Chapter 17 Lou Jia's Suicide

“Are you talking about Lou Jia’s suicide?”

Mingmei was shocked. Although she hadn't had much contact with Lou Jia, his strength and temperament were quite outstanding. What was this so-called suicide all about?

Was it still the beginning of the game?

“When we went to rescue him, his parents were both zombified while protecting him…” Mu Chen didn't finish, just sighed. He clearly remembered the scene of Lou Jia's immediate collapse.

“Parents?”

“Yeah, probably the character relationships set in the game. But it looked like Lou Jia really put his heart into it.”

As Mu Chen spoke, Mingmei pursed her lips and fell silent.

A social relationship setting where real emotions are invested?

Mingmei couldn't understand how players could completely invest their emotions when their memories weren't completely erased. Was this kind of technological world too terrifying?

…

“Is this… the reason why the game company asked us for information about the participating students so far in advance?”

At that moment, two male teachers from the Second Imperial Military Academy were whispering to each other. One of them was Lou Jia's homeroom teacher.

“Probably…”

Duan Xinglian couldn't help but push up his tinted glasses, looked down at the livestream of Lou Jia, turned his head and whispered to his friend, “Lou Jia still… can't get over what happened back then.

“When the game company came to ask for some information about the students, they said it would be best to write down anything about psychological defenses if there were any. I recorded it at the time and even helped collect the data, but I didn't expect… it would be in this way.”

Duan Xinglian lowered his eyes and couldn't help but cover his chest with his hand, feeling a bit of a tightness. This kind of thing being replicated in the game again was too cruel.

“Who says it isn’t? Look at your neighbor?”

Duan Xinglian was reminded by his friend and looked at the senior teacher beside him, only to see that he was distracted and not paying attention to his student's livestream. Instead, he leaned over and kept looking at the livestream of the teacher from the Central Military Academy next door.

Just then, his friend whispered in his ear, "One of the students from the Central Military Academy this time is the younger sister of his former student."

"Huh?"

Duan Xinglian had only been a teacher at the school for a few years, so he didn't know about the earlier things. He looked at his friend in confusion and heard him ask, "You don't remember *The Bloodstained Prelude* from a while ago? There was a female student who played the role of someone from our school…”

"Ah, I remember that."

Hearing this, Duan Xinglian couldn't help but look in that direction again. Relying on his height advantage and not caring about being seen, he blatantly craned his neck to peek in front of all the teachers.

Finally, he saw the scene in that livestream as he wished: two girls with very similar faces leaning on each other.

"Holy crap…"

Duan Xinglian's face darkened, and he turned his head again, rolling his eyes and cursing the planners for being inhuman.

…

After taking Mingmei back to the dormitory building, Mu Chen turned and left. Mingmei walked to the door of her single dormitory, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the light in the room next door was on, even though it had been empty the past two days.

Perhaps Mingmei's footsteps weren't hidden, as she stood at the door for a few seconds looking at the room next door. The keys in her hand were also jingling non-stop. Soon, the door next door opened, and Mingmei saw Lu Xiaoyao and Bai Xiao.

"Huh?"

"Eh?"

The three of them stood face-to-face, stunned for a few seconds, followed by excitement and joy after not seeing each other for so long!

"Oh my god! Mingmei, what are you doing here?" Bai Xiao looked at the door next to her and said, "Ah, I saw that the door and windows next door were closed all the time, and there were no lights on at night. I thought… no one lived here?"

"I just got back from a mission and have been living here," Mingmei said, looking at her and Lu Xiaoyao. "When did you guys get here?"

"I arrived early this morning. I came in this morning after the quarantine was lifted. Lu Xiaoyao was released from quarantine this evening and came in. I happened to meet her, so I told them we wanted to live together."

Although these were single dorms, the rooms and beds weren't so small that two people couldn't live in them.

Seeing Bai Xiao and Lu Xiaoyao open the door at this time, neither of them were in pajamas. They looked like they were going out, and Mingmei couldn't help but ask, "So, what are you doing now…?"

"We took a night patrol job and are about to head out~"

"Is the base so short-handed?"

"Isn't it? I just got here, and I've been cutting down zombies for a long time on the way. It looks like I'll have to keep cutting…"

Speaking of this, Lu Xiaoyao's face was full of despair. She had already told Bai Xiao a lot, but Mingmei's appearance made her want to continue talking.

Sensing Lu Xiaoyao's intention, Mingmei immediately took a step back, opened the door, and waved to Lu Xiaoyao and Bai Xiao, "Okay, okay, be careful."

"Okay, it's getting late, Mingmei, get some rest." Bai Xiao grabbed Lu Xiaoyao, emphasizing the words "get some rest" to remind Lu Xiaoyao.

Bai Xiao: Kid, use your head! People have been busy all day and need to rest. Don't rush to bother them!

Seeing Lu Xiaoyao being dragged away by Bai Xiao, Mingmei finally put down her worries from the past few days. Thinking that acquaintances lived next door, Mingmei felt that even her sleep had been better than usual lately!

The next day, as soon as it dawned, Mingmei got up and went to the cafeteria. She still had to make the stat-boosting food in the morning, but before that, she had to eat breakfast.

"Hmm?"

After taking the first bite, Mingmei keenly noticed that the taste of today's breakfast was different.

Although it was just simple corn porridge, it was thick and soft, and it slid directly into the stomach without chewing, with a unique sweetness of grains. Mingmei had to admit that her own rice porridge with separated rice and water was terrible.

"Did the chef change again today?"

After finishing breakfast, Mingmei went into the kitchen, familiar with the way, to her own stove and asked a colleague next to her.

"Did you try it? Isn't today's breakfast good?" The colleague smiled mysteriously when she heard Mingmei's question.

"Yeah, it feels different from what the colleague who handed over last night made before."

"Yeah, he came to apply yesterday evening, and the higher-ups asked him to try it out this morning. If the response is good, he'll be in charge of the breakfast part in the future. Seeing you like it, he'll definitely succeed. When there are more people, your scheduling will be easier, and you can take on other tasks when you have time."

Mingmei: "…"

Actually, she didn't want to do anything else. She just wanted to rest.

Before Mingmei could speak, the colleague helped process the ingredients next to her and started chatting with Mingmei like a normal conversation about the news that came this morning.

"I heard he's a single father with two kids~ and a younger brother who doesn't have any abilities. He's the only one in the family of four with abilities. The leaders didn't want to take him in after hearing about his abilities."

"Why?"

"His abilities are amazing. I heard it's lightning-type, and the combat team has been eyeing him!" The colleague said this with envy, "This ability is great for dealing with zombies, but he's not alone. He has kids and a younger brother at home. What if something happens?

"So, they finally agreed to let him make breakfast, but he can choose to do some base security tasks in his remaining time. They even specially assigned a small courtyard to their family."

"That's true, he still has a big family."

Mingmei rubbed the rice balls in her hands, infusing them with her abilities.

[Ghost, do you know if that person my colleague just mentioned is a player or an NPC?]

Ghost: [Player, Host. Your colleague is talking about the Zhen brothers.]

[Eh?]

Mingmei paused slightly as she rubbed the rice balls. She remembered that the Zhen brothers both had a lot of points. How could there be a normal person and a person with abilities?