CH 2.2

“A-Are we safe now?”

Just as he finished his sentence—

Beep!

The indicator let out an ear-screeching beep! The red light flashed again, signaling his second mistake.

“What? But why?!”

Lin Lan was in despair. He followed everything that God X had said in his guide! Why did it turn out like this? Unless… Did he miss anything?

At the same time, their time was decreasing twice as fast as before! 22 minutes 58 seconds… 56 seconds… 54 seconds…

Their actual time left was 11 minutes 27 seconds… 26 seconds…

“G-Ge!” Lin Lan started trembling again. “W-We only have ten more minutes!”

“I-I can’t do this! Ge! Please just leave the game now!”

“And then watch them all die to the bomb?”

Chu Feng looked at all the Xie Shiyus surrounding him. The eighteen-year-old bully was leaning against the back of the chair, hand resting by the window, revealing the tattoo on his forearm. The unbreathable school uniform made him a little hot, but he still looked out at the rapidly changing scenery indifferently. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, giving him a wild yet elegant look.

26-year-old Xie Shiyu sat at the very front, driving the car. He lost the youth that eighteen-year-old and 19-year-old Xie Shiyu had, but was much more mature. He wore a thin holiday flannel, but because the material was so thin, it simply outlined his features. His wide shoulders muscled back… Chu Feng remembers the overwhelming feeling of security every time he hugs him.

All of these Xie Shiyus were unable to register the existence of the bomb. They couldn’t see it, couldn’t hear it, and couldn’t react in any way related to the bomb. They lived without any disruptions in the bus, listening to the clang of metal as the bus moved.

All of these would be followed by a loud booming sound before everything they see disappears into nothing.

“I’m not here to play games with you, Lin Lan.” Chu Feng stood up and said, “I didn’t come here with a “play for fun and quit if I can’t beat it” attitude.”

He looked at the bus full of Xie Shiyus and declared without haste, “I plan to live the rest of my life here with them.”

“Ge!”

Chu Feng ignored him, continuing as if he was the only person in the world, “I could take some time out of my day to see him in the game. Perhaps I could even hope that the system could extract the whole “him,” but modern technology can’t do that yet.”

“So I can’t have any one of them die.”

If any one of them ends up dying, then his Xie Shiyu wouldn’t be complete anymore.

“Ge…”

Chu Feng patted him on the shoulder, faith lacing his voice as he asked, “You won’t urge me to leave like everyone else, right?”

Lin Lan pursed his lips, not saying anything. In his own Dream City lived his deceased mother, he knew what it was like to lose a loved one.

“Since you’ve already decided, then I won’t say anything else. But… what will do with the bomb? There’s still…”

10 minutes and 59 seconds left!

“Do you have any other ideas?” He asked without worry.

Lin Lan used up all the brain juices before turning towards the bus full of Xie Shiyus, “Ge… Since Xie ge’s so overpowered, do you have a Xie Shiyu in your memory that knows how to defuse bombs?”

“Are you taking him as a novel protagonist?” Chu Feng massaged his temples, sighing, “I guess I can only use my backup plan.”

Lin Lan’s jaw flew wide open.

“You had a Plan B this entire time, and you never thought to tell me?? Ge!”

Chu Feng really didn’t want to use this plan as long as he could help it. “Do you know what the Guardian is?”

As an OG player of this game, Lin Lan has naturally heard of the term, “Guardian”. It was similar to the police within Dream Cities. Whenever a player was in danger, they could call them and ask for help. Then, the Guardian would swoop in from the sky as if they were a God and save the player from whatever danger they were in. It was basically every player’s protector.

“Ge… Don’t tell me you’re…”

Lin Lan instantly understood what Chu Feng’s Plan B was.

Couple fights were broken up by civilian officers. Murders were solved by the criminal police. Then who would come if one’s husband had kidnapped their wife and installed a bomb on the bus?

“I wonder what kind of Guardian will come to save us.” The corner of Chu Feng’s lip seemed to inch upwards.

It was clearly meant to be a smile, but all Lin Lan felt was a chill running down his spine. If there was really a bombing in reality, then it’ll definitely blow up on the news. The police would gather a special task force together with bomb disposal experts!

—Naturally, it’d be the same in the game.

The more fatal the danger, the stronger the Guardian.

The Guardian’s speed at defusing bombs would be the fastest.

“But ge… If you call them… Xie ge…”

Xie ge will be caught as a culprit. Once the Guardian has ensured the safety of the player, they would begin to punish the character.

Chu Feng chuckled. “Why do you think I’ve been adamant about keeping his “Character Precision” at 100%?”

Lin Lan froze before understanding everything.

He couldn’t help but curse himself for being dumb enough to persuade his ge to lower the precision.

100% Character Precision meant that the system couldn’t do anything to the character. They were unable to change anything in Chu Feng’s Dream City, every single Xie ge was free to do anything they wanted! Chu Feng was the only one who had a say in how to punish them.

If even the system couldn’t punish them, then neither would the Guardian be able to!

Lin Lan couldn’t help but think that his ge was a genius.

There were almost no players that were as adamant about keeping 100% precision as his ge did. Even if he experienced countless dangers because of it, he still didn’t lower it. The system would use the reasoning of protecting the player to persuade them to lower the Character Precision, and most players would listen without question.

He couldn’t help but wonder what expression the famous Guardian would have when they find out that they couldn’t do anything to punish Xie ge.

“Your account has 134,500 dollars, transaction successful!”

At the same time, Chu Feng’s phone once again sounded with the system’s voice. Lin Lan noticed all the things his ge had bought in the in-game store— blood bags, knives, ropes, a gun, a clown mask…

One of the most expensive things was a super cool handheld bazooka.

[Function] Allows you to kick out anyone from your Dream City.

[Target] This weapon is not limited to annoying relatives, weird friends, and all kinds of unwelcome guests…

“G-Ge… Please don’t tell me you’re thinking what I’m thinking.”

—After the Guardian finished defusing the bomb, blast him away the next instant!!

“What else would I be thinking?” Chu Feng held the bazooka with one hand, swinging it around to get used to its feel. Not bad. “Should I wait for him to kill me instead?”

Lin Lan was flabbergasted. The Guardian was every player’s protector! Yet his ge was thinking about leading the Guardian right by the nose and even thinking about blasting him away the second he was done with him!

“G-Ge, the Guardian will definitely remember who you are next time.”

“Isn’t this just because I have no other choice?” Chu Feng placed the bazooka into his inventory.

—This was all to stay by Xie Shiyu’s side.

Time remaining: 9 minutes 46 seconds

Chu Feng picked up the blood bag, rope, and gun before walking toward the Xie Shiyus.

He undid the buttons meticulously buttoned up, widening his collar to reveal pale skin. School tyrant Xie Shiyu raised his head, whistling at him.

Bang!

The giant bag of things was dropped in front of them.

“I’m getting sick of teacher-student play.” Chu Feng smiled at them and said, “Let’s change it to kidnapper player~”

、

Ring!

Ring!

The ear piercing ringing sound broke the silence in the Guardian Center.

“Hello, this is Guardian 5787 at your service, may I ask what problem you have… Sir?!”

—It was a video call.

And the player on the screen was in terrible shape.

……

The ear piercing alarm was quickly pressed.

“There’s an emergency! A player has been kidnapped! There’s a bomb on the bus!”

“A bomb?! Oh my dog, what has he gotten himself into? I’m transferring this over to the strongest Guardian, where’s X?!”

“…X just had surgery done two days ago, use A instead.”

“I can’t do it! The bomb’s going to explode soon, there’s no way I can defuse it in time. X!! Where are you?” A shouted.

“What’s wrong?”

The hoarse voice sounded just a little enchanting.

A wheelchair wheeled against the marble floor of the Guardian Center with X sitting calmly on top of it.

No one knew that the strongest Guardian, the protector of their dreams, was just a man in a wheelchair in reality.

His face was wrapped in bandages, obstructing them from a clear view of his face, yet they could tell that he was a handsome man through his silhouette alone. Even as he sat in a wheelchair, his back was straight and tall. He must be at least 190cm if he stood up.

But no one cared about how tall he was. X sat in a wheelchair, tilting his head as he looked at everyone with searching eyes. He exuded a kind of despair from being ruined by a major incident. Like Venus de Milo, his beauty seemed to come from his pain.

Every time the other Guardian saw the god like X in the game, then saw the X in reality, they’d always feel a twinge in their heart, feeling an emotion they couldn’t place their hands on. A, who had been adamant about not going, asked in a soft voice, “Are you… okay? If you can’t do it, I’ll go.”

X didn’t say anything, turning silently toward the screen.

—He first saw the hands being tightly bound by ropes.

His pale wrists were bound so tight they were red, even bleeding as his manicured fingers interlocked.

Then he heard the soft cry.

Like a kitten crying for help.

The screen brightened afterward, revealing the gun pressed against the young man’s head.

He squinted his eyes for a better look. It was a real gun.

He had been kidnapped by countless criminals. They wore the same mask and let out the same cruel laughter.

In the next moment, the camera was turned to reveal the hostage’s face.

—It was a gorgeous face.

Little beauty.

Gorgeous and beautiful weren’t exactly words to describe a man, but in that instant, it was all he could think of. He froze in awe as if a hammer had hit him in the head.

Other than being beautiful, that face gave him an inexplicable feeling of… longing.

This feeling made X very confused. He couldn’t even remember his own name, he shouldn’t be capable of feeling something like “longing.”

The beauty on the screen had a face full of tears. His hands were tightly bound and his buttons had been undone. His button-up was roughed up and stained with blood. Even with his hands bound, he still struggled against it. His pale wrists moved, but even the futile struggle seemed to captivate him.

It made him want to break him, yet take care of him at the same time.

Just as he was lost in thought, the beauty on the screen turned his head, revealing the bomb strapped to him with the timer, 4 minutes 56 seconds

His eyes were red with tears, like the ink splatter on the painting “Drizzle in Jiangnan.” He looked at X like he was his only hope.

“Please… Please save me…”

Everyone was waiting for X’s decision.

X just pointed at the screen and asked, “Coordinates?”

“45, 83, 79.” A reported without pause.

Blue brain waves connected with the game’s loading screen.

[X had entered [Lucid Dream City]]

He quickly sent a message to the beauty’s coordinates.

[I’m coming]