Avenia remained shrouded in pitch darkness.
The once-dazzling city nightscape was gone.
The towering buildings stood in the dark like the carcasses of giant beasts, with only the occasional window glowing with the dim light of emergency lights.
On the streets, the crowds relaxed for a moment before returning to their respective homes, taking advantage of the rare opportunity to reunite with their families and enjoy a bit of leisure time.
Inside the entertainment hall, the representative of the Deep Blue Route—the middle-aged man—saw that the entire island was in trouble and that there were no signs of recovery. He immediately decided to contact his superiors.
He pulled out a specialized communicator and dialed a number.
Once the call connected, he reported everything that had happened in exhaustive detail.
Before he could even finish, his superior interrupted him with a direct order: ignore the chaos in Avenia and return immediately.
Ending the transmission, he put away the communicator. His expression remained entirely unchanged.
Since he had received clear instructions, he didn't want to waste any more time and prepared to leave at once.
The others in the hall had already noticed the Deep Blue Route representative contacting his superiors. Seeing him end the call, a high-level local manager from Avenia immediately rushed over, his face filled with anxiety.
“Mr. Representative, what did the group say? Is there any technical support coming? Our maintenance team might not be capable enough.”
The representative didn't even look at him, walking straight toward the door.
The manager froze for a second before chasing after him. “Mr. Representative? Mr. Representative, you can't just leave like this!”
“Something huge has happened on the island! People are still trapped in the game, we—”
The representative stopped and turned to glance at the manager.
His gaze was ice-cold, as if he were looking at a piece of trash.
“Get lost.”
The manager was startled into taking half a step back, but he quickly mustered his courage again. “But Mr. Representative, we are in a partnership with the Deep Blue Route. You can't just—”
The representative impatiently shoved him aside.
The manager was thrown back with great force, stumbling and nearly falling. By the time he steadied himself, the representative had already walked out of the entertainment hall and vanished into the night.
From beginning to end, there hadn't been a single word of explanation.
Avenia had lost its value; it wasn't worth wasting his breath on. The fact that he hadn't killed anyone on a whim was already an act of mercy.
The representative's departure served as a signal.
The other people present also stood up and began to filter out.
They were the lucky ones who hadn't entered the virtual game. Realizing that a major catastrophe had struck the island, none of them wanted to stay behind and shoulder the risk.
“Thank you for today's hospitality. Farewell.”
“Let's go. We can't stay in this place.”
“My ship is at the harbor. We're leaving immediately.”
A few guests didn't leave right away. Instead, they stood before the sofas, looking at their unconscious companions with conflicted expressions.
“Are we really just going to leave?”
“What else? Are you going to stay here and keep him company?”
“But he is our colleague after all...”
“Don't worry about it. If we try to take him back and something happens on the way, we'll be the ones held responsible. Just let him stay here. The responsibility lies with Avenia. Once the equipment is restored, he'll wake up on his own.”
The speaker shrugged and turned to leave.
The rest followed suit.
The person in a vegetative state on the sofa was left behind.
The same scene played out repeatedly.
Faced with these guests whose consciousnesses were trapped in the game, some chose to wash their hands of the matter, claiming they were 'afraid that moving them would cause secondary injuries.'
Others packed up their unconscious companions along with the gaming equipment to take them away.
Still others sighed hypocritically, offering a few empty platitudes like “We're so sorry, but we have no choice,” before walking away without a second glance.
Ten minutes later, the entertainment hall fell into complete silence.
Only the vegetative guests and a few bewildered local staff members remained.
The manager of Avenia stood at the entrance of the hall, watching the departing figures with a numb expression.
It was over.
He had worked for many years, struggling to climb his way up to this position. He had thought he had secured a golden ticket by hitching his wagon to the Deep Blue Route, believing his future would be bright.
And now?
The virtual game had malfunctioned, the guests were trapped, and the partner had simply walked away.
After such a massive disaster, his career was effectively finished.
Even if everything returned to normal right now, it wouldn't save his reputation.
His heart was filled with desolation, yet he didn't dare to simply give up. He couldn't let the situation get any worse.
He turned to a subordinate and said, “Take care of the guests who were left behind. Station guards, check their vitals regularly, give them IV drips, and turn them over to prevent bedsores.”
“They are all VIPs. Even if they can't wake up, we must keep their bodies in good condition.”
The subordinate nodded and hurried off to make arrangements.
The manager then called over the maintenance captain.
The man was in his forties, wearing a deep blue uniform and looking extremely awkward.
The manager asked, “What’s the progress? When exactly will that equipment be fixed?”
The maintenance captain opened his mouth, hesitating.
The manager frowned. “Speak.”
Sweat began to bead on the captain's forehead.
He stammered for a long time before finally speaking under the manager's piercing gaze. “Well, actually...”
“Actually what?”
“Actually, the maintenance department on the island is just a collection of cushy, do-nothing jobs,” the captain's voice grew smaller and smaller.
The manager was stunned. “What did you say?”
The maintenance captain lowered his head, not daring to look at him. “We don't actually know how to fix those machines.”
The manager's eyes widened, his voice trembling. “How can that be? You're maintenance workers! If you can't fix them, then who the hell can!”
The maintenance captain explained miserably, “All of this equipment was provided by the Deep Blue Route. They only taught us how to operate it, never the underlying principles.”
“And over the years, the equipment never malfunctioned, so... the maintenance department became just a facade. Everyone in it got their jobs through connections. We usually just collected our salaries and did nothing.”
“We thought we could keep this up until retirement. Who could have known...”
Hearing this, the manager felt the world spinning around him.
The epoch-making technology on the island, the core that supported all of Avenia's operations, was nothing more than a tech black box!
They knew what every button did, but they had no idea how it worked inside.
Once a malfunction occurred, they could only stand there and stare.
“You've really never repaired any of the equipment?” the manager asked, his voice airy.
“Not once. All the previous maintenance reports were faked to secure funding,” the captain told the truth.
In the face of such a catastrophic incident, lying was completely pointless.
The manager's body swayed. His vision went dark, and he fell straight back.
With a loud thud, he hit the floor.
“Manager? Manager!”
Several subordinates cried out and crowded around him. Some pinched his philtrum, while others took the opportunity to slap his face to wake him.
But the manager could no longer hear anything.
His consciousness sank into the darkness, never wanting to wake up and face reality again.
Rate on N.U.
