[I have a game here, come play!]

For Tong Yu, virtual construction was a completely new experience. He got so engrossed in it that he didn’t stop until the entire scene was built.

Checking the time, it was already past three in the morning.

Waves of fatigue washed over him, and Tong Yu finally took off the helmet, returning to the real world. In the room, Little Fatty, the barrel-shaped robot, stood by Tong Yu’s side, holding a bag of nutrient solution. Seeing him remove the helmet, Little Fatty quickly reminded him, “Master, you haven’t eaten for twelve continuous hours. Please ensure a balance between work and rest.”

Tong Yu was indeed feeling ravenous at this point. He picked up the nutrient solution and gulped it down.

Mmm, strawberry flavored.

To be honest, Tong Yu was already tired of nutrient solutions after just two days in this world. They say people prioritize food, not just because food provides the energy needed for human survival, but also because eating itself is a pleasure. The bag of nutrient solution Little Fatty brought could provide an adult’s normal daily caloric intake, but to Tong Yu, it tasted like nothing more than sugary water. He felt no sense of fullness in his stomach. How to describe it? It felt like he’d drunk nothing but loneliness.

However, he was utterly exhausted right now and too lazy to cook, so he just made do.

Time to sleep. When he woke up, he still had to go through the escape room once to debug it, and then it could open for business. Open for business, then he could make money.

Money, money!

With dreams of making money, Tong Yu drifted off to sleep. And not long after he fell asleep, Sheng Jing at the research institute woke up.

—-

Sheng Jing woke up feeling an unprecedented lightness. Every cell in his body seemed to be shouting with joy, especially his spiritual sea. The chaotic spiritual power had disappeared, with only a few wisps occasionally escaping, but they were quickly subdued.

“How do you feel?” Dr. Cui walked over with a smile.

Sheng Jing looked at him, his eyes somewhat dazed.

Dr. Cui’s smile widened. This was the first time he had seen such an expression on the young genius designer’s face: “Your contractor is very capable. He consumed fifty percent of the spiritual power in your spiritual sea, greatly reducing the burden on your spiritual sea. For these past twelve hours, your spiritual sea has been self-repairing, and its collapse rate has reduced to 55%.”

With that, Dr. Cui handed the monitoring report to Sheng Jing.

Sheng Jing looked at the numbers on it, showing his spiritual sea collapse rate dropping from 65% to 55%, a bit disbelieving.

Did Tong Yu do this?

The role of a contractor is to maintain the health of an awakened individual’s spiritual sea, ensuring it doesn’t collapse. When Sheng Jing’s spiritual power was first activated, his initial spiritual power reached A-level, which was an extremely rare occurrence. Because Shui Lan Star didn’t yet have effective ways to control spiritual power, during initial activation, they tried to activate the awakened individual’s spiritual power as low as possible. This was because as the awakening time grew longer, the spiritual sea would continuously evolve and increase its spiritual power under the stimulation of chaotic spiritual power. Thus, the lower the level at awakening, the later the spiritual sea would collapse.

Sheng Jing’s initial spiritual power was A-level, which resulted in his spiritual sea’s collapse rate already reaching 30% right after awakening. Moreover, his work involved designing interstellar battleships, a job that required frequent use of spiritual power. Under continuous high-intensity stimulation, his spiritual power became increasingly chaotic, quickly reaching 50%.

After the research institute’s leadership learned about this situation, they decisively halted Sheng Jing’s work, requiring him to find a contractor before he could return. Sheng Jing’s talent in scientific research was undeniable, but if his spiritual power problem wasn’t resolved, he would soon go mad due to spiritual sea collapse. At the time, the research institute gave Sheng Jing one month. During this month, Sheng Jing could find a contractor himself. If he couldn’t, the research institute could assign someone willing to contract with Sheng Jing.

This was when Tong Yu appeared.

He and Tong Yu weren’t very familiar with each other. Their families were neighbors, and Sheng Jing was three years older than Tong Yu. Plus, he was precocious from a young age, even skipping grades in school. He finished studies that others took over twenty years to complete by the time he was fourteen or fifteen, and at sixteen, he was specially recruited into the research institute.

After his work at the research institute was suspended, he returned home. His parents, understanding his situation, began to make arrangements. Suddenly one day, both families sat together, and it was announced that Tong Yu was willing to be his contractor.

Sheng Jing wasn’t actually eager to find a contractor. If he could, he wouldn’t even want one. For an awakened individual, a contractor was essentially a purely supportive and sacrificial role, existing solely for the awakened individual’s spiritual stability. Although it was said that there was a chance for natural awakening under the spiritual influx, the probability of awakening was less than one in ten thousand.

Sheng Jing had only come home to accompany his parents, planning to let the research institute assign him a contractor when the time came.

“Brother Jing, I’ve always wanted to become an awakened individual since I was little, but when I got tested at eighteen, they said my body wasn’t suitable. Since then, I’ve been determined to become a contractor. Being a contractor can not only help awakened individuals like you, but I also have a chance to awaken myself, so please help me. Even if the chance is slim, I’m willing to try. And you’ll always need a contractor. We grew up together, so don’t worry, I will never betray you.”

Tong Yu spoke very sincerely, and with the strong encouragement from both sets of parents, Sheng Jing nodded in agreement.

But it only happened once. During that period, the research institute was tackling a difficult problem. He had worked overtime for two weeks, and to complete the machine debugging as quickly as possible, he forcibly used his spiritual power, leading to a spiritual power rampage. Tong Yu was unable to relieve the spiritual power, only able to endure the spiritual influx. From then on, Tong Yu changed; his eyes were filled with fear and hatred. Whenever they interacted, his words constantly alluded to how much pain he was in, how much he had sacrificed, and he would find various ways to demand things from him. At first, it was money, then affection, and later, he would stop at nothing…

Tong Yu actively helping him relieve his spiritual power now filled Sheng Jing with more worry than shock.

This time, what did he want from him?

“…Brother Jing, look how pale you are from the pain. Just sleep with me once, and I’ll help you relieve your spiritual power, how about it?”

Tong Yu jolted awake in bed, startled. He actually dreamt of himself seducing Sheng Jing, and through coercion no less! That was too outrageous. Things like sleeping should naturally be consensual; what’s the point of coercion, unless it’s a couple playing kinks?

And what the heck was “Brother Jing”? Even if he had a wet dream, it wouldn’t be about Sheng Jing. He wasn’t the original owner; if he were to dream, it would be about those handsome male celebrities from the Earth era. Or was it a side effect of using too much of Sheng Jing’s spiritual power while constructing the virtual scene yesterday?

Tsk, if that’s the case, it’s troublesome. But if he doesn’t use it, he can’t build the escape room, and he can’t make money.

Endure!

He got up, washed up, made breakfast, and then brought it to the balcony to enjoy.

Tong Yu wasn’t actually very hungry, but the instinct for three meals a day was ingrained in him, making him unconsciously want to do this. Besides, waking up to beautiful spring weather and having breakfast, wasn’t that the perfect start to a good day?

Tong Yu exercised for a while before returning indoors to put on his virtual helmet. He felt that the original owner’s body was a bit weak and needed good exercise.

Back in the virtual world, the virtual Little Fatty came over again. Someone named Li Zong was calling him, but Tong Yu still didn’t answer. He then went directly to the escape room he had constructed yesterday.

The rough layout of the escape room was complete, and various small mechanisms were set up. Now, he only had two things left to do: hire NPCs, set the plot, and then run through it himself.

The Ghost Bride script didn’t require too many people. The main NPCs were just two: the Ghost Bride herself and a butler to guide players. Beyond these two, the others were just extras. There were two ways to hire NPCs: one was to purchase artificial intelligence, and the other was to hire real people to play the roles.

Tong Yu leaned towards hiring real people, but given his limited funds and lack of acquaintances, he ultimately chose AI NPCs. While AI NPCs weren’t great at adapting, they could be bought on credit, so Tong Yu decided to consider hiring people later once he started making money.

With the help of the virtual Little Fatty, Tong Yu quickly completed the hiring of two NPCs. Both NPCs were exquisitely designed but lacked distinctiveness. Tong Yu made some slight adjustments, mainly changing the butler’s appearance to that of a somewhat sleazy old man around fifty years old.

Then, he began importing the script, which he had written while Little Fatty was applying for the AI NPCs. Once the script was imported, the AI NPCs immediately reacted. The butler instantly hunched over, wearing a sleazy smile. The bride’s expression also darkened, appearing incredibly eerie against her wedding attire.

Tong Yu reviewed everything once more, then had the NPCs enter the ancient mansion scene. He then went in himself to walk through it, spending some time making minor adjustments to the details. With this, the Ghost Bride instance of the escape room was completely finished.

“It can open for business!” Tong Yu said with satisfaction. This was only possible in the virtual world; in the real world, just building the sets and recruiting NPCs would take months, whereas here it took only two days.

“Master, how much do you plan to price it?” A shop assistant, whom Tong Yu named “Little Fortune”, flew over. Fortune was an AI with a long serial number that Tong Yu was too lazy to remember, so he gave it an auspicious name.

“Pricing? Not yet. I’ll ask someone first.” Tong Yu didn’t set a price immediately. He decided to ask the stinky tofu shop owner for his opinion after he came to test it out. Escape rooms were a completely new concept for the Interstellar Era, and he wasn’t sure how to price it.

“Do you want to enable live streaming?”

“Live streaming? This thing can be live-streamed?” Tong Yu was stunned.

“Yes, everything in the virtual world can be streamed live through the virtual network, as long as the person agrees,” Little Fortune explained. “If you enable live streaming, everything that happens in the escape room can be simultaneously broadcast outside.”

“No, don’t enable it.” Escape rooms thrived on surprise. If everyone already knew what was coming, there would be no surprise left.

“Understood.”

Seeing that everything was ready, Tong Yu immediately called the stinky tofu shop owner: “Boss Zhang, my shop is ready. Want to come play?”

“It’s ready so fast? You’ve only had a day,” Zhang Huai, the stinky tofu shop owner, was incredibly surprised.

“I already had a shop; I just redecorated a bit.”

“Oh, I see. Alright, send me the address. I’ll drop by to support you in a bit,” Zhang Huai said loyally.

“Do you have any friends? It would be best to bring three more people.”

“Bringing friends is no problem, but if your stuff isn’t good, they might not buy it,” Zhang Huai said. He could spend money to support him, but he didn’t want to force his friends.

“My shop doesn’t sell food; it’s a small game that requires four people to play together. I’m inviting you, so it’s free. I just want you to help me test if the game is good,” Tong Yu explained.

“Then that’s absolutely no problem! Wait, I’ll bring some people over right away,” Zhang Huai said, instantly becoming more enthusiastic when he heard it was free.