Chapter 1570 - 1566: New Clues

Ye Qiu grabbed the phone on the table, searched through the contacts for a while, then tapped the call button. Those few seconds of ringing felt endlessly long to me. Pop—after the connection sound, I heard the grocery store owner's deep voice.

"Hello—"

"Hey, what's the deal with that photo!!"

"I say, Ye Qiu, you could at least state your name first."

"I don't have that kind of time to waste! Just hurry up and tell me!!"

"Then it's a long story. Why don't you come to my shop?"

"I'm coming right now, right this second."

Without even waiting for his reply, Ye Qiu hung up, grabbed a change of clothes, and rushed out the door. He showered at top speed, slipped his shoes on with his hair still wet, jumped on his bike and rode off.

Ye Qiu had walked this road uncountable times since coming to this world, yet this time it felt unbearably long.

The grocery store owner's café-bar sat in a small alley in Yutodera Town in Taitung District.

A black signboard marked the place as the shop, and a metal-decorated sign hung above the door. Two dice-like plaques bore the shop's name: "diceycafe."

Clack—accompanied by a clear chime, I pushed the door open. A bald giant at the counter lifted his head and smiled at me. There wasn't a single customer inside.

"Yo, you're fast."

"Your shop's business is still as bad as ever. How has this place even survived these past two years?"

"Quit whining. It might look like this now, but the business at night is still good, you know."

It felt like I'd gone back to that world; the familiar banter calmed Ye Qiu's heart a little.

Ye Qiu had contacted him at the end of last month.

Back then, the civil servants investigating the incident had given Ye Qiu a list of the real names and addresses of the acquaintances he wanted to track down.

There were many people Ye Qiu wanted to see again, Kleek among them. They had all returned to the real world now. Staying in touch with all of them would be tough, but Ye Qiu still wanted to reach out from time to time.

Even if their memories had been altered, that was for their own good, probably.

The first person Ye Qiu visited was the owner of this shop.

"So, what is it you want me to tell you!?" The owner sounded a little annoyed.

His real name was Subaru Topaz Nick. When Ye Qiu learned he ran a shop in the real world too, he felt an instant sense of kinship.

By race, he was an African American, but his family had apparently been in Japan since his father's generation. When he was twenty-five, he opened this café-bar here in Yutodera Town.

He met his beautiful, capable wife among his customers, and afterwards, he was imprisoned in the VR world for two years. When he finally returned to this world, the store he'd assumed would have gone bankrupt long ago had been kept alive through his wife's hard work.

Sounds really moving, doesn't it.

In fact, this place must have a lot of regulars. In this wooden shop, every piece of equipment was kept bright and colorful; the four round tables and the counter were tightly arranged yet charming, the whole place filled with an atmosphere that soothed the heart.

Ye Qiu sat down on a leather-topped stool, ordered a coffee, and started asking the owner about that picture.

"So, what's with that picture?"

The owner didn't answer immediately. Instead, he took a rectangular package from under the counter and slid it in front of Ye Qiu.

It was clearly a game software package. As Ye Qiu looked for the platform logo, the "Polaris" printed in the upper right corner caught my eye.

"This is hardware I've never heard of."

"Polaris. It was released while we were still in that world. It's the successor to Galaxy, you know."

With mixed feelings, I stared at the logo as the owner gave a brief explanation.

After that incident, Galaxy was branded a Demon machine, and no company dared to touch the development of VR full-immersion game software.

Half a year later, when VR game lock-in incidents had become frequent, a major corporation launched a successor machine under the slogan "This time it's absolutely safe." While the people of this world were trapped in that other world, this hardware staged a complete comeback. Afterwards, Polaris and other VR games similar to the previous one were released one after another, gaining huge popularity worldwide.

That much Ye Qiu could more or less understand, but since he hadn't paid any attention to that genre of games since then, he didn't know the details.

"So, this is the same kind of game as that one?"

Ye Qiu picked it up and studied the illustration carefully. It showed a deep forest under a huge full moon; against the golden disc of the moon, boys and girls wielding blades were flying through the air.

Their outfits were classic fantasy style, and transparent wings sprouted from their backs. Beneath the illustration, the title read—"Fairy Fantasy."

"Fairy? Fantasy? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just like it sounds. It means a land of fairies."

"Fairies. I still don't really get it. Is it a laid-back kind of game?"

"This one? Maybe, in a way. It's also pretty hard, you know."

The owner set a steaming cup down in front of Ye Qiu and spoke with a smile. Ye Qiu picked up the cup, savoring the aroma as he continued his questions.

"Hard, in what way?"

"It's a pure-skill game. It emphasizes the player's skill. Encourages player-versus-player battles."

"Pure?"

"As in, there are no levels in this game. Skills only improve through repeated use, and even then your hit rate won't climb by much. In combat, everything depends on the player's physical ability, not on Sword Skills. Magic is about the same as in our old game. But in terms of image resolution and animation frame rate, the tech in this game is seriously impressive."

"Wow, that really is impressive."

Ye Qiu's mouth shaped as if he were about to whistle. Aient City in the old days was an Otherworld the Demon King had poured who knows how much time and effort into creating. The fact that other developers had built a VR world on the same level as his was a bit hard to believe.

Though to people of this world, my past adventures are probably nothing more than just a game.

"Encourages everyone to fight, as in?"

"Players can choose a fairy race when creating their characters, and battles are only allowed between different races."

"That's definitely tough. No matter how high the game's technical level is, it doesn't sound like it'd be very popular. Feels like a game made for hardcore fanatics."

Ye Qiu said, frowning. Hearing that, the owner's stern expression vanished, and he smiled again.