"Boom—"
A violent explosion suddenly erupted. Flames instantly engulfed the man's upper body, and thick smoke sent the surrounding crowd stumbling back. No one dared to look directly at the tragic scene.
But as the flames dissipated, the scruffy man still stood in place. There wasn't a single burn mark on his face, and not even a strand of his hair had been singed by the sparks.
It was as if the violent explosion just now had been nothing more than a collective hallucination.
Ren Yi instinctively glanced at the waitress nearby, who remained completely unmoved.
Judging by the scruffy middle-aged man's expression, he certainly hadn't expected this. That meant the current situation could only be attributed to external factors—specifically, the rules of the entertainment city.
Was the "no mutual harm" rule actually like this?
Ren Yi had originally thought that the rule would mean the staff would step in to stop or punish customers who harmed others, or perhaps the floor of the entertainment city would open up like a giant maw to swallow any customer who dared to strike.
He hadn't expected the actual effect of this rule to be even more proactive and overbearing.
It was essentially granting every customer a permanent state of invincibility!
No matter what kind of damage they sustained, they would remain unharmed. Even if someone tried to harm themselves, they couldn't leave a single scratch.
Therefore, the scruffy man's attempt at suicide had been utterly meaningless from start to finish.
Clearly, the man hadn't realized this—or rather, he was unwilling to believe it.
He stood frozen for a few seconds before suddenly letting out a shriek that warped into a shrill wail. Like a madman, he turned and charged toward the nearby decorative fountain.
He stumbled as he ran, his hands flailing wildly. He slammed his head into the hard marble edge of the pool with a dull thud that made everyone's skin crawl.
Logically, a collision that produced such a loud sound must have carried immense force. Even if his skull didn't crack open, he shouldn't have walked away unscathed.
Yet, the scruffy man remained perfectly intact, defying all laws of physics. It was as if that violent impact had been against a pile of cotton.
But he didn't stop. Without a moment's hesitation, he slammed his head several more times, using every ounce of strength in his body.
Finally, as if the last bit of energy had been drained from him, his body went limp. His head slumped heavily into the fountain's pool, and he became motionless.
Water splashed and then slowly settled. The surface soon returned to a calm state. Only his shoulders twitched weakly twice before he went completely still, showing no further signs of life.
Did he... drown himself? A flicker of doubt rose in Ren Yi's mind.
No, it hadn't been long enough. It wasn't nearly enough time to die from suffocation. Besides, drowning counted as a form of harm, so he should have been protected by the rules.
Two staff members stepped forward and pulled him out of the fountain. Although they were wearing masks, Ren Yi could sense that their expressions were quite grim.
Ren Yi leaned in closer to look at the body on the ground.
The scruffy man's expression didn't look like that of a drowning victim—distorted and pained. Instead, it held a trace of eerie serenity, as if he were merely asleep.
He hadn't drowned. He had simply "suddenly" died.
It was as if an invisible clock had reached its end. Without any warning, his heart had abruptly failed, and his life force vanished.
At that moment, Ren Yi sensed that his own Seed, which had been withered for some time, had completely dissipated.
Something was wrong.
The wrongness wasn't about the current situation itself; Ren Yi could roughly deduce how things had turned out this way.
His Seed was designed to guide emotions toward the positive side.
However, if the host harbored negative emotions, the Seed would prioritize suppressing them, preventing those negative feelings from being expressed.
This was also why the host's perception of danger and their ability to think critically about their surroundings would be partially inhibited, creating a sort of "intelligence-lowering" effect.
But suppression was merely suppression; it didn't eliminate the emotions. Thus, when the scruffy man utterly lost everything, the self-delusion maintained by the positive emotions was finally breached.
The suppressed negative emotions erupted like a volcano in a short span of time, leading to the current state.
But that didn't explain why the Seed had become so withered.
There was no reason for his ability to be canceled out by negative emotions. Such a thing had never happened before, and Dr. Lin had never mentioned it as a possibility.
Therefore, this wasn't just "negative emotion." It was another kind of "Contamination."
Before he had even given the Participant the chips, Ren Yi had felt a sense of "despair" strong enough to make him uncomfortable. This Contamination had likely existed since then.
This Contamination had been planted while they were still "stowaways." Because of this, the entertainment city didn't categorize it as "harm" toward a customer; at most, it was considered an "old injury."
However, this old injury gradually worsened and finally erupted once the Seed Ren Yi planted was broken, ultimately resulting in death.
No wonder the staff looked so unhappy. Theoretically, it seemed someone had "intercepted their kill."
Originally, the ownership of the stowaways belonged to the master of this Contamination. But after Ren Yi's interference, that ownership had become blurred.
Theoretically, the owner had become Ren Yi, but he had already "eaten."
Since these "former stowaways" were on the entertainment city's turf, the city should have had the executive disposal rights after they went through the Instance process.
But the master of the Contamination had tagged them in advance. Now that the tag had been triggered, they had snatched the prize right out from under the city's nose.
Now, things were getting a bit complicated.
"Oh? Looks like someone else snatched the prize and reaped the rewards again, huh?" Dr. Lin leaned nearby, his tone overflowing with schadenfreude, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"What's the story behind that 'again'?" Ren Yi replied, indicating he didn't want to play riddles and wanted him to elaborate.
Just as Dr. Lin finished speaking, the waitress who had been standing quietly suddenly spoke. She ignored him and looked directly at Ren Yi.
"Mr. Ren Yi, you haven't attended university yet, have you?"
Interrupted, Ren Yi turned and nodded.
There was no point in hiding it. Anyone could see that he had only recently awakened.
Since that was the case, the fact that he hadn't been to university was also obvious.
"In that case," the waitress paused, "if you ever need an internship in the future, you could consider our entertainment city."
Ren Yi was stunned.
Wait, that was a rather abrupt transition. Why did this suddenly turn into a recruitment pitch?
Were they interested in his ability?
"But isn't it true that you can't directly lay a hand on customers here?" Ren Yi regained his composure, raising an eyebrow as he thought of that "invincibility."
The corner of the waitress's mouth curved into a faint arc, her tone suggestive. "If you were one of our staff members, your primary job would be to provide certain 'special services.' In that case, it's naturally a different story."
I see. So there's a loophole like that?
As a staff member, certain restricted actions could be categorized as "service" rather than "harm"?
Dr. Lin suddenly chimed in.
"Hey, hey, let me interrupt! What's the pay like? Don't just make empty promises. You're not planning to brush him off with just an internship certificate, are you?"
Hearing this, the waitress gave him an unceremonious eye-roll.
"I'm not that cold-hearted."
"Mr. Ren Yi, if you're interested, we can sit down and discuss the details of an internship contract right now..."
"Oh—" Dr. Lin drawled, a wicked smile playing on his lips. He turned to Ren Yi, covering his mouth with one hand, though his voice remained quite audible.
"Actually, you don't have to be that honest when working here. Besides what's in the contract, I can also teach you how to 'pick some peaches' on the side."
Ren Yi looked at Dr. Lin, then at the waitress, and raised an eyebrow. "You seem awfully familiar with how to reap rewards here."
"Of course! As they say, the things you get for free always taste the best!"
Ren Yi raised an eyebrow. "So, is that your excuse for eating my peaches this morning?"
The smile on Dr. Lin's face stiffened, and he hurriedly let out a couple of light coughs to smooth things over.
"Ahem, no, no. Why do you keep bringing that up? It was just a..."
"Sir," Ren Yi suddenly interrupted him coldly before he could finish.
"This morning, at my house, Dr. Lin ate—"
"It was an apple."
Rate on N.U.
