Chapter 1 A Cloudy Morning

It was a cloudy morning.

A damp, chilly day.

What do people experience on such a weekday morning?

First, they pry open eyelids that have been shut for three or four hours, roused by their phone's alarm music.

Then, they glance at the clock on their phone screen, turn off the alarm, and close their eyes again.

About five minutes later, their reason compels them to endure the urge to die and open their eyes once more.

Next, they engage in a thirty-second-long internal struggle, the result of which is often... they successfully suppress the strong desire to take a day off or quit their job, and grit their teeth as they crawl out of bed.

Depending on their gender, age, and personality, they will spend the next five to fifty minutes getting ready and leaving their homes.

More than half of them skip breakfast, for no other reason than that eliminating this step can squeeze out a tiny bit more sleep time.

As the sun is almost fully risen, they will squeeze onto a subway or bus that can drain the juice out of people, and spend a long commute without any pay.

This... is the morning of the vast majority of young and middle-aged people in large cities.

Their faces are piled with confusion, fatigue, and numbness.

Their hearts are lonely, but they have no one to confide in.

Day after day, they bow to reality, compromise, endure...

But... they ultimately see no hope or way out.

Thankfully—I am not one of them.

...

Feng Bujue sat on a park bench, tapping out the above passage on his phone, sitting there carefully examining and savoring it.

"Hehehe... in a good mood, huh?" Suddenly, a lewd laugh came from behind him, "Planning to write it into a book?"

"I'm just like this... I can't let my mind be idle." Feng Bujue knew it was Woody talking to him without even turning his head, so he replied without looking back, "That's why I hate waiting for people the most." As he spoke, he saved the text he had just written, then locked his phone screen and put it back in his jacket pocket.

"Hehe... sorry." Woody said, sitting down next to Jue-ge, "I ran into something on the way, so I was delayed a bit."

"Instant teleportation can be delayed?" As soon as the other party sat down, Feng Bujue's first words were argumentative, "Oh... I should say, does 'instant teleportation' even have a 'way'?"

"I don't use instant teleportation everywhere." Woody replied, "A lot of times, I still have to use transportation or walk."

"So you can just say you were stuck in traffic." Feng Bujue said.

"Hehe..." Woody took the opportunity to change the subject under the cover of laughter, "'The thing,' you've already brought it, right?"

"You've already seen it, haven't you." Feng Bujue said, picking up a package next to him and shoving it into Woody's arms.

"Something worth at least a few million dollars, and you just wrap it like this?" Woody asked as he took the package.

"I didn't wrap it." Feng Bujue said, "The courier wrapped it."

"Oh..." Woody continued, "The other party is also very generous, this kind of thing... they actually chose to send it to you by courier?"

"Although I didn't wrap the thing, delivering it by courier... was my suggestion." Feng Bujue continued, "If I hadn't made this suggestion... then yesterday afternoon, my neighbors would have had the pleasure of seeing—an armored limousine drive into the neighborhood, stop downstairs, and then several burly men in black suits would pour out of the car, carrying a box that obviously contained valuables, and finally... deliver the box to my door in a grand manner."

"Hehehe..." Woody said with a smile, "Sounds like a very interesting scene."

"Yes." Feng Bujue replied in a sarcastic tone, "It would also be very interesting when the local police came to talk to me." He paused, "When I bought the game pod in the first half of the year, because the box didn't indicate what the product was, the police station immediately got wind of it and thought I might have smuggled a batch of arms, so they sent someone to investigate."

"Hehehe... that can only mean that the image you've cultivated on a daily basis is too evil." Woody laughed.

"You're just a small fry compared to you." Feng Bujue retorted, taking the opportunity to change the subject, "Alright, in any case, I've gotten what you wanted, it's time to fulfill your promise, right?"

"Hmm..." In that second, Woody looked down at the courier box, he could sense the power contained in the item inside, so he wasn't worried that Jue-ge would give him a stone or something, "Okay..." He paused for a second, then said, "But... you really don't want to unlock Li Ruoyu's seal?"

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I've given the decision-making power and the right to act to her." Feng Bujue said.

"Hehe... you have your roundabout moments too." Woody laughed, "I thought you would be a more direct man when it comes to matters of the heart."

"When you say 'direct' are you referring to..." Feng Bujue squinted and glanced at Woody, tentatively reciting.

"Hehehe... you figure it out yourself." Woody was a very clever character, in order to keep the scale of this book within a "harmonious" range, he cleverly fooled him with a sentence of nonsense.

"In short... since you've temporarily put the matter of the seal aside, then there's only one promise I need to fulfill." Woody continued.

"Ah..." Feng Bujue responded casually, then said, "You'd better be more specific... after all, I've gone to so much trouble, if the information I get is just something like 'you're just naturally gifted,' I won't be convinced."

"Hehehe..." Woody pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, which were always gleaming with white light, and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I will definitely tell you everything I know..."

He didn't say the words "and conceal nothing," because there were some things he really "couldn't" say rather than "didn't want to say."

Feng Bujue was also a smart man, he could hear the meaning behind the words, so he didn't say anything more about it.

"Then..." After a couple of seconds, Woody began to explain, "I'll start with this 'Atari Crown' first."

"My 'truth of ability' is related to this thing?" Feng Bujue asked immediately.

"Hehe... what I'm going to tell you is not just about your ability, I'm going to tell you..." Woody said mysteriously, "...everything."

"Oh... everything..." Feng Bujue asked, looking at the other party with a suspicious gaze, "For example?"

"Hehehe... for example..." Woody continued, "...what 'Thriller Paradise' really is."