Chapter 49: Breakthrough

Sensing the presence of people upstairs but unable to attack them, the Monster Brother grew frantic, wreaking havoc throughout the hall and pounding the floor in fury. It seemed as if the Falcon Squad could hear the very basement collapsing beneath them.

The four of them considered escaping quickly through the second-floor windows, but if it were that simple, why would they have gone through so much trouble in the first place? That didn't make sense. Were they meant to simply greet this rampaging monster? After a brief discussion, they decided to try something. Normally, the best way to awaken someone is to repeatedly stimulate them with something familiar. But the four of them were strangers to the Monster Brother—they had no idea what mattered to him most. The only reliable information they had was what Zhang Xingmin had extracted from the computer hard drive.

They found the diary the Monster Brother had kept in life and played some of the most memorable passages aloud. Upon hearing these, the Monster Brother seemed to quiet down. Soon after, he gripped his head as if in terrible pain and crouched on the floor.

Had they been able to glimpse his thoughts, it would have been an unforgettable scene. When the diary reached the parts about experiments and surgeries, memories from his life came flooding back to the Monster Brother: he had been captured by those people and turned into a monster, and to make matters worse, some unknown embryo had been implanted inside him. Under brutal torment, his body deteriorated until he was at the brink of death. Even then, those people showed him no mercy, severing his head while he still clung to the last shreds of life. What happened after that, he did not know.

Regaining a sliver of consciousness, the Monster Brother looked at himself and realized he had not truly come back to life—the deathly pale, bloodless skin was proof enough. Perhaps he was now like those "undead" described in novels. Still, he felt a sense of satisfaction at having a whole body again after death.

Though he did not know what had happened, he could guess someone had helped him. Was it the four people upstairs? No, they were clearly not together—look at the one with his lower body wrapped in bandages, probably another victim like himself.

For reasons he could not explain, a voice echoed in his mind: he had something important to pass on to someone. Perhaps it was that person. No matter—he would give it to that poor soul, hoping it might bring him luck...

There was no flash of white or golden light; it happened in an instant. Dragon woke up from the simulation battlefield and found himself back in the simulation pod. Exhausted, he climbed out, discovering his entire body was soaked—he couldn’t tell if it was sweat or something else, but it was most unpleasant. Thankfully, he was still himself; nothing was missing. Zhang Xingmin, Lin Xiaofeng, and Nana had not yet emerged, but he figured there was no immediate danger. Unable to wait any longer, he went home to shower and change.

Inside the simulation battlefield, just after Dragon’s unexpected exit, Zhang Xingmin, Lin Xiaofeng, and Nana were still trying to escape. For reasons unknown, the whole map was violently shaking; the villa was about to collapse, so the three of them jumped out the nearest window.

No sooner had they left than the villa vanished, leaving behind a huge pit.

The Monster Brother disappeared along with the villa. But this did not mean they were safe. They saw unknown creatures crawling up from the rim of the pit. There was no time to wonder; the three of them ran for their lives, pausing only to set fire to whatever was in the pit before they left.

While the three inside the simulation battlefield were busy, so too were the technicians outside. Not long after Yang Dalong left, the system began to throw errors. In fact, the issues had started shortly after they entered the simulation, but the technicians had failed to notice. Only when the allotted time ended and the participants were not forcibly logged out did they realize something was wrong.

Outside, technicians scrambled to patch the bugs; inside, Zhang Xingmin, Lin Xiaofeng, and Zhao Nana found themselves surrounded by monsters, fighting desperately. The strangest thing was that after dying in the simulation, they did not wake up—they simply revived on the spot.

The three quickly realized something was wrong, but there was nothing they could do except revive again and again.

Finally, after their one hundred and first revival, they emerged from the simulation. The technicians breathed a sigh of relief as the three walked out of their pods.

A bit weary, but otherwise unharmed, the three rested and recovered before thinking to ask about Dragon. The technicians told them he had left hours earlier, even returning once but being sent away since there was nothing he could do.

Relieved to hear Dragon was safe, the three tidied up and headed back to rest.

Halfway home, they noticed a commotion ahead—apparently a fight had broken out. Normally, they would have ignored it, but the voices sounded familiar. Squeezing through the crowd, they saw it was indeed Dragon, and the other was someone they recognized too: the cool, stoic technician who had come to observe during the awakening.

What was going on? Why were they fighting? The three were baffled.

As it turned out, when Dragon left the simulation early, he went home to shower and change, then waited anxiously for his three friends, who didn’t return. Sensing something amiss, he hurried back and found the place swarming with technicians, who seemed to be discussing a malfunction with the simulation pods or the system itself.

This made Yang Dalong anxious—wasn’t this thing supposed to be safe? With his three close friends still inside, a sudden malfunction like this could mean they were trapped.

He hardly had time to argue with the staff before being thrown out, which infuriated him. In the past, if anyone had treated him like this, he would have fought back immediately. Now, on someone else’s turf, he could only swallow his anger.

He left the training base, frustrated, and waited for news. Sitting by the roadside, he smoked a few cigarettes to calm himself. But trouble found him before long.

Not far from Dragon, two people were discussing something that seemed related to the earlier malfunction. He held his breath and listened closely; sure enough, they were talking about the very map he had just experienced. From their conversation, he learned they were developers, and that those still inside might be in real danger.

Dragon, simmering with anger, now had a perfect outlet. Divine providence indeed.

“Damn it!” Dragon cursed, sprang to his feet, and turned toward the two across the garden. “So you two bastards are the ones who developed this perverted system! It’s no wonder it pulls this kind of twisted stunt!”

Taken aback by the verbal attack, the two young men were hardly pleased.

“Who the hell are you? What’s with that filthy mouth?” one of them shot back, rolling up his sleeves, ready for a fight.

Dragon had always been a strong fighter, and recent events had only toughened him further. He vaulted over the hedge and swung a punch straight at the face of the one who looked the most dazed.

“You think you deserve to know who I am?” Dragon had no intention of wasting words on them.

The two young men—hot-blooded and unwilling to be humiliated—might not have had any combat training, but they weren’t about to back down two-on-one.

So, Dragon found himself brawling against both. The crowd grew, but no one dared intervene. Even as Zhang Xingmin and the others arrived, Dragon was still in the thick of the fight, holding his own.

From a distance, Zhao Nana spotted the crowd and the ongoing fight—one against two. Something about one of the combatants seemed familiar. As she drew closer, she saw it was indeed Dragon.

“Yang Dalong! What are you doing?” Zhao Nana called, thinking Dragon had lost his mind again. She had warned him countless times not to get into fights at every turn, and yet, here he was again...