Not far away, another crowd had gathered around Shen Fei.

They were all young men and women in their early twenties, around Shen Fei’s own age — likewise discussing the events of the hide-and-seek game.

In complete contrast to the raucous energy around Tan Xiao, this group, though equally engaged, spoke with a measured and rational calm. Everyone was analyzing and drawing conclusions from Shen Fei’s account, trying to absorb whatever lessons they could.

Inevitably, their conversation turned to Jiang Hao as well.

“…Going by what Shen Fei described, this wasn’t Jiang Hao’s first time doing something like this.”

“Killing people is obviously much easier than clearing a game. They guaranteed their own survival by stealing items and puzzle pieces — they’ve got no humanity at all.”

“Next time any of us runs into someone wearing white gloves, we should be on guard — there might be others working alongside them…”

The noise from Tan Xiao’s crowd swelled louder and louder, at times nearly drowning out the quieter conversation on Shen Fei’s side.

A few people couldn’t hide their distaste.

“He escaped with a puzzle piece through sheer luck and didn’t even clear the game — yet he talks himself up as if he were some kind of hero. Ridiculous.”

“No surprise there — several of the people over there are infamous for being all talk. They’ve barely been in a handful of games, but when it comes to boasting they outdo everyone.”

“I can’t stand that kind of person. Isn’t he just stealing Shen Fei’s thunder?” One of the young men turned to Shen Fei and said: “Shen Fei, you got a reward item, right? Go over there and show those ignorant people what a real clear looks like!”

Shen Fei looked a little awkward and demurred: “Come on, don’t say that about him — Tan Xiao is actually really capable… and I barely contributed anything inside the game…”

“You’re being way too modest!” His friend beside him shook his head with a sigh. “Shen Fei! There’s a time and place for modesty — are you seriously going to just stand there and let someone else take your spotlight?”

Shen Fei shook his head, genuinely uncomfortable. “As long as everyone made it out alive, nothing else matters. Spotlight… isn’t something worth competing over.”

He meant every word.

Maybe in the past he would have felt indignant — but after sharing life and death with the people around him, things like spotlight and face no longer felt worth measuring yourself against, let alone worth fighting over.

But his words were taken simply as modesty and a low profile by everyone around him.

“Fine, if Shen Fei doesn’t want to, nobody push him… Those people are only impressive with their mouths — no real vision and no real capability. Did anyone catch that guy called Tan Xiao reciting Mali’s nursery rhyme earlier? He said ‘doll’ like ‘doh-er’ — I nearly died laughing at that accent. Where does he even crawl out from, an absolute country bumpkin who’s never seen the world…”

“You’ve seen the world, have you?”

A voice cut in, jarring and abrupt.

Women were scarce at the base, and young women even more so. A voice this clear and soft was unusual — especially one that had been dipped in ice, hard and cold.

“Bai… Bai Youwei…” Shen Fei stood up stiffly, unease spreading across his face.

But Bai Youwei didn’t look at him. She fixed her cold, expressionless gaze on the young man who had just spoken:

“Your version of ‘seeing the world’ — does it mean speaking flawless American English? Polite conversation, structured and orderly?

“Does having those things make you feel good about yourself?

“If your parents hadn’t sent you to study English. If you hadn’t been born into a family of comfortable means. If you had grown up in a backwater so remote it didn’t even have internet access — would you still have any of those things?

“At the end of the day, everything you have was given to you by others. There is not a single thing on you that you earned through your own effort — so tell me, exactly what do you have to be smug about?”

The young man’s face went scarlet.

Bai Youwei gave a cold, contemptuous snort and said with cutting precision: “Country bumpkin? Never seen the world? What do you even think ‘seeing the world’ means? Seeing the world doesn’t just mean looking up — it means looking down. Look at what’s beneath your feet. Stop floating away.”

—