Lucky billion players, you've never seen one before / I can accumulate my own luck

"So Brother Fan's name is Fan Xiao. That's a much nicer name. And it's not surprising when you read it backwards..."

Lu Baizhi repeated the name a few times, then asked in confusion, "I just feel like... I feel like I've heard it somewhere before?"

Upon hearing this, Fan Xiao suddenly scrutinized Lu Baizhi for a few moments and carefully compared her memory with his own.

He only looked away when Lu Baizhi became a little embarrassed by his gaze, instinctively bringing her legs together, folding her hands over her skirt, and fidgeting a bit.

Fan Xiao laughed and said, "You may have seen my name in the news. I have had several experiences of bravely fighting against criminals, which have been reported by the media."

"So that's how it is... Brother Fan, you weren't an evolved being yet back then, were you? You're really brave."

Lu Baizhi looked at him with admiration.

"I wouldn't call it bravery, it's just a habit."

Fan Xiao replied casually.

After glancing at the corpses on the ground, he got down to business: "When the remaining three of you meet up here, remember to take these corpses back to the safe house."

"Huh? We're taking these...these corpses back with us?"

Lu Baizhi opened her small mouth, her expression one of surprise.

Looking at the bloody scene on the ground, she felt extremely nauseous.

"The corpses might be useful for clearing the dungeon," Fan Xiao reminded them.

Lu Xining asked, "Are we taking them all back?"

“Yes, people and monsters, all of them,” Fan Xiao said. “Don’t forget the greasy middle-aged man either.”

"..."

Lu Xining frowned slightly.

It's not that I'm against moving corpses.

But...

Since you knew you were going to move back, why did you have to cut someone open and make them look so disgusting?

A hint of resentment appeared in her eyes.

For her, who has a slight case of obsessive-compulsive disorder, this job was far too challenging.

Fan Xiao noticed Lu Xining's slight displeasure and reminded her, "There are only six corpses in total. You can have the remaining three people carry them. Each of them can carry two. Given the physical abilities of evolved humans, it shouldn't be difficult. As for the reason, I don't need to think of one for you, do I?"

"That's right. We dealt with the potential problems, and they were responsible for doing the hard work. That's fair."

Lu Xining approved the proposal.

"By the way," she continued, "what are you going to do? From what you're saying, you're not coming back with us?"

“Let’s verify our hypothesis,” Fan Xiao said. “If all goes well, we should be able to pinpoint the location of the time-space station.”

……

After parting ways with the Lu Xining sisters, Fan Xiao went to the library in Vibe City.

Now that he has used up his A-level talent, the reason he dares to act alone is because he has deduced the test mode of the "selection instance".

The most dangerous thing in this dungeon is not the monsters.

It's a clash between three different types of players.

That is, "Werewolf".

Although the monsters are dangerous, they have regular hibernation periods. As long as you are careful during the day and do not make excessive noise, you can basically ignore their threat.

Now that the cannibalistic players have been eliminated, this dungeon can be said to be safe.

As for the "dungeon boss" mentioned in the game prompts...

Fan Xiao guessed that defeating it might not be possible through combat.

Instead, it requires strategy.

Otherwise, if you make too much noise fighting the dungeon boss and attract all the monsters in the city, that would be a dead end.

Fan Xiao stopped and looked ahead.

The dilapidated city library came into view.

The script in Vibe is the same as that on Earth, so there's no need to worry about illiteracy.

"Hopefully, some useful books and materials can be preserved."

Fan Xiao secretly hoped for a moment.

Upon entering the dusty library, he began his search.

Fortunately, quite a few books have been preserved.

Fan Xiao picked up a book with a dirty cover, flipped through it a few times, and found that the paper was already dry and brittle, and could easily be torn.

This was a philosophy book, but he didn't recall the title.

It's impossible to be sure if this book exists on Earth. After all, although he has read quite a few books and remembers their names and contents, compared to the total number of books in the world, it's a drop in the ocean.

Fan Xiao continued his search.

After searching around, he finally found a history book.

After reading quickly for about ten minutes, Fan Xiao was filled with surprise.

The history described in this book was somewhat similar to that on Earth at first, but it gradually went completely off track later on.

He came up with a concept—parallel universes.

The truth behind the evolution game seems to be beyond imagination.

Fan Xiao put down the book and resumed his search.

After searching several floors, he finally found what he was looking for.

newspaper.

"Huh? What is this...!?"

Fan Xiao's pupils contracted when he saw the contents described in the last few newspapers.

Similar news has recently emerged on Earth.

For example: "Recently, with the rise of 'ultimate competitive eater' live streams, the food broadcasting industry has ushered in a new round of fierce competition..."

"Faced with the increasingly serious problem of illegal hunting of stray cats and dogs, animal protection associations have issued statements strongly condemning it. Is this a sign of distorted humanity or moral decay...?"

"Shocking! Young man lifts car with one hand, leaving passersby stunned. Is humanity about to embark on a new round of evolution...?"

Fan Xiao's guess was proven correct.

But he was not in a good mood.

This city of Vibe seems to come from a parallel world that has been ruined by an evolution game.

Chapter 12 The Location of the Time Station

"You all have dirty minds when playing tactics!"

When Fan Xiao returned to the safe house, he heard the college students' voices filled with mixed emotions of fear: "You guys turned an exploration game into a game of werewolf? Who can handle this?!"

"The key issue is the existence of cannibalistic players, which is not good news for us."

The executive's slightly worried voice followed: "Although the two in this instance were taken down, there are definitely many players like this in the entire Evolution game. We need to be more careful when we encounter other players in the future."

"Perhaps evolution games intentionally create an adversarial relationship between players, but I don't know what the purpose is."

Fan Xiao's voice rang out from the doorway.

Since it wasn't time for the monsters to be active yet, the group didn't close the door to the safe house, and Fan Xiao walked right in.

"Brother Fan, you're back!"

The executive man came up to them and said, "We really owe you a lot this time. Otherwise, with such a man-eating monster hiding in the team, we ordinary players might have been wiped out."

Except him.

The college students and the hooded youth also expressed their sincere gratitude to Fan Xiao.

Lu Xining walked over and asked, "How's the investigation going?"

"One piece of good news, one piece of bad news."

As Fan Xiao replied, he glanced around the safe house.

Six corpses were laid out on the ground.

One body was intact, while the other five were broken and mangled.

Lu Xining was clean, and it was obvious at a glance that she hadn't done the hard work of moving corpses.

To Fan Xiao's surprise, Lu Baizhi's beautiful dress was stained with a lot of blood, and she looked rather dirty.

The older sister would naturally not let her younger sister do such dirty work.

Fan Xiao guessed that the younger sister probably wanted to help everyone, and the older sister couldn't refuse her, so she had to go along with her wishes.

"Hear the bad news first."

The executive, looking worried, said, "Right now, I just want to hear all the bad news at once, and then I'll get some good news to ease my mind."

"Bad news, it might be a bit shocking."

Fan Xiao's words immediately gave everyone a bad feeling.

He continued, "You've all seen and touched the monsters yourself. What are your thoughts?"

"A novel creature that doesn't exist on Earth."

The executive thought for a moment and said, "Judging from the monster's size and the battle scene described by Miss Doll, although the monster is stronger than us, it shouldn't be much stronger. There is a possibility that we can kill it."

"They are very sensitive to sound and prefer to hibernate in the dark," the hooded youth added. "When we go out to explore again, we'd better take precautions against these two things in advance."

“The monster is human-shaped,” Lu Xining said, revealing the key point.

“Yes, like humans.” Fan Xiao nodded: “Because they were originally human.”

Upon hearing this, everyone was more or less surprised.

What's surprising isn't the monster, but the fact that it's human.

After all, they're not blind, so it's reasonable for them to make this guess after seeing the shape of the monster.

They were simply surprised that Van Shaw was so certain.

"Humans have become monsters..." the college student said, "Resident Evil?"

"Calling it 'Evolution Crisis' would be more appropriate."

Fan Xiao replied casually.

Then he began to explain the information he had gathered to everyone.

This includes my own speculations about parallel universes.

And Vibe City may have originated from a parallel world that was ruined by the Evolution Game.

He concluded, "The bad news is that Vibe City may become the future of Earth."

"Uh... this news is too shocking!"

The college student looked terrified.

"It can't be that bad, right?" the executive guessed. "Is it possible that this instance was created directly by the game? Brother Fan, is the information you found specifically left in the instance by the game to help us clear it?"

"What you said is one possibility; it depends on which one you believe."

Fan Xiao shrugged, saying nonchalantly, "Besides, I only said that Earth might become like that, not that it's absolute."

"The goal of the game is to evolve all of humanity. The consequence of failure to evolve might be becoming like Vibe City, while success might lead to a giant leap forward for civilization."

"As for the criteria for judging failure and success, there is too little information to draw conclusions at this time, and it is not something that we, as prospective players, should worry about."

"It's definitely not a problem we should worry about, at least not at this stage."

Lu Xining looked at Fan Xiao and asked, "Have you finished telling me the bad news? What's the good news?"