250 The Mysterious Creator at the Pinnacle of the Pyramid [Four-in-One, Please Subscribe!]

A muffled bang echoed through the sprawling bar.

The originally boisterous gambling table suddenly fell silent.

The news broadcast, previously drowned out by the noisy commotion of the patrons, now reverberated clearly through the abruptly quiet tavern.

On the news screen, the headless armored figure standing atop the Fang Tower let out a deep, synthesized voice.

"Previously, I never imagined that killing one million people could be so simple... I am neither a god nor a demon, but please remember this: you died because you wanted to revoke a hero's medal."

Everyone's gaze converged on Lu Chen.

The young man who had just created a bloody spectacle at Fang Corporation and successfully defended his hero's medal had not headed to the Entertainment Weekly editorial department; instead, he had turned around and come to the Kingdom of Night.

Before this, they could never have imagined that a fledgling rookie adventure crew, under the defense of multiple fleets led by an eighty-level imperial armada, could massacre a million imperial citizens and even intimidate the behind-the-scenes shareholders of Fang Corporation...

Now, they were gradually gaining a new understanding of this news.

Under conditions where the use of spiritual energy was prohibited, a person with higher cultivation still possessed a significantly stronger physique than someone with lower cultivation.

What's more, Verdi was a rather talented sword-spirit warrior. Even with his spiritual energy sealed, he could use special methods to draw upon the sword Qi contained within his bloodline and gather it in his palm.

For this reason, he was banned from participating in gambling games.

However, even with cultivation and a physique far superior to his opponent's, and the ability to wield a portion of sword Qi, Verdi was still taken down in a single move by the other party.

In a normal one-on-one fight, Lu Chen was by no means Verdi's match.

Although Lu Chen did not release any spiritual pressure, the instantly surging speed and power far exceeded the physique corresponding to his cultivation level.

This was clearly the effect of driving spiritual energy!

In short, it was cheating.

Cheating through some kind of supernatural ability!

At that very instant, the spiritual pressure detector inside the casino had also flashed red before dissipating, leaving a record.

Lu Chen made no attempt to hide it and readily admitted to it.

The question was, how did he do it?

Could a hacker really bypass array suppression?

Verdi recovered his wits, quickly stood up, pulled the glass shards out of his forehead, and wiped the bloodstains from his beard.

Then he turned around, stared at Lu Chen with a pensive, enlightened look, and suddenly spoke:

"You're saying that you won against me by cheating, and that instead of trying to fight you inside the bar, I should have ambushed you at the bar entrance or stolen your spaceship?"

Dark lines crossed Lu Chen's forehead.

"Your interpretation is a bit too advanced; I didn't say that."

Verdi confirmed that the news was not fake and that this teenager truly possessed the ability to create miracles.

"Heroes have always emerged from the youth since ancient times. Thank you, Captain Lu, for your guidance... I am enlightened. Until we meet again!"

With that, he led his seven or eight subordinates out of the bar.

His running speed was so fast that even Lu Chen couldn't catch up.

"Wait, what exactly did you have an epiphany about..."

With no other choice, Lu Chen had to remotely control his spaceship, changing its parking location to a spot far away from this building.

Otherwise, this guy might actually become so enlightened that he really would steal his spaceship.

Lu Chen sat back down at the bar counter. Just as he reached for his glass, he discovered that his drink was gone and his glass had been smashed.

Bruh, if it's on the house, can I get another glass?

The bartender shook his head, but offered him a piece of information instead.

"Captain Lu, someone is looking for you and wants to talk business."

Lu Chen had come here to drink, not to talk business.

"Pour me another glass, I'll pay. If they want to talk business, tell them to come to the bar counter."

The bartender said with a solemn expression:

"This is top-secret business. Please go to private booth number one alone... There will be drinks inside, and by the way, I must remind you that the private booths in this bar are not equipped with spiritual-repelling arrays."

Is this an intimidation tactic?

Lu Chen stood up immediately.

"I understand."

With that, he hoisted Gloria onto his shoulder and, along with Ellie, headed toward private booth number one.

Pushing the door open, he saw two unopened bottles of Golden Brain-Numbing Wine resting on a round jade table.

Those two bottles of wine were worth thousands of spiritual stones, enough to buy several older-model Leonines.

On the sofa near the window.

A middle-aged man with a physique like a mountain, dressed in a black robe and with a face as round as a disk, sat holding specialized dice engraved with six poker suits.

His body hovered lightly, as if suspended in mid-air, without pressing down into the cushions of the sofa.

This was the very person Lu Chen had noticed earlier—the only eighty-level powerhouse in the bar.

The man stared at the three of them.

He hadn't expected that this young man with a cultivation level of only forty-seven, knowing full well that there was no spiritual-repelling array in the booth and that he could easily kill him, would still walk in without a shred of fear!

And he even brought two women with him, the one with the highest cultivation being completely unconscious.

"It seems Captain Lu is quite the romantic, dragging two women wherever he goes."

Lu Chen closed the door, entered the room, placed Gloria on the table to continue sleeping on her stomach, and sat down opposite the man with Ellie.

Without missing a beat, he tucked the two bottles of wine from the table into his belt.

Then, acting as if nothing was amiss, he said:

"These are my two bodyguards, to ensure my safety."

The man twirled the specialized dice in his hand.

"Captain Lu loves to joke. You are clearly the strongest one here."

Lu Chen didn't care who was stronger or weaker; he poured two cups of tea for himself and Ellie from the teapot on the table.

"If you say so... Are you the owner of this bar?"

The man said:

"My name is Nien, and I'm an assassin... and quite possibly the person about to take your life."

Lu Chen paused slightly, taking another sip of tea.

An assassin, but not an emotionless one.

"Right now, there are many people who want my life. Which assassination firm do you belong to? You actually managed to accurately guess my itinerary."

The man stared at Lu Chen with a forced, mirthless smile:

"It's just a coincidence. There are quite a few assassins who love to gamble. I just happened to drop by for a drink and didn't expect to run into you."

An assassin who loves to gamble?

Lu Chen found this rather interesting.

"What do you gamble on?"

The man shook his head wistfully.

"I gamble on the fact that I might not be able to kill you... Actually, the company hasn't officially taken your contract yet, and I'm still observing."

Lu Chen frowned. Can you really say things like this to your target?

"Which assassination firm are you with?"

The man tossed the dice onto the coffee table in front of him.

There were six faces in total: three spades, and the rest were hearts, clubs, and diamonds.

With this throw, a spade landed facing up.

Lu Chen seemed to understand.

"Spades Corporation?"

The man smiled without answering... which he took as confirmation.

Lu Chen had heard of this Spades Assassination Corporation.

Back on Rust Star, because he had looted a treasure coveted by the Wasteland Knights ahead of time, they had pursued him for three years without ever managing to catch him.

Consequently, the Wasteland Knights wanted to pay Spades Assassination Corporation to assassinate him, offering a considerable sum, but their online application was directly rejected.

Spades Assassination Corporation does not kill small fries!

Spades was extremely powerful, rumored to be one of the top three assassination firms in the Empire, and they did not accept just any contract.

"You came to find me because you don't want to take the contract? Could it be that I don't even qualify to be assassinated?"

Lu Chen asked nonchalantly.

After all, the Risk Avoidance Guide hadn't given any prompts, indicating that the man didn't even have the intention to kill him.

The man's gaze turned sharp as he shook his head and said:

"Broadcasting a massacre of a million corpses live made you qualified enough. But the company has to evaluate the target's strength. If they are too strong or have too powerful a background, we either raise the price or drop the contract."

Lu Chen leisurely took a sip of tea.

"And what is your choice?"

"Although I can't see the person who paid to have you killed, and even if I did, they would certainly be wearing a mask; I do know the identity of the person you want to kill."

As the man spoke, a screen of light popped up above the dice on the coffee table.

The photo of an elderly man with white hair appeared within the light screen.

It was none other than the major shareholder of Fang Corporation!

"This white-haired old man is named Rinbu Endo, the son-in-law of the Endo family—the tenth great family of the Empire. He took the Endo surname, and his cultivation level is one hundred and twenty. Fang Corporation is just an insignificant asset of the Endo family. It is practically impossible for you to kill him within six months."

Lu Chen paused slightly.

"The tenth family? The Empire has family rankings?"

The man nodded.

"It originated from the seven meritorious generals who made monumental contributions during the Demon-Slaying War ten thousand years ago, later known as the Seven Luminaries of the Empire, the seven major families descended from those generals.

After so many years, through various intermarriages, the absorption of talent, and emerging capital, they eventually split and expanded into the ten major families.

Today, aside from the Imperial family, ninety percent of high-ranking officials in various government departments of the Empire come from the ten major families, and their industries span the entire universe."

Lu Chen's head was spinning from this information.

Facts proved that bloodline was indeed the strongest bond between people.

The New Federation was the same; the descendants of the Twelve Divine Beasts firmly controlled the federal government.

Any regime starts out positive and progressive, but eventually becomes imprisoned by bloodlines.

Perhaps this was the very meaning of Big Sister's insistence on severing bloodline inheritance on Cygnus.

Lu Chen picked up his teacup, took a sip, and feigned surprise:

"So you're saying I've somehow offended one of the ten most powerful families in the universe?"

The man explained:

"You can't quite put it that way. Fang Corporation was originally an asset transferred out of the Empire's Ministry of Truth. After the Ministry withdrew, it was taken over by the Endo family.
In the beginning, Fang Corporation was just a messy, atavistic laboratory with huge investments but no output—a hot potato. The Endo family handed it over to Rinbu Endo to manage.

After all, Rinbu Endo is somewhat of an outsider in the Endo family and has always been marginalized by the inner clan.

Who would have thought that under Rinbu Endo's management, Fang Corporation quickly flourished, making a fortune through the slave trade, elite slave training, and the Star Beast Ship incident.

Moreover, through well-trained humanoid female slaves secretly delivered to various major families, he helped the Endo family gain a firm foothold in the imperial mainland, which is how Rinbu Endo earned his current status.

However, there is constant scheming and infighting between and within families. Now that Fang Corporation's slave trade has been exposed, there are quite a few people who want Rinbu Endo to disappear."

Listening carefully, Lu Chen vaguely understood his intention.

"You want me to pay assassins to kill an old man?"

The man said with absolute certainty:

"I can't imagine Captain Lu having any other way to kill Rinbu Endo."

Lu Chen asked poker-faced:

"How much money to buy his head?"

The man smiled:

"Not very expensive, ten million will do. I see potential in Captain Lu, so we can do installment payments."

Lu Chen felt that someone was trying to use his reputation to commit murder by proxy, and they couldn't even wait half a year.

For such figures, ten million spiritual stones was like child's play, and offering installment payments was simply absurd!

Thinking this, Lu Chen shook his head and said:

"For the head of such a big shot, ten million isn't expensive—it's way too cheap.

However, I've sworn an oath to take my revenge with my own hands, so you'd better not meddle.

Of course, if you're willing to pay a heavy sum to buy his head from me in advance, I'd be willing to put aside my personal grudge and give you a chance."

The man's expression stiffened, his mind thoroughly boggled.

After a moment, he pointed to the dice on the coffee table and said:

"This is my business card. Six months from now, Captain Lu might still need us—provided Captain Lu can survive until then. Not every assassination firm likes to gamble as much as I do."

With that, the man turned and left the private booth.

Lu Chen telekinetically picked up the dice and studied them for a moment.

"High-tech stuff. This thing should be worth quite a bit, right?"

Ellie hadn't expected that even at a time like this, the captain would still care about the value of a die.

"Captain, we've actually offended the ten major families..."

Lu Chen said with a carefree expression:
"My adventures are destined to offend every person in power. Better to offend them sooner rather than later; it makes my adventurous career a bit more thrilling and keeps it from getting too dull."

Ellie's little face froze. She looked up at Lu Chen and muttered to herself:

"If only I were as confident as the captain."

Lu Chen put away the dice and smiled, patting Ellie's doggy ears.

"You're right, overconfidence isn't a good thing, but in my case, this level of it can only be considered prudence!"

Ellie nodded slightly, deep in thought.

"Mm, Sister Gloria has the capital to be imprudent, and the captain has a bit of it too, but keeping your guard up is never a wrong move."

"Don't worry, our team has Ellie to cover our backs!"

With that, Lu Chen produced another two bottles of Golden Brain-Numbing Wine.

"This wine can be used to help Lady August refine medicine and solve Gloria's cerebellar hypoplasia problem... Of course, her cerebrum is underdeveloped too; all her nutrition went into growing other things."

Subsequently, Lu Chen hoisted Gloria onto his shoulder again, patted her round, plump buttocks on his right shoulder, and left Hell's Bar.

Walking to the door, he suddenly remembered the sixty-ninth-level swordsman who had claimed to be enlightened, turned around, and went back inside.

He left Hell's Bar through another downward exit.

Then he summoned the Leonine to pick them up and flew out of the sixth planet's atmosphere.

Next stop, the First Planet of the Kingdom of Night!

...

When the Leonine entered the airspace within the star system once again, the Long Night Fleet had already confirmed his identity.

They dispatched two eighty-level escort ships to flank the Leonine, escorting it all the way to the First Planet.

Call it an escort, but it was essentially surveillance.

It was to prevent the Leonine from suddenly disappearing and pulling some kind of stunt.

Ever since Lu Chen had set out to sea, this was the first time he had enjoyed such high-level treatment.

He felt that these people likely mythologized him, vastly overestimating his capabilities.

Thus, the Leonine safely arrived at the First Planet.

Before landing on the First Planet, vetting and registration were required.

Although Lu Chen's identity had already been exposed, he still didn't want to draw too much attention, so he registered under the name of the Alyrita Adventure Crew.

Even so, he quickly obtained landing permission.

The Leonine slowly entered the atmosphere of the First Planet.

The lighting conditions on the First Planet were much better than those of the other planets.

Because it was too close to the extinguished sun, the First Planet was tidally locked by it.

Yet, precisely because it was close enough, the sun illuminated and warmed half of the planet, turning it into a climate-friendly perpetual twilight.

There wasn't an inch of ruins on the First Planet, and the architecture was thoroughly modernized, tall, magnificent, and dazzling in style, rivaling any planet in the Empire.

Coupled with the dim, glowing sun hanging overhead, casting its direct rays upon every building on the First Planet, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, resembling a divine realm.

According to the guide information received by the spaceship, the pillar industry of the First Planet was the virtual world—

No Man's Land.

Although it wasn't explicitly stated, this was a metaverse built on neural network servers, which was already a cosmic consensus.

There were countless small worlds within No Man's Land for tourists to play online, including single-player worlds, multiplayer worlds, MMORPG worlds, and customized worlds.

No Man's Land was no longer a mere game; it was players' immersive second life.

Many people spent most of their lives earning money, only to hand that money over to No Man's Land for the second half of their lives.

They spent their remaining days in the gaming pods of No Man's Land, tubes inserted into their mouths and behinds, solving even eating, drinking, and excretion directly inside the gaming pod.

Completely forgetting reality.

Of course, to avoid situations like the one in The Matrix, player safety was entrusted to the most reliable third-party insurance companies in the galaxy.

Once a player's safety encountered a problem, the insurance company would send people to wake them up, preventing the No Man's Land corporation from secretly infringing upon the players' interests.

And to continuously attract new players while being considerate to veteran players, No Man's Land didn't pull any shady maneuvers.
After all, the fees for No Man's Land were far from cheap. If you wanted to do whatever you wanted and enjoy life in the game for the rest of your days, you had to work hard and save enough money in the first half of your life!

Players could choose a world to do whatever they pleased, live seriously to start a second life, team up with friends to pioneer a new home, or enter the main world of No Man's Land to live.

No matter the playstyle, every NPC inside the game was realistic enough to pass for the real deal.

The most popular choice remained the single-player mode.

You could customize the world, customize your identity, and customize your talents and supernatural abilities.

Then, completely forget your original identity until a game malfunction forced you to wake up.

Lu Chen thought to himself:
"Isn't this just transmigration with a cheat?"

To enhance immersion, players could entirely treat the universe they lived in during the first half of their lives as their past life before transmigration.

"Could it be that right now, I'm also living inside a massive single-player game?"

Of course, the games Lu Chen played in his past life were multiplayer online games.

However, this kind of analogy easily plunged one into the philosophical musings of nihilism.

In the end, all doubts about reality and illusion could only be ended by Descartes's phrase: I think, therefore I am.

Lu Chen was no ordinary transmigrator.

Whether in his past life or after transmigrating, he was a top-tier hacker.

The details of the world he hacked into after transmigrating already constituted a massive amount of data.

During his three years on Rust Star alone, he had hacked into every system in the Blue Valley star system except for the banks and the fleets, browsing through almost all available information.

No matter how much other players did as they pleased, the world details and computing power they ultimately touched amounted to less than a hundred-millionth of his.

Others only experienced the surface, while he paid attention to the detailed code behind every surface appearance.

What's more, his map was the entire galaxy.

If this world was virtual, then the real-life version of him must also be a wealthy individual.

Only then could he afford to buy such a massive map and computing power!

Besides, was the Earth where he lived in his past life necessarily an absolute, true world?

In reality, the only thing a person could be certain of was their own thoughts and experiences.

External objects and other people could actually be simulated.

Furthermore, perhaps consciousness wasn't anything particularly wondrous; it was merely a high-level computational function of life.

Even consciousness could be simulated.

But did that matter?

Did it affect your possession of self and independent thinking?

Did it affect your experience of life and the attainment of happiness?

If the entire world and plane were mechanical, with outcomes predetermined from the very beginning, there would be no need for human consciousness to evolve—because that would be a tremendous waste of computing power without changing the outcome, and useless things do not evolve.

Therefore, as long as consciousness is free, there is no need to care about reality versus illusion. Even in his past life, when games weren't that realistic, he would have loved to spend his whole life immersed in an internet café or his own gaming room.

He would rather choose to fight monsters in a fake game than carry bricks in a real world.

Of course, the premise was that you had to earn enough money to play the game, unless you had a good dad.

As a transmigrator who wrote his own cheats and transmigrated into a game, Lu Chen's perspective had been broad from the very start.

Coming back to his senses, Lu Chen continued reading the guide information.

Aside from advertisements for No Man's Land, he also discovered a large number of recruitment notices.

Game World Designers.
Neural Network Engineers.
Various Front-End Artists.

Not just recruitment notices from the official No Man's Land, but also listings from many small game studios.

These studios specialized in designing game worlds to connect to No Man's Land or Halo Gaming Pods.

"Are there any game superstition companies out there?"

Lu Chen was extremely curious.

Thus, he found a recruitment website and searched it.

He actually found the [Game Superstition] studio!

This studio was established five years ago, a small workshop founded by a dozen people, and it still only had a few dozen members.

It mainly designed games oriented toward No Man's Land, offering niche-style horror, slaughter, weird, or apocalyptic games.

The recruitment website listed the address for Game Superstition.

Lu Chen found the recruitment email, sent over a resume, and prepared to head to the studio's address under the guise of applying for a job.

Soon, he received an online test.

It tested hacker capabilities.

After all, the position Lu Chen applied for was Security Engineer.

The test was extremely difficult.

So much so that it took Lu Chen a whole minute to finish it.

He earned a ten-star rating from the system!

Subsequently, he was granted the opportunity for an offline interview.

The Leonine soon arrived at the Taino Pyramid where the Game Superstition studio was located.

This was the third-tallest building on the First Planet.

The address showed that the Game Superstition studio was located on the top floor of the pyramid!

Ellie woke Gloria up, briefed her on the general situation, and the three of them prepared to go check out the office together.

Gloria woke up dazed, stared at the pyramid bathed in the setting sun, and said suspiciously:

"A niche studio with mediocre game sales and quite a few bad reviews, yet they can afford to rent an office on the top floor of the pyramid? Something's not right."

Ellie chimed in casually:
"Maybe they have some special business on the side."

Lu Chen didn't speak; his gaze was fixed on the structure at the top of the pyramid.

The top of the Taino Pyramid wasn't completely pointed.

It had been flattened, and there was a circular base on the platform.

Atop the circular pedestal stood a massive female statue resembling the armless Venus.

Lu Chen had stared at it from the spaceship for a long time, without hearing what Gloria and Ellie were talking about.

Gloria walked over, followed Lu Chen's line of sight, and also looked at the statue atop the pyramid.

"You aren't even sparing a female statue? Is it really necessary to stare at it so intently? Is my figure not a ten-thousand times better than that statue? Why are you so indifferent to me?"

"Idiot, that's a teleportation array!"

Lu Chen stared for a long time before arriving at this conclusion.

The circular pedestal beneath the female statue was none other than the turntable of a teleportation array, and the spiritual runes were hidden inside the body of the statue!

This really shocked Lu Chen.

One had to know that teleportation arrays were the Empire's most cutting-edge spatial teleportation technology, with speeds far exceeding spaceship jumps.

It was rumored that the Empire's latest teleportation array could travel from the center of the galaxy to its edge in a single day.

However, it required setting up terminals and fixed routes in advance.

The technical difficulty was high, and maintenance costs were exorbitant; even the imperial military rarely saw such a device.

Throughout the entire Pangu Route, it was rumored that only the Empire's Fortress Achilles housed a small teleportation array.

He hadn't expected the Kingdom of Night to have one!

And it was right on the roof of Game Superstition.

Gloria stood with her hands on her hips, not looking overly shocked.

"It's normal for the Kingdom of Night to have a teleportation array; the Empire's nobles and aristocrats occasionally need some spicy thrills."

Lu Chen shook his head.

"Idiot, which noble or aristocrat doesn't have an underground castle like Eden Fermat?"

Ellie's face turned pale.

Lu Chen quickly changed the subject, piloted the ship down to the base of the Taino Pyramid, and entered the underground dock.

Then, the three of them took the external inclined elevator of the pyramid, bathing in the never-setting twilight, and reached the top floor of the pyramid.

Stepping out of the elevator, they entered the Game Superstition studio.

The top floor of the pyramid was an oversized sloped-screen space covering an area of over one thousand square meters.

Inside were dozens of large and small offices.

They had actually managed to give every single employee an independent office.

Taking a rough glance, the largest group of employees wasn't spiritual rune engineers, but artists of various styles.

Statues, oil paintings, building blocks filled the entire hall...

Even the offices were individually crafted art spaces.

Lu Chen had never seen an office more luxurious than this.

It almost made him actually want to get hired.

Arriving at the reception desk.

Lu Chen introduced himself to the nondescript receptionist girl.

"I'm Luffy from the Alyrita Adventure Crew, here for my offline interview with your company."

The receptionist girl played her game, not even lifting her head as she said:

"President Rilke is waiting for you in office number two. Also, only one person can go in, okay."

Lu Chen had no intention of going in alone.

"Don't worry, they'll stay quiet."

"Fine, if you get thrown out, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Thanks."

Lu Chen felt that the security measures here were also quite lax.

The three of them soon found office number two in a corner of the company.

This was the largest office in the company and the only one with a normal architectural style.

He knocked twice.

No response.

Just as Lu Chen thought no one was inside, a voice finally answered from within:

"Come in."

Lu Chen pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Directly facing him were things crawling on the floor, flying in the air, drilling through the walls...

Countless bugs, mechanical bugs!

All kinds of mechanical bugs were bustling about the office, cheering happily, their spiritual runes flashing.

They seemed to be performing various calculations.

An elderly man wearing a black T-shirt, with sparse gray hair and opaque mechanical goggles, stood in a corner repairing an old-fashioned neural network server.

When it wouldn't fix, he rebooted it.

When rebooting didn't work, he punched and kicked it.

Very professional!

Lu Chen glanced over.

The core of this server seemed to use something like the brain of a white-bearded whale.

It looked purer and had a larger cranial capacity than the white-bearded whales of Fog Sea Star.

Seeing guests arrive, the old man took off his goggles.

Revealing a young, sparse-haired face with weary yet excited eyes.

His cultivation was just past the sixty-level mark, not particularly high.

Noticing Lu Chen staring fixedly at the server with a hint of suppression, he quickly explained:

"Don't worry, even if it's illegal, if there's no one to monitor and sanction it, then it's not truly illegal."

Lu Chen nodded and introduced himself:
"I'm Luffy, here for the interview, and these two are friends who came along to help me out."

"For the past five years, besides myself, you're the second applicant to achieve a ten-star rating on the online test."

The man didn't lift his head until his peripheral vision caught sight of two excessively stunning beauties.

"Why are you still bringing women in... Oh, please sit down!"

His drooping eyelids instantly perked up, and his posture, hunched from overwork, instantly straightened.

The man smoothed his sparse hair and introduced himself:

"I'm Rilke, in charge of your interview.
Actually, I'm only in my thirties. I'm the only general manager here who works this hard, and I'm doing it voluntarily...

Genius types like Mr. Lu must understand, right?"

Lu Chen nodded.

This guy hadn't recognized his identity at all.

He was probably the geek type who shut himself off from the outside world and focused solely on making horror games.

"Mm."

"What would you like to drink?"

"Three cups of strong tea will do, to wake up."

Four mechanical bugs were dispatched to pour the tea.

Rilke busied himself bringing chairs for the three of them.

As it turned out, the entire office only had two chairs, including his own desk chair.

Lu Chen had Gloria and Ellie sit down.

While he and the general manager stood to talk face-to-face.

Rilke downed his share of tea in one gulp, glanced at Gloria and Ellie again, and sighed:

"Who would have thought a hacker could have female companions? I always thought my dad was lying to me when I was a kid; now I realize I just wasn't as handsome as you."

Lu Chen felt a bit awkward and cut straight to the chase:
"Actually, I'm not here to apply for a job. I played a game called The Monastery Headless Murder Case and almost got scared to death. I wanted to meet the creator of this game."

Rilke paused:

"You don't want to make games?"

Lu Chen smiled.

"I only like playing games. Playing games is awesome; making games is hell on earth."

Rilke said with some disappointment:

"What about your two female companions then? We're short on good-looking front-end artists here, and the pay can be quite high."

Lu Chen still shook his head.

"Pity, we're all adventurers."

Upon hearing this, Rilke grew even more surprised.

"You're already adventurers, and you still play games?"

Gloria, sitting and drinking tea, finally couldn't hold it in and blurted out angrily:
"Of course! This ghost game of yours is way scarier than adventuring!"

Rilke finally recalled the name of the game earlier, feeling it sounded a bit unfamiliar.

"What monastery was it... Oh, that headless game.

That game was taken down from No Man's Land and put onto the Halo Gaming Pods because it was too terrifying and almost caused casualties.
Sales were also mediocre, taking a huge loss. If you want to take your grievances out on someone:

I'm the main programmer.
Yin is the designer.
As for the art... I remember now, the art for that game was done by an AI."

Lu Chen asked again:

"Is this advanced technique of using logic runes to realize neural algorithms something you implemented?"

Rilke nodded.

"Mm, but I was inspired by Yin; I'm just a wage slave helping her realize her wild ideas."

Lu Chen vaguely understood.

"Who is Yin?"

Rilke opened the door and pointed to a small pyramid-shaped office located in the center of the studio.

"Office number one is hers."

Lu Chen took a look, growing a bit curious.

"Is she in the office right now?"

Rilke shook his head.

"She lives in the imperial mainland and only comes to the company once every ten days or so. She doesn't make many games; most of the time she plays them, acting essentially as the chief game experience officer. Occasionally she has many wild ideas, and we're responsible for bringing them to life."

"So, she's your boss?"

Lu Chen guessed that the behind-the-scenes investor of this luxurious studio was this Yin.

No matter how profitable a gaming company was, it wouldn't build an imperial teleportation array on its roof.

Rilke's eyes darted around evasively, and he hurriedly denied it.

"How could that be? She's just the chief experience officer."

Lu Chen frowned. It seemed this Yin was still a big shot whose real name couldn't be revealed and who couldn't be linked to illegal neural network servers.

The man stared at Lu Chen, suddenly remembering something.

"Right, what's your last name?"

"Lu."

"Is it some kind of Star Dome Adventure Crew?"

Lu Chen froze. It was clearly the Alyrita Adventure Crew; did this guy completely fail to read his resume?

Had he already figured out his identity, or had he just remembered a task left behind by Yin?

"Yes."

Rilke's eyes lit up, and he let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as though he had almost messed up a major matter.

"Wanting to see Yin is easy. She has avatars inside the games."

Lu Chen frowned.

"Avatars?"

Rilke smiled and explained:
"They're virtual image experience avatars. When she comes over in person, she can absorb the memories of these characters, which is equivalent to experiencing the game herself... After all, she's usually too busy to experience every game personally."

Lu Chen put down his teacup.

"Can I go into the game and take a look?"

"Of course."

(End of Chapter)