Chapter 77: Virus (1/2)

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.