Lakeside Ghost Story 24

The System's icy countdown still hung in his field of vision. In the firelight, Asha took Zhuo Yu's hand and traced a "1" on his palm with a fingertip.

Zhuo Yu narrowed his eyes and studied the boss with interest. "What does that mean?"

Asha crouched until he was eye to eye with Zhuo Yu, then gently stroked his hair. "That's the riddle I'm leaving you."

The young writer's feelings for "Asha" had gone no further than love at first sight. He had seen Asha as the embodiment of perfection, his muse. But this man before him awakened a deeper curiosity, a far stronger desire to understand and explore.

"Actors remain themselves most of the time and are only occasionally influenced by their roles. But you're the opposite. You let Asha control the body most of the time, so you can't be an actor. Are there other positions in the Studios?"

"Time is almost up." The boss did not answer. He looked toward the sky and murmured, "So you prefer a greater challenge..."

"The way you say that, we'll meet again, won't we?" Zhuo Yu went straight to the heart of the matter.

Asha's magnificent silver eyes focused on Zhuo Yu once more, and he made a binding vow.

"As long as you still remember me, we will always find each other again after we part."

"All right. You said it, so I'm holding you to it." Zhuo Yu felt as though he had encountered the most challenging riddle of his life. He knew this man knew him, as if he carried a secret that had only deepened with the passage of time.

"Mm. It's a promise."

[Countdown: 0:30... 0:15...]

"Wait. I haven't asked your name yet," Zhuo Yu said.

"I don't have one." He placed the mask and axe in Zhuo Yu's hands. "Keep them. They'll be useful."

Asha's body began to burn in the black flames. He gave Zhuo Yu one final smile, then turned to ash amid the fire that filled the sky.

[Countdown complete. Initiating transfer.]

Zhuo Yu felt every light in heaven and earth go out. Even sound seemed to lose the medium through which it traveled, and the entire world fell into a terrifying silence. Then gravity shifted. He felt as if he were floating, but the illusion lasted only three seconds.

When he opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by sophisticated gray decor. Bright floor-to-ceiling windows stood opposite him, with rows of bookshelves and flourishing green plants nearby.

Zhuo Yu was back in his living room.

"..."

Zhuo Yu flexed his hand around empty air. To his astonishment, his arm was completely intact. Every scrape on his body, large and small, had vanished, and even his clothes had reverted to what he had been wearing before entering the Studios.

He immediately looked at his wrist.

The flame totem was still there. It had not been an illusion, much less a fleeting dream.

"Asha..."

[Calculating proceeds.]

[Cleared a highest-difficulty, 10v1 Killing Intent film. Reward: 5,000 Flame Points.]

[Achieved S-rank ending: True Ending. Reward: 5,000 Flame Points.]

[Completed B-rank side quest. Reward: 1,000 Flame Points and one spin of the random-item wheel.]

[Betting pool dividend: 500 Flame Points.]

[Overall rating: S. Actor score increased. All System functions unlocked.]

[Additional gains: Items acquired.]

[Crocodile-Headed Monster's Mask (A): The head of an American crocodile, symbolizing savagery and cruelty. It allows you to conceal your true self beneath the mask and gain the strength of an crocodile.]

[Crocodile-Headed Monster's Great Axe (A): A massive felling axe that an ordinary human would struggle to lift. In the hands of a suitable master, however, it will unleash destructive power beyond imagination.]

[Seven-Day Tales (S): A book containing religious stories. Those who fulfilled Golden Lake's wish will receive its blessing. (Single-use item. Bound.)]

[Proceeds calculated. The next film will begin in one week. Actors, please prepare.]

Zhuo Yu had known it. If the Studios had both rookies and veterans, it certainly wasn't benevolent enough to release an actor after only one film.

"System," Zhuo Yu called silently.

Sure enough, the System icons in his field of vision lit up again. He opened his backpack. An item occupied each of three grid spaces, the same three objects he had stored during the countdown.

He took out the mask. The enormous crocodile head looked every bit as vicious as the one Asha had handed him. But now that it had been converted into an item, merely holding it made Zhuo Yu feel stronger.

As for the great axe, Zhuo Yu wasn't about to humiliate himself by trying to lift it. Then there was Seven-Day Tales. The book seemed to provide some sort of buff that would only activate under the right circumstances.

The items were not the only change. Zhuo Yu's System interface looked very different as well. A Flame Point balance had appeared in the upper-right corner, and many previously grayed-out icons had lit up, including Spark Forum, Store, Guilds, Friends, and more.

It did not take long for Zhuo Yu to receive his first private message.

[Liu Jingyun: Captain, I found you in Recent Matches! I sent you a friend request.]

With a beep, a red dot appeared over the Friends icon. Zhuo Yu tapped Accept.

[Liu Jingyun: I'm back in my dorm!]

[Zhuo Yu: I'm home too.]

Zhuo Yu looked up and surveyed his surroundings. Yet this empty living room held none of the warmth of home. Instead, a faint sense of wrongness permeated the space, though he could find nothing visibly amiss.

A moment later, Zhuo Yu understood.

Silence.

His villa was in the suburbs, and he had bought it precisely for the peace and quiet. Even so, there should have been the sound of wind rustling the leaves and birds singing. The pond in his yard was stocked with fish, and its filter ran around the clock, producing at least some noise.

But now, inside the living room, even the ticking of the clock was gone.

[Liu Jingyun: Something's wrong. This isn't my dorm.]

It seemed she had realized it too.

"System, what's going on?" Zhuo Yu asked directly.

[Actor apartment: Housing provided to actors after they enter the Studios. Its initial form is the place most familiar to the actor, generally a home, dormitory, hotel, or other habitable location. Actors may visualize a setting and alter their apartment configuration at will.]

Zhuo Yu laughed. The Studios certainly knew how to toy with people's emotions. When rookies finally escaped death and returned to the real world, they would surely break down sobbing with relief. Then they would discover this was not reality at all. They still had not escaped the Studios, and the merciless System would be there to tell them to prepare for their next brush with death.

He picked up the phone from the table and called his editor. As expected, there was no signal.

Everything here was fake.

For now, however, Zhuo Yu had no interest in remodeling the apartment. He had more urgent matters to attend to.

He opened Spark Forum.

It was much like an online forum in the real world, divided into numerous boards. There were actor-only sections and a dizzying but comprehensive assortment of features, including searchable film replays and live film broadcasts.

At that very moment, Tales by the Lake, the film Zhuo Yu had appeared in, sat firmly at the top of the replay rankings.

He did not click it. Instead, he began searching for the information he wanted. Zhuo Yu had always known how to make good use of a search function, and he figured plenty of actors and audience members would have shared their experiences on the forum. Within about ten minutes, he had worked out the standard sources of Flame Points.

First came difficulty classifications.

Films had four difficulty levels: Warm-Up, Sweat, Bloodshed, and Killing Intent, corresponding to easy, normal, hard, and maximum difficulty. The number of actors in a film was random. Anything was possible; it all came down to probability.

Simply clearing a film awarded a base number of Flame Points: 200, 500, 1,000, and 5,000 respectively.

Endings also affected the number of points awarded. There were many kinds of endings, just like in story-driven games: NE, HE, BE, TE, and so on. Stumbling blindly to the end, or surviving by the skin of one's teeth, counted as an ending too. It simply would not earn a high rating.

The TRUE ENDING Zhuo Yu had achieved was one of the most highly rewarded.

Then there were side quests: tasks an actor could discover and accept within a film. Generally, completing one brought richer rewards and a chance to spin the wheel.

Items were expensive, and spending Flame Points on them hurt. They were not easy to obtain inside films either, making the spin the reward with the best potential return. An actor might win a powerful item that no amount of Flame Points could buy.

Last came betting pool dividends. These were actually a major source of Flame Point income for popular stars. While watching films, audience members could receive betting pools randomly issued by the System. If the actor they bet on won, that actor received a dividend.

Tales by the Lake had not had much of an audience when it began, and the betting pool had closed long before viewership rose. That was why Zhuo Yu had received a mere 500 points. A star could probably make several thousand from a single film.

Zhuo Yu copied the information and sent it to Liu Jingyun.

[Liu Jingyun: Thank you, Captain! It might've taken me forever to learn all this if you hadn't told me.]

[Zhuo Yu: It's nothing. Just sharing intel.]

[Liu Jingyun: Hehe... So, Captain, when are you going to start a guild?]

[Zhuo Yu: Once we establish a guild, or what the audience commonly calls a "team," we can spend Flame Points to apply to move out of our apartments and build our own base. Apparently, it costs a fortune.]

[Liu Jingyun: Huh? If they only deduct the points from the guild leader, isn't that really unfair to the founder?]

[Zhuo Yu: No. Becoming the leader comes with plenty of benefits in return, but we can set those aside for now. In a week, we'll be sent back into the Studios to perform in our next film. We need to establish a guild quickly so we can form a party and remain teammates in the next one.]

Zhuo Yu thought for a moment, then searched the forum for more information.

It turned out that the actor apartments were the equivalent of tenements for the lowest rung of society. There were audience apartments as well, and they were even more rudimentary. Zhuo Yu closed his eyes and gave a silent command. The familiar view outside his window vanished, revealing its true appearance.

Under an azure sky, concrete towers rose into the clouds, packed together as tightly as termite mounds. Every rookie actor was transported here after completing a film. Without enough Flame Points to change residences, they would be trapped in these cramped quarters for the rest of their lives.

Zhuo Yu's first impression of the place was despair. It was a place designed to fill low-level actors with endless despair.

"System, I want to establish a guild."

[Application submitted. Application approved.]

[Advance payment of 5,000 Flame Points required. Pay now?]

Zhuo Yu was somewhat surprised. Everyone on the forum called it a fortune, and many claimed they had not saved enough even after three years in the Studios. It was only 5,000 points? Zhuo Yu had earned more than that from a single film.

Then again, it made sense. Most people dragged into the Studios were ordinary. Escaping a horror film with their lives and saving 200 points was already an achievement. And if they wanted to improve their abilities, not even those 200 points would remain. They would spend them on all kinds of defensive items and skills.

Zhuo Yu kept a card up his sleeve. Instead of paying the 5,000 points immediately, he decided to claim his prize-wheel reward first.

He tapped the red reward notification in his field of vision. An enormous, colorful wheel appeared before him, its prize pool containing everything imaginable, with tens of millions of entries. Even Zhuo Yu had no desire to open it for a closer look. It was a bottomless pit.

He casually tapped "Draw" in the center of the wheel, intending to get it over with.

The colorful wheel spun abruptly, then slowed over time until the pointer stopped completely over one section. Words appeared in the blank space.

[Draw result: Item.]

[Rod of Asclepius (C): A serpent-entwined staff from Greek mythology, a staff blessed with healing and the symbol of modern medicine. Its image even appears on ambulances. Yet despite its fame, few dedicated healers use this staff, for it has a fatal flaw: its healing power is directly proportional to the wielder's mental strength. If the wielder of the Rod of Asclepius loses consciousness, every injury and pain it healed will return to the patient.]

The item was immensely powerful. In the hands of a god, it would unquestionably be a divine artifact. For an ordinary person, however, it was useful only at C rank, because no human could possess mental strength comparable to a god's.

But Zhuo Yu was not disappointed. The corners of his mouth curved upward as he said slowly, "What a coincidence. I wasn't particularly interested in saving people anyway."

He closed his right hand around empty air, and an upright staff materialized from nothing. A pair of tiny wings flapped busily at its head, while an enormous snake coiled around its shaft. In folklore, the species was known as an Aesculapian snake, and that was indeed what was wrapped around the staff in Zhuo Yu's hand.

The Aesculapian snake was olive green from head to tail. It was nonvenomous and possessed remarkable constricting strength. At that moment, it lay coiled around the staff, hooking the hem of Zhuo Yu's clothes with the tip of its little tail.

Zhuo Yu almost laughed. The staff came with a bonus snake. Even if he never used it to heal anyone, the Aesculapian snake would be useful for frightening people.

With the prize wheel out of the way, it was time for the main event.

Zhuo Yu looked down at his legs. Whether he could resolve the affliction that had haunted him all these years depended entirely on the Studios.

......

When he opened the Store, a dazzling array of products filled the shelves. They were divided into several categories: items, skills, mounts, pets. Anything an actor could possibly need was available, but the prices were equally breathtaking.

Zhuo Yu was short on grid spaces, so he skipped the Items tab and opened Skills, which took up no storage space.

[Lesser Werewolf Bloodline (D): Transform into a werewolf from European folklore at night, greatly enhancing your strength and speed. 1,000 points.]

[Deep One (D): As a child of the sea, you can breathe underwater and possess sharp teeth and claws. 1,200 points.]

[Archery Aptitude (D): You possess archery talent comparable to an Olympic athlete. You are Artemis's favored child. 700 points.]

[Assassin Apprentice (D): A member of the Brotherhood, you have become an assassin through years of training. 800 points.]

Zhuo Yu felt like a country bumpkin entering a grand palace, bombarded by more products than he could take in. Every rookie who opened the Store was probably dazzled by the temptations before them, only to look up at their Flame Point balance.

Ha. They couldn't afford a thing.

Zhuo Yu, however, was anything but poor.

The more than ten thousand points he currently possessed were a fortune beyond the imagination of an ordinary actor.

"For high-level actors, these bloodline skills are actually very cheap. If anyone can redeem them, wouldn't every star in the Studios become absurdly powerful? How would horror films even continue?" Zhuo Yu muttered to himself, perplexed by the skills. He also knew there were examples of actors returning to the real world, so could these skills be taken back there too?

"System, can I apply to return to the real world?" Zhuo Yu asked.

[Mortal Realm: Returning to the Mortal Realm requires payment of 2,000 Flame Points. During your stay, the System will impose restrictions prohibiting you from disclosing any information about the Studios. You will be transported back to the Studios after twenty-four hours.]

Zhuo Yu frowned. There was nothing he needed to handle in the real world, so he had no intention of wasting two thousand points.

He continued browsing the skills and noticed that many were marked "lesser" or "basic." The System thoughtfully reminded him that nearly all items and skills could be upgraded. This was only the beginning.

For instance, if someone redeemed a vampire constitution, they could eventually strengthen the skill with Flame Points or special items until it evolved into "Dracula" or "Cain, the Firstborn."

If the skills were this powerful, then surely... the horror films would become harder too?

Zhuo Yu considered it. Even if an actor exchanged their points for a vampire or werewolf bloodline, they still might not escape Asha's clutches. Asha looked perfectly capable of splitting a werewolf in half with a single swing of his axe. Then there was the seven-day curse. Even a vampire would be burned to ash by that fire.

No wonder Zhou Wu and the others had fallen apart when they first entered the film. For ordinary people without decent skills, a high-difficulty film was nothing more than a death sentence.

Not everyone could clear a film the way Zhuo Yu had, relying on intelligence and sheer ruthlessness.

Even so, Zhuo Yu needed some way to protect himself. His lower body was paralyzed. He could not even run.

His fingers trembled. Finally, he typed those few words into the search bar.

The vast list of products refreshed at once. Everything that now appeared was a gene or skill capable of curing paralysis.

Suppressing his excitement, Zhuo Yu examined them one by one.

[Spirit Cleansing (S): Your body is flawless. No disease will ever trouble you again. Even the most vicious chronic illness, the most ancient curse, the deadliest poison gas, or nuclear radiation itself will be automatically purged from your body. 17,800 points.]

After carefully weighing all his options, Zhuo Yu ultimately chose this skill.

It did not appear to offer any offensive power, but it was a top-tier constitution. Not only could it purge Zhuo Yu's genetic disease, it would also make him immune to every debuff. He even suspected Spirit Cleansing could render him immune to Golden Lake's curse.

Unfortunately, Zhuo Yu did not have enough points, and he still needed to establish his guild.

"I'll set myself a goal for now." Zhuo Yu added Spirit Cleansing to his watchlist. He finally understood why actors could never save their points. If they wanted to survive the next film, they had no choice but to strengthen themselves without end.

This was the most critical growth period for a rookie, and Zhuo Yu intended to spend his Flame Points elsewhere.

[You have selected "Beastheart Card." Estimated cost: 1,500 points. Purchase?]

Zhuo Yu tapped "Yes."

[Beastheart Card (D): Several cards are tucked inside this aged booklet. We are forced to admit that its master was a true devil.]

[This skill can be upgraded with special items. Current stage: One. Your deck contains three cards, each with a twenty-four-hour cooldown after use.]

[Sow Discord: Designate two people and use words to sow discord between them, driving them apart.]

[Reverse Black and White: Obscure key facts of an event and replace them with other information.]

[Win Their Trust: Cause someone to lower their guard around you and feel compelled to confide in you.]

This was the skill Zhuo Yu had chosen.

At first glance, the cards offered no offensive power and cost more than twice as much as some monster bloodlines, making them seem like terrible value. But Zhuo Yu believed the best skill was the one that suited its user.

The Beastheart Card fascinated him. It was bound to provide plenty of entertainment.

Next, he needed some means of rapid movement.

[You have selected "Dragon Wings" and "Spatial Translocator x5." Estimated cost: 2,500 points. Purchase?]

"Yes."

[Dragon Wings: The wings of a great dragon sprout from your back. They allow you to fly and provide a measure of both defensive and offensive power.]

[Spatial Translocator: A small mechanical sphere. Once installed at a designated location, it allows you to teleport back to that location no matter how far away you travel. Single-use item.]

Zhuo Yu had nearly exhausted his budget. To an ordinary actor, his behavior probably resembled that of an overnight millionaire with no concept of thrift. Zhuo Yu did not care. He tossed the metal sphere idly from hand to hand, feeling that he finally possessed a sense of security.

It did not come from the boss's protection, nor from the role he had played. It came from his own strength, and it gave him the confidence to face a powerful enemy.

[Liu Jingyun: Captain, my eyes are swimming from all these choices. I have no idea what skill to get. I have about six thousand points: five thousand for clearing the film and one thousand for assisting with the True Ending.]

[Zhuo Yu: Is there a particular direction you want to take?]

[Liu Jingyun: My stamina is my strong point, so I want to build on that advantage, but I don't know how.]

[Zhuo Yu: You're asking me what to redeem? Aren't you afraid I'll screw you over?]

[Liu Jingyun: Do I even have to think about that? What do I have that's worth screwing me over for?]

Zhuo Yu smiled. He searched the product listings carefully, intending to choose something good for Liu Jingyun.

From the perspective of the team as a whole, Zhuo Yu did not consider himself a strategist or intellectual. Compared with truly intelligent people, the sort who could analyze everything in perfect, systematic detail, he still fell far short.

He intended to become an all-rounder, filling whatever gaps appeared in the team so that they could remain flexible.

Liu Jingyun was small and had excellent endurance. She immediately made him think of the assassins in Assassin's Creed. She might not possess Asha's terrifying strength, but once she locked onto a target, she could pursue them to the ends of the earth until she claimed their life and brought the relentless hunt to an end.

Someone like that could serve as a fast attacker while also tracking, scouting terrain, and fulfilling a whole range of other needs. In short, it was an excellent ability. It might not shine in a one-on-one fight, but its value to a team was undeniable.

Liu Jingyun was perfect for it.

Still, Zhuo Yu needed to ask what she thought. He did not want to force his own opinion on her.

[Zhuo Yu: Let me ask you this first. Do you want to shine as part of a team, or rely on your individual strength to clear films?]

[Liu Jingyun: I was never especially talented, and I only survived my first film because of you. I trust the strength of a team more than I trust myself. If I can help everyone, maybe I won't feel so useless.]

[Zhuo Yu: What, you're volunteering to be the team's utility player?]

[Liu Jingyun: It's called strategy, okay? Strategy!]

Once she had said that, Zhuo Yu forwarded the assassin bloodline he had selected to their private chat and told her to buy it.

With the skills taken care of, the guild came next.

"Confirm payment of 5,000 points and establish the guild." After a moment's thought, he added, "Call it Lihuo."

Since they had come by fire and would depart with fire, they might as well become the fiercest-burning flame of all. In the end, they would burn everything down, whether it was the films, the Studios, or some still-unknown higher existence.

He wanted to reduce it all to ash.

......

The team rankings on the forum updated in real time every day. But today, a few sharp-eyed audience members noticed that a guild called "Lihuo" had appeared at the very bottom of the list with two members.

And its leader was none other than Zhuo Yu.

Guilds were ranked by their members' combined scores. A two-person guild was exceedingly rare, especially when both members were rookies. Yet Lihuo's follower count was climbing at a terrifying rate, bringing it a considerable amount of traffic.

[Holy crap, number one on the fastest-growing follower chart. Who are these people? There are only two of them.]

[Can someone tell me why this new guild's follower count is rising so fast?]

[Just a humble vegetable seller passing through with my basket. Go watch Episode Seven of Tales by the Lake. Trust me, you'll follow them too.]

[Fan here. How do I put it? He has this wicked, almost uncanny beauty, and the kind of films he makes are exactly my taste.]

[Ha. What's with all the hype? I glanced at the cast list. Isn't he just handsome? We all know what you people are thinking.]

[Are you sick or something? The guy has real talent.]

[Wow, look how defensive you are. You female fans who only care about a pretty face are all the same.]

[If you've got a problem with him, go watch his film!]

[Why should I? I'm not wasting my time on some pretty boy. I'd rather watch a few more Flying Scythe Team films.]

Compared with the people who had watched Tales by the Lake, far more knew nothing about Zhuo Yu and had never seen the film. When they heard that a disabled rookie had cleared a high-difficulty film, they assumed he had gotten insanely lucky.

Why hadn't they gotten that lucky? Was it because they weren't handsome enough? They fought tooth and nail to clear films, yet they still couldn't compare to some paralyzed pretty face?

If actors thought that way, the vast audience was even less willing to accept it.

They all had teams they supported and actors they liked. To any fan base, a visibly rising new star was a potential threat. If everyone started betting on Zhuo Yu, how were their own actors supposed to make a living?

The forum erupted into a raging argument. Zhuo Yu's fans were a small minority, after all, and the opposition shouted them down until they could barely raise their heads. They were branded shallow people who cared only about looks, not ability, and the fans had no way to refute it.

Zhuo Yu had possessed no skills in the film and displayed no physical power. He had simply used his mind to clear it. His fans told passersby to watch Tales by the Lake, but none of them wanted to waste the time. They blindly believed whichever side was louder.

Zhuo Yu remained focused on searching for useful information, unaware that the battle over him was burning hotter by the minute, just like his guild's name.

With a week of free time remaining, Zhuo Yu first tested whether he could leave his apartment.

Unfortunately, his timing was poor.

The Studios were currently under lockdown. Supposedly, preparations for a major event were underway, and the System was being upgraded. To prevent audience members and actors from falling into the void through a bug, and for the sake of everyone's lives, the System had forbidden all excursions.

Before this, the Studios seemed to have been a fairly vast world.

That made sense to Zhuo Yu. Perhaps the Studios were preparing something big, and the powerful actors would suffer for it when the time came. The unscrupulous Studios would undoubtedly devise all sorts of high-difficulty tricks.

Death and terror were the eternal attractions of horror films.

Zhuo Yu could not leave his apartment, but he could transfer to the guild base granted with his application. It was a space roughly one hectare in size, and he met Liu Jingyun there.

That week passed amid Liu Jingyun's excited, affectionate chatter, browsing the forum to familiarize themselves with the Studios, and testing their new skills. Zhuo Yu also reviewed Tales by the Lake twice during that period, though he was not watching the actors' performances. He was reading the live comments.

Zhuo Yu was analyzing how the audience thought.

On the final day, the System began the countdown to transfer.

[Entering next film. Estimated time remaining: 24 hours.]

"It's only been a week, and I already have a hundred and seventy thousand followers..." Zhuo Yu silently studied the follower icon in the upper-left corner of his System interface. He took the number in stride. After all, he had been fairly well known in the real world too, with plenty of admirers.

The Studios truly treated survivors like actors. What did it gain from doing so? And what could those audience members possibly provide? Zhuo Yu believed a space that accommodated millions of people must consume an enormous amount of resources. It would be very strange indeed if the actors and audience brought no benefit to the Studios.

So would the audience also return to the Flame Source? What exactly was the Flame Source?

The forum was full of conflicting theories, without a single reliable answer.

But Zhuo Yu was only a rookie who had experienced one film. He did not yet have the ability to uncover more of the truth.

Unlike the composed Zhuo Yu, Liu Jingyun was an ordinary college student. She had never faced anything like this before.

"I have eighty thousand followers too! I heard that people who follow us get a notification when our broadcast starts." Liu Jingyun's excitement lasted only a moment before she wilted. "Right. We're about to enter the next film. I'm so nervous."

Zhuo Yu comforted her. "If even you need to be nervous, none of the other actors stand a chance."

He was not exaggerating in the slightest. Liu Jingyun's assassin bloodline could be upgraded with Flame Points, and she had poured all six thousand of hers into it, evolving all the way from Assassin Apprentice to Assassin Expert. Over the past two days, Zhuo Yu had also been designing a training program for her and purchasing combat tutorials for her to watch.

If only they could turn the base into a training ground, Zhuo Yu thought.

The guild base they had redeemed was nothing more than a one-hectare silver space. Any equipment or buildings they wanted to add would cost points. The two of them were starting from nothing, and only Zhuo Yu had a little over two thousand points left.

But Zhuo Yu had spent those points elsewhere as well.

Skills and items might have been expensive, but things that existed in the real world and everyday necessities were extremely cheap. Even an individual serving of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall cost only one Flame Point. The two had no intention of depriving themselves when it came to food. They spent only ten Flame Points over the entire week and dined on every delicacy the Studios had to offer.

Aside from food, many commonplace tools were excellent value too.

Zhuo Yu redeemed first-aid bandages, several types of antibiotics, portable tents, flashlights, multipurpose knives, and other useful survival gear. He also bought an extra-large hiking backpack, packed the supplies inside it, and stored the whole pack in a grid space, where it occupied only a single slot.

Additional grid spaces could be purchased as well. Unlocking one cost two hundred points, so Zhuo Yu opened five at once.

Having spent all their points, the pair had no means to decorate the base. Compared with the magnificent palaces or otherworldly wonders belonging to other guilds, the Lihuo Guild base was practically an unfinished shell. Zhuo Yu and Liu Jingyun slept on the floor in tents.

"You're right. I should have more confidence in myself." Liu Jingyun took the outfit granted by her bloodline from her grid space and tapped Equip. In an instant, her floral-print dress transformed into a close-fitting hooded uniform, with a mechanical hidden blade concealed beneath her right wrist.

Zhuo Yu could clearly sense Liu Jingyun's presence diminish. It was a trait bestowed by her equipment and bloodline.

He handed her one of the packed hiking backpacks, then clenched his fist.

His palm was burning. The "1" Asha had written there was reacting.

Ever since entering Infinite Studios, Zhuo Yu's curiosity had never subsided. He knew there had to be something unusual about him. During the past few days, he had searched the forum with painstaking care, yet he had not found a single actor who, like him, had played himself and even stood on the same side as the film's boss.

He remembered what Asha had once told him.

"You are special."

Zhuo Yu did not understand what made him special. Perhaps only meeting Asha again would resolve the mystery.

Compared with Liu Jingyun's anxiety, what he felt was mostly anticipation.

[Actors will soon enter the Studios. Please wait in the guild hall.]

[Time remaining: ten minutes.]

Zhuo Yu watched the System count down the seconds. When the last second vanished, a pair of silver-white doors descended from the sky.

[Actors, please enter the transfer gate. Time limit: five minutes. Failure to enter before time expires will result in immediate return to the Flame Source.]

"That's a blatant threat!" Liu Jingyun hissed, then looked at her captain. "Together."

Zhuo Yu nodded.

After steeling themselves, the two entered the doors side by side.

......

Dark. Damp. Cold.

Zhuo Yu seemed to have entered a bank of dense fog. He could see nothing around him, only hear the steady drip of water and inhuman breathing in the distance.

This was a dream.

Never before had Zhuo Yu perceived a dream with such clarity. Even his subconscious kept telling him that it was prophetic.

"Come find me... Come see me... Don't you miss me...?" A man's voice rang out, rich and aristocratic, the strange tremor at the end of each phrase lending it both mystery and tenderness.

Zhuo Yu felt his way to a wet rock wall. He seemed to be inside a cave. He rolled his wheelchair toward the voice, but then came a soft squelch as one wheel ran over something yielding.

He looked down. Beneath him lay an enormous, pallid, translucent webbed object, covered in dense scale-like patterns.

Goose bumps erupted across Zhuo Yu's skin.

It was a snake slough.

He was not afraid of snakes, but the thickness of this slough... In the dense fog, he could not even see its edges.

"You will come see me."

The man's voice seemed to come from every direction. Zhuo Yu had nowhere to escape. Swept up in those seductive words, he involuntarily followed the snake slough onward.

The fog grew thinner and thinner until Zhuo Yu could finally see what lay ahead.

A majestic mountain towered over the coast. Its pale rock face formed a striking contrast with the turquoise sea and blue sky, while its sheer slopes were enough to strike fear into anyone who saw them. Zhuo Yu had never witnessed such a wonder, and for a moment, he could only stare.

When he came back to his senses, he realized he seemed to be holding something.

A snake scale.

It was pitch-black, with the texture of jade, and a deep scar had been carved into its surface.

"One."

Zhuo Yu read it aloud.

"Asha..."

He blinked, and everything vanished. He was standing on an altar beside an enormous sarcophagus. Its heavy lid had already been lifted. All he had to do was lean over to see what lay inside.

Driven by curiosity, Zhuo Yu looked in.

The corpse in the sarcophagus wore protective clothing, with a nylon brush and pointed trowel placed beside it. The modern gear clearly belonged to an archaeological team and looked utterly out of place on the ancient altar.

Zhuo Yu's gaze traveled upward and stopped on the corpse's face.

It was his own.