Chapter 366 Temporary Farewell

Chapter 366: Temporary Farewell

"Ding-ding!"

"Thank you to all the helpful residents of 'Honghuai City' who, even in death, protected the peace of the city's nights for these seven days. It is thanks to the help of all the kind citizens that the nights of 'Honghuai City' have finally returned to peace, and you can finally sleep peacefully again."

When the administrator's voice rang out again, the previously playful tone had become both impassioned and awkward.

"I believe all you enthusiastic citizens have had an unforgettable time in 'Honghuai City.' It's a pity that game time is limited, and you residents can only leave this perfect and happy city with regret, returning to the real world."

"All things suffer because of memory, and yet find joy in it."

"...Congratulations to everyone for successfully clearing the game once again. May you continue to enjoy the blessings of the Red Moon." After a string of strange sentiments, the administrator's words once again became programmatic.

"You may now choose to remain in the nightmare world or return to the real world immediately. Dear resident, if you choose to remain in the nightmare world, you will be sent to a relatively safe area. If you choose to return to the real world, you will be sent back to the location where you were before the game began."

"Please state your choice aloud."

"The real world," Su Bai chose again.

"Dear resident, you will now be heading to the real world to face real life and create new memories."

"Lu... Wu... Si..."

As the administrator's countdown began, Su Bai's mind was filled with memories of his experiences in "Honghuai City" over the past few days.

This game itself was a script written by Su Xuan specifically for his younger brother. Most of the script revolved around the Su family's three-story house, until Su Bai unexpectedly exited the script, causing everything to change. For the players who entered this nightmare game with Su Bai, although they were briefly mentioned in the script, they weren't the focus. Therefore, even though the players regained their memories and exited the script after "dying," Su Xuan didn't make any additional arrangements for them; he simply let them wander around "Honghuai City" as "deceased" individuals.

However, just as Su Xuan said, something was already amiss in this city before Su Bai and the others arrived. The city's weather and the flow of energy were all closely related to Su Xuan's emotions. When he was on the verge of an emotional breakdown upon learning the news from the real world, the puppets playing the roles of citizens in the city began to mutate.

Aside from Su Xuan's familiar neighbors and his mother Lin Wan's friends, these puppet citizens were almost entirely absent from Su Xuan's script, their actions and speech limited to mechanical behaviors. These mutated puppets began to forcibly break free from the script, but since even the Ghost Witch couldn't create puppets with true consciousness, these puppets seemed more like bizarre creatures mutated under the influence of the Red Moon's power, possessing a certain degree of aggression due to the special materials used to make them.

These were things that Su Bai had confirmed with his dear brother before leaving "Honghuai City."

Since "Honghuai City" had become a game setting, things often needed to be done according to procedure, much like going to a government office. At the very least, the players shouldn't notice anything amiss with the game. Therefore, Su Xuan ultimately abandoned the idea of sending his younger brother and the other players away directly, instead letting them stay in the city to complete the seven-day survival mission.

In Su Bai's view, the remaining tasks were not difficult for the players. Although the mutated freaks could no longer be restored to their original state, Su Xuan's mood had improved, and the value representing the degree of mutation on the commercial street's large screen was continuously decreasing, showing no upward trend. It seemed unlikely that new freaks would appear.

But even so, things were not so easy for players entering "Honghuai City." After all, the number of freaks already existing in the city was beyond their expectations. Especially on the second day of the game, when most players were in a state of amnesia, after that torrential rain, almost half of the doll-like citizens had mutated into bizarre and grotesque creatures.

Even though Su Bai and Zhuang Anping had secretly dealt with many freaks, eliminating all of them was still an expected protracted battle for the other players.

Aside from lone players like Su Bai, most of the remaining players had joined Chen Hai's team in the Candlelight Society. This largest team gathered nearly thirty players, with Chen Hai naturally as the leader.

If it weren't for the fact that the relevant department's team was more stable and orderly, Zhuang Anping would have been more inclined to join the more powerful Candlelight Society. The same was true for most ordinary players entering the game. Regardless of whether these players currently had their own teams and factions, facing the legendary president of the Candlelight Society, the players in the team tried their best to fight against the freaks, hoping to gain an opportunity to join the Candlelight Society in front of Chen Hai.

This also meant that Su Bai, who was discreetly hidden in the shadows, didn't get a clear look at how powerful the president of the Candlelight Society truly was. All he could see was that President Chen, who rarely had a chance to act, seemed to use a gun-shaped weapon, just like Chen Xi. Moreover, that gun didn't look like a physical weapon; it was more like a manifestation of some power, occasionally transforming from a gun into other weapon shapes.

When Su Bai was secretly hunting freaks, he had also heard deafening roars from the players' team. When he got closer, he saw other players looking at Chen Hai in the middle of the team with shock, so he figured that the commotion must have been Chen Hai's doing.

As the president of the Candlelight Society, Chen Hai's ability to navigate the nightmare world certainly didn't rely on vast wealth; his own power must also be extremely formidable.

However, perhaps because Chen Hai stood so high and saw so far, with Chen Xi's help in keeping the secret, he never noticed Su Bai and his companions hiding in the nearby shadows until the end of the game. It was Chen Xi who, while Chen Hai wasn't paying attention, secretly gave Su Bai and his companions her contact information in the real world, otherwise, they wouldn't know when they would meet again.

After the freaks in "Honghuai City" were almost cleared out, Su Bai even said goodbye to Zhuang Anping and quietly returned to the three-story house in the city, spending a leisurely time with Su Xuan... and the puzzles.

Then came the end of the game. Su Bai ate the wontons, which were still far from his mother's cooking, and listened to the administrator's voice, reluctantly saying to Su Xuan—

"Goodbye."

"Brother."

Although he didn't know when they would meet again, Su Bai knew they would.

And just as Su Xuan and Yao said, they were always there.