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“Quick! The fire here is too big, the whole building will collapse at this point!” The system fairy that had a head of burned hair was wailing.
Crash!
The charred door frame collapsed, and was reduced to ashes in the fire. The curtains, bed, and blankets were all just a patch of red, all of them letting out a terrifying crackle, like a never-ending firecracker. Thick rolls of smoke surrounded them. They had all inhaled too much carbon monoxide.
Chu Feng carried an oxygen tank on his back and held Popsicle Xiao Shiyu in his arms. Both of them were wearing oxygen masks.
Chu Feng ran through the scorching flame, dragging the system with him as he ordered, “Break the window open.”
“What? How dare a mere human or—AHHHH!”
Chu Feng lifted the system fairy up and threw it out like a meteor hammer1The meteor hammer (Chinese: 攁星錘; pinyin: liĂșxÄ«ng chuĂ­), often referred to simply as meteor (Chinese: 攁星; pinyin: liĂșxÄ«ng), is an ancient Chinese weapon, consisting at its most basic level of two weights connected by a rope or chain.
Sizzle!
The window shattered upon impact, letting oxygen from the surroundings rush in. The fire within the dorm instantly burst, burning more powerful than ever. The system fairy had been in the direct path of the fire, its hair was now even more charred.
It lay on the side of the windowsill, the aluminum frame of the window was red from the heat. The system fairy couldn’t stop wailing. It didn’t even dare curse Chu Feng out.
Chu Feng rushed over with [Popsicle Xiao Xie]. Outside the window was the vertical lift.
“Bring him down.”
The system grumbled and was just about to threaten him when it realized—
That’s not right.
“Where are you going!?”
“There’s still one more inside.”
“Are you crazy? He’s just a character!!” The system fairy shot forward and sunk its teeth into Chu Feng’s protective suit.
“Get out! I’ll be questioned if you die in the game!! There are still so many Xie Shiyus in the game, does it matter if one of them dies!? There’s only 6 minutes left and you don’t even know where he is. Are you trying to die? How could you just rush into such a big fire??”
He was just about to answer when he felt something pulling his sleeve.
Chu Feng turned back and found that the Xiao Shiyu on the lift had woken up and grabbed him with his small hands.
“T-The lift
” He coughed.
“The last one’s in the lift?!”
Xiao Xie nodded his head, putting his oxygen mask back on.
Chu Feng just remembered that there was a playroom on the third floor of the kindergarten. Xie Shiyu used to love going there to play with the water gun when he was done for the day. He would have to go back there just before school ended to return it.
Chu Feng turned around and rushed into the sea of flames.
The scorching heat surged forward to welcome him.
、
The sunset outside the balcony was red as blood.
Seeing his ge lying on the bed without moving, Lin Lan tremblingly turned on his phone.
120! 120! Call the emergency hotline, 120!
“Hello? M-My ge fainted and won’t wake up! We’re at Donghua Road, 58 Xinqiao Garden, block 3, #27-08. Can you please send an ambulance?”
“Right away. Can you tell me the age of the patient, their medical history, and what symptoms they’re experiencing?”
“Uh
 It’s
 He uh—he’s playing [Lucid Dream City] and he won’t wake up.”
“
”
Lin could feel the person on the other side of the phone pausing, no doubt assigning his ge the label of “teenager addicted to games.”
“I’m really sorry, but this is an emergency center. Even if you bring that person to the hospital, we still won’t be able to save them.”
Lin Lan opened his mouth, but nothing came out. His ge’s body didn’t have any injuries in reality, so it was technically true that no hospital could cure him.
“If your ge is addicted to games and is unable to face reality, I recommend you to contact the Game Addiction Center. If your ge is in danger within the game, then please contact their Guardian Center. 120 is unable to help you with your troubles.”
“
A-Alright. I’m sorry for disturbing you.”
Lin Lan put the phone down, cold sweat sliding down his palms.
There was no way he’d be able to go to the Game Addiction Center, and he couldn’t call the Guardian Center from reality, he could only do so in-game. His ge would definitely have solved the problem if there was one in the game. He managed to completely fool the Guardians last time. If he couldn’t call them this time, that meant he was in a situation where even calling for help wouldn’t do anything.
What to do? What to do?
Lin Lan stood, at a loss, before spinning around and opening the drawer of Chu Feng’s wardrobe, searching frantically for a backup helmet for [Lucid Dream City].
If his ge hadn’t woken up after so long, then it must mean something happened in his Dream City.
Lin Lan took the helmet and laid on the ground. There was only one way now—he would have to go there himself.
Wait a second.
As the blue brain waves were connecting, Lin Lan hesitated.
There were currently only two people in the house. Chu Feng has gotten into trouble in his Dream City. If someone as strong as his ge was in trouble, then as a noob himself, could he really just swoop in and save the day if he went in?
If he went in and got in trouble too, then there would be no one in reality to wake his ge up anymore.
If his ge really couldn’t wake up, at least in reality, he could stay and bring him to the hospital for an IV injection. If he also went in and couldn’t save them, then both of them would have to wait for his neighbor to call the police for two corpses.
—Right now, his best bet was to stay and watch his ge’s body while someone that was just as powerful could go into his ge’s Dream City and see what was wrong.
Lin Lan’s mind instantly provided him with the image of a metallic gray coat and that silver gun that never missed—
God X!
、
Beep—
On a random island in the Pacific Ocean, Guardian Center Training Room.
X took his helmet off for the 13th time today and returned to reality. Turning on his phone, he checked his WeChat.
[Messages: 0]
The beauty had a profile picture of a large black cat plushie, resting at the top of his messages silently.
He clicked into their messages and saw the invitation to the ball.
—There was no reply.
X went into Google and searched:
Time Difference.
He remembered that the beauty looked Chinese and spoke Chinese back then, so he should be in China. The time difference here and in China shouldn’t be that big though

It’s entirely possible that the little beauty lives overseas in a country that has a huge time difference, so he hasn’t seen the message yet.
X got out of WeChat, then went back into it. Again and again, but his messages were still 0.
This unfamiliar feeling of anticipation made X feel odd. Because he had amnesia, he had never been interested in anyone or anything—until now.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
“X, are you done using the training room?” A knocked on the door.
“Mhm.”
X put down the helmet, spun his wheelchair around, and rolled out of the room.
Beep!
As he walked out, the plate next to the door announced, “Highest ranked Guardian, X. Total time used, 183 minutes. Time spent practicing, 13 minutes. Time spent looking at WeChat, 170 minutes. Congratulations, you have achieved the title, [Incompetent].”
X: 

ABCD standing outside the training room: Wow~
、
Thousands of kilometers away, in China

Lin Lan managed to find Chu Feng’s phone.
Thank god I stopped ge from deleting God X’s WeChat last time! Now, I just have to contact him

Turning on the phone, he was immediately greeted with.
[Please enter the password]
Lin Lan: 

What’s the password?
Lin Lan was at a loss.
“Ge
”
He looked down and found Chu Feng’s brow creasing, drops of sweat resting on his forehead. He looked like he was in pain.
What’s going on in his Dream City?!
Lin Lan was losing hair with how worried he felt. He didn’t know what was going on, nor did he know what to do. After finally finding a solution, he realized that he didn’t know the phone’s password! He wasclose to going crazy!
、
In the fire

“Hey—! You’re insane! Come back here!”
The system fairy shouted for Chu Feng from behind, but its screams had been heartlessly swallowed by the fire.
Chu Feng didn’t even turn back as he disappeared into the sea of red.
The system fairy jumped around in anger. It didn’t manage to stop the player, Chu Feng, and so it could only drag the 5-year-old Xiao Shiyu onto the vertical lift, cursing, “Psychos. They’re all psychos
 Humans are all weirdos when they go insane!”
The vertical lift activated and brought [Popsicle Xiao Xie] safely away from the fire.
On Chu Feng’s side

Black smoke covered every inch of his vision.
Chu Feng panted against the oxygen tank, unable to tell right from left, up from down.
The lift was placed at the back door, in the southeast corner.
The fire was too hot, even the roof was beginning to melt, and the cement and stone collapsed with a crash. It wouldn’t take long before even the metal beams holding it together would also start melting. By then, the entire place would come crashing down.
Chu Feng put on his helmet, bent down, kept his head low, and ran towards the lift.
、
In reality

The anxious Lin Lan looked around and caught sight of the wall of pictures from the corner of his eyes, all the pictures of Xie ge still happily alive hung on it.
Lin Lan stared at it for a while until—
He figured it out!
The password was six digits long.
Lin Lan quickly put in Xie ge’s birthday and birth year.
[XX1109]
Ding!
The home screen flashed onto the phone. He managed to unlock it!
、
In the fire

The lift door was sealed tightly.
As Chu Feng ran over, he still held a sliver of hope. He didn’t know which floor Xiao Shiyu had gotten stuck on while in the lift, where exactly he was, nor whether or not the electric wires in the lift had caught on fire yet

When Chu Feng saw the scene with his own eyes, his heart had completely frozen over.
Through the slit of the lift door, Chu Feng could see the interior of the lift burning bright with red flames.
The lift had completely caught on fire! Stuck in the lift, Xiao Shiyu had nowhere to hide.
Relevant information on fire evacuation instantly popped up in Chu Feng’s mind. When in a fire, escaping through the lift should be the last option. The material used to make lifts didn’t have high melting points. Once the fire started going, the lift was very likely to lose control, deform, get stuck, or even worse, turn into a sea of electricity. A burning lift could also produce the stack effect, and the vertical passage made it easy to remove smoke while stoking the fire, further threatening the safety of people in the lift and accelerating the spread of the fire in the building.
What was even worse than that was the lift could be stuck in between two floors. Xiao Shiyu couldn’t escape from the inside and it was difficult to save him from the outside.
Time remaining: 5 minutes
Chu Feng took out a wrench from his backpack and dug it into the slit between the elevator doors.
This was the first time he had ever wished he made a fire station in his Dream City.
、
In reality

Lin Lan instantly opened the WeChat on Chu Feng’s phone, clicking open X’s chat and sending a message.
[Are you there?]
Lin Lan hesitated for a second before deciding, Screw it. This is an emergency, I might as well just call him.
His heart thumped against his ribcage. After all, God X was just his ge’s online friend and God X seemed to be someone who valued his privacy. He probably didn’t accept calls from strangers.
But most importantly

What if God X wasn’t online?!
Ding!
Before the call had time to start ringing, it had already been picked up.
It had happened so fast that Lin Lan almost thought the call didn’t go through.
X: “Hello?”
It was mesmerizing the way his hoarse voice sounded, then Lin Lan frantically answered back.
“Ah! God X!” Lin Lan frantically answered, “I’m the cousin of the player you saved last time, I’m really sorry for disturbing you! My ge is trapped in his Dream City right now and won’t wake up. I don’t know what to do
”
On the other side of the phone, X instantly understood what he was trying to say and quickly offered him a solution.
“If I don’t send you any messages in an hour, bring your ge to the hospital and give him an IV drip.”
“Yes, yes!”
However, Lin Lan was still a little worried.
“Then how long would it take for you to get to my ge’s Dream City—it won’t waste too much of your time, I was just hoping you could take a look
”
“I’m already here.”
Lin Lan: ??
Isn’t that a bit too fast??