People in Yu-Gi-Oh! The hyper-converged audience is also integrated

Chapter 337 He is adapting, he is surpassing.

Li Guanqi had lost count of how many times he had opened his eyes.

This time, however, his eyelids felt heavier than usual, and it took him a lot of effort to open them even a crack.

My vision was a blurry white, the smell of disinfectant filled my nostrils, accompanied by the regular "beeping" sound of some kind of instrument.

It feels both strange and familiar, confusing yet reassuring.

He moved his fingers, his muscles stiff and sore, as if they had been through a thousand hammer blows: "Ugh—"

"here it is"

Li Guanqi slowly arched his back against the cold wall, his aching muscles straining as he gasped for breath, his throat so dry it felt like it was on fire, each swallow a sharp, cutting pain.

He subconsciously looked down at the time on the supercomputing ring, and breathed a sigh of relief the moment he saw the year 1067.

"You're...you're back?"

An indescribable sense of exhaustion washed over Li Guanqi, causing him to collapse. A slight, bitter smile appeared on his lips.

"came back"

When dreams and memories become more unforgettable, when reality is more absurd than lies, what can one still believe in? Perhaps, only the fleeting weight in one's arms and the lingering echo in one's ears remain.

The door made a soft sound and then slid open silently.

Li Guanqi didn't look up, but listened to the slight friction of rubber soles on the smooth ground as he approached step by step.

“You…” Dressed as a nurse, Luli saw the figure sitting up on the hospital bed, and the rest of her words got stuck in her throat. The recorder in her hand fell to the ground with a “thud.”

She looked like she'd seen a ghost, frantically pressing buttons on the communicator.

"Call center! Special care ward, [target] is waking up!"

The sound of hurried footsteps suddenly echoed outside the corridor, accompanied by the metallic scraping and the low hum of servo motors.

In less than half a minute, the ward entrance was completely blocked. Several doctors stood nervously behind them, while a team of all-black intelligent police officers spread out in a fan shape, their gun muzzles pointing diagonally at the ground.

Qi Mengsi stepped out from between the police officers and looked at the figure sitting up on the hospital bed with his head buried in his hands, her eyes sharp as knives.

This scene didn't feel like welcoming a comrade who had escaped death; it felt more like facing an unstable bomb that could explode at any moment.

As she approached, Qi Mengsi stopped three meters away from the hospital bed, her gaze fixed on Li Guanqi.

"who are you?"

In just three words, one can grasp all the philosophies of the world.

"Who am I?" Li Guanqi moved his head, which was buried in his hands, and let out a hoarse, dry laugh. He slowly raised his head, his eyes filled with an empty weariness.

"I am Li Guanqi, an intern detective from the Soul-Binding Division."

Even with a correct answer, Qi Mengsi remained wary and pressed further, asking, "What deck did you use in the practical assessment?"

"【Engraved Demon Bullet】".

Marital status?

"Married, pending confirmation."

After answering three questions correctly in a row, Qi Mengsi's tense body visibly relaxed a little. She turned her head to look at the terminal screen held by the doctor next to her, which displayed an fluctuating graph.

"His rationality rate is only 56%, but it's slowly recovering," the doctor reported quietly. "Li Guanqi's personality is gradually gaining control of his body."

"Okay." Qi Mengsi replied softly, then turned to look at Li Guanqi with disbelief in her eyes.

Of all those present, only she knew how horrifying this was.

Did he win over the audience?

Li Guanqi is not the first person to wake up from the audience's dream, but without exception, all those who have woken up in the past have some degree of cognitive impairment, cannot distinguish between dreams and reality, have confused memories, and are accompanied by strong violent tendencies.

They were all tortured to the point of being like idiots or madmen, and it would take a lot of time and medical resources to cure them.

He is the first person to wake up with self-awareness and no violent tendencies.

what's the situation?
Did the audience have a sudden outburst of kindness? What exactly did he go through?
"Are you really Li Guanqi?" Qi Mengsi looked at his empty eyes, feeling uncertain, and asked again.

Li Guanqi's lips moved, and the first sound he made was a hoarse, dry laugh, like sandpaper rubbing together.

Have you ever heard of the Monkey King?

His answer was irrelevant, yet his voice carried clearly throughout the quiet ward.

Qi Mengsi was taken aback.

“A very powerful monkey,” Li Guanqi lowered his eyes, his gaze falling on the back of his pale hand, “but ordinary people simply cannot understand this monkey.”

He paused, as if recalling something, or perhaps trying to organize his fragmented thoughts.

"You have to exhaust your entire life, use up all your luck, and overcome countless hardships."

Finally, he ascended to heaven and joined the ranks of immortals, becoming one of the 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals.

“Only then,” Li Guanqi slowly raised his head, his empty eyes meeting Qi Mengsi’s shocked eyes, “will you be able to understand the Great Sage Equaling Heaven.”

Qi Mengsi's pupils contracted slightly.

These words... were spoken by her.

On the first night of the all-out attack, she casually mentioned a little story—a story only the two of them knew—to explain why she couldn't understand the King's Hand duel. This story was more convincing than any identity verification.

She gently raised her hand, signaling to lift the alert.

The tense atmosphere around them instantly relaxed. The AI ​​police put away their weapons, and the doctor next to them also breathed a sigh of relief, looking down at the terminal: "The sanity rate has recovered to 62%, the fluctuation is smooth, confirming that the personality is in control."

Nodding, Qi Mengsi took two steps forward, breaking the three-meter safe distance. She crossed her arms and scrutinized the person on the bed, her tone slightly teasing.

"Alright, Heavenly Soldiers and Generals. So, you've defeated the Monkey King?"

To be honest, she still finds it hard to understand how the audience could lose.
Li Guanqi's expression remained unchanged, but a hint of self-mockery and sadness crept into that emptiness.

"I imagined a secret realm without Enar, suppressing her imagination. To avoid running out of Enar, she had to imagine the Magic Cards before the duel even began." He calmly stated his tactics, his tone revealing no trace of victory.

He smiled, a smile more painful than a grimace: "I didn't beat the audience."

"I only won against a little sister..."

"It's good that you're back," Qi Mengsi said calmly.

Li Guanqi suddenly remembered something and asked with a hint of eagerness, "By the way, is someone calling me?"

He was able to return to reality from a dream state on his own, but he was able to return from a deep dream state to a dream state by calling out "Mynah bird".

His consciousness as Li Guanqi had been worn down over a long period of time, and he was on the verge of 'death'. When he was called out like this, he suddenly caught his breath, which led to the 'deviation from the original plot' of the Nine Fires transmigration.

In order to bring the 'plot line' back on track, Bai Zhi forcibly inserted important memories into Jiu Huo's time travel.

Fortunately, he pulled through and wasn't crushed by those memories.

He's fortunate that there are people in this world who care about him and call him "Mynah Bird"—that must be—

Seeing that no one responded to Li Guanqi, Luli pointed to the bed next to him. Li Guanqi looked in the direction she pointed and saw a girl lying in the next bed with a complicated mechanical device on her head.

"Tang Xin!"

Li Guanqi's eyes widened suddenly, his carefully maintained composure crumbling. He tried to get out of bed, but a feeling of powerlessness held him firmly in place. He could only stretch out his hand, his voice hoarse and urgent, "What's wrong with her!"

Dr. Zhang Zhiyu, the attending physician, stepped out from the crowd. She was wearing a white coat and her expression was calm to the point of being indifferent: "When your rationality rate drops below 55%, we will activate the Ferryman Program, which will arrange for someone closely related to you to enter the dream and try to anchor your fading self-awareness through calling out to them."

She paused, glancing at the terminal in her hand: "But in your file, under the social relationships section, you have no father or mother, only a fiancée, and her contact information is still blank."

Standing to the side, Qi Mengsi's expression became somewhat unnatural, and her eyes drifted awkwardly to the side.

“We can only ask your friends, but you only have…” Zhang Zhiyu paused, then continued to Li Guanqi, “We have clearly informed the ferryman of the risks of the plan; the dreamer may be drawn into a deep dream.”

Her gaze fell on the quiet girl in the next bed: "But she said..."

"She is willing."

"What else is there to say? At worst, we'll just consider it paying for our lives."

“Pay back a life…” Li Guanqi muttered to himself, a tightness gripping his chest. He stared intently at the doctor before him, questioning him word by word, “Why drag a complete stranger into this danger!…Wasn’t there a safer way?”

Faced with Li Guanqi's anger, Zhang Zhiyu's expression remained unchanged. She asked coldly, "Didn't you apply for medical volunteering? You should know that very well."

"The medical equipment we use now is from two hundred years ago. Don't you know how important equipment is to medicine?"

"The Ferryman Plan is the only way we can save you."

Li Guanqi's anger froze. He stared at Zhang Zhiyu in astonishment, the argument between 0748 and Bai echoing in his mind.

"Technology will be locked into the seventh generation!"

"My job is to do my job well; as for the future..."

"Biantana has no future!"

The term "technology blockade" is generally insensitive to the average person. How advanced does our life need? Seventh-generation technology is enough for an average person to enjoy life to the fullest, and the endless stream of games is enough to keep them entertained for a lifetime.

Perhaps only one day, when someone we care about suffers from a new kind of illness that current technology cannot diagnose, will doctors shake their heads in frustration.

Or perhaps it's only at times like these that we let out a hoarse roar: "Why isn't technology more advanced?!"

A chill deeper than exhaustion and despair shot up Li Guanqi's spine to the top of his head, leaving him feeling icy cold all over.

At this moment, he finally understood what the blank sheet of paper meant.

"003 is a symptom, not the root cause."

"Even if the Soul Control Division removes this 003, there will be a new 003."

As long as the cage remains unbroken, the suffering will not cease.

"How is she now..." Li Guanqi asked in a low voice, without a trace of anger.

"Don't worry," Zhang Zhiyu stated bluntly, "If you can wake up, she can wake up too."

"What if I don't wake up?" Li Guanqi said, his head bowed, lost in thought.

Zhang Zhiyu interrupted coldly: "That's impossible. The past cannot be changed. You're awake now, that's it."

Instead of thinking about that, think about your training.

"You slept for a full two months."

"Only two months?" Li Guanqi said in a low voice.

"What do you mean 'only two months'!" Zhang Zhiyu's voice suddenly rose. "Do you even know what two months is..."

“Dr. Zhang.” Qi Mengsi raised her hand, interrupting her.

"Let him calm down. He just got back, and his mind is still a mess," Qi Mengsi said to Zhang Zhiyu. She then looked at Li Guanqi and changed the subject, "However, there's no time for you to rest. You'll be back in the team tomorrow."

"Understood," Li Guanqi said.

His voice was calm, devoid of emotion. Qi Mengsi nodded, then turned and left with the group of doctors and AI police officers, without a word of farewell, her departure swift and decisive.

The ward door closed, and the large space returned to silence, with only the regular low hum of the medical equipment and the soft sounds of nurse Luli packing her things.

Luli walked to Tang Xin's bedside, skillfully checking the data on the instruments, and then gently adjusting the complex mechanical device on her head.

Li Guanqi's gaze never left her.

He just watched as Luli wiped Tang Xin's cheeks and adjusted the thin blanket covering her.

"Have we... always been taken care of by you?" he finally asked, his voice hoarse.

“Hmm.” Luli didn’t turn around and continued her work. “The medical team is short-staffed, we need people like me.”

Li Guanqi was silent for a moment, then looked at the nurse in front of him and realized that she was the petite girl.

After just two months of training and supplements, she has at least become recognizable as a girl, if not completely transformed.

"Thank you," Li Guanqi said softly, withdrawing his gaze.

"It's all work, there's nothing to thank me for." Luli disliked Li Guanqi, even felt a bit disgusted, her tone clearly distant. "If it weren't for getting points to get a permanent position, I wouldn't bother with you."

Li Guanqi was stunned for a moment, unable to recall what he had done to offend her, so he could only laugh awkwardly and let it go.

Luli ignored him and continued wiping Tang Xin's cheeks. Just as she was about to take the towel back, she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye that Tang Xin's fingers, which were resting on the edge of the bed, curled up very slightly.

Luli paused, thinking she was seeing things. She stopped what she was doing and looked closely.

Tang Xin's index finger twitched again. Then, her brows furrowed in pain, her lips moved, and she made indistinct, muffled whispers.

"run……"

Reacting quickly, Luli immediately pressed the call button by the bedside: "Ward 03, Ferryman is awake."

Dr. Zhang Zhiyu's usual cold voice came through the communicator: "Understood."

Then came the busy signal, indicating no intention of sending anyone over.

Just then, Tang Xin's babbling became clearer, filled with intense fear.

"Everyone...hurry up and enter the metaverse!"

She screamed suddenly, her whole body jolting upright in bed like a taut string, her eyes wide open, her pupils filled with lingering terror, staring intently at a point in the void.

The sudden shout startled Li Guanqi in the next bed. When he saw that it was Tang Xin who had woken up, the huge weight that had been hanging over his heart finally lifted, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.

"It's okay, relax." Luli said softly, making a reassuring gesture.

Tang Xin's empty gaze gradually focused. She gasped for breath, her eyes frantically scanning the ward before finally settling on Li Guanqi. With mixed emotions, she called out, "Eighth Brother?"

Li Guanqi wanted to speak, but his throat was too dry to make a sound, so he could only nod forcefully.

“We…” Tang Xin looked at him, then at her hospital gown and the medical equipment around her. The fear in her eyes slowly faded, replaced by confusion. “How did I get here? Weren’t we…”

"It's alright now." Li Guanqi's voice was terribly hoarse. "It's all over. I'm sorry..."

"I'm sorry?" Tang Xin was stunned, not quite understanding the situation.

"Alright, that's the end of our reminiscing." Lully picked up the clipboard and forced a smile. "Although I don't know what kind of dream you had, welcome back, Tang Xin."

She didn't mention a single word about Li Guanqi.

"A dream?" Tang Xin was stunned again. After a long while, she finally came to her senses. "Ahhh—it was just a dream!"

"Damn it! Why am I awake?!"

A person only realizes they've been dreaming when they wake up.

Some people will be relieved and say, "Thank goodness it was just a dream," while others will regretfully say, "Ahhh—it really was just a dream."

Tang Xin had a wonderful dream: she dreamed that she became her idol, Bai Jian'an.

Ugh! I wish I could have that dream again!

Li Guanqi's face darkened; he had been worried that she wouldn't wake up.

"Myna, do you know what I dreamed about?" Tang Xin exclaimed excitedly, her eyes sparkling. "I dreamed that—"

She was about to speak when she abruptly stopped.

The excited expression froze on his face, slowly turning into confusion, and he tilted his head.

"Huh? What did I dream about?"

Tang Xin scratched her head vigorously, her brows furrowed. Strangely enough, she clearly remembered everything in her dream the moment she woke up, but now her mind was completely blank.

"Forget it, just forget it," Li Guanqi said softly, comforting her as he looked at her troubled expression. "Anyway, it was just a dream."

It's better to forget about it.

He lowered his eyes, concealing the complex emotions within them.

“That makes sense,” Tang Xin wasn’t one to dwell on things; her worries came and went quickly. She soon put the dream behind her and turned her attention to more practical matters, “How long have we been sleeping…”

"Two months."

"Two months?!" Tang Xin's voice suddenly rose, and she sat up abruptly. "Aren't we going to be at the bottom of the standings?!"

At this moment, all the bewilderment of waking from a dream, all the disorientation of surviving a catastrophe, were shattered by the cruel reality.

She threw off the thin blanket and made as if to get out of bed: "No, I have to go pick up my mission!"

"Lie down!" Luli snapped, suppressing her anger, and shoved Tang Xin back onto the bed, then continued to nag.

She mostly recited doctor's orders, and Luli read them like she was reciting a memorized text. She had only been working as a nurse for a month and didn't know much about the job.

Tang Xin nodded her head repeatedly as she was scolded, muttering "Oh," "I know," and "I won't do it again."

Li Guanqi watched and listened from the side, a gentle smile on his lips.

Under the covers, his hand was rubbing back and forth on something cold.

The object felt heavy in his hand, smooth to the touch, and possessed the unique hardness and coldness of metal. He repeatedly felt its outline with the pad of his thumb; it was a perfect sphere with extremely fine lines on its surface.

This is what Bai Zhi stuffed into his hand with his last bit of strength before losing consciousness, during the earthquake.

A metal eyeball.

The audience's prelude.

A wedge is an item that carries a large amount of hour hand pheromones. When implanted into the body, the mind will connect with that hour hand and gain some of its abilities. It is often used by the hour hand to control the minute hand under its name.

A new day begins, morning.

Sunlight streamed through the narrow windows of the barracks, casting bright spots on the ground.

Li Guanqi changed into his long-unseen black training uniform and arrived at the bustling training ground. When the guys around him saw him, their gazes were a mixture of surprise and scrutiny, with expressions that said, "Who are you, buddy?"

Two months of absence is enough to dilute a person's sense of presence.

Xia Sheng, who was not far away, glanced at him with a complicated look in his eyes, but did not come over to talk to him like he did in his dream.

The teaching assistant walked up with the weighted vest and put it on Li Guanqi: "Ten kilograms, see how it feels."

"If you feel unwell, just say so. Don't force yourself." Yan Lang's voice came from the side, his tone unusually gentle, perhaps because he saw that Li Guanqi had just recovered from a serious illness.

Once a person has been weak, they will naturally receive pity.

"I'm fine." Li Guanqi stretched his shoulders, his tone calm. "No discomfort."

"Attention, everyone!" Yan Lang's booming voice echoed across the training ground. "Ten kilograms of weight, three-kilometer cross-country run! Ready—"

Hunting is one of the core skills of the Soul Reaper's agents. This so-called "warm-up" is an unspoken daily test in the hearts of every trainee, which is related to ranking and dignity.

Everyone tensed up instantly, their muscles strained, and their eyes fixed sharply ahead.

Li Guanqi stood in the crowd, moving his hands and feet, as quiet as a piece of wood.

"Run!" Yan Lang gave the order, and dozens of figures rushed out like bullets, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Li Guanqi didn't jump the gun; he started a beat slower than the others and followed at the back of the group at his own pace.

Yan Lang, who was in the distance, was monitoring the situation of each trainee with a drone. When he saw Li Guanqi, his eyes widened in surprise.

He had been paying special attention to Li Guanqi ever since the assessment began.

He was extremely disappointed in his son's physical fitness, as he was always running at the bottom of the rankings.

But this time, it seems a little different.

Although he was still in the bottom of the pack, his gaze was calm and confident. When navigating some obstacles, he was more skilled than those veterans who had been training for two months, like a monster who had lived for a hundred years.

He is adapting.

He is surpassing.

Once Li Guanqi felt he had adapted well enough, he suddenly sped up, overtaking one person after another.

???

With each one more, you could see the guy's extremely shocked, ghost-like gaze.

Xia Sheng ran ahead as usual, his speed unmatched, with no one around him.

To be honest, after two months of this fake fun, I got a little bored.

"Supervisor Shen Shen." He mentally connected with Shen Shen, who was far away in Mo Wang Mansion. "Is my vacation too long?"

Normally, staff in the underworld get a holiday of no more than a week, but he's been on holiday for two months and hasn't been called back yet.

“No one can take over,” Shen Shen said helplessly. “You’re the only one who can do the job. It’s difficult for anyone else to even schedule time off.”

"What about Albus?"

"Albus. Albus is not lying."

"That's not right. According to his contract, he should have seven days off. Did you not tell him that and just trick him into working?"

"Don't make things up without evidence! He himself has no objection!"

"He really has no objections? Fine, if you're not going to give me any help, at least show me the way." Xia Sheng was still complaining to Shen Shen when a gust of wind suddenly blew up beside him.

A figure ran past him on his left.

Xia Sheng's eyes widened suddenly as he subconsciously looked at the figure in front of him, at the person's profile and that determined gaze.

A broken, distant, rubbish phrase exploded in his mind.

“Gilsu”

"If there is a future."

"You should just stick with me."

(End of this chapter)