Chapter 77: Virus

Upon returning to the real world, Bai Yan maintained his standing position, lost in thought.

The game’s seventh level was extremely tough, trickier than his experience with the past six levels. During difficult levels, having only courage and carefulness was already not enough as your fate still depended on luck.

If your luck was bad, even if your ability to find the way out was good, it still didn’t matter.

Moreover, the NPCs in the difficult levels were not to be trifled with.

It was his first time seeing an NPC’s life being more substantial than a player’s.

“Speaking of which, how did we clear the level? Why did Liu Xiyu suddenly wake up?”

Bai Yan tried to recall all the events that occurred during this level. At the very end of the game, Liu Xiyu had successfully escaped the dreadful cellar, and according to the young girl’s words, the only way for her to wake up was to clear the game.

Yet, in the last room, they didn’t do anything, and Liu Xiyu merely stared at the picture, later crying at her mother’s posthumous picture.

Once he was through reading the discussions, he opened a browser and searched some ingenious items on his phone, opening his mind’s horizons.

Time had passed quickly…

It was midnight. Bai Yan was a bit tired and planned on closing his phone to rest.

However, he closed the application, he abruptly discovered that one more application popped up on his phone.

Beside the ‘Frontline of Hell’ App was another application that he had never seen before.

This app had no name, only appearing in a lump of pitch-black mass.

If it weren’t for it being beside ‘Frontline of Hell’ and also because of the app, Bai Yan grew more vigilant towards these kinds of tricks. In his extremely disorganized phone’s space, he may not have spotted this.

Seeing the strange and unfamiliar app, Bai Yan’s sleepiness dissipated as he began to be engrossed in examining it.

What’s this situation?

Could it be that the app was already unsatisfied by itself and started to duplicate?

That wasn’t possible since the new app and the old app had different covers. Furthermore, it didn’t have the conspicuous yet compelling aura that the app had. It wasn’t much of the app’s copy, so much it was an inferior version of the app.

So, the old app might have given birth to this new app. But, it was also possible that these two apps weren’t connected at all. Or, he couldn’t say for sure if these two were competitors.

Bai Yan held his phone, his eyes shifting between the two apps. He was indeed interested in the app that had appeared out of nowhere.

Yet, at that time when he first opened the app, the searing pain from the ghost that chopped him up into tiny pieces was still fresh in his mind. If he opened the new one, would it be the same as the app and swallow him?

‘Why don’t I try?’

Bai Yan’s claws began to stir.

It was like the time he realized that there were ghosts and still couldn’t help tapping on the app. After trying to resist for a long time, he couldn’t bear it any longer and pressed it, opening up the new trinket.

One, two, three…

Bai Yan counted this in his heart, wanting to see if the new app had started and if he would also be brought to another terrifying game that would make him struggle for his life.

But, even after three seconds, nothing happened.

Bai Yan looked around and saw that he was still sitting on the chair. His person was alive, and his body didn’t ache. His head was still on top of his shoulders, and a ghost didn’t emerge from his body.

Except, his phone had suddenly gone black.

“…”

Sensing that this wasn’t a supernatural event, did his phone contract a virus?

Bai Yan was a bit sluggish.

Could a phone that loaded the app still get a virus? The forum didn’t say anything about this!

Could his phone still be used?

Gazing at the pitch-black screen, Bai Yan sunk into contemplation.

If the other players saw that their phone got a virus, maybe they’d cry with tears of joy, clouded with the hope that they might have escaped.

When Bai Yan saw black on his phone’s screen, he felt as if the sky were falling. He shook his phone for a bit, holding his breath as he tried to restart his device.

After a few seconds, his phone rebooted.

Fortunately, his phone was still alive.

Bai Yan felt extremely relieved. He took a quick look, and the app, as well as his phone, were all the same, still working and free from any viruses.

He had another look at it, unwilling to give up and not believing this sudden oddity had turned out to be a virus.

With this kind of mentality controlling him, he gave up all reason and pressed it once more.

“…”

The phone went black again.

Restarting his phone again, this time, Bai Yan didn’t court disaster anymore. He was also afraid that his phone might get broken after playing with it a couple of times more when he still had a large reward he hadn’t claimed yet.

Knowing full well that the new app was merely a virus, Bai Yan attempted to delete it, but it seemed like it was constantly growing on his phone. No matter how much he fooled around with it, it still couldn’t be deleted.

Feeling exasperated, Bai Yan could only ignore it. In any case, as long as he didn’t press it, his phone won’t go black.

Bai Yan didn’t concern himself with it anymore and turned his phone off to rest, sleeping soundly until the morning of the next day.

Tuesday.

Once he finished breakfast, Bai Yan opened his phone, just as usual, and saw several news articles popping up on his screen.

Bai Yan saw an article about a phone virus, tapping it open with fascination.

[Mysterious Virus Swept The Internet, Did Your Phone Get Infected?]

Bai Yan browsed through the particulars. A week ago, a phone virus suddenly appeared on the Internet, and a great number of users were affected.

This specific virus poses as an app in the user’s phone. If the user opened the app out of curiosity, the phone would reboot and repeatedly crash.

Moreover, this phone virus was quite formidable, able to spread quickly and create different varieties. Many users’ phones were completely destroyed by this app, their screens still black up to this date.

Because of this vicious app, cries of grief shook the Internet with the victims’ harsh criticism towards this corrupt ‘poisoner.’

At present, there’s still an ongoing investigation regarding the perpetrator that had deliberately made and spread this virus. In other words, the criminal still hasn’t been caught.

After reading the text, Bai Yan stroked his chin, his heart considering that he might not be that unlucky of a person.

Compared to the users who had their phones ruined, his luck was still better.

However, he was also a bit skeptical if this virus could really get rid of the app, but he figured that it was impossible.

The app could make the phone waterproof, fireproof, and shockproof, changing its physical properties, so it was challenging for a mere phone virus to make the app not work.

With him finished reading the news, Bai Yan thought that it wasn’t only him, that maybe the other players also got the virus.

He opened the forum and saw that there were indeed posts regarding the phone virus.

There was a player who was as inquisitive as he was and also pressed on the virus app. His luck was bad, and his phone had directly crashed, but the app still remained.

In the next second, his phone flashed and restarted. And when he opened his newly restarted phone, the virus app had disappeared, and the app was still placed on its original spot.

The app could truly kill the virus.

Bai Yan thought for a bit and felt that the virus didn’t directly affect the app, so the app was unconcerned.

Understanding the details about the matter and knowing that the virus was unable to influence the app’s game, Bai Yan couldn’t care less about the virus anymore and let it be on his phone, proceeding to start his weekly routine.

During this time, he was closely following Chu Fu’s activities. This woman was still doing her mukbang shows and was getting trendier.

Bai Yan grew more and more aware of how strange the quantity of food Chu Fu was eating and was a tad bit suspicious whether a ghost had possessed her body or not.

But Chu Fu was wary of him, so him calling her up on her phone simply won’t do. He could only drop it.

He contacted Ye Shangyu ahead of time, and when it was Monday noon, Bai Yan pressed the eight level’s icon at the agreed-upon time.

But, the matching speed this time was extremely slow.

He waited for a full minute before finally being matched successfully and entered the game.

When he opened his eyes, a desolate forest greeted him, while the stink of cow manure pervaded the air.

Bai Yan didn’t pay heed to this, and as usual, he lowered his head to check his phone, reading the game rules for this level.

[Successful Matchup]

[Number of Players: 6 players]

[Level of Difficulty: Hard]

[Level Description: This round’s game is called ‘Deathly Still Haunted Village.’ Living in the ghost village for three days and successfully surviving until 4 AM of the third day would be considered a victory.]

[Backstory: You’re a monster-seeking enthusiast. You saw a post online about a paranormal event and met up with your friends to explore the haunted village.

In your previous exploration activities, you all have come across many well-known haunted houses and haunted schools, but all of you have never caught sight of a ghost, inevitably disappointing you all.

This time, you are all determined to reside in this haunted village for three days. If you don’t see any ghosts, there’s no way you would leave!]

[Game Rules:]

[1. During this round of the game, players need to stay within the haunted village at all times (within the Southeast and Northwest stone boundaries), leaving the haunted village would be considered a loss.]

[2. At 4 AM on the third day (from Friday ~ Sunday 4 AM), press the ‘Return’ button on your phone to leave the game.]

After looking through the game rules, Bai Yan raised his head to take a look at this group of teammates.

When he saw them, he couldn’t help feel a bit surprised.

At this level, three foreigners were unexpectedly included in the mix!

The app’s matching system was based on region and time.

In the past, the game’s matching speed was quick, and the players he was in the previous games were all Chinese. But right now, a woman with light brown hair and bright blue eyes, a thick solid man with dark-chocolate skin, and the last person also had an Asian appearance. But upon closer inspection, you could discover subtle differences between him and someone who was Chinese.

Relative to the slow matching speed, Bai Yan felt that too many people died because of the difficulty of the seventh level and that the app didn’t gather enough people, so it had to expand its matching range.

The present players came from different countries, but fortunately, the app had its own translating system so that every person could speak to someone else using their mother tongue and there wouldn’t be a communication barrier.

Ye Shangyu didn’t need to say it, but she and Bai Yan had already formed a fixed team.

While the other players had a simple exchange of names and prepared to go into the village.

However, when they had barely set off, they saw two people, just outside the village, walking towards the entrance.

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T/N: After reading this chapter, I’m kinda getting the feeling that Bai Yan is a masochist XD

Surprise!! An extra chapter release since we reached our $20 goal on Ko-Fi! Special thanks again to Jany, shesays, sushi, and our anonymous supporters!!

I’ve edited the goals and made another goal meter for Young Masters’ Little Maid. I’ve also lowered the minimum to $1.

Thank you all for your ongoing support!