Liang Wei was stunned, speechless.
His eyes traced over the high-tech VR goggles.
His fingers brushed against the cold metal frame. He inhaled softly as his fingertips slid effortlessly across the smooth surface—smoother still across the glass visor.
As he moved his hand along the screen, a network of circuits lit up beneath the visor.
"Woah…" he breathed.
He pulled his hand back.
"Talk about an expensive birthday gift."
His gaze shifted toward the VR gloves as he set his glasses down.
Taking a short breath, he said, "I might as well dive in headfirst."
He picked up the gloves.
"I already have life-changing tattoos marked all over me, so it'd be a shame if I didn't try these at least once."
They fit almost perfectly.
The inner lining of silk hugged his hands, buzzing faintly with an electric warmth.
Lights flickered across the gloves' exterior. The metal shifted slightly, contracting as if alive, while the fabric tightened around his wrists.
"Amazing…" he murmured, twisting his wrists.
He clenched and unclenched his fists.
Turning toward the mirror, he watched coded numbers funnel through the gloves. The lights along the knuckles brightened.
"Were these given to dampen… or exhaust whatever aura I brought back from the Wave Trials?"
He turned his attention to the headset—a sleek visor with built-in earphones and a microphone.
He adjusted the mic. It couldn't extend or retract, only slide slightly up or down.
Without waiting any longer, he placed the headset over his eyes.
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
The moment Liang Wei put it on, a countdown began.
Hello, Player 17805.
"!!!"
Liang Wei suddenly found himself standing within a floating asteroid belt.
Stars twinkled across the endless void. There was no air—only cold and blinding light that forced him to shield his face.
He looked down.
He was completely naked.
His boxers, gloves, and headset were gone.
Liang Wei didn't seem particularly bothered. Instead, he was more interested in the voice he had just heard.
His gaze swept across the galactic expanse.
"Who said that?" he asked.
He wasn't even surprised that the VR set had apparently sent him into orbit.
His eyes traveled across the cosmic plane. His feet felt firmly planted on an invisible structure he couldn't quite see.
Then he noticed her.
She stood on a floating disk platform nearby.
Barefoot.
Dressed in flowing white and gold robes.
An ethereal warmth radiated from her.
"I did, Player 17805."
She extended her arm.
"Would you like to take a seat before we talk?"
A second floating platform spawned into existence beside him.
Liang Wei looked at it, then down at his own body.
"I'm becoming more and more of an exhibitionist as time goes on…" he muttered, shaking his head.
"Don't worry. I don't mind seeing you like this," the deity-like being said.
Her eyes followed him as he stepped onto the platform and sat cross-legged, mirroring her posture.
That was when she finally met his gaze.
"Ahem."
She coughed lightly into her hand.
"My designation is NPC 122256," she said in a professional tone, her back straight and her voice neutral. "An NPC tasked with guiding you personally."
She lifted her hand.
Two panels formed in the air between them.
"Though that only comes after I give you your final way out."
The panels shifted and morphed into two figures.
One was a general clad in armor, holding a crescent glaive.
The other was a young man wearing a sweater and jeans.
"The first represents your freedom."
The armorless figure floated toward Liang Wei.
He stared at his holographic double.
"If you pick this figure," she continued, "you will be declining further association with the Great Network, forfeiting your merit."
"Your character profile will be voided, as it will be determined that you do not wish to step into our world."
"Thus, we will leave you be—stripping away your memories, fear, pain, and experiences from the first trial up to this moment."
"So that you may return to living as a mortal… free of worry."
She finished explaining and waited silently.
The second figure—the armored warrior—hovered beside the first.
Liang Wei stared at the two, deep in thought.
"You told me what the first option represents," he said slowly. "But what about this one? What exactly does it represent?"
"A game played by demons and saints, monsters and humans."
She spoke while staring directly at him.
"It will take place in digital realms and upon your mortal plane—where war, death, and strategy will become your only constants for hundreds of centuries."
Liang Wei rubbed his chin, his brows knitting together in thought.
She closed her palm once more, drawing on her digital aura.
"Where the only benefit is the initial right to ask for anything…"
"But you lose the path to true peace in exchange."
Her hand opened, revealing a silver bamboo slip knotted with purple string.
"Tell me, Player 17805."
Her arm remained outstretched as her robes shifted softly.
"What road do you wish to walk?"
"One of ignorance…"
"Or one of strife?"
Her voice cut cleanly through his thoughts.
"The first would let me live as I was," Liang Wei said quietly. "Peacefully. I'd have a normal life—school, work, and retirement."
He paused.
"With the other… I'd either outlive everyone I care about, die at the hands of my enemies, or be betrayed by my comrades."
The girl in white and gold let the tension linger without interrupting.
Liang Wei closed his eyes.
His thoughts drifted back ten years.
His life hadn't been the best. Even as a child, he knew his family wasn't exactly normal.
His father was a therapist with degrees in human physiology and behavioral disorders.
Work kept him busy most days, but Liang Wei never minded.
After school, he would visit his father's office, and the man would tell him about the interesting characters who passed through his clinic.
Of course, he wasn't legally allowed to share personal details about his clients.
But sometimes he couldn't help himself.
"Wei'er, you wouldn't guess who came in today—"
"Do you remember your teacher, Miss Chen?" his father once asked while packing his briefcase. "Well, it turns out…"
Liang Wei didn't quite remember what his father had said that day.
He only remembered making Miss Chen's son cry at lunchtime.
It had felt vindicating.
Whatever his father had told him had been enough to make his first bully break down in tears.
"Don't tell lies! My—!"
The memory cut sharply.
He remembered the sound of his glasses snapping immediately afterward.
"How can you allow such a brute into this school!?" a housewife shouted in the principal's office.
Her furious gaze shifted between Teacher Chen and her son.
"Look at what that bastard child did to my Wei'er!"
Miss Chen gasped and pulled her son closer.
"Mrs. Liang! Watch your tongue before you curse at my child!" she shouted.
"Director, do you see this?" Mrs. Liang said, turning toward the principal and the school director. "Both mother and child are quick to violence."
She folded her arms.
"How can you allow such a violent woman to teach? No wonder her own child ended up the way he did."
She scoffed.
"Think about it. How angry would a normal child have to be to punch a classmate wearing glasses? What if the fragments had gone into his eyes? My poor baby could have gone blind because a negligent parent refused to send her bastard to anger management."
Liang Wei's mother kept emphasizing the word bastard with a cruel bite.
As she continued targeting the mother and son, Miss Chen's face flushed red with fury.
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling him that word!?" she shouted, veins bulging in her neck.
"Tch. It's just a word," Mrs. Liang replied coldly. "If you're offended by it, maybe there's some truth to it. Tell me… was he perhaps conceived ou—"
Miss Chen's expression twisted with rage.
She stepped forward and slapped Mrs. Liang across the face.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"
Mrs. Liang staggered back, holding her cheek.
The principal and director rushed forward to restrain Miss Chen.
"Let me go!" she screamed. "Let me teach that wench her place!"
Blinded by rage, she struggled against them.
Liang Wei remembered feeling shocked.
He ran to his mother's side.
Then he saw it.
She was smiling.
That contagious smile of hers.
It's okay. Mama's okay, she mouthed to him with a sinister grin.
That was his family in a nutshell.
They were manipulative by nature, hiding their true selves behind shallow masks.
That was how they survived.
A twisted dynamic where they were the only people they could rely on.
They clung to normalcy on the surface—fearful of what might happen if they didn't—while always ready to sink their fangs into anyone who amused them.
And anyone who saw through their masks…
Anyone who tried to destroy the perfect image they created…
Would regret it.
No matter how long it took.
Liang Wei slowly raised his arm.
"Tell me," he said calmly, "if I choose this option… are there any restrictions on the questions I can ask? Can I ask for the location of someone else? Or even their deaths?"
The moment he touched the warrior figure, his so-called guide remained neutral.
Shatter.
The figure broke apart.
"There aren't any restrictions on what you can ask for… As for wishing death on someone else, it is not frowned upon," she answered. "Nor is it encouraged to kill non-players."
Large stone tiles suddenly flipped into existence.
Plates of stone formed a square around Liang Wei, while a long strip stretched forward, creating a path beneath his feet.
He glanced toward the edges of the platform.
Stone ornaments and vases slowly rose into place.
But Liang Wei barely noticed them.
His mind remained trapped in the past.
His mother's performance in the principal's office.
Miss Chen's termination.
Her son's expulsion.
Soon after, Liang Wei's mother spread the story through her social media groups, recounting the events of that day and the supposed assault committed by the pair.
Miss Chen tried to defend herself.
She told her side of the story.
But she could never clear her name.
She could only watch as everything collapsed around her.
Other mothers began coming forward with stories their children had told them—about being bullied by her son.
About the favoritism she supposedly showed in class.
About how she yelled at students.
Soon the rumors spread even further.
Mr. Chen was accused of sexual harassment at his workplace.
Miss Chen herself was rumored to have been involved in multiple affairs with married teachers at her previous school.
Some even whispered that her son didn't belong to her husband at all.
Liang Wei never learned all the details.
But he knew one thing for certain.
The rumors and slander that destroyed the Chen family's reputation had been orchestrated by his mother.
That was all he remembered.
That… and that look.
The twisted look of a man who had lost everything.
A man who had already been broken.
A man who lost the respect he thought he had.
Lost the smile on his wife's face.
And could no longer bear the anger he felt when looking at his own son.
"How dare you embarrass me like this! I know it was your doing, Doctor Liang!" a tearful man shouted.
He wore a hoodie, his hands trembling as he pointed a pistol wildly.
"I came to you to fix my marriage, and this is how you repay us!?"
"Why did you do this!?" he screamed. "Is it because you have a perfect family?!"
"Does that give you the right to look down on others!?"
The man scratched violently at his neck.
His shaking hands aimed the pistol at the family of three standing outside a crowded mall.
"Listen… you don't have to do this, Mr. Chen—"
Liang Wei's father moved instantly, stepping in front of his wife and son the moment he heard the trigger click.
"Die! Die!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of gunfire echoed through the mall.
And when the ringing in Liang Wei's ears finally faded…
the first thing he saw was his mother's smile disappear.