai next to her, she was a sight for sore eyes.

"But sometimes, holidays can add a sense of ceremony to life."

Seeing that Nan Yue was interested, Zhu Xi Ning spoke more. "And there are scavengers who specialize in this. There's an organization called Kindling. I heard their scavengers extract knowledge, culture, and various things from the mission worlds to bring back to our world."

Zhu Xi Ning pointed at the restaurant's decorations. "These trends were all started by Kindling. Starting from the letter cities, the City State Center has libraries, and many of the books and knowledge inside were brought back by them."

Nan Yue wasn't surprised by such actions. After all, the mission worlds seemed to have too much to excavate. Sometimes, even Nan Yue, who had only entered a few missions, felt that the mission worlds were more than just fragments of broken pollution.

She sometimes had a feeling that the NPCs inside weren't just distorted illusions of pollution, but... people living real lives.

To this, Zhu Xi Ning expressed that Nan Yue was overthinking things.

"A-Nan, think about it. Is it possible? Would people really be brainwashed by a company into objects of exploitation? Would people really not love their own children and use them to prolong their lives?"

"Although there are many scavengers who aren't exactly paragons of virtue, that's because the mission worlds affected their mental stability. In a life-or-death situation, morality becomes less important."

"But those people in the mission worlds, their lives are just ordinary work and life. Why would so many evil people emerge?"

Zhu Xi Ning smiled and shook her head. "It doesn't make logical sense at all. So the school is right. Everything in the mission worlds is fake, just distorted fragments left behind after the previous world collapsed."

"It's already not easy for us to still be living, so we must purify them rather than be brainwashed by the mission worlds."

Nan Yue listened silently, then suddenly asked.

"Then do you think Jiang Su and Geng Xin Hui's ideas in the previous mission were right?"

Zhu Xi Ning was momentarily speechless. She remembered that although Geng Xin Hui no longer remembered the truth of his death, he still firmly stated that work should make people happier.

"Even though that world was distorted by pollution, there were still people fighting back."

"The scholar's wife in Multi-fortune Town was the same. She also refused to gain eternal life by eating her own flesh and blood."

Nan Yue's mind had been in a mess ever since she left the Blooming Media Company mission.

Jiang Su said work should be for a better life, but scavengers... lived just to work.

Zhu Xi Ning clearly thought of these fragments as well. She hesitated. "But... their world isn't as cruel as ours..."

As she spoke, she couldn't continue. It seemed the mission worlds were also very cruel, with events so appalling that even scavengers found them unheard of.

It was truly hard to compare whether the real world, which would perish without purification, was more cruel, or if the mission worlds with all sorts of evil people were more terrifying.

"A-Nan, do you remember the first lesson the school taught us?"

Hearing this, Nan Yue's expression steadied a bit.

"...Never question the world we live in."