The Fourth Quadrant of Online Games

But before he could speak, the person beside him spoke first.

"You," Mr. Xiang raised one arm to cover his face, and asked Pu Yiyang an unexpected question in a low voice, "Have you ever held a gun in reality?"

Pu Yiyang was stunned for a while, then shook his head first, then remembered that Xiang Hong would not be able to see this time, so he said honestly: "No."

The only light source was placed between the two of them, facing the concave and convex patterns on the plastic bowl, which carved the exaggerated trademark into the effect of the Louvre exhibits.The person trapped in the shadow moved, and Pu Yiyang realized that the other hand of the person was always in his trouser pocket.

As if knowing where he was looking, the man with his eyes closed took out his hand, and his slender white fingers precisely grasped the ray of light.Pu Yiyang watched for a while before realizing that it wasn't that Xiang Hong "caught" the light.

He holds a gun in his hand.The black gun muzzle blocked the beam of light, blending perfectly with the darkness of the room.

Pu Yiyang swallowed a mouthful of instant noodle-flavored saliva.

"I've been carrying it since I was seven years old." Xiang Hong seemed to have no intention of pointing a gun at his head again.He put the gun on the end table, next to the instant noodle bowl, as if it wasn't a gun at all but a pepper can.

Pu Yiyang recognized that this was the revolver he had shot several times before.Presumably Xiang Hong was habitually shooting guns in the sleeping place, but there was a sudden power outage just now, and he was nervous for a while, so he touched this thing in his hand reflexively.

One would not have this reaction if one had not lived in fear for years and years.Not to mention starting from the age of seven.What kind of life has this man lived before?

"Did your mother teach you to do this?" he asked, frowning.

"Her?" Xiang Hong raised the corners of his mouth, as if smiling, "That woman doesn't care about this. I brought it because I shot someone for the first time that year."

Pu Yiyang looked at the man in shock.

Xiang Hong has opened his eyes.He stared straight at the gun, his eyes were very wide open, and there were multiple shadows deep inside: "That night, I went out to eat with the old man. Someone was going to attack the old man. We were few, and they There are so many people, I can’t help it,” he said, panting heavily, probably clenched his teeth too tightly, and the muscles on his cheeks were faintly protruding, “If I don’t grab this, I’m going to die. I’m definitely going to die .”

He stared at the wall vigorously, as if a group of people who wanted to kill him appeared there again, his thin eyelids kept trembling, but he still refused to close his eyes like a fish about to be cooked.

"If I didn't do this, I would have died," he repeated, turning his head stiffly and looking at Pu Yiyang, "My uncle, my uncle, they all died to save my grandpa. Their blood is dripping all over the ground. I am the grandson of that person, if I can't do it, then I can only watch them one by one, one by one..."

Pu Yiyang couldn't help but grabbed Xiang Hong's shoulder.He really wanted to tell that person that this was all over, so that the other person needn't be afraid anymore, but he couldn't.He was very aware of his nightmares, and he knew that the word "nothing" was an understatement of the pain he had really experienced.

"Do you know what it's like to have blood sprayed on your face?" Xiang Hong said in a low voice, "You will be blinded, but you can still see the man wriggling in front of you, and you will see where the bullet passed. To a hole, it is a black hole, you will never imagine that the hole can be so big, and people can have so much blood."

"Stop it," Pu Yiyang said in a hoarse voice, grabbing Xiang Hong's shoulder with more strength, "Really, you don't have to think about it anymore."

Is it the effect of darkness?Does this person force himself to go back to the pain of the past every time he sits in the dark, and to stay awake and resist the fear deep in his heart by stabbing himself with knives crazily?

This method is too cruel.

Xiang Hong grabbed him with his backhand.

"So, I can't lose FREE." The man's eyes burst into extreme light, and he couldn't tell whether he was too sober or too crazy, "I can't go back to the past."

At that moment, Pu Yiyang suddenly understood.

He understood what FREE meant to this man.

Xiang Hong spent the first 20 years of his life working hard, just to get rid of the half of the brand that was born with him.He wants to be the boss Xiaoxiang of FREE, but he doesn't want to be the leader of the Tianlong gang. FREE is this person's life-saving straw, the dawn of the sun, and the hope that allows him to move from darkness to light.

If, if he proves that there is a problem with the copy of Star of the Voyage, and the player is injured, what will happen to DELTA, and what will happen to FREE?

This thought was like a pot of water in the cold weather, poured on Pu Yiyang's head.

He looked at the light between him and Xiang Hong.The white light just passed between the two of them, as if drawing a boundary between Chu River and Han.

It wasn't until this moment that he wanted to understand the exact meaning of what the man said to him in the game.He thought that as long as he opened his mouth and stopped covering up, he would make the other party understand their pain and stand by their side.

But what if it was just his naive fantasy?

After all, the person in front of him was not actually the Tyrian in the game.This man is the president of FREE, the owner of DELTA, what he calls the creator.Their position naturally has an insurmountable moat.

Especially, what if... what if all this was a deliberate flood?

Pu Yiyang stared blankly at the person who was just a few feet away, and his back trembled a little.He knew that he rejected this conjecture from the bottom of his heart, how much he hoped that this was purely his brain's wanton chaos, and he could rely on the feeling in his heart to believe that this person could never be so cold-blooded.

He said to himself, have you forgotten, this person once jumped at you to protect you, and he also cared about the lives of irrelevant players in the game under the bomb.

But...another voice screamed, have you forgotten, this man once pointed a gun to your head, and once threatened that Cao Yiclump was to blame for his own suffering.

His palms were covered with cold sweat, the question was rolling around on the tip of his tongue, as long as he asked it, he would be relieved.

Xiang Hong, let’s say you are shot, if the truth cannot be shared, and war is inevitable, which side will you choose to stand on?

Will you help us expose the facts together, or erase everything for FREE, even right here, pick up this gun and point it at my head.As long as you are willing to pull the trigger, as you have repeatedly threatened, you may be able to kill all threats to FREE in the bud.

In this extraordinarily dark night, sitting on the floor of his house, he tasted for the first time what is called a second like a year.

Perhaps because he was too nervous, his elbow touched the phone in front of him.

The gully-like white light suddenly disappeared.Immediately afterwards, a wonderful thing happened, a new silvery-white spot of light lit up little by little in front of them, slowly floating up from the table, from the hand, until it was suspended half a meter above their heads.

Sparse spots of light formed a small starry sky, one meter square, shining brightly.

"It's the standby interface of the new computer," Pu Yiyang was dumbfounded, and came back to his senses, "It's connected to my phone."

Xiang Hong raised his head, and after a while, he said three words: "Not bad."

Pu Yiyang stared at him blankly.

The one bathed in starlight, he is smiling.

Not an aggressive or defensive sneer, or a smirk that's forced on purpose, but a genuinely relaxed chuckle.The lips that were originally too thin had a nice curve slightly, and that curve was thin, like a hidden dark channel, filled with the soft moonlight and the entire Milky Way.

Pu Yiyang felt like a fierce son plunged in.

Before drowning, he made a decision, a decision he didn't know whether he would regret in the future.

"I know how important FREE is to you." He said to Xiang Hong, word by word, in the most serious tone of his life, "DELTA is equally important to me, I swear, I won't let it disappear .”

Xiang Hong looked at him, a little stunned and a little puzzled.

Pu Yiyang: "Do you want to know why I play the game DELTA?"

A light flashed in Xiang Hong's eyes, maybe he remembered that in the game, a passerby once asked you the question of killing you with a single shot.

"Why do you play the game DELTA?" he asked.

"Because I'm looking for something," Pu Yiyang closed his eyes slightly, and said softly, "I lost it for many years and thought I no longer had it."

Ten years ago, he had an agreement with that man.

He said that he wanted to take a big plane, fly to the sky, and throw himself into the arms of the stars all over the sky.

The man promised him, and he did it, sending the starry sky to him.The man designed DELTA with his whole life.From then on, the stars are no longer out of reach. As long as people are willing, thousands of miles of stars and rivers will be open to them.

But he didn't want to really get into the game.

why?

Ding Miaomiao said that he was chasing a ghost that does not exist, because of the past, he abandoned the present and himself.

Pu Yiyang thought he didn't know the answer.

Until now, until this minute, sitting under the starry sky streaming into his door, he thinks he has the answer.

It's not stars he wants.

Flying to the sky is just a dream that a child can dream. The reason why the dream is unforgettable is not because the dream is so sweet, but because it is a dream.

That is what he once believed in, the beautiful shape of tomorrow.

Year after year, he is dreaming and dreaming in reality, searching in DELTA. He has walked through every nebula and seen every star. What he wants is to use every fragment in this game to spell out that The figure of the man.For everything else the man had left was gone from him except the DELTA, the man's gift to his son.

But he still couldn't find what he wanted.

Because what he wants is not there at all, not in the past that has been determined to be lost.

Until he met someone.

A person who made his frozen blood surge again, made him wholeheartedly serious, look at victory and defeat, life and death, and fight, and made him look forward to being able to board the game the next day.

Just like what he said to you, the world created in the game is fake, and the dream is real. What people miss is not the tricks of light and shadow, but the self in the dream, the mood from moment to moment , and the person who connected this series of emotions into memories.

"I believe." These three words were all he finally said.

Xiang Hong frowned: "What's the mess? What do you believe, what does this have to do with what you're looking for?"

Pu Yiyang returned to the state where his spine was taken out, staggering, staggering: "Oh, I believe that's what I believe, I believe that DELTA will be fine, can't it?"

Xiang Hong: "Cut."

Pu Yiyang quietly noticed that Xiao Xiang's frowning brows were slightly loosened.

He gently tugged Xiang Hong's arm.

"Why?" Xiang Hong said angrily.

"Sleep," Pu Yiyang laid down on the ground gracefully, and patted the warm carpet beside him, "Don't you want to go to the company tomorrow? I really plan to cultivate immortality."

Under the offensive of his persistent eyes, Xiao Xiang was always defeated and lay down after him.

"Here," Xiang Hong looked blankly at the top and said, "How long can your phone last?"

Pu Yiyang looked sideways and smiled softly: "It's enough to wait for you to fall asleep."

He was right.Beside him, the man quickly closed his eyes.

He turned his head back and counted the stars above.

After staring at it for a long time, that corner of starlight seems to be slowly spreading, filling the ceiling, and floating out of the window unsteadily, connecting to the real, ancient and splendid Milky Way.