"The company's Mixed Reality tech test is right at our school!" Hearing the broadcast, Feng Lingyue immediately logged out of her game and, with her slippers scuffing along, tried to drag Lu Lin out the door.

"Hurry, hurry, Lu Lin! Before we eat, let's hit the sports field first."

‘The company…’

Lu Lin was intensely averse to that word, even suspecting they'd come specifically for her. She refused flatly, "I'm not going. I'm not interested in games."

"Oh, come on, the field is right on the way to the cafeteria. Just tag along with me, then. Lu Lin, darling, you wouldn't want me eating alone on my first day of school, would you? That'd be so sad."

Feng Lingyue seemed to have turned into a lively little bunny, blinking pleadingly at Lu Lin. Yet Lu Lin couldn't shake the feeling that this little white rabbit was trying to lead her straight into the wolf's den that was the company.

"Ah." In the end, she caved. She couldn't help it. Ever since back then, she'd never been good at refusing a cute girl's request, and she still hadn't learned.

"I'll go with you, but only from a distance."

"Yay, Lu Lin darling, you're such a sweetheart."

The cafeteria near the sports field wasn't close to the dorms. Feng Lingyue bounced along ahead, still trying to sell Lu Lin on full-dive games: "Let me tell you, Lu Lin darling, you have no idea how amazing the company's new tech is."

Feng Lingyue walked backward, facing Lu Lin as she praised, "If Virtual Environment tech uses gaming devices to upload players' consciousness, letting players around the world lie in bed and connect over the network world… Then Virtual Reality tech lets players wear lighter, more convenient glasses-type gaming devices and connect while awake, simulating real-world elements into game scenes so players really use their bodies to act.

Mixed Reality tech is the most insane—it lets players enter the game world directly in reality without using any gaming device at all! You know, Lu Lin darling, this tech is just too incredible. The reason I pushed myself to get into Qingbei was so I could join the company after graduation! I've never gotten a closed beta slot. Don't you think if this Mixed Reality test is happening at our school, and I'm nearby, I might be able to unlock a game character right there!"

Lu Lin didn't share Feng Lingyue's fangirl filter, and she knew the truth about the company's extraterrestrial tech. But she wasn't about to burst her bubble. She merely replied, "That really is pretty impressive."

Still, through Feng Lingyue's gushing, she finally understood the meaning behind Manager Li's words.

She hadn't been able to listen back then. Now, thinking carefully, if it was truly alien tech spiraling out of control, then the Earth beneath their feet...

Feng Lingyue nodded vigorously at Lu Lin's assessment of the company's impressiveness, then added fiercely, "If it weren't for those damn foreign forces stealing the company's tech and snatching the patents, forcing the company to only admit last week that they possess immature Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality tech… Otherwise, the company's Mixed Reality tech would've been developed even more perfectly, instead of being rushed into mass testing like this."

But Lu Lin quickly spotted a discrepancy and asked, "Wait, didn't the company say foreign forces were developing it in secret? How could they blatantly snatch patents?"

Feng Lingyue looked even more surprised, "Lu Lin darling, didn't you say you didn't follow games or the company? How do you know that?"

‘Heh, slipped up. But surely the company wouldn't keep something like this under wraps, right?’

So Lu Lin probingly answered, "Maybe it was a top headline and I saw it without paying attention."

That answer held water. Feng Lingyue "Oh"-ed, then explained, "The group that deliberately snatched the trademark calls itself the 'Hunter's Guild.' The Guild claims they're nothing like those overseas forces secretly developing the game, but anyone with eyes can see that the guild players 'stowaway' into the game world using the tech from those foreign forces!"

Lu Lin understood. She thought to herself:

‘Stowaway, huh... So aside from the game company, there are other forces that can enter the game. So that's how it is. These stowaways seek to use Mixed Reality tech to wield the power gained in the game within the real world. Meanwhile, the company is still in the testing phase, and probably only a very few company players, myself included, can do that through bugs.’

Time always moves faster when chatting, and with Feng Lingyue hurrying along, the two had already arrived at the sports field.

Campus security personnel in uniform had already secured preliminary control of the area. The senior students running club recruitment booths on the field were packing up their canopies with resentment. They complained, "What game test is more important than our club recruitment!"

"Forget it, that game company's got deep pockets and clout. Even our school board accepted it. What can we do?"

But not everyone was unhappy. The gaming fanatics, mostly male students, had already breached the security cordon and entered deep into the field, snapping pictures.

The security personnel couldn't decide whether to stop them or not. Their assigned orders were very loose, and they were dealing with students from their own school. So they just turned a blind eye. It was just a game test anyway. What could be dangerous?

Even more students gathered outside the perimeter to spectate.

Lu Lin noticed the longing in Feng Lingyue's eyes. She obviously wanted to squeeze in for a photo op too. Lu Lin grabbed her by the scruff of her neck like fate itself. She genuinely couldn't fathom it and asked, "What's there to take pictures of in a bare sports field?"

"You don't get it!" Feng Lingyue protested, "This is a gamer's romance!"

‘Romance (aesthetics) where?’

Bad memories surged into Lu Lin's heart. The first time she entered the game, she got a maliciously twisted quest and turned into a girl. The second time, her heart was shattered, and she was frozen in an ice cocoon for over half a month. Even now, she couldn't tell game from reality.

Zoning out for just a moment, she lost her grip, and Feng Lingyue slipped out of the sun protection jacket Lu Lin was holding. Her petite figure darted into the field.

"Hey, we agreed to only watch from a distance!" Lu Lin was about to rush in and drag her out.

Right then, the company's drone swarm arrived from headquarters at the school's sports field, causing a collective uproar. "A game test, and they even brought in a drone swarm."

"No, they might be using drones to set up Mixed Reality game operations."

Clearly, the drone swarm wasn't here to put on a show. But the students had also guessed its purpose wrong.

The drones were loaded with loudspeakers and water rounds, looping repeatedly, "Unrelated personnel, please leave." They used the water rounds to shoo away the gaming fanatics.

The university students who'd barged onto the field weren't too afraid of a little pain. Though they howled as they got hit, soon enough, they started making the best of it. They treated the attack as a bullet-hell dodge game and played around, laughing in the face of the water rounds, until exhausted and unable to hold on any longer, they reluctantly exited the field.

"Requesting security personnel to cooperate."

"Unrelated personnel, please leave."

The drones could only repeat mindlessly, like an impotent husband.

Lu Lin had also barged onto the field. She scanned everywhere but couldn't find Feng Lingyue amidst the chaotic water-round assault.

‘It was just that... right in the center of the field, how had a red light suddenly appeared out of nowhere?’

"Hey, look over there!"

Under the eyes of the crowd, a deep, dark red portal had blatantly manifested right on the surface of the field.

With sharp eyes and quick reflexes, the moment she sensed something was wrong, Lu Lin lunged away in one leap, instantly distancing herself. But the students who had been lingering right next to the red light were terribly unlucky. Their figures were swallowed and vanished by the dark red portal in an instant.

"What... what's going on?"

As the saying goes, outsiders watch the spectacle while insiders watch the technique. Someone cried out in shock, "Is this Mixed Reality tech? It really can take living, breathing people straight into the game world without any equipment?"

Lu Lin's brow was already furrowed. The moment the dark red portal devoured everything, she had seen a familiar figure. It was Feng Lingyue.

She cursed, "That little—!"

The dark red portal twisted the light, gaping like a blood-filled maw, giving off a completely different vibe from the golden portal of the 'Secret Realm' she had first encountered.

If gold represented possibility and hope, this red door only radiated oppression and terror.

‘A dangerous feeling.’

Lu Lin touched her chest, the chill imparted by the Frozen Heart.

She recalled the words of the ice heart Spirit: At this point, do you truly still believe this is just a game?

‘No.’

Lu Lin could now be certain. This world had gone mad. It was no longer just a game.

Though she wanted nothing more to do with the company, out of the question was standing by and watching her dorm roommate enter an unknown world.

‘I can't do that!’

Lu Lin's figure flickered, and she stepped into the dark red portal.

After she stepped in, the portal vanished as well.