Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Squeak!
Ye Kong opened the apartment door to a long, dark corridor. The lights outside weren’t working, so all the residents living on the 8th Floor of Block 26, Xingheng District, had to find their way to their apartments in the dark.
Thankfully, Ye Kong’s eyesight was pretty good, so he didn’t have to worry about feeling his way around in the dark.
Ye Kong shut the door to his apartment and took the path he remembered, walking straight to the central elevator lobby. When he managed to press the elevator call button, and it lit up, he could finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Whew. It’s so cold and dark in this old apartment building.
“My little sister comes home to this every day…”
When Ye Kong thought about Ye Bai doing this every night, feeling her way through the dark to get home, guilt and heartache welled up inside him. In his past life, he had wasted his life away surfing the internet and staying cooped up at home. He had depended on Ye Bai for all his living expenses.
On the other hand, Ye Bai continued to be his silent provider, never saying a single word of complaint. She even bought the VR helmet for him after saving money for a long time—The prize money she received wasn’t enough to afford the helmet.
Maybe, from her point of view, making her older brother happy was worth all her efforts.
This tolerance, which bordered on “spoiling,” had lasted until the end of her days…
Thunk.
The elevator doors slid open, and the bright light from within shone out, casting a shadow behind him, and highlighting the ugliness he felt inside. Just like in his past life, he had been living in his room, never stepping into the world outside.
Patter!
Ye Kong lifted his foot and stepped down forcefully onto the shadow he cast—
As though he were taking his regrets from his past life…
And erasing them.
…….
Huff~!
Ye Kong walked out of the apartment building and was greeted with a cold gust of wind, which sent a shiver through his body. His fatigue from before had been swept away, and now all he felt was the weakness of his current body and the cold.
Presently, it was well into winter.
It was the year 2107 of the Earth Federation, near the end of December, and the days were growing increasingly colder.
“It’s so cold…”
Ye Kong scrunched down his neck and, walking into the cold breeze, headed for the outskirts of Xingheng District.
It was because Uncle Wang’s convenience store was situated at the periphery of Xingheng District. Uncle Wang’s full name was Wang Yuwu, and he used to be a good friend of Ye Kong’s father. From what Ye Kong heard, his father and Wang Yuwu were university classmates, and were as close as brothers, sharing the same room as well.
As such, when Ye Kong’s parents passed away unexpectedly, Wang Yuwu had made sure to take good care of the Ye family siblings—
He ran a small convenience store that clearly had no need for any additional staff, but he still hired Ye Bai as a store assistant. He even paid her a salary higher than what the average part-timer would get, providing the Ye family siblings with a source of income.
Ye Bai’s job of helping out at the store was, in reality, more like going over to hang out with Uncle Wang’s daughter, Wang Sitao.
To tell the truth, Uncle Wang was much more “loyal” than their other Ye family relatives.
In times of adversity, people’s true colors come out.
Ye Kong turned a corner, leaving the residential area and coming to the main central road. On the whitewashed walls along the road, some red horizontal banners were hanging. They were mainly New Year’s Day banners, and they brought a sliver of warmth to the chill of winter.
“That’s right. As I recall, during the worldwide live broadcast of the New Year Party this upcoming New Year’s Day…”
Ye Kong shook his head. If he was remembering correctly—
During the upcoming New Year’s Day, the Federal Government would hold a New Year Party, with “Demon Realm” as its main theme of the night.
It would be the first time in history that a New Year Party was organized with a “virtual reality game” as its main theme.
It also represented the resolute will of the Federal Government.
Come to think of it, that prominent television host in the Federation, Shen Yanxin, was hosting the New Year Party as well…
On the main central road, Ye Kong looked into the distance. Even though it wasn’t that late yet, there wasn’t a single pedestrian to be seen. It was likely that everyone was playing “Demon Realm.” Either that, or they were in one of the entertainment venues, indulging in their hedonistic nightlife.
The only other thing on the streets was a group of cylindrical cleaning robots, “diligently” cleaning the streets.
These kinds of robots had stolen a large majority of menial work positions— Positions in the cleaning industry, manufacturing industry, food delivery industry, transportation industry, construction industry, and so on. Even though they were deprived of artificial intelligence and could only perform the simplest menial tasks, they had still “liberated” a lot of human resources.
In human society, only positions in industries such as the service industry and the sales industry weren’t filled by robots, because they still required human sensitivity. Under these circumstances, it was unavoidable that the core industries of the world would move away from the tangible world, and into the virtual world.
For this reason, “Demon Realm” not only became mankind’s core industry, but also came to influence other industries in the future. It was just like how the Internet of the past century had integrated itself into all aspects of human life and influenced the way society as a whole operated.
This was something that Ye Kong, who had been rebirthed, understood the most clearly—
This was his greatest advantage, and his chance to take his fate into his own hands.
Very quickly, Ye Kong had made his way to the outskirts of Xingheng District. He saw the “Night Cat Convenience Store,” and inside it, Ye Bai was sitting behind the checkout counter, chatting with another cute girl who looked like a junior high school student.
“I’ve found it. As expected, it was located over here.”
Delighted, Ye Kong immediately walked to the convenience store and pushed open its glass doors.
“Welcome… big brother?!”
Ye Bai turned to look. At first, she was shocked, but then she hurriedly rushed over to receive him.
“Big brother, why did you come here?”
“I’m here to pick you up…”
“What on earth do you mean, pick me up? The weather is so cold today. You should have just stayed home. Don’t give me more things to worry about.”
Even though Ye Bai was reprimanding him, her dimpled cheeks were blushing. It seemed like she was struggling to keep calm, and if not for her sheer force of will, she might have shouted with joy.
“Really now, you came out wearing so little clothes?”
Ye Bai drew closer, discovering that her own older brother had only put on an overcoat. She immediately raised her eyebrows, then took off the down jacket she was wearing and forced it on Ye Kong. “The next time you leave the house, remember to put on some proper clothes. How old are you, anyway? Stop making me worry…”
“Don’t, don’t, don’t. I’m not cold…”
“Be quiet, and put it on!”
Ye Bai raised her sleek eyebrows in a frown, and she tried putting the jacket on him more forcefully. Because his body was still “untrained,” Ye Kong didn’t have the strength to resist his little sister, and she managed to force him into her jacket.
At that moment, wrapped in Ye Bai’s clothes, Ye Kong felt his body warm up. The faint fragrance of a young lady emanated from the jacket and floated up into his nostrils, putting him into a “trance.”
It has to be explained that the siblings had similar body shapes. Ye Kong was only half a head taller than Ye Bai, and in terms of figure, Ye Bai was on the slender side, while Ye Kong was somewhat emaciated…
As such, Ye Kong’s little sister’s down jacket was a pretty good fit for him.
“Huh. Big Brother Ye—”
At this point, Uncle Wang’s daughter, Wang Sitao, circled around Ye Kong, and couldn’t help making fun of him:
“Big Sister Ye’s clothes fit pretty well on you!”
Hearing this, Ye Kong finally snapped out of it. Seeing his sister’s “accusatory” expression, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry:
“I just came here to pick you up…
“I didn’t come here to ‘cross-dress.'”