Yu Xian opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. Then came unfamiliar walls, and a faint antiseptic scent that clung to the air.
When he tilted his head, he realized he was lying on a single bed covered by a blanket. The striped pattern of the bedding told him what this place was.
A hospital bed.
Yu Xian's mind went blank.
He was in a hospital? But that didn't make sense. The last thing he remembered before entering the simulation—before falling asleep—was sitting in the Divination Commission's office with Fu Xuan.
Shouldn't he have woken up there, not here?
As he tried to think, a dull ache spread through his body. His limbs felt numb and drained of strength. Then he noticed something far more alarming—he couldn't feel his arms at all.
"Wait… what happened to my arms?"
The question left his mouth before he could stop it. And then, a chilling memory struck him—the words of the so-called artificial customer service from the simulation.
Yu Xian's face turned pale.
"No way… It was just a simulation, wasn't it? Could something have really happened to me? Did that anomaly—the one that turned me into a soul trapped in the simulated world for a hundred years—cause this?"
He tried again to sense his arms, but there was only emptiness where they should have been. No sensation, no weight—just nothingness.
A cold sweat ran down his cheek.
Realizing something was seriously wrong, Yu Xian struggled to sit up. But his body no longer held the vitality of a masked fool. Every muscle felt heavy and foreign.
He tried again, but his strength failed him, and he fell back against the bed, breath ragged. Despair filled his eyes.
What kind of cruel joke was this?
He hadn't achieved the perfect ending. The Abundance Emanator was gone. The only thing he'd gained from the simulation was a minor skill—and now, reality had left him a broken shell of himself.
But… maybe not everything was hopeless.
As the seconds passed, Yu Xian began to feel something faint stirring within him. The familiar, joyous power of the Masked Fools coursed through his body, quietly mending and revitalizing him.
He clenched his core and pushed himself up again.
"Creak—"
This time, his body responded. He sat up, weak but steady. Before he could even process his surroundings, a startled voice suddenly cried out beside him.
"Eek—!"
That voice—he knew it instantly.
Qingque.
Yu Xian turned his head and saw her sitting right next to him, so close he could almost reach out to touch her. Her green eyes were wide with shock and joy. Her usually neat hair was messy, her eyes red-rimmed, and she looked exhausted—as if she hadn't slept properly in days.
It was hard to imagine what she'd gone through while he was unconscious, but judging by her condition, it hadn't been easy.
When she realized he was awake—and sitting up—Qingque's face lit up with relief and disbelief. She must've just woken up herself; a small glimmer of drool still clung to the corner of her mouth.
She didn't even bother to wipe it away.
"Yu Xian… you're awake!"
Before Yu Xian could reply, Qingque leaned forward in a rush. The faint scent of jasmine enveloped him, soft and nostalgic. For a moment, his groggy mind went blank.
Then he realized her upper body was pressed against his chest, her hurried movements pushing her soft form against him. The unexpected contact sent a jolt of heat through him, but Qingque seemed too focused to care.
She reached past him, found the emergency button on the headboard, and slammed her palm down.
"Beep! Beep! Beep!"
The intercom beside the bed lit up, and a familiar voice answered immediately, filled with urgency.
"What's wrong, Qingque? Give me two seconds, I—"
"No, Master Diviner!" Qingque interrupted. "Yu Xian is awake!"
"What?! He's awake?!"
Fu Xuan's tone changed instantly—shock, disbelief, and unmistakable joy. For once, she didn't even bother consulting her divination arts. The sounds that followed—chairs scraping, hurried footsteps—made it clear she'd bolted from wherever she was.
Then came another voice, scolding and childlike.
"Enough already!"
That unmistakable tone could only belong to Bailu. "You refused to go to the patient's room earlier, and now you're squeezing your way in here, and even pushed me aside! I'm the doctor here, remember? You need to calm down!"
"Seeing the patient is my duty!" Fu Xuan retorted.
"Lower your voice! The intercom's still on—they can hear everything!"
A pause, then silence—followed by more clattering noises as if Fu Xuan had tripped over something in her rush.
Yu Xian could only stare blankly.
"What a circus…" he muttered.
And just then—
Clunk.
The door opened.
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A/n: Hey over on my patreon there are currently two for the time being exclusive books which are
Life Simulator: Starting in Genshin Impact!
Zenless Zone Zero: Loving Daily Life Starting in New Eridu
patreon.com/deadlygoober