Guo DaiStill digging into your mystery box!But don't you fret; I shall hit you up when something juies my way!After reading it, I sighed, h my fingers over the reply button on that holographic s but ultimately deg against it. What should I say to him, exactly? I leaned ba my chair in the er of my roht uhe slightly open window, resting my head on the headrest as I massaged my forehead.

  "Truly stuck with this..."

  The s from my Helios bracelet still floated beside me, its glow dimly illuminating the darkened room. The cool night breeze seeped in, bringing a hint of relief to the quiet space. Only "a hint," though, because the rest was just frustration.

  I stared bnkly at the dispy, giving myself a minute.

  And in this "a minute" refle, I assessed my progress in the past week. In the game? Stuck. Leveling up in World: The in ainstakingly slow.

  This was due to the design of the in-game world, which focused on social iion, as I mentioherefore, plenty of features were more focused on eg with pyers or even NPCs. For example, [Hobbies], [Debate Sessions] with NP real time, visiting the homes of Vaughan staff, designing a room at the Club, and so on.

  Besides that, you know yourself about my "in-game iigation."

  Luna and I also had a dull rut in our iions.

  Sihere was no signifit progress with her, I had thought about reag out to other pyers, but it took a lot of work. Most pyers I met were already established in their own circles. Besides, only some were willing to team up with a straruggling to level up.

  In that se made Luna's weling attitude toward me feel even stranger.

  But did you know what was strahan Luna?

  self.

  The pany behind VR:Ser, NeoGen, appeared spotless—there were no signs of illegal activity, perfect financial reports, and fwless indepe audits. Even minor issues, such as worker pints or data leaks, were unheard of.

  Too , even by the high standards of tech giants.

  With all these thoughts, you surely knht, what it means? Progress in the real world: also stuck. Haaah. I started to slump from my puter chair, then turo look out the window.

  The view outside was quiet. Houses were i rows, and the lights dimmed to a glow that barely touched the streets. A byrinth of "white" with automated systems shattered the silence.

  My fiapped idly on the armrest while my mind turo the possibility... or, more precisely, the impossibility. Could I infiltrate NeoGen? Steal data from their servers? A cssic cloak-and-dagger move to uhe truth?

  I mean, it would make se'd be easier to gather genuine leads if I could sneak into the pany (or their e) directly—data theft, infiltration, whatever it took. It was what I used to do, after all. If this were a movie, that was what the protagonist would do, too. Slip into the lion's den, uhe hidden files, and escape with the vilin's secrets.

  But this wasn't a movie. And I wasn't some ematic hero.

  For ohere was the matter of the White Sand.

  Could you imagi, though? Doing the unthinkable? Esg this rigid box of life? Walking where no one was allowed to tread? It wasn't just about capability. The logistics of leaving this pce, even for a moment, were almost impossible.

  If only dreams weren't such fragile things...

  The thought dragged me down deeper into the pit of frustration. No matter how much I theorized or fantasized, the reality was this: I was stuck. I was tied to this pce, limited by its rules, and, worst of all, forced to depend on others.

  'How did it e to this?'

  Was it a weakness? Foolishness? Or was it simply a calcuted choice made under duress? But what other choice did I have?

  My nails scraped lightly against the chair's surface as I grimaced. That was what grated on me most of all. Depending on others. Relying on someone else's goodwill or skill to do what I couldn't. It wasn't just unfortable; it was against my very nature.

  After all, wasn't my life a mantra of something closer to "if you want it dht, do it yourself"?

  A, here I was—waiting on Guo Dai's findings, hoping Luna's ambiguous words would eventually point somewhere meaningful, leaning on a game and looking for scraps of information—of all things—to solve a problem rooted firmly iy. The irony was stifling.

  I shifted in my chair, the light from my Helios bracelet glinting faintly in the darkened room. The light made me turn to the s that showed my versation with Guo Dai with an underwhelmi.

  But irely in vain.

  With his assistance, I mao infiltrate several of NeoGen's internal works with his hag skills to breach their firewalls and bypass their yered security systems. He arranged for automated bots to be set up that would peep through millions of vast data patterns to detect hidden files or suspect activity.

  Instead, we found just the standard project reports, produ schedules, and administrative dots. There was experimentation or dubious financial flow he VR:Ser. Even the file metadata was ; there was no sign of tampering.

  So, from this "no weirdness," weirdness emerged, making its own dire for me.

  It was clear that NeoGen was good at maintaining its spotless image.

  More so on how easy it had been to breach their systems. Less than a week to infiltrate a tech giant's defenses? It felt off. Almost like NeoGen had left the door open on purpose, with fake security, guiding us to irrelevant areas while hiding the real secrets elsewhere.

  Because of that, I tacted some of my old es in the underground.

  It had been years since I left that life behind. Returning to it felt like stepping into quid—one misstep, and there'd be no ing back. Ahe appeal of the answers was strong. If anyone had information NeoGen wouldn't willingly share, it would be the people who thrived in the shadows. The hackers, the traders of whispers, the ones who knew how to extract truths buried under yers of corporate deceit.

  But the risk...

  That was why I approached this so carefully.

  Rather than diving headfirst into dark waters, I began with low-stakes iions. The informants I tacted provided an initial sense of the level of risk—whether eveioning NeoGen's name would raise a rea, so to speak—to test the waters before engaging in anything that might drag me below the surface.

  To bahese cautious steps, I explored a "white route." I tacted a former NeoGen employee who had transitioned into a role as a teology sultant through email.

  The versation began smoothly.

  He said, "I must admit, w there was one of my most fulfilling career experiehey are pioneers in both eai ahcare teology. I still remember when signifit projects like the VR:Ser began development! It was a bh, bh, yadda, yadda..."

  Yeah, starting at that point, I didn't pay much attention to what he typed because it was all about how proud he was to work there and co-develop the teology in VR:Ser. Useless stuff, yet uandable.

  After all, there was no way he would share intern information with anyone else, right? Even though I have disguised myself as a journalist writing an expose on the broader implications of VR teology in society.

  But if that was all he knew, I could draw a clusion.

  NeoGen might not have been aware of VR:Ser's full implications and merely funed as a manufacturer without uanding the plete impact of their product.

  As there ossibility that VR:Ser—or the NeuroVerse system running it—was the result of a project impnted by a specific anization as part of an experiment on individuals, right? And the anomalies I failed to uncht have been deliberately removed or made inaccessible to anyone due to the sensitivity of the information.

  Then NeoGen might have actally created a gap between the real and virtual worlds through their game. So, they also probably didn't know that I could experience "memory loss" after using their products after going through a specific situation (which I still haven't figured out what it was).

  So, given the possibilities, information, and clusions, what did Rhuzerv do with all of them?

  Why did I find that name on my at?

  Was it a project? Ay? A person? Every lead on Rhuzerv turned into a dead end, yet the name felt… signifit. Too signifit to dismiss as a ce.

  Argh...!

  I started massaging my forehead, thinking plex issues were quite taxing on the brain. I g the holographic dispy. It was te, as the clo the er said [07:13 PM]. It was diime, and I knew I must go downstairs.

  And I, too, shall strengthen my resolve.

  "I o push forward. No matter how slow, no matter how stuck it feels... I o keep going. Living life as usual while at the same time keeping iigating."

  'After all, I have gotteo double life, haven't I?'

  With that resolve and having read Guo Dai's message on the holographic dispy of my Helios bracelet, I got up from my puter chair. I took o look at the room; the mp dimmed as I turo leave. A soft chime echoed from my bedroom system to aowledge my departure ahe enviroo standby mode.

  Going dowairs, I attempted to shake the disfort that lingered after sitting silently for a long time, thinking about things in my room. I cleared my throat subtly, practig a rexed expression, keeping the emotion below the surface siny hint of arm would only worry my family.

  Upoering the dining room, I found them already seated.

  The kit and the dining room were separated by a half wall with an open view, almost like in a restauraing. This allowed us to see who was cooking and what they were making.

  My mother, there, walked effortlessly betwee and the table, her face fixed with a smile as she brought dish after dish, her hands steady, her eyes darting every so often to ensure everything erfe the dining room—until at least, she caught my figure walking towards the table.

  Smiling, she beed me toward the chair as she set the st pte and sat in her usual seat. "You are just in time, Luo. We were about to begin."

  "Sorry I kept you waiting," I said, sliding into my seat, greeted by warm smiles from my family.

  My little sister, Lin, was already digging in. Looking at her favorite sweet-and-sour chi dish made her eyes sparkle. My father, oher hand, merely nodded in approval.

  Eating together was a ritual. No matter how busy we were, we always sat down at this table and shared meals and versation—a way to stay ected and maintain normalcy. Otherwise, we'd be too immersed in our lives to know how each other was doing.

  As we begaing, the mood was light. There was casual talk of the day. My mother asked Lin about her new project at school, and my sister excitedly talked about it. I listened, interjeg when appropriate.

  But of course, soon after asking about Lin's life, the versation would shift to me, their eldest child, whom everyone seemed to hold to a different standard. With that shift, a familiar tension had always set in—a tension that somehow grew more siderable each time their focus turoward me.

  The iable moment came, as it always did. My mother turoward me with soft eyes and a smile on her lips. "And you, Luo, have you decided what you will do now that you have graduated?"

  The question hung in the air, and I paused mid-bite, feeling all their eyes turn toward me. My father's eyes caught over me briefly before he looked down at his pte, his face a mask of and something else... maybe regret? I couldn't quite read it.

  Or perhaps I didn't want to know what was on his mind.

  "Hmm." I cocked my head slightly as if seriously sidering it. I then shrugged. "I think I might just take some time off, explore a little, see what I really want to do; sorry if ter I spend too much time in my room thinking."

  'Sihey have a lot of expectations of me, why not use it as my cover?'

  D.N.A.