Chi Yao was annoyed from digging through the trash. He turned his head and saw that a certain person had been squatting in the corner for a long time without moving.

He walked over and was about to speak when he caught sight of the wolf’s tooth in Jing Xi’s hand.

“Didn’t you want a part?”

Hearing Chi Yao’s voice behind him, Jing Xi snapped back to reality and unconsciously held the wolf’s tooth in his palm.

“Whose is this?”

Jing Xi’s voice was deeper than usual, but Chi Yao didn’t think much of it.

There were less than four hours left until Number 46 opened, and there was still a pile of trash to go through.

“You like it? Then it’s a gift for you.” Chi Yao’s hands were covered in oil. He kicked him with his foot. “Are you going to keep looking or not?”

The casual attitude made Jing Xi suddenly remember what Chi Yao had said that night.

Chi Yao didn’t want to get involved with the past again.

All these years, he was the only one who wanted to reunite.

Jing Xi composed himself. He closed the box and put the wolf’s tooth in his pocket.

When he turned around, his expression had returned to normal.

He pretended to be nonchalant and probed, “This wolf’s tooth is of good quality. Did you hunt it yourself?”

Chi Yao continued to search and said casually, “A little girl gave it to me a long time ago.”

Jing Xi: “…”

Jing Xi: “A little girl?”

The bitterness in his heart disappeared because of those three words.

Although he did look a little like a girl when he was a child, you were the one wearing the girl’s pajamas back then.

It was impossible for a little girl to get a fifth-level mutated wolf king’s tooth.

Chi Yao thought he didn’t believe him. He threw the parts he had already searched through to the other side and reluctantly explained, “Her family seemed to be in the business of trading mutated beasts. She got this tooth from her family.”

Jing Xi: “…”

Trading mutated beasts?

Jing Xi searched for the parts, his mind in a state of confusion.

At that time, he was less than five years old. Chi Yao was almost a head taller than him, so he should have been at least a year older.

Although some details had become blurry, he remembered the general events. There was no reason for Chi Yao to have completely forgotten.

Was it because of the mutation?

Jing Xi’s eyes flashed. He pretended to ask unintentionally, “Is the little girl also from Extreme Shadow?”

“How could she be?” Chi Yao sneered, his voice chilling. “If she were in Extreme Shadow, I would have already abducted her.”

“…”

Jing Xi’s expression was complex. He continued to probe, “If you like her so much, why didn’t you look for her?”

Chi Yao’s movements stopped for a moment, then he continued to search without a trace.

“I couldn’t find her. You remember things from when you were three or four years old so clearly?”

Jing Xi frowned and looked at him. “Three or four years old?”

Not four or five?

“If she hadn’t been so pretty, I would have forgotten that she even existed,” Chi Yao met his gaze. “Now I only remember that she was pretty. I’ve forgotten what she looks like. How am I supposed to find her?”

Jing Xi’s voice was dry. “But you have the wolf’s tooth?”

Chi Yao didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Do you have time to gossip about me now?”

Jing Xi gave him a deep look and didn’t say anything else.

The two of them searched through most of the warehouse and finally found the parts Jing Xi needed.

With limited conditions, Jing Xi took his tools, found an empty spot, and began to dismantle.

“What are you doing?” Chi Yao sat cross-legged next to him, watching him tinker.

“A control chip,” Jing Xi said, quickly dismantling a mech finger part. “I’m going to upgrade Xiao Hong.”

When Chi Yao heard that, he took out Xiao Hei.

“Upgrade this little idiot too.”

A virtual screen popped up from the Xiao Hei.

[Who are you calling an idiot?]

Chi Yao: “Who doesn’t know who the idiot is?”

Xiao Hei: [Heh. I’m changing owners.]

Chi Yao: “I think not only does the hardware need to be upgraded, but the system needs to be re-flashed as well.”

Jing Xi: “…”

The so-called control chip was less than a tenth the size of a fingernail. It was extremely precise and could easily be ruined.

An hour later, Jing Xi threw away the third failed chip and started prying parts from the mech parts again.

Chi Yao looked at the special metal that was almost used up and held his hand down.

“Hey, you’re not on your game today, genius mechanic?”

Jing Xi glanced at his hand and struggled free slightly.

“The failure rate is normal.”

He’s being stubborn.

Chi Yao leaned against the mountain of junk behind him, ready to continue digging through the trash later.

Jing Xi put on his high-magnification goggles. Halfway through soldering, he started to drift off again.

He reluctantly stopped. After a moment of silence, he asked in a low voice, “The wolf’s tooth, are you really giving it to me?”

Why is he still on that topic?

Thinking that Xiao Hei was counting on him to upgrade it, Chi Yao said lazily, “It’s not worth anything. If you hadn’t dug it out, I would have forgotten it even existed.”

Jing Xi: “But it’s an important memory of yours and hers.”

“She never looked for me, so it doesn’t seem that important,” Chi Yao chuckled. “We’re from two different worlds. Keeping this thing would only cause me trouble.”

Jing Xi: “What if he looked for you?”

Chi Yao: “Why so many ‘what ifs’?”

Jing Xi opened his mouth, but the words were stuck in his throat.

He was a former acquaintance who wasn’t expected.

Even if they recognized each other, the outcome wouldn’t be what he wanted.

A sudden weight fell on his shoulder, and he felt warmth on the side of his face.

Chi Yao put his hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Are you jealous?”

Jing Xi was not in the mood to joke with him.

Just as he was about to struggle free, he heard him say, “Don’t worry, I’m more interested in you now.”

The deep and pleasant voice carried a clear hint of teasing, which was Chi Yao’s usual scoundrel style and couldn’t be taken seriously.

Jing Xi shook off his hand and continued to solder.

This time, he was surprisingly focused.

In Chi Yao’s yard, Fang Liang looked at the time. It was 11:55 p.m.

He didn’t know how many times he had looked out of the yard.

“Should I go check on them?” Lin Yuheng asked.

Fang Liang shook his head. “No need.”

The boss would never drop the ball on this kind of thing.

Soon, footsteps came from outside.

Fang Liang and Li Yuan hurried out to greet them.

“Boss!”

Chi Yao strode inside. “Get ready to log in.”

“Yes.”

Fang Liang and Li Yuan both glanced at Jing Xi who had followed them.

Chi Yao gestured to Fang Liang. “Give him the spare pass.”

Fang Liang was stunned. “Okay.”

At 11:58 p.m., the five of them entered the study.

Jing Xi looked at Lin Yuheng and said calmly, “Did you remember everything I told you?”

Lin Yuheng nodded seriously. “I remember!”

Seeing him sweating nervously, Chi Yao said half-jokingly, “Whether we wake up alive depends on you.”

Lin Yuheng’s face turned pale. “I’ll do my best!”

At 11:59 p.m., the four of them put on fake terminals and attached their passes.

The passes connected to the terminals and immediately entered holographic mode.

When Chi Yao opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the study, but in a primitive forest.

There were different function panels in the four corners of the screen.

The top left corner showed his fake name, with a “0” under the name.

The bottom right corner was a chat window, with various names with the prefix “VIP” entering the game.

Soon, many more people appeared around him.

The two rough-looking men named Fang Jing and Li Yuan moved closer to him.

Chi Yao looked for Jing Xi in the crowd but couldn’t find him for a while.

“Whose pass did you give him?”

Fang Liang scanned the crowd and pointed ahead. “He’s over there.”

Chi Yao followed the direction he was pointing.

Standing there was a tall woman with long hair and peach blossom eyes, but her eyes were very cold. On top of her head was the name—Call Me Sister.

Chi Yao: “…”

Damn it.

He reluctantly shifted his gaze and turned to give Fang Liang a thumbs-up. “Nice job.”

Jing Xi walked over with a cold face and stood in front of Chi Yao.

“You’re disgusting.”

Being close, the impact was even greater.

Chi Yao couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“It suits you perfectly, Miss Jing.”

[Welcome to the Virtual Survival Race. You now have five minutes to choose your weapons for the upcoming battle. Each person can choose a maximum of three items.]

As the AI’s voice sounded, four warehouses appeared around the crowd.

The four of them chose a random one with fewer people.

There were many weapons in the armory, but they were all cold weapons. The best ones were only 20-centimeter-long military knives.

“So stingy.” Li Yuan was very dissatisfied. “Last time there were guns. This time, there’s only this junk.”

Jing Xi picked up a military knife and was about to put it in his leg pouch. He looked down at his thin legs, and his expression froze.

“Pfft ha ha ha—” Chi Yao was so amused to see him in a difficult situation that his face hurt from laughing.

Hearing Chi Yao’s ridicule, Jing Xi caught the military knife he had thrown up and threw it back.

The military knife flew past the side of Chi Yao’s face and plunged straight into the wall behind him.

“Hiss—!”

The middle-aged beta who was looking at Jing Xi covered his face. Blood flowed from between his fingers.

Jing Xi’s voice was cold. “Try looking at me one more time?”

The middle-aged beta was startled. He hastily picked up his equipment and ran away.

Chi Yao watched the person flee in panic and put his hand on Jing Xi’s shoulder.

Because of the height difference, it looked like he was embracing him.

“Don’t be scared. Your brother will protect you.”

Jing Xi ignored him, took his things, and left.

As soon as five minutes were up, the AI’s voice sounded again.

[You need to cross this forest and reach the base within 12 hours. The winning player can get 10% of the total betting amount. This competition uses a point-based elimination system. Every hour, the hundred players with the lowest points will be eliminated. Finally, I wish you all a happy game.]

Outside the game, another group of people with VIP tags were watching. They could bet on any player in the game, either in stages or for the whole duration.

The players’ movements in each stage would determine the change in the prize pool amount.

“Are the numbers under the names points?” Jing Xi asked in a low voice.

Chi Yao: “Yes.”

He scanned everyone present.

There were about sixty people at this spawn point. At the moment, there didn’t seem to be anything unusual.

But if they could use fake identities, others could too.

After the AI finished speaking, a smaller map appeared in the top right corner of the operation page, showing their current location and the location of the base.

But the map wouldn’t update their location in real-time.

“Let’s team up!” Someone in the crowd shouted. “The rules allow teams of up to four people. I’ve been here many times. Who wants to team up with me?!”

“Me!”

“I do!”

The crowd was in chaos.

Fang Liang and Li Yuan were just ordinary beta men. They were completely unremarkable in the crowd.

Chi Yao chose the image of a pretty boy. He was very handsome and looked like a weakling.

None of the three of them had a popular image.

“Hey beautiful, want to join my team?”

As they were about to leave, someone suddenly rushed in front of Jing Xi.

“My team is also missing one. Come to my team!”

Another person squeezed over.

“You can tell they have no strength. Come to my team. I’ll carry you to victory!”

Another one squeezed over.

Soon, Jing Xi was surrounded by people.

The people assigned to this spawn point were basically all males. Jing Xi was the only female beta.

Catching sight of Chi Yao’s raised lips, Jing Xi said unhurriedly, “No need. I prefer to carry others to victory, especially certain pretty boys who are all looks and no substance.”

Chi Yao: “…”