[Escape Room Instance 1: The Ghost Bride]

Back home, Tong Yu wasted no time and immediately entered the virtual world.

According to the salesperson, although this virtual world could only be used by individuals with spiritual power of level E or higher, once a person entered, it was almost indistinguishable from the real world. Furthermore, everything in the virtual world was constructed by the user’s spiritual power, and the stronger the imagination, the more spiritual power consumed. Therefore, the buildings in the virtual world would be more personalized and unique than those in the real world.

Tong Yu felt a flash of white light before appearing in a somewhat familiar room. Then, he was stunned by the photos on the wall. On the wall directly opposite him hung a massive photograph. In the picture were two men, intimately leaning against each other: Sheng Jing and the original owner. In the photo, Sheng Jing’s eyes were tender, looking down at the original owner, his face filled with unconcealed adoration. The original owner playfully looked up, a sweet smile curving his lips.

Were the original owner and Sheng Jing really that loving? How did it come to the point of divorce and suicide?

Then Tong Yu realized why the room’s decor seemed familiar; it was identical to the original owner’s room in reality, the only difference being that photograph on the wall.

How much did the original owner like his real-world room, to replicate it exactly in the virtual world? So much for ‘unleashing your imagination.’

“Master, you have a communication call,” a robot identical to Little Fatty slid out from the corner.

Even the robot was the same! He wouldn’t complain about the house’s decor, but what was so good about replicating Little Fatty’s bucket-like figure?

“Who’s calling?” Tong Yu asked.

“Mr. Li Zong.”

“Don’t answer.” Tong Yu refused without thinking. He wasn’t the original owner, nor did he have the original owner’s memories. At this stage, besides unavoidable communication, he didn’t want to interact with anyone connected to the original owner. His only unavoidable communication, for now, was probably with Sheng Jing, and thankfully, Sheng Jing didn’t seem to want to interact with him much either.

Since the house was built exactly like the real-world one, Tong Yu lost all interest in exploring it. He decisively walked out the door and started strolling through the streets. Initially, he walked around enthusiastically, but it didn’t take long before he found it boring.

Shopping mostly involved food, drinks, and clothes, but after touring around, the food of the Interstellar Era was, frankly, hard to compliment. He finally understood why the original owner’s mother was such a bad cook; it turned out that people in the Interstellar Era generally weren’t good at cooking.

“Did they not bring recipe books when they migrated from Earth?” Tong Yu mumbled.

“During the Earth migration, all historical documents were brought along, but many were destroyed during the Dark Period,” Tong Yu was standing in front of a snack shop, and the owner of the snack shop answered him.

The Dark Period was the time when Shui Lan Star was invaded and enslaved by alien civilizations. Tong Yu had read about this in the data.

“All destroyed?!”

“You clearly haven’t studied Shui Lan Star’s history properly. When the alien civilization invaded Shui Lan Star, the first thing they did was destroy our historical documents,” the owner said.

Tong Yu: “How vicious.” A civilization without a history wasn’t a civilization; it was easier to enslave.

“Exactly. Now, we just hope our scientists can build spaceships capable of crossing the Galactic Storm and black holes, so that one day we can return to Earth and reclaim our civilization.”

Tong Yu’s heart stirred: “We can still go back to Earth?”

“Of course! Earth is still there. Over a thousand years have passed; the ice age should be over. It’s just that the Galactic Storm is too fierce; ordinary spaceships can’t get back,” the stinky tofu shop owner said. “I really want to go back to Earth. That way, I’d know if my stinky tofu is authentic or not.”

“You don’t need to go back to Earth for me to tell you that what you’re making isn’t authentic at all. Aside from the smell, it has nothing to do with stinky tofu.” Heaven knows how he felt earlier, drawn by the smell, buying a bowl, and then throwing up. Authentic stinky tofu smells bad but tastes delicious. His, however, smelled bad and tasted even worse, like he had eaten a pile of… you know.

“How do you know?” the owner asked defiantly.

“Brother, stinky tofu is an Earth delicacy. Do you honestly think what you’re making counts as a delicacy?”

“…” The owner stubbornly replied, “Then I’ll just see if it smells authentic.”

“Your smell definitely has the upper hand.” If that’s what he was comparing, then yes, he won.

The owner was pleased and asked Tong Yu: “Where’s your shop? I’ll come support you when I have time.”

“I haven’t opened a shop yet. I’m still preparing, out here surveying the market to see what kind of business makes money.” Tong Yu knew that he could open a shop in the virtual world and planned to do so.

The original owner had no job, and even if he did, Tong Yu might not be able to do it. But he had to make money. He didn’t dare look for a job in the real world, so opening a shop in the virtual world was the best option. Luckily, his contract with Sheng Jing still had a year left; he was sure he could find a way to make money in this time.

“You’re asking me? I know.”

Tong Yu: “Could it be that your stinky tofu shop is very profitable?”

“Profitable? I lose 1,000 star coins a month. I run it purely to consume spiritual power,” the shop owner said.

Tong Yu immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Good thing it wasn’t profitable, otherwise he’d really think intergalactic people liked eating… that.

“In both the virtual and real worlds, two things are most profitable: ancient civilization legacies and spiritual power consumption,” the shop owner explained. “If you have stories passed down from your ancestors from the Earth era, write them down. One book priced at 1 star coin could earn you at least 100,000 a month. If you’re lucky enough to be collected by the national museum, you can get an extra bonus.”

Tong Yu got excited. He had this! Although he wasn’t a scholarly youth, he was a genuine Earthling. He could easily write something. Even if it wasn’t Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, seven or eight stories would be no problem.

“But you can’t just make things up. If you write nonsense and can’t prove it’s from an ancient civilization when you apply, you’ll be penalized,” the shop owner added.

Tong Yu froze: “How do I prove that? Haven’t all ancient civilizations been cut off?”

The shop owner: “Five hundred years ago, Shui Lan Star already collected folk tales once. So, your story must be proven to have been told to you by someone from five hundred years ago. For example, your ancestor from five hundred years ago left you a book or video data, which you only recently discovered.”

‘That proof is more ridiculous than proving my mom is my mom.’

“Tell me about spiritual power then,” Tong Yu gave up.

“That’s simple. It’s about finding ways to make customers consume spiritual power. For example, my stinky tofu; eating it can also consume some spiritual power.”

“Your stinky tofu has that effect?!” Tong Yu was shocked.

“Of course! My stall rent is 10,000 star coins a month. If stinky tofu wasn’t useful, I’d lose even more!” the owner said.

This stuff could still sell for 9,000 star coins a month?!

“According to the latest data released by the Academy of Sciences, apart from creativity, things that can stimulate the human brain more are more effective at consuming spiritual power. Human creativity has limitations. Once a creative block is encountered, spiritual power consumption decreases. At this point, stimulating things are needed. If you check the rankings, the top ten are all combat games; the more bloody and terrifying, the higher they rank. Horror movies also have the highest viewership.”

Horror?!

Games?!

Stimulating?!

Don’t these three words combined just scream escape rooms?

As a wandering ghost who had been a ghost on Earth for many years, bored enough to only play NPC in escape rooms, no one knew escape rooms better than him! Should he open one and test the waters?

“I know what kind of shop I’m going to open!” Tong Yu said excitedly.

“You already have an idea so quickly?”

“Yep. Let’s exchange contact info. When my escape room opens, I’ll let you be the first to experience it,” Tong Yu said.

“You’re going to sell peaches? Someone in the real world has already cultivated them. If you want to sell them, you’ll need to do something unique,” the owner advised while adding Tong Yu’s communication number.

Tong Yu was too lazy to explain that this “escape room (Mi Tao 密逃)” was not the “peach (mì táo 蜜桃)” the owner was thinking of. After a quick wave goodbye, he hurried home.

Upon returning, he spent about half an hour understanding the process and procedures for opening a shop. To his surprise, he found that the original owner had also opened a small snack shop in the virtual world, selling boiled fish, but business was poor, and it quickly closed down.

But that wasn’t the main point. The main point was that he didn’t need to spend time or money applying for a shop; he just needed to slightly modify the old one. And modifying the shop was simple: he could directly reshape it using his spiritual power.

What kind of escape room should he build?

Tong Yu took only three seconds to decide on the first escape room theme: Chinese Horror, Ghost Bride.

This theme was one of the most popular in the escape rooms where he “worked,” and it didn’t require a large space, making it the most economical. Most importantly, all the scenes were already in his mind; he didn’t need to rack his brains to think of them.

Having made up his mind, Tong Yu immediately got to work.

First, he would build a traditional Chinese courtyard house with three courtyards.

Tong Yu imagined the appearance of the mansion, and the surrounding space automatically transformed. In just a moment, the mansion was completed, exactly as he had imagined, the entire process like magic.

How amazing!

Tong Yu marveled, then continued to build the scene.

With a bride, it naturally had to be a wedding scene, an ancient wedding, which required red decorations throughout the house.

Tong Yu imagined the scene: red silk hanging from the main gate all the way to the bridal chamber, and large red lanterns. Just as Tong Yu was about to construct the lanterns, his head suddenly began to hurt.

“Your spiritual power is insufficient. A contract partner has been detected. Do you wish to open the spiritual power channel? If not, you will be forced offline in 30 seconds. 30, 29…”

Spiritual power insufficient?

Only then did Tong Yu realize that he was just an ordinary person who had never had his spiritual power activated.

He’d only just created an outline and his spiritual power was gone. How much spiritual power would it take to complete the entire Ghost Bride instance? With his pathetic spiritual power, he definitely couldn’t finish it in a month.

He had to ask Sheng Jing for help again?

Tong Yu hesitated a bit. After all, only an hour ago he had just borrowed 80,000 star coins from him, and now he needed to borrow spiritual power… Wait, he is borrowing spiritual power! Awakened individuals had an abundance of chaotic spiritual power in their spiritual sea that they couldn’t fully use and were desperate to expend. He was doing a good deed, helping Sheng Jing out.

Thinking this, Tong Yu immediately felt no more psychological burden. He decisively opened the control panel and activated the spiritual channel.

In an instant, a vast surge of spiritual power poured in. The virtual helmet’s countdown immediately stopped. Tong Yu felt like a contractor who had just received billions in funding and began to construct on a grand scale.

Hanging lanterns was nothing; he also wanted to lay carpets…

—-

At the same time, at the research institute.

Sheng Jing was in a hypersleep chamber in the medical room. For the past few days, he had been tackling a scientific research problem, and coupled with a long period without spiritual power relief, the spiritual power in his spiritual sea was rioting again. Without a contractor’s assistance, Sheng Jing could only rely on his spiritual sea to recover on its own, and the most effective way to recover was to sleep. The hypersleep chamber was used to help awakened individuals fall asleep.

Suddenly, Sheng Jing opened his eyes and sat up from the hypersleep chamber.

“What’s wrong?” The doctor in charge of treatment worriedly leaned closer.

Sheng Jing didn’t speak but rather pulled off the spiritual connector behind his ear.

Just now, he felt a portion of his spiritual power being drawn away, and the only person who could draw away his spiritual power was Tong Yu.

An hour ago, he asked for money to buy a virtual reality helmet. An hour later, he’s helping to relieve his spiritual power. In a few more hours, he’ll probably start with the emotional blackmail.

Sheng Jing didn’t want to repeat the cycle.

The doctor glanced at the monitoring data. “Your spiritual power clearly decreased just now. Is your contractor helping you relieve spiritual power? That’s good! Why did you pull off the connector?”

“Dr. Cui, we have already decided to terminate our contract relationship,” Sheng Jing said calmly.

Dr. Cui wasn’t surprised by this. Sheng Jing and his contractor’s relationship was undoubtedly poor. If it were good, Sheng Jing’s spiritual power wouldn’t be in such a terrible state. But wasn’t the contractor now willing to help him relieve his spiritual power?

“As long as the contract hasn’t been dissolved, he has an obligation to help you relieve your spiritual power,” Dr. Cui said. “Put the connector back on.”

“I don’t need it,” Sheng Jing stubbornly replied.

“Sheng Jing, you can only maintain spiritual stability for four hours a day right now. For the remaining twenty hours, you’re trying to calm your spiritual power. If this continues, you’ll soon only be stable for three hours, then two hours, and eventually, you won won’t even be able to work,” Dr. Cui said gravely. “The development of the battleship is imminent. You should know we don’t have time to waste.”

Sheng Jing fell silent. Although Shui Lan Star had achieved temporary stability under the Interstellar Alliance’s treaty, among all the allied planets, Shui Lan Star’s technology was the most backward. Why was the research institute rushing to develop a battleship? It wasn’t just to return to Earth, but also because Shui Lan Star’s current battleships couldn’t even reach the Interstellar Alliance headquarters. Every time the Planet’s leader went to the Alliance for a meeting, the Alliance had to send a battleship to pick them up.

Backwardness leads to being beaten. If one day people from other planets wanted to attack Shui Lan Star, and they didn’t even have battleships to fly to the opposing planets, how ironic would that be?

Sheng Jing clenched his fist and reattached the connector behind his ear.

Fine, he will endure another year.

Sheng Jing lay back down in the hypersleep chamber. Even if Tong Yu helped him relieve his spiritual power, it wouldn’t be much relief. He still needed to calm his spiritual sea through sleep.

Dr. Cui returned to the instruments, monitoring the changes in Sheng Jing’s spiritual power. Suddenly, his eyes widened. The spiritual power curve on the screen abruptly began to plummet.

What happened? What did Sheng Jing’s contractor do?!

He abruptly stood up to look at Sheng Jing, only to find that Sheng Jing, who usually struggled to fall asleep for three or four hours, was now breathing evenly.

—-

Meanwhile, Tong Yu was tirelessly constructing the Ghost Bride venue, meticulously sculpting even the flowers and plants in the garden. As for the brief spiritual power disconnection earlier, he hadn’t paid much attention, simply assuming it was a network lag.