There Must Be Something Wrong With This Game!

Chapter 38: Chapter 38: The Scheming Zero

"Main Quest: Achieve victory in the Holy Grail War. Complete.

After a thrilling dungeon exploration, you have advanced to Level 6. Your Life Limit and Physical Limit have slightly increased.

Your Attributes have grown slightly. Your Spirit has increased by 1 point.

Dungeon Evaluation: Distinguished Service. Abyss Coin reward increased by 60%. You have received eight hundred Abyss Coins."

Duan Fei was pleased to see he’d gained some Attribute Growth this time.

He was especially happy that the increase was to his favorite Attribute, Spirit.

However, he didn’t receive a "Pivotal Contribution" evaluation, but rather "Distinguished Service." ’It must be because Jinghong participated and took a good chunk of the credit.’

But those rewards were just the icing on the cake. The real prize was his new partner, Yan Yuan.

The little flame-red bird stood on Duan Fei’s shoulder, looking around with a mix of curiosity and confusion. "So this is your world, Master? It feels so strange."

"It won’t feel strange once we’re inside a dungeon."

"Really? Then I’ll look forward to it."

Duan Fei opened Yan Yuan’s attribute panel and began to study it again.

"Name: Yan Yuan

Level: 2

Race: Demon Phoenix

Attributes:

Power: 4

Constitution: 2

Agility: 11

Reaction: 13

Spirit: 22

Skills: Demon Eye (Beginner), Magic Bullet (Beginner), Growth (Random attribute increase per level), Magic Recovery (Minor Success), Rebirth (Great Success), Flesh and Blood Elixir (Master)."

Yan Yuan’s Attributes leaned more toward Magic, and its Skills were also support-oriented.

The Flesh and Blood Elixir Skill, in particular, was ranked even higher than Great Success, reaching the Master level.

This meant Yan Yuan’s flesh and blood had even better healing effects than some Miracle Elixirs. In the future, it could serve as a dedicated healer all on its own.

Stroking Yan Yuan’s head, Duan Fei felt that this dungeon run had been completely worth it.

He checked the time; it was about time to log off and eat.

After saying goodbye to Yan Yuan, Duan Fei took off his helmet. He walked to the window and gazed into the distance, letting himself relax.

It was noon, lunchtime.

Duan Fei’s humble little apartment wasn’t in a great area. The surrounding traffic was a mess, which meant food deliveries took an extra fifteen minutes. Still, it was a place he’d saved up for and bought himself, and it felt cozy enough.

He stared out the window, agonizing over what to eat. Just as he was about to place an order, his front door was pushed open.

The ethereally beautiful Jinghong appeared in his small apartment, her slender figure even more dreamlike than in the game.

She placed a bowl of rice and a pot full of beef on the dining table, swiped a hand across its surface, and then complained, "You didn’t wipe the table again."

"Why bother with all that trouble?"

"You could at least try to live like a human being."

"Being human is a biological state, not a philosophical one."

Duan Fei grabbed two pairs of chopsticks and two bowls, setting them on the table. He lifted the pot lid and took a satisfying sniff of the fragrant beef.

"Jinghong, it’d be great if you were a girl."

"I am a girl."

"Oh, right. We’re so close I forgot."

"Oh, you..."

After a simple lunch, Jinghong expertly tied on an apron and started washing the dishes and sweeping the floor. Before long, she had given the entire apartment a quick cleaning.

Once she was done, she picked up the trash bag and said to Duan Fei, "I have class this afternoon, so take it easy. There’s enough food in the pot to last you a day. And don’t spend all your time playing games."

"Alright, don’t worry, Mom-Jinghong."

"You... Oh, right. I forgot to mention, from that last dungeon? I got a Profession change quest. Help me with it tonight."

"No problem."

"I’m heading out."

"See ya."

Jinghong breezed downstairs, hopped on a bus, and headed straight home.

She had said she had class this afternoon, but that was a lie.

Her visit today—to bring him food and clean his apartment—wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. It was because the batteries were running low.

Back at her own villa, she told the maid to leave her be. Jinghong then locked herself in a dark room and turned on the pinhole cameras she had retrieved from Duan Fei’s apartment, one by one, copying all the recent footage of him onto her computer.

Putting on a pair of headphones, she turned up the audio and listened to the sounds of Duan Fei at home. A faint blush crept onto her almost translucent face.

Gazing at Duan Fei on the monitor, Jinghong’s eyes glazed over as she leaned in, gently kissing the screen and whispering his name. "Duan Fei..."

Duan Fei suddenly shivered.

He glanced around, feeling as if something had its eyes on him, but a closer look revealed nothing.

He went back to his computer and started on his work.

As a freelance game tester, his daily job was to download games from a worklist, find bugs, report them to the development team, and then wait for the payment to come through.

Thanks to his "bug magnet" nature, the work was a breeze. He could find over a hundred bugs in a single game within ten or twenty minutes. After that, all he had to do was wait to get paid.

He ran through a few games, clearing out the backlog on his worklist. Seeing he still had plenty of time, he logged back into the game.

"Connecting to the Abyss... The Chaos within the Abyss gazes upon you with joy, moved by your return."

The moment his feet touched the damp floor, Duan Fei felt something bump into him.

"Master, you’re finally back!"

Yan Yuan nuzzled against Duan Fei’s shoulder, looking for all the world like a little bird that had been lonely in his absence. ’This game’s details are incredible,’ Duan Fei thought.

Ruffling the feathers on Yan Yuan’s small head, Duan Fei said, "See? I’m back now. Come on, let’s get ready for an adventure."

"Yay! I love adventures! Where are we going this time?"

"Wherever."

It was still a while until evening, and Jinghong was always punctual, so she likely wouldn’t be online yet.

’I’ll sneak in a dungeon run before Jinghong gets on. If I can raise my level a bit, I’ll be able to help her more.’

Leading Yan Yuan, he wandered aimlessly across the damp ground. Before long, a fire door materialized in front of him.

"Tier Three, Sci-Fi, Multiplayer Dungeon."

’A sci-fi dungeon, huh.’

Duan Fei hadn’t expected to run into a sci-fi dungeon. ’This should be interesting,’ he thought.

After all, his literary awakening as a child had started with *The Three-Body Problem*. And while the animated adaptation was so bad it was an insult to dogs, that didn’t detract from the excellence of the original novel.

’I wonder if it’ll be a space opera like *Three-Body*, or sci-fi horror like *Alien*. The sci-fi genre is pretty broad, after all. This should be fun to play through.’

He enthusiastically pushed the door open. The floor beneath his feet vanished, and he pitched forward into the void.

After an unknown amount of time, a light flashed in the darkness. A man who was reasonably handsome, but gave off a distinct mad-scientist vibe, appeared before him, shouting excitedly, "I did it! I’ve discovered it!"

"Discovered that you’re actually into men?" Duan Fei asked.

"Pfft, you’ve got a sense of humor, kid. Wait a minute... you’re Duan Someone!"

"Weird, who’s talking inside my head?"

"Who’s talking in *my* head?"

"Who are you three?"

"I’m Yan Yuan! Who are you all?!"

"WOOF!"

"Why is there a dog?!"

In that instant, Duan Fei felt like his brain had turned into a chaotic mess. A whole crowd of voices was chattering inside his head, creating an unbearable racket.

After listening in silence for a moment, Duan Fei opened his status panel. He immediately guessed the Talent’s effect.

"Distance to companions becomes: Zero."

’Fuck!’

’I don’t want this kind of tricky, scheming Zero!’