Chapter Thirty: The Four Great Underworlds

After Yan Luo ate Zheng Hong’s braised pork, it was a win-win situation. First, he replenished his nutrition and stored up energy for training. Second, not only from his deskmate but also from the surrounding students in the cafeteria, he harvested a wave of emotions: shock—over twenty points in total.

Under Zheng Hong’s resentful gaze, Yan Luo deliberately wandered around the school after leaving the cafeteria, collecting another eight points of shock before the bell rang for class.

When he returned to the classroom, he immediately noticed that someone had carved a few words into his desk. Some nearby students snickered, for at seventeen or eighteen, they were at the age of lively gossip. Yan Luo looked at the uneven characters, clearly cut with a small knife, likely during the lunch break. Three crooked words: “I love you.”

He couldn’t tell if someone was confessing to him or just playing a prank, but it seemed more likely to be a joke. Glancing at the classmates around him who were covering their mouths to stifle laughter, Yan Luo reached behind his back.

“Clang!”

A knife appeared in his right hand—the Pair Knife! Using his body as cover, Yan Luo drew it directly from his phone’s storage space—the right-hand Pair Knife, gripped tightly, striking a pose reminiscent of the Prince of Persia.

You sense a surge of intense emotion: Shock +1, Shock +1, Shock +1...

Many students looked at Yan Luo in confusion—why take out a knife? And just pull it out so casually? Did he always carry one around, like some gangster?

Of course, Yan Luo didn’t intend to harm his classmates, even though, in his current state, the forty-odd students in the class weren’t enough for him to... If he took out the sixty-two-jin Panlong Staff, he could probably rampage through this top high school and come out unscathed—if he had enough strength, that is.

He walked over to his desk and, with a flourish, carved four more characters after the words “I love you”: “The Snow of the Northern Frontier.”

Zheng Hong and the others craned their necks to look.

“I love you, the snow of the northern frontier.”

Isn’t that the name of a song?

You sense a surge of intense emotion: Bewilderment +1, Bewilderment +1, Shock +1...

The warning bell rang. Under the gaze of his classmates, Yan Luo slipped the pair knife into his backpack—really returning it to his phone’s storage—then, during class, quietly took stock of the emotions stored in his Heartless Puppet.

Grief: 3
Sadness: 4
Joy: 1
Disappointment: 1
Disdain: 1
Bewilderment: 10
Shock: 76

In just one day, he had harvested over seventy points of shock and ten of bewilderment!

He planned to release all other emotions, then absorb fourteen more points of shock; with two types of emotions, he could fuse a new persona mask. He wondered: with one part bewilderment and nine parts shock, what sort of mask would that create?

During class, Yan Luo’s phone suddenly vibrated—someone was calling. He glanced at the screen and saw Chu Qingfeng’s name. It was class, so of course he didn’t answer, but directly declined the call.

In another city, Chu Qingfeng paused. This psychologist, impeccably dressed in a tailored suit, sat in his private office. Though not as prominent as the late Tang Tianjie in the real world, he was still an elite among white-collar workers. He’d wanted to call Yan Luo yesterday, but considering he’d just returned from the zombie survival world, he might be resting, so he hadn’t disturbed him.

“Why did he hang up on me?”

Chu Qingfeng quickly speculated and analyzed inwardly, but with too little information, he couldn’t draw any conclusions. After hesitating for a moment, he called again.

Click—again, no answer; the call was declined. The psychologist’s mood instantly soured. He stared at his phone, his expression frozen.

Beep beep—

A text arrived. Chu Qingfeng quickly checked it; it was from Yan Luo and very succinct:

“I’m in class.”

“So it’s not that he’s ignoring me...” Chu Qingfeng breathed a sigh of relief, his expression relaxing a little, but curiosity arose. He replied: “Class? What class?”

“Math. The college entrance exam is soon. I’m a senior.”

Seeing this, Chu Qingfeng was speechless.

“I plan to gather everyone in the Dream Space tonight to exchange information and discuss team matters. If you’re free, let’s meet in Dream Space at 8 p.m., okay?” he texted.

“Okay,” Yan Luo replied simply.

“Great, see you there.”

By the end of school, Yan Luo’s shock points had reached eighty, with a total of one hundred points stored. However, the emotions were too mixed, making failure likely if he tried to fuse them, so he planned to release the others and keep only bewilderment and shock.

Back home, after dinner, it was only seven o’clock. Yan Luo began to release and reflect on his emotions.

Disappointment, disdain, and joy were all just one point each. These emotions weren’t as intense as despair, disgust, or ecstasy, so Yan Luo could handle them easily. After reflecting on these, he released sadness and grief—four points of sadness weren’t much, but with grief, a deep sorrow welled up, and he lay on his bed, silently shedding tears.

As for why he was crying, Yan Luo didn’t know. In this world, there were too many reasons to cry.

After releasing these emotions, he set his Heartless Puppet to only absorb shock from now on. He wanted to see what kind of persona mask would be created from ninety points of shock and ten of bewilderment, though theoretically it wouldn’t be as powerful as Nightmare, since that was fused from three emotions, one of which was “madness,” among the strongest.

At eight o’clock sharp, Yan Luo paid ten bio-energy points and teleported to the Dream Space.

Arriving in the newcomers’ area, he saw Chu Qingfeng, Wang Dongwei, Zhu Xiaoyong, Xu Han, and Yatogami Yari—the chuunibyou girl had donned her eyepatch again. Yan Luo remembered her “Fantasy Projection” well.

He wondered what new abilities might emerge after her talent upgraded, and what his own “Heartless Puppet” might evolve into.

“Yo!”

The lively girl, her spirit restored, greeted Yan Luo with energy, “You’re finally here, Judge of Hell!”

Yan Luo: “...”

“You...” Chu Qingfeng’s gaze lingered on Yan Luo’s face as he murmured, “You’re really handsome...”

Yan Luo: “...”

The psychologist snapped out of his daze, smiling a bit awkwardly. “We’re just waiting on Li Changxin... Ah, here she comes.”

A young girl approached. Upon seeing her, Yan Luo felt a strange sensation within, and Chu Qingfeng frowned slightly. Instead of unlocking a combat gene, he’d chosen to awaken the “Elementary Spiritual Sense” from the perception line.

Li Changxin’s aura was completely different from before—an extremely dangerous feeling.

A bad premonition struck Chu Qingfeng. He recalled that when a World Modulator died, their phone would drop! When Tang Tianjie died, chaos and corrupted horrors had appeared, and their guide Mu Bai was killed in battle. Everyone had been busy escaping—could it be...

Suppressing his suspicions, Chu Qingfeng addressed the group. “In Dream Space, you can rent or buy houses, though purchasing is out of reach for us newcomers. I rented a place—one hundred points an hour—let’s meet there.”

The room they entered was empty, its metal walls and floor exuding a high-tech feel. In the center stood a table surrounded by chairs.

Once the seven of them settled, Chu Qingfeng surveyed the group and began, “When we finished our novice task, we were told we’d be forced into an inner world in a week. Now, there are just over four days left, and we can freely enter an inner world. Yan Luo and Li Changxin, you both have two entries.”

“These past two days, I’ve picked up a lot of intel in Dream Space. When entering an inner world, you can go solo or as a team. We’re all Level 1 now, so we can only access Level 1 inner worlds. Let’s share what we’ve found—I’ll start.”

“There isn’t a Level 1 inner world near my home, but I spent 250 points to search five times in a shopping mall and found a Level 1 detective mystery world. It’s probably like Case Closed or Kindaichi, but could also be set in China, like Judge Dee, or Europe, with Sherlock Holmes. The theme is detective work.”

Zhu Xiaoyong raised his hand. “There’s no Level 1 inner world near my place either.”

“Me, me, me!”

Yatogami Yari shouted, “There’s a Level 9 cultivation world in my home’s swimming pool!”

Everyone: “...”

A Level 9 cultivation world? No one knew exactly how powerful that was, but such a world would have immortals and demon lords, maybe even a multiverse. Entering it was a high-risk, high-reward gamble. If unlucky, you might get crushed by some powerful being. But with luck, the rewards would be immense.

The problem was, as Level 1 World Modulators, they couldn’t enter at all.

Wang Dongwei sighed. He was fascinated by cultivation, but such a world would never feature a Level 1 entry. He said glumly, “I searched three times and found a Level 1 world, but it’s a supernatural world... I don’t dare go in.”

“A supernatural world...”

Even at Level 1, without ways to attack spirits, survival would be difficult, since supernatural worlds aren’t governed by reason.

Li Changxin, her adorable face radiating warm sunshine, said, “I found a Level 1 inner world too—a school romance world.”

Everyone: “...”

Each person shared their discoveries. Yan Luo described the Level 1 world in his neighborhood. Finally, Chu Qingfeng summarized, “So, among us seven, we know the locations of four Level 1 inner worlds: sports competition, detective mystery, supernatural, and school romance.”

“From what I’ve learned, after going through the novice world, the best choices are a Level 1 martial-arts world or a Level 1 magic world—high chances of gaining skills there.”

“But those aren’t easy to find. Some people sell coordinates in the commercial district, but they’re too expensive for us.”

“So, everyone... which of these four worlds do you want to enter?”