After leaving the small town, Lu Yunfei and Li Yachen continued down an unfamiliar path. The air was fresh, and the sea breeze, carrying a salty scent, blew toward them. Gradually, their pace quickened. The scenery around them changed constantly, like flipping through a series of shifting scenes. Li Yachen's steps became heavier as he looked down at the equipment bag in his hand, then raised his gaze toward the road ahead. "This place… something doesn't feel right."
Lu Yunfei remained silent for a moment before speaking softly, "Don't you think everything's been too smooth? No matter what decisions we make, it seems like the system already knows what we're going to do. It's as if every move we make is being predicted."
Li Yachen shot him a glance. "You mean we're playing some kind of game?"
"Sort of," Lu Yunfei's tone became more serious. "It feels like we're in a virtual space where every decision and action follows some kind of rule. Every time we pass a level, we get a reward."
"So, are we in a game?" Li Yachen repeated, incredulously. "But why are we here?"
Lu Yunfei paused slightly and took a deep breath. "I'm thinking… what if we were injured in the real world, and our consciousness somehow crossed into this space? Then we became… test subjects or some kind of controlled entity."
Li Yachen furrowed his brows and suddenly asked, "You mean, both of us got caught up in this together?"
Lu Yunfei nodded, a trace of barely perceptible tension in his eyes. "You and I are both here, which probably means there are others. Remember what the bartender said—only we passed the test, everyone else couldn't make it. That means the 'test' in this small town wasn't just for us. There might be other test subjects or even observers hiding here."
Li Yachen didn't speak further, his mood turning heavy. Behind all of this, there seemed to be more mysteries than they had imagined. What appeared to be a coincidental adventure was filled with the marks of careful planning.
They continued walking, leaving the town behind. Suddenly, Li Yachen stopped in his tracks. He looked into the distance, his expression filled with surprise. "Ahead… is that… the sea?"
Lu Yunfei followed his gaze, and not far ahead, the vast ocean merged with the sky. The sea shimmered, and the wind howled, bringing a refreshing chill. The world they had expected to be unknown had unexpectedly included an ocean landscape.
"What kind of landform is this?" Li Yachen muttered, "First it was a forest, then a plain, and now it's the sea?"
Lu Yunfei's gaze sharpened. "The terrain here doesn't follow natural laws. It's like a deliberately designed area. We just left the town, how did we end up at the sea? The changes here are too rapid, too unnatural."
Before he could finish, Li Yachen had already started to quicken his pace, running toward the beach. Lu Yunfei followed closely behind, taking off his coat as he ran, leaving only the access card in his hand. A hint of provocation flashed in his eyes. "I want to do something that the system can't predict. Let's see if we can break its rules."
"What are you saying?" Li Yachen turned back to look at him, a touch of confusion in his eyes.
"I want to take a risk." Lu Yunfei said as he ran, "Hold my clothes and backpack for me. I'm going to do something that the system can't calculate, let's see what it really can do."
Li Yachen hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Be careful, don't do anything dangerous."
The two of them quickly ran toward the sea, where the waves crashed against the rocks and the wind grew stronger. Lu Yunfei's heartbeat quickened, feeling the surge of impulsion and desire. He no longer wanted to follow the path laid before him. He wanted to break everything, to see what the real adventure behind all of this was.
Without hesitation, Lu Yunfei acted on his impulse. He jumped into the sea, his body immediately enveloped by the cold water. He swam farther out without a second thought, moving deeper and deeper. The pressure of the water intensified, suffocating every breath he took.
He didn't believe the system would allow someone who passed its test to die in the sea. His eyes were determined, pushing himself harder as he swam, trying to challenge the system's limits. His limbs began to numb, and his strength gradually drained away. The cold of the sea made his consciousness start to fade, but in his mind, he clung to a single thought: What is the end of this adventure?
He pushed himself to swim farther, deeper, but his body had reached its limit. He could no longer control himself. Just as he felt himself sinking and his consciousness began to blur, the water suddenly stilled, as if time itself had stopped.
A door appeared before him, its frame faintly illuminated. Through it, he saw two figures in uniforms walking toward him.
Lu Yunfei forced his eyes open, struggling to stay conscious, but he was too weak. His mind grew dimmer, and eventually, he allowed himself to fake unconsciousness, letting his body float limply on the water's surface.
He heard soft voices nearby:
"Isn't this the test subject? Why did they jump into the sea?"
"I don't know. Let's pull them back and check."
The door slowly closed, and Lu Yunfei felt himself being pulled back to the surface of the water. The warm air and the mechanical sounds merged, and the surrounding scenery became blurry.
Lu Yunfei slowly regained consciousness, the reality slowly coming back to him. He found himself back in the familiar room—the white walls, the simple bed, the scent of disinfectant in the air. His head felt heavy, and the events that had just occurred felt like a dream lingering in his mind.
However, the familiarity of the environment did not bring him any comfort. Instead, his heartbeat quickened, and a deep sense of anxiety flooded over him again. He realized that this room—and perhaps every room—was the same. He couldn't remember how he had returned here, but everything felt too precise, too carefully arranged. It was as though every one of their actions was being monitored and predicted.
After the two staff members pulled him from the water, they whispered briefly to each other before beginning to input data on a large computer. The characters on the screen flickered, emitting a mechanical hum. Everything appeared as it always had—unnoticed. As the staff left, Lu Yunfei regained some strength and sat up.
He walked over to the screen, his gaze fixed on the blinking cursor. In the final second before the screen went black, he quickly typed a command: "Keep open."
The screen rebooted with a slight hum, and Lu Yunfei began to closely examine everything in front of him. The programming language used in this system seemed simple, but it was highly efficient. He quickly grasped its logic: This wasn't just a control system; it was more like a vast experimental platform.
He continued exploring tirelessly, diving into various folders, system settings, and control programs. Finally, he succeeded in opening a hidden backdoor, regaining control of the system. When he saw the data displayed on the screen, his heart nearly stopped.
"1561 test subjects, including 278 celebrity test subjects. NPCs: 2200, Missing NPCs: 125."
Lu Yunfei's gaze suddenly sharpened, especially when he saw the term "Missing NPCs." He couldn't help but think of the farmer—wasn't he the NPC who disappeared while trying to escape? Had he become part of the test subjects as well? He continued browsing through the files, flipping through the information.
His eyes stopped on a map, which displayed an enormous area. The small town was on the edge of the map, while in the center, there was a massive city. Lu Yunfei felt a sense of realization—it was clear that the experiment was much larger than just the town he had been in. The town was simply an observation station, while the true core area likely lay within that city.
Next, Lu Yunfei accidentally clicked on a file named "Famous People List." His eyes widened when he saw the list—Vincent van Gogh, Alexander, Socrates, and even Li Bai… These famous individuals were part of the experiment too? His heart skipped a beat, and he froze.
"Are we really test subjects?" he thought, the shock reverberating in his mind.
However, what terrified him the most was a folder labeled "Laboratory Footage." When he clicked it open, the screen displayed a scene that made his body tremble—inside the laboratory, rows of human heads were displayed. Each head was connected to wires and machines. Some of the heads seemed to twitch, their facial expressions contorted, mouths opening and closing as if they were still alive.
Lu Yunfei's face turned pale. What he was seeing was almost unbearable. He couldn't believe that all of this was real—the people he had assumed were long dead were actually preserved as test subjects, their life signs maintained by some unknown method.
"Did I… die?" he whispered to himself, his voice barely audible.
No, he couldn't accept this truth. He didn't want to believe he had already died, and he certainly didn't want to acknowledge that he had become a test subject. He had once had a real life, a real existence, but now, everything felt blurry and uncertain.
"What should we do? Escape? Or…" Lu Yunfei's mind was filled with confusion and fear. He knew he couldn't give up.
He sat there for a while, staring blankly at the screen. The weight of what he had uncovered felt like a crushing burden. The lines between reality and the experiment were increasingly blurred, and he realized that the deeper he went, the more entangled he became in this vast, dark web. The town, the tests, even the rewards—all of it was part of a much larger, more sinister system.
But there was something else nagging at him, a thought that had been creeping into his mind ever since he saw the footage of the laboratory. If the people they thought were "dead" were actually alive, what about the others? Could it be that they were all part of the same experiment—trapped in a cycle that no one had ever been able to escape from?
Lu Yunfei's hands clenched into fists, his mind racing. He couldn't just sit idly by. He had to find a way out, to understand the true purpose of this experiment, and to free himself from whatever trap they had set for him.
But first, he had to survive. That was the only thing that mattered right now.
He quickly opened another folder, scanning through lines of code and data. A message flashed on the screen: "Unauthorized access detected. Security systems activating."
Panic surged within him as alarms blared in the background. The system had detected his interference, and he knew he had limited time to act before he was locked out.
"Think, think!" Lu Yunfei muttered to himself. He knew he had to make a choice—keep trying to break through the system or escape before the security protocols fully activated. But the thought of being trapped here forever was too much to bear.
With a deep breath, Lu Yunfei made his decision. He pulled out a small device from his pocket, which he had kept hidden all this time. It was a backdoor bypass tool, one that could momentarily disable the system's security protocols. He quickly connected it to the terminal.
The screen flickered, and for a brief moment, the system seemed to freeze. The alarms stopped, and the mechanical hum died down. Lu Yunfei's heart pounded in his chest. He had to move quickly.
He ran through the files at lightning speed, searching for anything that could give him the key to understanding this experiment. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he copied as much data as he could onto a portable drive. Every second felt like an eternity.
Just as he finished, the security system began to reboot. The screen flashed red with a warning: "Security breach detected. Lockdown imminent."
Without hesitation, Lu Yunfei grabbed the portable drive and dashed out of the room. He knew he had only a short window of time before the entire facility would go into lockdown.
As he ran down the sterile, white hallways, the sound of his footsteps echoed loudly in the empty space. He had no idea where he was going, but all he could think about was escaping, getting out of this nightmare.
Suddenly, the lights above him flickered, and the sound of mechanical doors closing echoed in the distance. He wasn't sure if it was a security system or if someone was coming after him. But there was no turning back now. Lu Yunfei pushed forward, knowing that he had to escape with the data, the truth, and his life—before everything he had uncovered was wiped away.
And deep down, he knew that his journey wasn't over yet. The real question was: Could he truly escape from this world, or was he destined to remain a part of the experiment forever?