The three people sat in the corner quietly biting the flatbread in their hands.

Xiao Cheng’s group’s base was smaller than Tiantian had imagined. It was a very old convenience store. Now all the goods were gone, leaving only some empty shelves.

“Sister, if you don’t mind, you can rest here tonight. There are some wooden boards in the inner room that we used as beds before.” After Xiao Cheng finished speaking, he felt it wasn’t quite appropriate and added, “Not sleeping together. We made partitions, so the space is very private.”

“I…” Tiantian smiled bitterly. “I don’t mind. Right now I don’t know where I should go anyway.”

Xiao Cheng swallowed the flatbread in his mouth, then nodded. “I understand that feeling. Completely confused about the future, the 3,600 ‘Dao’ seeming endlessly far away, and teammates not being as good as I imagined.”

“That’s not it.” Tiantian shook her head. “Maybe foolish people have foolish luck. The people around me are all pretty good.”

“Really?” Xiao Cheng helplessly raised an eyebrow. “I’m different… I’ll have to start taking action soon. With only a few days left now, I must awaken my ‘Echo’ as quickly as possible.”

“Mm…” Tiantian didn’t know how to respond. After thinking for a while, she asked, “Is your ‘Echo’ ability very powerful?”

“My ‘Echo’ is completely useless.” Xiao Cheng shook his head. “If I can ‘Echo’ before tonight, I can give you pleasant dreams.”

“Pleasant dreams…?”

“Yeah.” Xiao Cheng smiled bitterly. “Even so, I have no choice. I’m only ‘Echoing’ to preserve my memory, so no matter how dangerous the situation, I must trigger my ‘Dream Entry.'”

“‘Dream Entry’…” Tiantian repeated the name, seeming to understand Xiao Cheng’s distress.

“If only my ability were as powerful as Sister Tiantian’s.” Xiao Cheng shook his head helplessly. “An ability that can create things out of thin air—no matter how you think about it, it would have many uses, right…? Much stronger than my ‘Dream Entry’…”

Tiantian didn’t know how to comfort Xiao Cheng either, since her own “Clever Object” also had quite a few limitations.

In comparison, she envied Yun Yao’s “Strong Luck” more.

“My ‘Echo’ is both difficult and not difficult.” After Xiao Cheng finished eating his flatbread, he wiped his hands on his pants. “As long as I can experience a ‘brainstorm,’ I have a chance of obtaining an ‘Echo.'”

Tiantian nodded, recalling the knowledge that Yun Yao and the others had shared with her earlier. Different “Zodiacs” here corresponded to different game types.

“So basically it requires using your brain?” Tiantian asked. “I don’t understand very well. Which ‘Zodiac’ primarily represents ‘intelligence’?”

“The one that primarily represents intelligence…” After hearing this, Xiao Cheng shook his head. “It’s ‘Monkey,’ but the most troubling problem right now is that ‘Man-Monkey’ games might be too simple, while ‘Earth-Monkey’ games are too difficult… I don’t know how to choose.”

“Then just go do it.” Tiantian said without hesitation. “No matter what, you won’t be able to figure out the answer just by thinking here.”

“Ah…?”

“Start with ‘Man-Monkey.’ If you can ‘Echo,’ you’ll succeed in one try. If you can’t ‘Echo,’ then you’ll only have ‘Earth-Monkey’ as your remaining choice.”

“That’s true.” Xiao Cheng smiled and scratched his head. “I’ve been overcomplicating such a simple matter.”

“So when are you planning to take action?” Tiantian asked.

“There’s a ‘Man-Monkey’ near the base. I’m planning to go check it out in a bit.”

Xiao Cheng stood up and walked behind the convenience store counter, bent down and lifted several layers of floorboards, and pulled out a small cloth bag from the hole.

He opened the cloth bag and looked inside, his face showing a trace of joy. “Great, the ‘capital’ is still here. I can take these ‘Dao’ and take a gamble with the monkeys.”

“You have this many ‘Dao’?” Tiantian craned her neck for a look. “Displaying them in front of the two of us like this—aren’t you afraid we’ll steal some?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Xiao Cheng shook his head. “They’re all stolen or robbed anyway. There aren’t many that are actually ours to begin with. If you take some, consider it karmic retribution.”

Xiao Cheng grabbed a handful of “Dao” from the cloth bag and stuffed them into his pocket, then put the cloth bag back under the floorboards.

“I’m going too!” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Bringing me along will definitely be useful.”

“Ah…?” Xiao Cheng knew that although he was going to participate in a Man-level game, bringing along a child this young would indeed be somewhat troublesome. “Little brother, why don’t you rest here?”

“No need. I’ll go protect you.” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Even if I can’t help much, I can still smell the scent on other people.”

Seeing Zheng Yingxiong insisting on following him, Xiao Cheng’s expression naturally showed some hesitation.

“Do you need me to come too?” Tiantian asked. “If it’s a game that requires sacrificing lives to pass, I can die.”

“Ah…?” Xiao Cheng froze for a moment. “Sister, do you really not want to live that badly? I’m going to participate in a Man-level game. I shouldn’t die.”

“It doesn’t matter to me.” Tiantian smiled. “I feel that even if I don’t die now, I’ll die in some corner someday eventually. Rather than dying without understanding why, I might as well die meaningfully.”

“This…” After hearing this, Xiao Cheng lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said, “Sister Tiantian, after thinking it over carefully, you two can indeed come with me. After all, many games have participant number requirements. But I won’t let you die.”

“Really?” After hearing this, Tiantian smiled helplessly. “It’s okay if I die.”

“You still have this little brother who needs taking care of.” Xiao Cheng pointed at Zheng Yingxiong. “So don’t casually talk about dying anymore. Besides, if I need to protect you two, I might rack my brains even more, which would also benefit me.”

After hearing this, Tiantian turned her head to look at Zheng Yingxiong and found that this child still wore an expression that was both childish and resolute. Before she could say anything, he spoke first.

“Big sister, you don’t need to take care of me. I’ll protect you.” He said.

“Ah…”

Whenever Tiantian saw Zheng Yingxiong, she felt that the softest part of her heart would be tickled. This child was very likable, but she didn’t know what exactly he had experienced. His entire worldview had major problems. How could a child come up with so many strange ideas on his own?

After thinking for a while, she still said to Xiao Cheng, “In that case, let’s go together. Xiao Cheng, I’ll take good care of little brother Yingxiong. Neither of us will cause you trouble.”