Chapter 17 of 48

Chapter 17

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The 8th of November, 2019. This day was the Winter Solstice. BaiYan City, located in the northern area of C country, had already completely entered winter. The air exhaled during the early morning condensed into a faint hoarfrost in the atmosphere. And so, the difference between the heated interior of a house and its frigid exterior was that of two separate worlds. Fortunately, inside, even if only a shirt was worn and a summer quilt was used, hardly a hint of the cold could be felt.

Inside BaiYan People’s Hospital, in a VIP ward on the fourth floor, a thin young man lay on a hospital bed. Presently, he frowned slightly, the young man’s eyelids fluttered, and then he opened his blurred eyes. The prolonged dormancy had made the rim of his eyes become covered by fine wisps of blood, appearing to be a result of not seeing the light for a long time. For a moment, the young man was a little disorientated, and soon after, the world in front of him gradually became clearer.

I am… at a hospital? I returned to the real world? Shen Mu managed to respond immediately. Only, before he had the time to sit up, the abrupt influx of a large quantity of information in his brain, made Shen Mu’s head suddenly explode. The world in front of him dimmed for a second, and he almost completely fell back onto the bed.

‘Congratulations to player Shen Mu for successfully passing the preliminaries, obtaining the qualifications to officially enter the Suspended Life Game.‘

‘The Suspended Life Game has a total of ten rounds and each round can have different or even random rules. The winner of each round may advance to the next round of the game, while the loser will be in a vegetative state in the real world until the next time they participate in the Suspended Life Game. Those who lose in the upcoming first round* of the game will be in a state of dormancy for one year, and their bodily functions must be maintained by themselves. After approximately a year, they’ll participate in the first round of the Suspended Life Game again. The losers in the second round of the game will be in a state of dormancy in the real world for two years, and once again they will participate in a new round of the game after approximately two years, and so on. The losers of the preliminary round will be in a state of dormancy for half a year, and must rejoin the preliminaries six months later.’

*T/N: The first round is the next round after the preliminary round that was just completed.

‘For those who have lost previously, for example if they lost in the fifth round, they will gain no cumulative benefit. This means that after being in dormancy for 5 years, if they pass and then later fail the 7th round, they will still be in dormancy for 7 years. The dormancy time cannot be overlayed.’

‘The final winners of the 10th round can have a wish realized as long as it is within the scope of the system’s capabilities. Furthermore, they can completely return to the real world, and will no longer be pulled into the game.’

‘Anyone who violates the game rules will be completely wiped out, and their body in the real world will die directly!’

‘No one is to inform any non-players in the real world about the existence of the Suspended Life Games. The offenders will be directly erased!’

‘No player may collude to cheat with other players in the real world. This includes, but isn’t limited to the sharing of identities in the game through the use of secret codes.’

‘Player Shen Mu’s first round of the game will start on November 10th, 2019 at 0:00 in real world time, the second round of the game will begin one week after the first round ends, the third round of the game will start two weeks after the second round ends, and so on. The ratio for the timeflow in the game world and the real world is 100 : 1.’

……

Shen Mu lay on the bed, quietly digesting the information in his brain, and finally understood the true meaning of the so-called “Suspended Life Game”.

Failure in the game wouldn’t cause the player to die directly in the real world, but rather enter “dormancy”, falling into a coma. However, “one’s bodily function is required to be maintained by oneself in the real world”. In other words, the person who entered a vegetative state due to failing a round of the Suspended Life Game was in the same situation as a person in a vegetative state in the real world, requiring medical facilities and being meticulously taken care of. Furthermore, the minimum period is one year. The vast majority of players cannot have a completely smooth-sailing journey. Even if they re-enter the game after one year, it is possible that they may once again enter domancy for a year or several years, repeatedly…

If they were from a well-off family, the required arrangements for the player’s survival during a coma could be guaranteed to be met, but if they were from a poor or discordant family, who would have the energy or money to care for a person who may never wake up?

Moreover… the most terrible thing was… having no hope.

The game rules prohibited any non-players from being told about the game. Thus, in the eyes of ordinary people, their relatives or loved ones had suddenly fallen into a vegatative state. In their eyes, their loved ones might never wake up. From the initial heart filled with hope, until day after day, year after year, the heart that was full of hope gradually extinguished… Only this could be called true despair.

And the two words “Suspended Life” referred to the players walking on thin ice during every game, further indicating that after a failure in the game, one might never be able to wake up from a “dormant” state in the real world, as though they had entrusted their life elsewhere. In addition, it could now be determined that the players bodies as seen in the Suspended Life Game weren’t their original bodies from the real world, but the feelings and thoughts were no different from those felt by their body in reality. Dying in the game wouldn’t cause death in reality, but would instead cause “dormancy”.

At this time, the door of the ward opened with a creak. A nurse pushing a medicine trolley appeared at the door, and seeing Shen Mu leaning on the bed, her eyes suddenly widened. She immediately called the doctor: “The patient in bed No. 8 woke up!” Then quickly walked in: “How is it, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”

Shen Mu shook his head, then nodded, and he couldn’t help but laugh: “Is this bed No. 8?”

The nurse was a little surprised and nodded. “Yes, it’s bed No. 8.” Seeing Shen Mu couldn’t repress the smile on his lips, she felt that it was even more peculiar: “What are you laughing at?”

Shen Mu’s face concealed a smile. Shaking his head, he said, “Nothing.”

Nurse: Who are you trying to lie to?

She was ridiculing him in her heart, but when she saw the patient waking up, Nurse Lin was still very happy: “It looks like you are in good condition, there shouldn’t be any big problems, right?”

Just as she was talking, Doctor Zhao, Shen Mu’s primary care doctor, rushed into the room. Seeing that Shen Mu was talking to Nurse Lin, it seemed that the problem wasn’t serious. She asked with a mild smile: “How is it, does it feel uncomfortable anywhere? We have already notified your father, he’ll come over after the meeting.”

Shen Mu also gently smiled: “I don’t feel unwell at all…” Both Doctor Zhao and Nurse Lin exposed a smile, before Shen Mu completed his sentence, “There is just a little problem… I don’t remember… who I am.”

The expressions of Doctor. Zhao and Nurse Lin instantly froze. Shen Mu followed up with a bitter smile. Although he’d learnt a lot from his sister, there was still too much that he didn’t know. He was afraid that it’d be too hard to keep up the deception, so it would be better if he just let nature take its course.

Doctor Zhao and Nurse Lin consulted each other for a while, before turning towards Shen Mu to ask a few common-sense questions. Seeing that Shen Mu could answer fluently and quickly,an approximate judgment formed in her mind while she arranged for Shen Mu to do a few more examinations.

……

Almost two hours had passed after finishing the few inspections. During this process, Shen Mu intentionally asked Nurse Lin about matters related to himself. Nurse Lin saw that he was in a good state of mind and was also happy to talk about the circumstances that she was aware of. Shen Mu was able to get some “basic information” that he had already known.

Nurse Lin seemed to think of something, and because she was afraid that Shen Mu would overthink, she took the initiative to say to Shen Mu: “Don’t think too much, when you were in the emergency treatment a few days ago, your father, Aunt He and your sister were keeping watch here every day. The day before yesterday, your condition suddenly changed for the better. Only then did your father return to deal with school matters. Your sister also only went back to school the day before yesterday andAunt He usually goes home every day at this time to do housework, and should return soon.”

“Thank you, Sister Lin.” Feeling the goodwill of others, and thinking about his lovely sister, Shen Mu’s mood couldn’t help but become better, even slightly smiling as he thanked Nurse Lin. Since he could wake up and be here, then his sister must have won. Thinking of victory, he didn’t know if little 8 was still as naive and innocent in reality compared to in the game and whether or not he still remembered him…

After the examination concluded, Doctor Zhao nodded and said to Shen Mu: “There’s nothing wrong with your body and your recovery is going very well. Your psychological quality seems to be pretty good, so I won’t hide your true state from you. When you were first sent here, the situation was very severe and you were transferred between the emergency room and the intensive care unit for a few days. We almost couldn’t successfully rescue you. Your breathing had already stopped and critical notices were issued, but your heart responded again after a while, and you were revived. For you to recover so well now, it can almost be said to be a miracle.” The experienced Doctor Zhao was also very surprised, however the examination showed that Shen Mu had indeed recovered. Seeing at Shen Mu’s current physical condition was the same as that of a healthy person, Doctor Zhao could only be convinced.

Shen Mu nodded gratefully: “Thank you, Dr. Zhao.” However, more inquiries emerged in his heart. He was almost electrocuted to death so even if he was rescued, he also shouldn’t be able to become so lively and vigorous in such a short period of time. Could it be that… It was related to the Suspended Life Game? He was chosen by the Suspended Life Game just before arriving at death’s door, but due to the intervention of supernatural forces, he managed to keep his life?

Seeing Shen Mu’s thoughtful appearance, Doctor Zhao thought he was thinking about his amnesia and took the initiative to explain: “Your amnesia should be due to the brain receiving excessive stimulus. This kind of amnesia should only be temporary. However, the possibility that it may be permanent cannot be ruled out but try not to be too stressed and relax your frame of mind. Frequently returning to familiar environments and contacting familiar people can usually promote memory recovery.

At this moment, Nurse Lin pushed open the door and entered, saying, “Bed No. 8’s family members have arrived.”

Doctor Zhao nodded to Shen Mu, and Shen Mu stood up to say goodbye: “Thank you Dr. Zhao, I’ll pay attention.” Walking through Doctor Zhao’s door, Shen Mu found that his palms were already moist and here he’d thought he wouldn’t still be nervous… Taking a deep breath, who was it that came… Did his father hurry here? Or was it Aunt He who came back? Or was it…

Shen Mu closed his eyes to compose himself, and pushed open the door to his ward.

“Excuse me… Kexin?” Shen Mu called out in surprise. Sitting on the hospital bed wearing a school uniform, with double ponytails and a little redness on her face, was precisely his little sister, Shen Xin, who he’d just left during the game not long ago.

“Hu…” Shen Xin had obviously ran here in a hurry and was still slightly panting.

Shen Mu quickly poured a cup of warm water and handed it to her: “I didn’t expect it to be you. I thought you were at school and wouldn’t come so quickly.”

Shen Xin angrily said: “I pretended to have a stomach ache, and called a taxi to come over!”

“Then your teacher must be very easy to talk to.” Shen Mu couldn’t help wanting to laugh.

“I,” Shen Xin took a sip of water. “I pretended that it was very painful, and the teacher even wanted to take me home, but I said that I’d be fine as long as I went home and took medicine! I successfully escaped!”

“You are great!” Shen Mu applauded.

“Brother, let me tell you … guess what happened after you left?” Taking in a breath, Shen Xin no longer dawdled and went straight to the important topic, telling Shen Mu about the subsequent voting and speeches, one after another.

……

“Then, it was the fifth night, the most critical moment! The lucky choice out of two!” At this point, Shen Xin looked at Shen Mu with bright eyes, and stopped talking.

Shen Mu understood: “I guess… you’d probably still choose Li Xuesong, and leave Jiang Shuyi right?”

Shen Xin blinked, not answering directly: “What if it was you? If it was you, who would you choose?”

Shen Mu laughed: “I would also choose to leave Jiang Shuyi. Li Xuesong had already determined Sun Jieqing to be the hidden police officer and Lin Huiru to be a good person, so he wouldn’t change his ideas. But with Lin Huiru it’s so much easier. Even if Jiang Shuyi used the logic, ‘she would kill Lin Huiru first to prove her own innocence’, it would be fine so long as you used the opposite logic to fight back —— ‘She didn’t kill Lin Huiru intentionally to prove her own innocence, and wanted to use this as a breakthrough point.’”

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