Chapter 25

In the world where Su Xuanxiao was born, the sky was perpetually shrouded by exhaust fumes billowing from massive smokestacks. Throughout the year, only on the few days with the best weather did the night sky reveal its true appearance, dotted with specks of light.

As the lowly underclass destined from birth in that city, they were called “Meat Citizens” by those upper-class people.

Meat Citizens did not need to learn knowledge, nor did they need their brains awakened. Language was optional at best. They only had one job: when the city did not need them, they hid away and clung to survival on instinct. And when the city needed them, they offered up everything they had.

Labor, blood, limbs, life.

In the long years that followed, amid his battles against the fog in his mind, Su Xuanxiao sometimes lost himself too. In fleeting moments, he questioned what exactly he was still searching for, still waiting for.

Was what he had lost really that important?

He had long since grown powerful. That fallen world no longer hindered him; it became his nourishment instead. He was a weird born from a shattered world, and so were his younger brothers.

Later, he thought again: yes, it was that important.

To him, his youngest brother was the first fire seed to ignite life, the eyes that gazed upon the world, the ears that listened to truth, the heart that felt the world.

He was the first key to unlocking wisdom.

He was the flash of insight that turned “meat” into “person.”

And once that change occurred, as a person, one had to learn to think.

When livestock, existing merely as a lump of “meat,” began to ponder their own existence and why they lived, they faced only the stinking, blood-red truth.

But that was fine. Only by becoming aware of one’s existence did this life truly count as lived.

He was no longer just a lump of meat in the city, ready to be used and sacrificed at any moment. He lived.

His surname was Su, and his name was Xuanxiao.

Xuanxiao, Yuzi, Jianglou, and Ximu were all names of stars.

That was what their youngest brother had said.

It turned out that the specks of light in the sky were called stars.

“Big Brother? What’s wrong with you?” Su Ximu watched as his big brother’s expression grew strange again after he called his name a few times. He almost couldn’t resist reaching out to touch his forehead to check for a fever.

Su Xuanxiao snapped back to reality. When he looked at the youth before him again, his gaze had softened immeasurably. He unclenched his tightly gripped fist, lifted his arm with a thought, and finally stroked the youth’s soft hair.

Regrettably, in that brief tale of redemption and being redeemed—where a small child acted purely on instinct—as one of the protagonists, he had not learned many of the beautiful qualities belonging to the stars.

He was greedy, cunning, harsh, and stingy. Even though he had harbored eight or nine parts of suspicion in his heart just ten-odd minutes ago, he still miserly withheld his hand, reluctant to extend true goodwill until confirmation.

He only gave his love to his true brothers. Any other existence that took even a fraction was an affront, deserving to be torn apart.

That morning’s trip to the amusement park had been a dizzy blur for Su Ximu. After parting ways with Dudu and Dudu’s father, he had returned in another dizzy blur.

Because it was the Children’s Amusement Park, many of the facilities there embarrassed him, even with the rare encouragement from “Big Brother.” He still felt too self-conscious to try them.

A grown man sitting on the playground slide meant for little kids always felt like robbing toys from children.

Su Xuanxiao knew he had been somewhat inconsiderate. After careful observation, he noticed that Ximu always tensed up around him now.

For a successful businessman, another indispensable trait was patience.

He silently processed his emotions in his heart while pretending on the surface that nothing had happened. He smoothly escorted the young man back to the Tourist Garden.

Before Su Ximu got out of the car, he heard “Big Brother” ask, “Don’t rush off yet. Tell me about your next job. What exactly is it? Jianglou said a colleague recommended it to you, right?”

Such a question was perfectly normal for a family head.

Su Ximu did not resist.

He did not dislike “Big Brother”; he was just instinctively a bit reserved.

He answered earnestly, “It’s an idol selection show. Blue 242 Leader said that since it’s a new program group, they need staff for every segment. If I want to go, I can still apply for these positions right now.”

Su Ximu pulled out the A4 paper he carried with him. It was densely packed with what seemed like over a hundred job positions at a glance.

They could be roughly categorized by workplace:

Stage, practice rooms, filming sites, grand performance venues, trainee living areas, makeup rooms, editing rooms…

Even the cafeteria and supermarket were listed, recruiting cafeteria servers and supermarket cashiers respectively.

Some required professional skills that Su Ximu could not handle yet, but aside from those, as long as one worked hard and endured, he could do the rest.

A few positions on the list were circled in red pen. Those were the ones recommended by Blue 242 Leader.

Su Ximu had no experience in the entertainment industry and was not old enough to understand its twists and turns. But Su Xuanxiao spotted the issue with just a quick scan after taking the paper.

A blue-level Tourist Garden employee doubling as the standing associate director for a large-scale idol selection show?

“Ximu, your friend cares so much about your affairs. As your big brother, I should thank him too. Is he at the Tourist Garden right now?”

Su Ximu shook his head. “Blue 242 Leader has been busy these past couple of days. He wasn’t at the Tourist Garden this morning.”

As for his afternoon plans to hang out with Blue 242 Leader, Su Ximu’s instinct told him it was best not to mention that to “Big Brother” just yet.

Not there this morning, huh.

What a coincidence.

“Quite the coincidence indeed.” As he spoke, Su Xuanxiao pulled out a black bank card and handed it over. “Making friends is a good thing. Don’t forget the courtesies. If you accept something valuable from others, remember to return the favor. And don’t skimp on yourself when you’re out.”

He had heard legends about black cards in his old world, but this was the first time Su Ximu had seen one for real. He looked at “Big Brother,” then at the card, utterly flattered.

“Take it. Your third brother has one too.”

A lie to coax the kid—third brother did not.

With the words said, any further refusal from Su Ximu would seem distant and polite, not like close brothers.

Once he pocketed the hefty black card and received Big Brother’s official promise to let him change jobs, he stepped out of the car with only one thought:

Big Brother must have still been mad at him those past few days for getting drunk. Today, the anger had probably subsided.

Not only had he given such a generous allowance.

Even his voice had softened a lot.

Su Xuanxiao watched him head upstairs to the dorms. He closed his eyes to rest in the car for a moment, fingers lightly tapping the armrest. When he opened them again, he vanished like mist dispersing.

Su Corporation Building

Wails echoed for several kilometers around, a chorus of ghostly howls and wolfish cries.

The sales department manager, who had luckily jumped out a window before the building collapsed, was now digging out his direct subordinates bare-handed.

“Ah-ow-ow-woo!” The screams from the weird employees buried in the rubble delivered real mental pollution, making nearby trapped players silently cover their ears.

Family, fellow players, teammates—who gets it!

They were halfway through clearing the Su Corporation Building sub-dungeon when half the dungeon collapsed!

No one had died yet; they were just buried below. Waiting for rescue from their weird boss.

Normally, unless a more powerful weird forcibly breached it, the dungeon horrors held absolute authority over the dungeon.

The Su Corporation Building looked like a massive structure, but it was actually a large-scale instance. One packed with countless sub-instances, no less.

It belonged to the owner of the Su Consortium—a powerful weird known only in legends at the Weird Tales Confidentiality Bureau.

Dungeons and dungeon horrors were inextricably linked. If the dungeon suddenly collapsed, it could only mean something had gone wrong with the dungeon horror.

But as a veteran player, she could clearly feel that the dungeon’s suppression and restraints on her had not weakened at all.

In other words, the dungeon had collapsed, but the dungeon horror’s control over it remained unchanged.

With control intact, the dungeon horror’s strength had not declined. The collapse must have another cause.

Li Qingping, as a player, could analyze the situation in short order. Naturally, the other weirds subordinate to the big boss in the dungeon could too.

That was why the weirds who had luckily escaped did not flee immediately but turned back to rescue their colleagues.

Li Qingping silently tore two cloth wads from her hem to plug her ears, minimizing her presence as she observed her surroundings.

Arms and legs were scattered everywhere.

Low-wage regular employees gnashed their teeth, wriggling their torsos across the ground to retrieve their limbs.

Ever thrifty—stick ’em back on, good as new.

Some employees were really pinned tight and anxiously shouted upward. She vaguely heard one yell, “Old Zhou, quick, save our Construction Department first! We’ll rebuild the whole building in half a month!”

Old Zhou, the sales department manager heaving bricks atop the rubble, heard the shout. He hesitated a moment but ignored it, continuing to rescue his favorites.

There were three whole afternoons of contract signings with partners down there! Had to dig them out fast.

As long as the company did not fold, they were his achievements.

Seeing Old Zhou ignore him from above, the Construction Department manager below instantly unleashed a tirade. “Zhou Renmei! You son of a bitch! Just you wait! I, your father, will tear you apart when I get out!”

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a clang echoed. Someone above seemed to have dislodged a key support, and rubble collapsed. The cursing Construction Department manager was instantly buried tight.

When Su Jianglou arrived, he saw this chaotic scene.

A plain-looking man stood beside him—nothing special, the kind you’d lose in a crowd.

“This… what’s up with Big Brother?” Holding a tightly wrapped painting frame, Su Jianglou stepped forward a few paces onto the Su Corporation Building’s grounds, puzzled.

After a careful sense, neither Big Brother nor the dungeon seemed seriously harmed. The ones in real trouble were still the buried employees.

“Second Brother, do you know what’s going on with Big Brother?” Su Jianglou turned to the unremarkable man beside him.

Though the other had swiped his cake at his last birthday, they had brawled yesterday too, so things were settled for now.

Truth be told, Su Jianglou felt a bit guilty. He still remembered he was hiding something crucial from Second Brother—a person, stashed in the Tourist Garden.

Guilt made him less hot-tempered.

The man beside him, whom he called Second Brother—Su Wuzi—shook his head and said only, “Big Brother didn’t control his emotions today.”

“Did he lose money on an investment?” Su Jianglou could only guess, averting his gaze from the man.

Second Brother’s current skin was an eyesore today.

Not wanting to linger in the mess, Su Jianglou called out to Su Wuzi, “Second Brother, I just remembered something—gotta go. When Big Brother gets here, tell him I’m borrowing this painting for a couple days.”

With that, he casually flipped up a massive floor slab, freed the employee inside, then turned and vanished.

Not long after Su Jianglou disappeared, Su Wuzi—who had stood motionless, neither helping nor hindering—looked up and stepped aside.

A second later, the ground where he had stood hissed and corroded, forming a terrifying pit in the blink of an eye.

What followed…

If Su Ximu had been there, he would have realized that the scene of Big Brother beating Third Brother back then was downright tame by comparison.

Perhaps out of respect for Big Brother, Su Wuzi only dodged the attacks and barely fought back.

While passively dodging, the black venom still ended up wrapping around his body.

That layer of human skin on Su Wuzi’s body—which looked somewhat an eyesore to Su Jianglou—hissed with a tooth-grinding corrosion sound the instant it touched the venom, melting away like real flesh meeting sulfuric acid, the entire outer layer dissolving like butter.

Then the second layer, the third layer…

Su Xuanxiao, who had taken the initiative to strike, revealed his form, his tone somewhat helpless. “Yuzi, wearing so much, aren’t you hot?”

Su Wuzi didn’t reply and simply shook off the black liquid clinging to his hand.

Finally, the fourth layer.

A somewhat sunny and handsome young man appeared, a blue badge pinned to his chest with the number: 242.

Blue 242.

Su Xuanxiao slowly spread open his palm. “Blue 242 Leader, I really didn’t expect this. My brother, who’s been extremely busy handling countless affairs lately, actually found time to apply for a job at my park.”

In the next moment, he flipped his palm downward, and in an instant, this stretch of heaven and earth was sealed off.

Black mist filled every corner around Su Wuzi within the space.

In other parts of the space, the weird employees and players trembled in fear, huddling together in a group.

The players especially covered their mouths and noses with their hands, not even daring to breathe.

No kidding—from the reactions of the other weird employees, this was obviously the dungeon BOSS.

Folks, who gets it?

They had only entered a sub-dungeon, so how did the big BOSS show up directly? No need to use an ox cleaver to kill a chicken.

With just this black mist, if they touched even a speck today, they’d be stuck in the Weird World for life. Even if they got out, they’d be shipped off to a mental hospital.

On the other side, seeing that the black mist was about to corrode away even this layer of his disguise, Su Wuzi finally lost his patience. Any further, and it would reach his real body.

In that instant, red mist permeated the space. Compared to the black mist, it carried an extra touch of eeriness and foreboding.

Li Qingping’s eyes nearly popped out at the sight, like a severe germaphobe on the verge of being splashed with filth. She no longer cared about superiors or whatever and shoved aside her department manager, desperately burrowing deeper into the pile of people.

At this moment, this clump of weird ones gave her more sense of security than the outside.

Su Xuanxiao and Su Wuzi’s strengths were fairly evenly matched. Unless they went all out in a fight to the death, neither could do much to the other in a short time.

Instead, it was the other half of the Su Corporation Building that suffered first.

Su Wuzi wanted to leave—he had important business that afternoon.

Su Xuanxiao refused to let him go; he had pent-up anger that needed venting.

As the entanglement dragged on longer and longer, Su Wuzi seized an opportunity in a fit of anger and broke out of the Su Corporation Building Dungeon’s range.

In a flash, the red mist blanketed nearly half of Tanzhong City.

Tourist Garden

Su Ximu was walking with his ‘third brother’ who had come to visit him when he suddenly pointed at the sky in surprise. “Fire clouds.”

“Third Brother, look—fire clouds! So red.”

In Su Ximu’s mind, clouds that were especially, exceptionally red could only be fire clouds.

It was just that the timing of these fire clouds was a bit odd.

Weren’t they usually in the afternoon?

A few seconds later, the sky suddenly darkened. The boy who had looked up at the clouds blinked, not fully reacting yet. “It’s dark.”

Half the boundless sky was thick and bewitching red, the other half pitch black where one couldn’t even see their fingers—such a spectacle, let alone Su Ximu who had only lived nearly twenty years and never seen it, he figured even Grandma probably hadn’t.

If she had, she definitely would have told him about it.

Along with the spectacle, an eerie atmosphere enveloped all of Tanzhong City, and everyone tacitly fell silent.

Red streaks of light streaked across the black half of the sky.

Bang!

A massive boom.

The boy couldn’t believe his eyes and stared upward in a daze. “A meteor… crashed down?”

Su Jianglou’s gaze was complicated, pensive. No, it was Second Brother who had crashed down.