Chapter 801: The Next Star (Part 2)

The room was silent, and the girl on the bed, who didn’t know when she woke up, was now sitting by the window, quietly gazing outside. She drew the curtains open, but there was nothing outside the window but blinding white light. The light was too dazzling to look at, yet the girl was unaffected, stubbornly and earnestly staring at the brightest spot.

Shi Yubai stepped forward, bent down, gently covered her eyes, and then hugged her from behind.

Then he pulled the curtains closed and sat with her on the window sill.

"Jiang Lai."

He looked at her, his eyes calm, on his pale face was a pair of excessively bewitching slender eyes.

Jiang Lai looked at him, her lips somewhat chapped, opening and closing with a hoarse and deep voice.

"Yu Bai..."

There was ecstatic joy hidden in the man’s eyes.

"You remember me, you still remember me."

"I... remember you... where is this place?"

"This is a hospital, you are ill and need to be treated here. Once you’re well, I’ll take you home."

"Home..."

Jiang Lai lowered her eyes, her brow gradually furrowing, her expression bewildered and confused, as if trying hard to recall something. In the end, she looked at Shi Yubai.

"I forgot a lot of things, I don’t remember anything."

"It’s okay, you just slept for too long. Take it slow, eventually, you will remember everything. For now, there’s no rush, I’m here, I will always be with you."

Saying this, he gently picked Jiang Lai up, put her on the bed, and after covering her with the quilt, sat at the bedside, holding her hand, which was thin to the bone, bringing it to his lips with hurt yet tender kisses.

"Don’t be afraid."

Jiang Lai lowered her eyes, staring at her own hand. The perplexed and helpless look in her eyes made one feel distressed, like a young beast just born into this unfamiliar world, fearful yet carrying a hint of curiosity.

Shi Yubai saw her like this, curled his lips, and asked her.

"You don’t remember anything? Try to think carefully?"

Jiang Lai raised her eyes, her brows slightly frowning, her eyes appearing as if covered with a layer of mist, making them as clear and serene as a lake.

She shook her head.

"I need some time. Could you tell me about the past, it might help me remember something. I remember you, Yu Bai, you are my boyfriend, and then... it seemed like there was a fire, you came to rescue me, and I don’t remember what happened after that."

"Mr. Huang, do you still remember?"

When Mr. Huang was mentioned, Jiang Lai’s expression slightly changed.

"Mr. Huang... he passed away, I remember."

Shi Yubai held her in his arms.

"It’s okay, just take it as a nightmare. When you wake up, we will be the happiest people in the world."

Very soon, Jiang Lai fell asleep again.

Shi Yubai tucked her in well, stood beside the bed, quietly watched for a long time, and noticing that time was running short, turned to leave.

The heavy door slowly opened, Shi Yubai walked out, then multiple locks fell into place.

Liu Zhi’an was still outside.

"Time is running out, a new batch of tasks is about to begin, hurry up and refresh the system."

After leaving the hospital, outside was a tall building hidden in the forest, with a total of nine floors. Underneath the wooden exterior, at a close distance, one could perceive a sense of advanced technology.

A silvery white elevator descended from above. After iris recognition, Shi Yubai followed Liu Zhi’an into the elevator.

Liu Zhi’an removed his watch, pressed the buttons on either side of the dial, and instantly, a laser screen unfolded in the air. On the screen were densely packed grids, most of which were blue, while some of the red grids displayed the words "Task in Progress."

"Currently, most of the area tasks are completed, and the few tasks in progress are basically determined to fail. At present, the betting ratio has reached as high as 100,000 to 1, should we adjust the current completion rate data?"

Data showed that the highest world winning odds in the betting ratio were 100,000 to 1. Shi Yubai glanced and then said nonchalantly.

"Increase task difficulty, reduce success rate."

"Alright."

Saying this, the elevator reached the top floor, the ninth floor.

The entire ninth floor contained only one room. When the elevator door opened, straight in front was a heavy Chinese-style door, and Liu Zhi’an stepped forward, stood in front of the tiger head in the middle of the door, and patted it. Immediately, the tiger’s teeth slowly opened, and a red light scanned Liu Zhi’an’s face from top to bottom.

"Good afternoon, Director Liu."

A mechanical female voice came, and in the next moment, the door slowly opened from both sides.

As Liu Zhi’an walked, he continued to report.

"The results will be announced at nine o’clock tonight. Please check if there’s anything else that needs adjustment."

As the white light faded, what appeared was a gigantic screen, six meters high and fifteen meters long. The screen was composed of nearly a hundred smaller screens, each playing the story of different world protagonists, like a live broadcast.

Some were in the night, some in the day; some were composing poetry, others traversing the stars.

The dizzying images below were each annotated with code labels.

From one to ninety-nine, as the countdown on the central large screen counted down to one hour, all the images on the screens began to emit different colors.

They were roughly divided into two, red and green.

Below the screens was a huge computer; in front of its grand three-screen setup, technical personnel were swiftly adjusting the difficulty of various worlds, controlling the overall odds of winning or losing.

Seeing Shi Yubai coming over, the technicians promptly rose to report.

"According to Mr. Liu’s requirements, the odds have been adjusted in place. Please have a look."

In the next second, the red and green images on the large screen began to rapidly categorize by color.

Most were red, with a minority being blue.

"Hmm, maintain the probability."

Then bypassing this screen, he continued to walk inside, behind the screen were neatly distributed about two meters high pods.

Inside the transparent pod doors, there was a slow-flowing pure white liquid, through which a silhouette of a person could be vaguely seen.

Upon a closer look, each pod contained a floating life form.

Most were humans; further back, there were even other animals.

Looking closely, corresponding to each screen, there were a total of ninety-nine pods in front.

"The failure rate of this round is 62%, so most of those inside will fail the task. Conduct routine sterilization, and the next batch of taskers has passed the interview and is ready. Do you want to go visit the interview site?"

"No need, you arrange it."

Shi Yubai didn’t seem too concerned about everything before him.

He turned around and walked towards the door, Liu Zhi’an closely following behind.

"Where are you going?"

"Downstairs."

"Downstairs are all assistants, whoever you want to see, I’ll have them meet you."

Shi Yubai didn’t pay attention to him, directly getting on the elevator and pressing the sixth floor.

"Fourth floor..."

Liu Zhi’an immediately understood.

"You’re going to see that little assistant who did tasks with Jiang Lai, right? He’s not on the fourth floor."

Noticing the cold change in Shi Yubai’s gaze, Liu Zhi’an quickly explained.

"He’s now on the sixth floor; previously, assistants who performed outstandingly in their tasks were promoted to their own office on the sixth floor. He can’t be too conspicuous, so I just followed the reward and punishment rules and moved him to the sixth floor."