Chapter 211: Game Fusion

The unfamiliar faces all around made Shi Zhile a little uneasy.

She headed back the way she came, passed through the base’s security check, and returned to Stone Island.

Inside the three-story Stone Castle, the view from the window was of a bustling street. Players around the base were working nonstop. The base commander’s voice came through a megaphone, piercing through the layers of walls.

“Hello, hello! Is XiaoShi back yet? Come pick up a video call.”

Shi Zhile smiled, opened her panel, and accepted the video call from the base commander.

“XiaoShi, hurry up and let the people from the secret base out. I’m completely swamped.”

The surviving players were overjoyed, eager to return to their own cities.

The roads were open, and people were needed to maintain order. The subway, high-speed rail, and highway entrances all needed staff. Even though the subway and high-speed rail weren’t running yet, the players were just too curious to stay away.

The base entrance needed guards, and Stone Island, as the entrance and exit for the Teleportation Gate, needed even more people.

He was short on people—extremely short. If Shi Zhile didn’t need to be there to open the Teleportation Gate, he would have definitely dragged her off to work too.

Shi Zhile agreed, opened the Teleportation Gate to the secret base, and had the base commander speak directly with Wen Changming.

Mr. Wen was in the Planting Space. Shi Zhile went in, picked a watermelon, and lay back on a recliner, munching on a slice as she watched them work.

Unlike the usual solemn atmosphere, everyone had a smile on their face today and worked with even more vigor.

Today’s joy belonged to everyone, but the assigned work belonged to them.

She was in charge of taking it easy; they were in charge of carrying the heavy load.

After finishing a slice of watermelon, Wen Changming called her. “XiaoShi, where are you? Bring a few people out of the base.”

“Coming!”

She gave the rest of the watermelon to the players working in the Planting Space, then washed her hands and left the space.

A large batch of players moved back and forth, from the secret base to the Primitive Forest, and then to Stone Island.

[Host, boo-hoo, the main system blocked me again!]

Shi Zhile smiled but said nothing.

‘What could I say? If I were the main system, I wouldn’t just block it, I’d scrap it for parts.’

“System, if you want the main system to unblock you, just go bother the Advanced System.”

[No way! That damn Advanced System is here to steal my Host! If the situation weren’t so special, I’d never have let you bind with it.]

Shi Zhile: “…”

‘You idiot. The Advanced System’s voice is identical to the main system’s. How can it not tell?!’

“Advanced System, what’s the fusion progress?”

A cold, detached voice replied: [Earth and game fusion progress: fifty percent. Full fusion estimated in one month.]

The people and animals on Earth were living beings, making their fusion far more troublesome than that of inanimate objects.

“My sister, and Jiang Jing and the others—where are they? When will they be bound to systems?”

[At the place of their deaths. After the fusion, an Advanced System will be arranged to bind with them. Once bound, they will immediately proceed to other worlds to complete missions.]

‘The place of their deaths?’

‘Was it just outside Stone Island, or on that battle royale island?’

She didn’t ask, because even if she knew, she wouldn’t be able to see them.

“What about Jiang Yuxing—no! What about that system?”

[It has been captured and is currently in the System Center. It connected 581 Advanced Systems to itself. Destroying it requires unbinding the other systems. Its destruction is scheduled for one month from now.]

The Corpse Rot System had many stolen abilities. The time needed to unbind the other systems could be used to harness its abilities to fuse the game and Earth.

This could be considered the price it had to pay for its own sins.

[Also, Wen Bai and Sun Ci have been found. They are in an interstellar sector. They aren’t dead, but they are under control. After the system is destroyed, they will be freed from its control. Once their consciousness returns, they will be sent back to Earth.]

[Mission Two: Complete the planting of all farmland. Reward: For the next three years, natural disasters on Earth will be reduced by 80%. Accept?]

“Accept. One more question, are all the foreign players dead?”

[Almost all of them. Energy is limited. When it came to reviving players, I only revived Huaxia players.]

After binding with his Host, he knew just how much Shi Zhile detested other countries and how xenophobic she was. Since he knew, he didn’t mind doing her a favor. After all, if it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t have been able to capture the Corpse Rot System that had fused with a human body.

If Earth had truly been destroyed by it, it would have used the Advanced Systems to gain immense energy, likely breaking free of his control entirely. Worse, it might have even usurped his abilities to control him instead.

The Huaxia people value humanity. Regardless of whether he truly wanted to revive the foreigners, he was willing to be the bad guy and not bring them back.

Shi Zhile naturally understood his meaning. She said her thanks and immediately turned to give the three base commanders their tasks.

The farmland definitely had to be planted, but it wouldn’t work if she was the only one assigning tasks. She wasn’t good at managing people and disliked interacting with strangers.

The players had struggled just to survive. Regardless of whether they had the energy to work now, they had to earn this reward for the sake of Earth’s stability.

Base personnel were dispatched to gather grain from the various granaries, then distribute it to the two bases, who would in turn ration it out to the players.

With a shortage of base personnel, young, able-bodied people willing to stay and help joined the guard and patrol teams.

The frail and elderly were escorted home by soldiers dispatched to maintain order in the various regions.

The base supermarket opened, and people traded grain for fresh vegetables with the elderly who grew them at home.

「A month passed quietly.」

During this month, the players who had died returned one after another. They remembered struggling to survive in the game after it began, but as for who killed them, they had forgotten completely.

Order was restored, and everything was running smoothly.

However, the physical changes and panel functions brought by the game’s energy still remained. The laws were rewritten, becoming even stricter than before.

People from all walks of life returned to their posts, and everything went back to how it was before the game began.

The world was full of new beginnings. It seemed like nothing had changed, yet at the same time, everything had.

On the last day of the month, the main system appeared again.

He still appeared on the panel. Shi Zhile was still surrounded by the three base commanders and a group of seniors.

“Shi Zhiyi and the others have already gone to other worlds to do missions. I recorded a video of them before they left. With their consciousnesses wiped, they have no memories. In the future, when they’ve earned enough points, they will remember, and they will return.”

He played the video.

The video showed Shi Zhiyi, Jiang Jing, Jiang Yu, Tang Yan, Luo Chuan, and also Chuyi.

Wen Changming clenched his fists. “What about Wen Bai? What about my son and that kid Sun Ci?”

Only then did Shi Zhile remember that she had forgotten to tell them the news about Wen Bai and Sun Ci.

She quickly spoke up, “Wen Bai and Sun Ci are in an interstellar sector. They’re not dead.”

The main system said, “Tomorrow, the system will be destroyed. It wants to see you. After today, Wen Bai and Sun Ci can return.”

Wen Changming let out a sigh of relief, finally relaxing.

Shi Zhile tapped her fingers on the table. “How will we meet?”

“You can come to the System Center, or we can meet through the panel.”

Shi Zhile was quite interested in the System Center, but she had no desire to get close to the Corpse Rot System.

‘A wise person doesn’t stand under a crumbling wall.’

‘Everything is recovering, and good days are ahead. I have no intention of getting reverse-killed right at the grand finale.’