novelraw Chapter 70
Chapter 70
The park.
The air was heavy.
Old Li, unshaven and hollow-eyed, sat beside Su Wangchuan on a bench, looking utterly lost.
His mental state was bleak and bewildered. With a face full of remorse, he told Su Wangchuan everything he knew.
After Heipi was dismissed by the company, he and his girlfriend began searching online for any news related to 《Spirit Realm》, hoping to join another game studio and make a comeback.
But after days of searching, they found nothing at all.
And as time went on, the two of them realized that Heipi’s body was growing weaker and weaker, until he finally had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
The hospital issued a diagnosis:
Severe malnutrition.
It was the kind of condition one would see in someone who had not eaten for days.Yet the doctors found that Heipi’s stomach and intestines were normal.
They studied it for a long time…
They put him on all kinds of nutrient infusions, but none of it worked.
Heipi’s condition continued to worsen.
Then the hospital issued a critical condition notice.
Heipi’s parents rushed over. By then, Heipi’s consciousness was already fading. Only a few hours later, he stopped breathing.
His girlfriend could not endure it. She fled.
Unable to find her, Heipi’s parents went to Old Li, who had been in closer contact with Heipi.
Because Old Li lived in the same district as him.
They wanted to know what Heipi had experienced before everything happened…
But Old Li was bound by the company’s confidentiality clause. He stammered and could not say anything.
To avoid Heipi’s parents, he could only temporarily apply for lodging in the Warring States Building.
After searching for a long time without finding anyone, Heipi’s parents had no choice but to leave.
Yet Old Li found himself increasingly unable to make sense of it all.
He had gone to the hospital to see Heipi…
That diagnosis felt strange.
Even now, the doctors could not understand it.
All of Heipi’s symptoms were as if he had been deprived of food for many days—no grain, no water—until he had been starved to death.
But in this era, who starved to death?
Old Li chewed on the question day after day, until he suddenly remembered something.
In the wooden house in Blackstone Village, there had been several days when he always smelled a stench—like the smell of a corpse…
But after Heipi died, the stench disappeared.
“…”
Hearing this, Su Wangchuan felt a chill rise from nowhere. Gooseflesh erupted across his chest and back as he stared at Old Li in disbelief.
Old Li stared fixedly at the ground and continued as if speaking only to himself.
“Then I had a truly terrifying thought…”
“Is it possible…”
“That it’s because the character in the game couldn’t get food and was starved to death?”
“And then…”
“Heipi died too.”
“…”
Su Wangchuan’s scalp went numb.
Old Li’s conjecture made him feel as though he were hearing a ghost story in the dead of night. A cold dread crawled over him.
“Old Li.”
“You’ve been under too much stress lately, and you’re starting to imagine things.”
“Do not think so much.”
“Get some rest.”
Su Wangchuan could only try to comfort him.
“Since Heipi’s parents have already left, you should go back home and live with your sister-in-law and your child… What happened to Heipi has nothing to do with you. You don’t need to blame yourself.”
Old Li wore an uncertain, suspicious expression as he stared at Su Wangchuan.
“Do you remember that incident in our city park… when a wild beast ate someone?”
“I remember. What about it?”
Su Wangchuan nodded.
That incident had happened a long time ago.
Old Li’s next sentence made Su Wangchuan’s blood run cold.
“Do you really think a few wild beasts would just wander into a city for no reason?”
“…”
It felt as though Su Wangchuan’s soul had been struck by electricity.
He suddenly understood what Old Li meant.
But he did not dare to believe it.
Old Li’s hypothesis was too terrifying.
If it truly was connected to 《Spirit Realm》—if a character’s death in the game ultimately meant death in the real world as well…
This…
Su Wangchuan did not dare to continue the thought.
Just then, Old Li seemed about to say something else.
A phone ringtone suddenly rang out.
Old Li swallowed the words that had reached his lips. He picked up his phone and glanced at the caller ID. Instinctively, he turned his head toward the Warring States Building not far away.
Su Wangchuan followed his gaze.
On the seventy-fifth floor, a light was on.
It seemed there were several figures standing there, watching in this direction.
Old Li shuddered. His expression turned tense.
“Forget it.”
“Maybe I really am overthinking it.”
“Wangchuan, go back. I remember you get up very early every day.”
“I’m leaving!”
With the phone in hand, he hurried toward the Warring States Building in a fluster.
Su Wangchuan stood frozen in place, watching Old Li’s bleak, thin silhouette as it retreated. For no clear reason, a terrible premonition rose within him.
The information Old Li had revealed was nothing short of shocking.
Heipi’s death.
The corpse in the park that had been eaten by beasts.
And the thing Old Li had been about to say, yet never said…
Every detail was explosive.
Every detail pointed toward 《Spirit Realm》.
Su Wangchuan took a slow breath.
That sudden phone call had cut Old Li off.
Yet Su Wangchuan could already vaguely guess what Old Li had intended to say next.
If the death of a game character in 《Spirit Realm》 truly caused the real-world player to die, then when Tianshui Village had been massacred, the Warring States Game Studio had expelled eleven players.
If he could find out whether those eleven people were alive or dead, he could find the answer.
So…
Were those people still alive?
A question formed in Su Wangchuan’s heart.
If they had all truly died…
There should have been traces in the outside world.
Su Wangchuan desperately wanted to find out immediately.
After all—
He himself was also a player of 《Spirit Realm》.
If 《Spirit Realm》 was truly that dangerous, then his own situation would also become perilous.
Thinking of that, Su Wangchuan felt cold from head to toe. He no longer had any desire to walk. Silently, he returned to the Warring States Building and went back to his residence.
It was destined to be another sleepless night.
Su Wangchuan thought through many things.
Over the past three months, his physical condition had become almost excessively strong.
In truth, countless signs had already shown that 《Spirit Realm》 was no ordinary game.
Changes to the game character directly affected the body in the real world.
He simply had not expected that the death of a game character might truly lead to the player’s death in reality.
That…
Was terrifying.
No one could remain calm in the face of such a possibility.
Su Wangchuan could accept becoming as strong as his in-game character, but he could not accept dying alongside it.
He had only come here to earn money…
He had not come here to gamble with his life.
After drifting into a hazy sleep, the alarm sounded the next day. He hurriedly ate the breakfast delivered by the robot, then logged into the world of 《Spirit Realm》.
“Room Master! Morning!”
“Room Master!”
…
Along the way, the apprentices greeted him proactively.
Yet Su Wangchuan looked troubled, weighed down by thoughts, until he ate the meat buns Chen Ergou brought him and stepped onto the forging table. Only then did the muscle memory that had sunk into his bones finally awaken his focus and spirit.
The powerful clang of iron and the steady rhythm gradually drove the suffocating gloom from his chest, little by little.
CLICK HERE to Rate/Review