Shen Mo got back in the car.

Bai Youwei asked, “What was going on back there?”

“It was Shen Fei,” Shen Mo replied. “He wanted to follow us to Beijing. I turned him down.”

“Oh.” Bai Youwei gave a yawn, didn’t ask further, and went back to sleep.

Tan Xiao craned his neck to watch through the rear window for a while. When Shen Fei’s car didn’t follow, he asked, “Why didn’t you bring him along? The kid can handle himself in a fight — aren’t we short on people?”

“It’s not appropriate.” Shen Mo started the car and looked straight ahead. “He snuck away from home. Under those circumstances, even if I let him participate in battle, he’d carry a psychological burden once inside the game. That’s bad for him and bad for us.”

Tan Xiao nodded, only half understanding, then said, “Shen Mo, are you tired? Want me to take over for a stretch?”

“It’s fine. Take over once we reach the rest stop up ahead.” Shen Mo said.

“Okay, sure.” Tan Xiao pulled his jacket hood up, bundled himself into a ball, flopped down across the back seat, and went back to sleep.

—

The further north they traveled, the colder it got, and the earlier the sky grew dark.

They rested for a night on the road. The next day, the two men took turns driving, and at last arrived in Beijing.

There was no sign of people anywhere along the road. They’d probably come to the wrong part of the city — it was, after all, vast, and the survivors would likely be concentrated in one area.

There was no rush. Shen Mo drove around first to survey the city’s available supplies and find somewhere to settle.

Although they could stay inside the Dollhouse, it was still best to find a discreet location to enter and exit from, to avoid being observed.

Shen Mo had once worked in this city, and so Bai Youwei was curious, looking carefully at the scenery passing by along the way.

“Why don’t we go to the place you used to live?” she suggested.

Shen Mo kept his hands on the wheel. “That’s not convenient.”

Bai Youwei asked, “What’s inconvenient about it? Don’t you want to go back and have a look? Come on~ Let’s go~”

Shen Mo glanced at her, the corner of his mouth curving slightly. “There’s nothing much to see — it was staff quarters the company assigned to me.”

“Even if it’s just quarters, I still want to go!” Bai Youwei said, grinning. “I want to see what your place was like.”

Shen Mo’s mouth quirked. “Twenty-third floor. You sure you want to go?”

Bai Youwei: “…”

From the back seat, Tan Xiao exclaimed, “Whoa, without an elevator that height would be brutal — but it doesn’t matter! We’ve all evolved now, Super Saiyans aren’t afraid of a little climbing!~”

Bai Youwei looked up and shot him a glare through the rearview mirror.

Tan Xiao: “???”

“What? I was just — oh, there’s electricity in the city, so the elevator must work too!”

Tan Xiao immediately reversed course: “An elevator is obviously way better! Having to climb twenty-three floors every single day — even a Super Saiyan couldn’t take that!”

Shen Mo laughed. “Then let’s go have a look.”

He turned the wheel at the next intersection.

The car wound through layers of apartment buildings, leaving two tracks in the snow-covered road as it gradually disappeared into the distance…

About forty minutes later, they pulled into a residential complex.

The surroundings were pleasant, water and electricity both working, but there was not a soul to be seen — the emptiness gave the whole place an air of desolation.

Shen Mo pushed Bai Youwei’s wheelchair into the lobby, pressed the elevator button, and watched the numbers above the doors cycling up and down. He was genuinely surprised.

“Didn’t expect the power to actually be on… The areas occupied by the puzzle pieces have all had their electricity restored, but a place like this, with no building management, really should have gone dark by now.”

“Right, it feels like this world is being entirely controlled — nothing follows any logic anymore.” Bai Youwei said. “Like, during the power outages before, the running water in the city never stopped, which was never very rational to begin with.”

Ding —

The elevator doors opened.

Tan Xiao strode in first and announced grandly: “Maybe all of this is fake! Like The Matrix — maybe we’re all virtual! Our real selves are outside this world! …Hey, Shen Mo, what floor again?”

He looked up to find both Shen Mo and Bai Youwei staring at him.

“What?” Tan Xiao touched his face. “Do I have something on my face?”

—