He always remembers getting lost as a child.

The vast garden is overgrown with wisteria flowers—the kind of flowers with soft purple petals that fall down in layers, dreamy like a fairyland.

He walked through it and heard the melodious sound of the piano.

——

——

Six o'clock in the morning.

Bai Chen opened his eyes on time.

The breeze blew up the corner of the fluttering curtain, and the sunlight poured into the bay window and landed in the small room.

As far as the eye can see, a bed, a table, a small wardrobe, and a small bedside table with a broken foot are all furniture.

There are also two wooden doors next to the iron gate at the end.

Then, there is no then.

……

Bai Chen rolled over and got out of bed. Standing by the bed, she looked out the window, her dark eyes reflecting the world shrouded in the morning light - creepers climbing the walls of beige residential buildings opposite, tangled old wires hanging haphazardly, a few birds landing on the wires poking their heads, black beans staring at the branches that poked out not far away, fluttering their wings and flying over.

The breeze blows, and the faint smell pours into the nose.

A world of tranquility and serenity.

Watching all this, she stood in front of the window, and the sunlight made her almost transparent.

After looking at it for a while, I closed the window and turned to start a new day.

Change of clothes, three minutes.

Wash up, five minutes.

Come back and fold the quilt for a minute.

Put last night's papers and today's books into your bag for a minute.

Ten minutes later, Bai Chen's hand was on the iron door—not a second.

…… No, it took three seconds longer than usual.

In the jacket pocket, the metal port of the PCI connection device feels a little cold to the touch.

She quietly opened the door, lifted the trash from the side of the door, pushed it open, and closed it again.

Bang.

……

The buildings in this area are almost the same, and they are all very old—the walls are yellowed and full of old advertisements from decades ago, and the stairs are still rusty iron railings, and down the stairs leads to a cold, smelly alley mixed with a stench.

Bai Chen lowered her hand and put the garbage into the big trash can at the end of the corridor, and a rat bigger than her face was startled by the sound and scurried in front of her.

She didn't speak, she was used to it.

……

Early in the morning, the older generation of residents had already gone out, carrying baskets of vegetables or flowers to be moved into the alley.

Most of the people here, especially the elderly, are familiar with each other, and once they meet, they always have to say a few words-

"Do you know that the drunkard's daughter in the front building is dead?"

"You know, it's miserable."

"It's really not a thing, I don't know if my daughter is dead, I heard him shout last night."

"What are you shouting?"

"My daughter doesn't come home in the middle of the night, and if she wants to come back, I'll beat her to death—"

Bai Chen lowered his eyes and was silent.

Meng Xiaosu's death reminded her that what she had encountered in the past two days was not a dream.

But she never thought it was a dream.

……

"Soy milk fritters?" Out of the alley is the breakfast shop - the proprietress standing in front of the shop only glanced at her, and after saying that, she neatly put it up for her.

Bai Chen nodded, his fingers raised and moved in mid-air, calling up the PCI.

Pay in PCI – that's probably the only advanced place in this backward and outdated urban village.

Maybe it's because I haven't used PCI since last night, but when I open it, I find that there are a lot of new messages on the icon called Ash World.

Bai Chen glanced at it, but still paid first, took the soy milk fritters and sat down at the small wooden table next to it before opening them, looking at them one by one.

Holding a fritter with chopsticks in his right hand, he dipped it in soy milk, and opened the ash world with his left hand.

I don't want to read that post anymore, and the comments are worthless.

On the contrary, there are a lot of private messages of all kinds-

The significance of the Ember World icon seems to be just an internal communication between players, and her ranking is so low that even two cores can only look at some simple permissions.

She chewed on the fritters slowly, and clicked on one casually.

[Hey, fledglings.] Want to get stronger? 】

Bai Chen: "......"

Like a drug seller.

Are you afraid of the world? Don't be afraid, we're here. 】

Bai Chen: "......"

I don't know how to groove this.

Looking at it, Bai Chen suddenly felt that these players were a little strange.

Although she could only see private messages and couldn't see most of the posts, private messages gave her a weird feeling.

As if these players ...... Loved this game. It's as if this game has a lot to offer them, enough to immerse them in it.

Why? The question immediately echoed in her mind.

She thought it was ...... Players who are caught up in it should panic and be at a loss.

Well...... Although she doesn't have this fear of this game.

Bai Chen finished eating the last piece of fritters, pinched the edge of the iron bowl containing soy milk, and clicked on the last private message.

[Stay away from the hypocrites of the Ashes Department.] 】

The hand paused.

Bai Chen's eyes flashed, recalling what had happened in the Ash World in the early hours of this morning.

……

"I have to do that—" Her dark eyes sparkled, and she looked earnestly at the person in front of her, not sure how shocking she was by what she said.

There was a moment of silence.

"Huh...... Is it actually a chick with a sense of justice? The first thing that came back to his senses was the indifferent voice from the screen, with a thick sarcasm at this time, "There are really more and more little ghosts." ”

Bai Chen was stunned.

"It seems that the waste relief has instead fostered some unnecessary sense of justice...... I'll be honest, it's more appropriate for a fledgling to be scared after a while. Dong Jingzhi continued in a cold voice, "This kind of game is not a joke, and the degree of being able to slash and slash monsters with weapons is not a hero. ”

"That's enough, Jingzhi-" Zhou Jing seemed to have reacted, frowned slightly, and was about to speak, but heard a "pop" sound, and the screen was turned off.

"Tsk."

Bai Chen was slightly stunned and raised his head-

Jiang Carp lay on the railing, a hand holding a cigarette on the side, his fingers slightly curled, and a few bits of ash shook off the burning cigarette butt.

In the black and white world, that bit of light becomes extraordinarily clear, and it seems to be the only warmth in the darkness.

"That guy must start comforting people, what but bala bala bala, but in the end it will definitely persuade you to quit...... Understand? Jiang Li said, paused, and looked at her.

His black forehead hair obscured his eyes a little because of the side of his head, and the smile he wore was a little blurry against the black and white background—eyes like black glass, hiding a colorful light.

Bai Chen nodded a little dazed.

"Saving the world is something to be left to the adults." Jiang Li saw her nodding, smiled again, casually extinguished the cigarette, held the gun with the other hand, raised his hand and hit it with the butt.

Bai Chen was stunned, and when the cold core fell into her hand, she realized that the core appeared where the boss disappeared.

[Fantasy Honkai - Dealt with]

[Level D - Recovered Completed]

[Core Holdings: 2]

[Player: Bai Chen, congratulations on rising to 79852]

"Little girl, study hard." The ash world retreated at a speed visible to the naked eye, Bai Chen looked at his palm in silence, and suddenly felt someone pat his head, and there was a very vulgar sentence.

……

Bai Chen drank the last bit of soy milk, turned off the PCI, stood up, and after a series of actions, his expression did not change at all.