EARTH SENIOR PLAYER
Part One
1
I had barely reached the bus stop when a young woman blocked my path.
She was in her early twenties, with a fresh-faced look, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was holding a jianbing—the Chinese breakfast crepe—in one hand, eating as she mumbled at me through a full mouth: "Finally found you!"
"Huh?" I looked her up and down. "Miss, you've got the wrong person."
"No mistake. I'm looking for exactly you. You have to come with me to complete a mission!" She finished off her jianbing and wiped her greasy hands on her clothes.
By then the 711 bus had pulled up, and the crowd of waiting passengers surged forward, poised and ready to fight for seats. I was getting anxious. "Miss, please move. I need to get on."
"No time. You must come with me!" She reached out with her oily hand and grabbed my sleeve. This was a brand-new Armani shirt—first day wearing it, too, because the sales director was holding a department meeting today and I wanted to make a good impression.
"Hey!" I shook off her hand. "I told you, you've got the wrong person!"
"No I don't. I'm looking for you!"
The stares of everyone around us converged on us, laden with all sorts of judgment. An older woman in front turned around and gave me a meaningful look: "Young man, if you did it, you own up. You can't run from this kind of thing."
What was I supposed to say to that?besieged by the judgmental stares of the crowd, my face burning with mortification, I dragged her to a secluded spot around the corner. I glanced back—the bus was already crammed with people, rocking away down the road.
Great. I was going to be late for sure. I said to her, "Who exactly are you, and what do you want?"
"My name is Cheryl. You can call me A'lin."
"A'lin my ass! What do you do?"
She fixed me with an uncharacteristically solemn stare. "I'm the same as you—a senior player."
"Player?" I thought for a moment. I was so busy every day hustling for sales like a dog that I didn't play any games at all. This time, I was certain she had the wrong person. I pushed her aside and started walking away. "Get away from me! If you keep bothering me, I'll call the cops!"
"Owen Quinn!" To my surprise, she called out my name with perfect accuracy.
I turned my head, looking at her in astonishment. "You know me?"
"I just found out, too." She produced an envelope from her pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. Written on it in pencil, in crooked handwriting, was my name—along with my ID number.
"Where did you get my information?" I demanded fiercely.
"From the NPC." Her tone was calm. "I know it's against regulations, but this is urgent. You're the nearest player I could find."
2
Imagine that your entire life is a game—something like a virtual life simulation. Everything you do each day, everything you think, is all happening inside the game. You just don't know it.
Of course, in this game, not everyone is a "player." Most people are just procedurally generated by the program—your boss, your classmates, your friends, even your wife are all game scripts. Their existence is solely to make you feel that this world is more real.
If someone told you all of this, wouldn't you think it was complete nonsense?
That's exactly how this girl named Cheryl explained it to me. Of course I thought it was nonsense.
"I get it. You're an internet addict, a girl who Plays too many games," I reasoned. "Maybe you should find someone like Marcus Webb for treatment."
"It's not a game. What I'm telling you is the truth!" she argued.
"The truth?" I laughed dismissively. "Fine, then. You say I'm in a game. Tell me—where's my real body?"
"Your real body is at the Third Galaxy Zero Spaceport, waiting for a flight to the 3665 Asteroid Cluster Union headquarters. But the flight's been delayed three hours—you got bored, so you downloaded this game into your brain domain."
"Three hours?" My eyes went wide. "I've been living a miserable thirty years, and I still don't have a girlfriend!"
"Game time and real time naturally aren't synchronized. Three hours in the real world can span an entire lifetime in the game. As for your girlfriend problem, you probably selected 'Normal' mode before entering the game, which is why your life is so average."
"Listen, I don't care if you're an internet addict or whatever else, just stop pestering me, OK? Whatever source you got my information from, I'll let it slide. I'm busy—really busy. I haven't closed a single sale in two months. If I'm late again today, I'll definitely get fired, and I still have to wait for my paycheck to pay rent!"
Cheryl shook her head. "Looks like you didn't choose 'Normal' mode. You chose 'Hard' mode."
"Who cares what mode I chose!" I saw another 711 bus pulling up. "Stop bothering me, or I'm going to get rough!"
With that, I sprinted toward the bus—I could see it was nearly empty, with barely any passengers. If I was lucky, I might still get a seat—
Suddenly, a warm body wrapped around me from behind. Cheryl pressed herself against my back and murmured: "Just trust me this once, OK? You really are the closest player I could find...Give me two hours. If I still can't convince you, then I...I'll be your girlfriend."
My whole body went soft—except for one part. This traitorous body of mine.
"Alright...I'll give you one chance."
Cheryl brought me to the back gate of Beiguan Middle School, where we hid in a corner like hunters scouting prey, peeking at the school entrance. I checked my watch—school was about to start. I was thoroughly bewildered: "What are we doing?"
"Shh," she whispered. "In a moment, a kid with dyed yellow hair will appear here. He's the school bully at Beiguan Middle School. I need to take him down."
"Take him down? Why?"
"Take him down, and we'll unlock a side quest."
"What side quest?"
"I don't know yet. We'll only find out after we beat him."
I was utterly speechless. "...Who told you this?"
"The NPC."
"Uh...can you tell me what game we're in?"
"Glory of Earth."
Jesus. The tackiness of that name was overwhelming. But I swallowed it.
We waited at the school gate for about ten minutes. During that time, I read two articles on my phone, ate a meatbun, and even took an outdoor pee. Then a kid with dyed yellow hair actually appeared! He had an arrogant swagger, stopping two passing students, searching through their pockets for a single yuan coin, and then waved them off with satisfaction.
At that moment, Cheryl gave a shout and charged forward. Before I could react, she had already delivered a flying kick, pinning the yellow-haired kid beneath her foot.
I ran over breathlessly. "What the hell are you doing, attacking someone without provocation? He's a student!"
Cheryl ignored me, pressing down on the kid and demanding: "Has the Tyrant fallen into darkness?!"
The yellow-haired kid's chest was pinned firmly under her foot, his face a mask of panic. "I...I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Still won't confess? Talk!"
"I really don't know!"
"Let's see how tough you are!" Cheryl suddenly pulled a small knife from behind her back and pressed it against the kid's throat. "Believe me, I can kill you right here—you won't even respawn!"
This was getting out of hand—this wasn't just internet addiction anymore. I seriously regretted my moment of possessed in agreeing to come with her. If there was a murder, I'd be an accomplice. I fumbled for my phone and was about to dial 110, but before I could press the call button, the yellow-haired kid blurted out:
"T-The Tyrant is Victor Cross, the CEO of Pinnacle Electronics! He really has fallen into darkness—he's about to build a large hadron collider, using particle collision energy to create an artificial black hole and destroy Glory's quantum connection system!"
I stood there holding my phone like an idiot, frozen in place.
"So it's true..." Cheryl gritted her teeth. "Someone really wants to destroy Glory. Has he gone mad?"
"It's got nothing to do with me! I'm not involved in this plan at all, please don't kill me..." The yellow-haired kid begged.
"Get back to class!" Cheryl lifted her foot. "And if you dare breathe a word of today to anyone, I'll skin you alive!"
"I won't, I won't..." The kid, snot and tears streaming down his face, his initial bravado entirely gone, tucked his tail between his legs and ran back into the school.
"What...what the hell is going on?" My mind was blown.
"I'll explain on the way!" Cheryl grabbed me and sprinted toward a taxi parked by the curb. "We have to get to Pinnacle Electronics immediately and stop Victor Cross's plan. One step too late, and this world is finished!"
3