Xu Tao followed the employee into the weird metal box with a hint of cautiousness. However, feeling no ill intent from the man at the moment, he chose to just follow him... for now.
"...!"
When the metal box's door closed and the thing suddenly started moving, he first thought he was being brought somewhere deep underground. But no—the sensation bearing down on him... they weren't going down, but instead, up.
"We've arrived at the third floor!" Before Xu Tao could plan countermeasures, the metal box already opened up, revealing a foreign scenery before him.
It was completely different from that of the first floor, where the glass-and-metal coffins lined up in the open. In here, you couldn't see much of anything but singular rooms with lockable doors.
The clerk continued onward, walking to the furthest spot—the best machine they could offer. One that usually could only be used by VVIP customers.
But since he paid tens of millions of Yuan in value for just a few thousand Yuan room, the clerk thought the boss would get angry with him if he offered anything less.
"Please get in. I'll explain the machine to you shortly."
Xu Tao nodded, then carefully lay down on the egg-shaped coffin—or pod, in their words.
"Oh!"
To his surprise, the inside was comfortable... comfortable enough that he somewhat wanted to take the entire thing home if he could.
"Then, please listen. Just ask if you don't understand any parts, and I'll clear it up~!" With that as a preface, the clerk began explaining.
How to start the machine, what you need to do, how to start a game, and even how to log out or exit the machine. Xu Tao, of course, didn't miss a single word and memorized everything. He wasn't the best cultivator back in the day just for show.
"Any questions?" the clerk asked, his voice sounding tired but his face still all smiles.
"No, thank you." Xu Tao waved his hand. "Then, I'll be entering. Please lock the door as you leave."
"Yes, yes..."
Right then, Xu Tao followed the startup procedure explained to him.
After pulling the cover down, he lay down comfortably before closing his eyes. At that moment, his body's senses were being scanned by the various sensitive sensors all over the machine.
Slowly, his consciousness faded—before returning a second later.
"..."
When he opened his eyes, he was in a weird place.
He looked like a blue silhouette of a man, without a single feature. The basic shape did match his own, so it didn't feel weird at all moving it around.
"Next is..."
Then, Xu Tao looked around. There should be an "icon," as the clerk explained. An image that looked like a cog.
"Ah, there..." he whispered as he tapped it, opening up the main menu.
On it were the bold words:
Welcome User_0135838506!
There were also hundreds of icons he could select apart from that. All of those were games, arranged by categories: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Apocalypse... There was even a pink tab that had the symbol of the number 18 with a red circle and diagonal over it.
But even if he had a lot of choices, Xu Tao was only looking for a single thing.
With his senses, he could still detect the presence of the True Heavenly Qi somewhere nearby.
"It must be in one of these icons..." he muttered as he continued scrolling down.
He carefully checked each title, before shaking his head and continuing to the next. One by one, tirelessly. Not missing a single icon.
As he continued, he reached the end of the list. He felt disappointed, not seeing the icon that could lead him to his fortuitous opportunity... only to realize something weird.
"What's this?"
He eyed a section right next to the last icon.
There, he could see something that shouldn't exist... an icon without a logo, without a name—but one that exuded the definite trace of something.
"True Heavenly Qi!" he shouted, surprised.
Then, without delay, he tapped it.
By the clerk's words, his consciousness would then be dragged into the game promptly, and then he should be able to see the game's splash screen... but something weird happened.
[Lost System detected a new user... Rebooting...]
Only an eerie voice echoed in his ears before his consciousness got cut off.
🔷🔷🔷
"Over here, boss!"
The clerk rushed to a fat man, dressed in a business suit composed of a white inner shirt bursting at the seams and a black tuxedo. On his neck, a red bowtie could be seen, chosen to make him look as presentable and respectable as possible.
"Slow down...!" the fat man wheezed. "I have bad lungs...!"
The clerk, however, didn't sound respectful at all. He growled in irritation, blaming the man. "Isn't it just because you're fat? Don't blame your lungs, blame your unstoppable mouth!"
"Bastard! Is that the way you talk to your uncle?!" the fatty growled back. "Should I fire you right now?!"
"I don't mind! I have this!"
He grinned, pointing at the diamond ring he was wearing on his ring finger right now.
"With this, I can live my entire life leisurely even without working!" he chuckled. "And instead of getting angry at me, you should be thankful! I managed to pull that fat fish for us to nurture~!"
"...If you're lying, I'll be whooping your ass later."
The fat man, however, understood how real the ring on his nephew's finger was. He even double, triple-checked it with scanners of increasing accuracy—but the appraisal value just kept increasing instead of decreasing.
That ring alone was a literal gold mine for them!
"He's right here!"
Finally, the two reached Xu Tao's room. Of course, the clerk didn't lock the door as he left, as he was planning to bring his uncle in anyway. He pushed the door, only to see Xu Tao lying in the middle of the pod, lightly obscured by the deep blue glass around him.
"So that's the rich man..." the fatty nodded, clearing his throat and fixing his bowtie. "How do I look?"
"Like a pig in a suit. What else? Go on and introduce yourself to him, uncle!"
"Snarky brat..."
But then, as the fatty walked forward, about to touch the emergency shut-off button to interrupt the capsule's operation...
"Huh?"
Both of them raised confused sounds.
After all, right before their eyes... the golden herring of a man slowly turned invisible and vanished completely. It all took about three seconds, but the two needed about double that time to snap out of their stupor.
The first to react was the young man, pointing a trembling finger forward, teeth clattering and face pale.
"G-G-Ghost!" he shouted.
The fatty, also shocked beyond words, gasped. "Shit! The capsule ate our golden goose!"
Without delay, they filed a report about it to the police.
But even after reviewing surveillance footage and everything else, they came up with no idea what happened. They didn't know how the man, Xu Tao, disappeared into thin air.