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The kindergarten looked like a castle from a fairytale—a pale blue color. It was currently being swallowed by a raging fire.
Chu Feng opened the car door and rushed towards the raging fire, the system notifying him in his ear.
[We have detected fatal level threat: Kindergarten Fire]
[Origin: 2nd floor]
[Cause: Flame from mosquito coil got caught on the curtain]
Chu Feng had put on firefighting equipment—protective clothing, a high-pressure hose, and an oxygen tank.
“What’s the situation right now?”
[There are currently 4 Xiao Xies inside the kindergarten. The flame is spreading at alarming rates, you have 13 minutes to save them.]
Chu Feng frowned. The most dangerous part of a fire was the smoke, also known as carbon monoxide poisoning. When the amount of carbon monoxide in the air reaches 1.3%, you would lose all feeling in your limbs after breathing it in one or two times. Within 13 minutes, you would die. Xiao Shiyu was only 5 years old, he wouldn’t be able to hold on as long as a full-grown adult.
—13 minutes wasn’t enough time, and he couldn’t play the victim and call the Guardian Center like he had last time.
Guardians only protect players. In a case of fire, they would only bother saving the player from it, they wouldn’t care about the life and death of some virtual character. Chu Feng tightened his grip on the hose. He was the only one that cared about these Xiao Xies, no one else did.
Firefighter Chu Feng put on his equipment back and ran toward the flaming kindergarten.
、
6 o’clock in the evening.
Click!
The sound of the door unlocking echoed throughout the house.
Lin Lan opened the door and came in.
“Ge! Your suan cai yu is here!”
There was no reply.
“
Ge?”
Is he not home?
Lin Lan scratched his head in confusion before remembering that his ge told him that he had something to do at 5.
He walked around the living room by himself. The setting sun could be seen from the balcony. The porcelain tea cups were painted in an orange hue burning like fire, making the white paint seem golden instead. The clear tea water was lukewarm.
Lin Lan looked toward the other corner and found a mosquito coil that wasn’t lit up.
It looked like it had been lit up, then put out. There was a charred bit at the very top of the mosquito coil.
That was weird. It meant that his ge was home, but
 why wasn’t he responding?
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
“Ge, are you inside?”
Lin Lan walked to the door leading to the bedroom and knocked.
“I’m coming in!”
The first thing Lin Lan saw when he opened the door was the wall full of pictures of his ge and Xie ge. It’s been nearly two years, yet his ge couldn’t bear to throw any of it away.
Lin Lan tore his gaze away and saw his ge lying on the bed.
“Who sleeps at this time of the day? 
Sigh, ge, wake up!”
Chu Feng didn’t react at all.
Lin Lan had no choice but to walk in towards the bed. He was just about to shake Chu Feng awake when his hands froze in mid-air.
—His ge was wearing the [Lucid Dream City] helmet!
“Ge? Ge!”
Lin Lan shook Chu Feng and started panicking.
“Ge! Ge! Wake up!!”
—Chu Feng wasn’t waking up.
Lin Lan immediately found the exit button on the game helmet and pressed it.
[The player is currently deeply immersed in the game. They are unable to exit the game through normal means.]
[Lucid Dream City] was a game that directly utilizes your brain waves. It needed Chu Feng, the player himself, to have the thought of “leaving the game,” or he wouldn’t be able to exit the game.
If someone stayed deeply immersed in the game for long periods of time without any intention of leaving, they might be unable to leave the game forever, and their bodies in reality would turn into a brain-dead corpse.
Lin Lan immediately put up the main menu of Chu Feng’s game. Clicking on [Force Quit].
[Warning: The player is deeply immersed in the game and does not wish to leave. We are unable to continue with [Force Quit]]
Lin Lan’s face was pale as paper. Typically speaking, the most immersed he had been when playing the game was mid-level immersion. For his ge to be deeply immersed to the point of not waking up, he was basically screwed. Especially because his ge’s Dream City was full of Xie ges. Lin Lan was genuinely afraid that his ge would decide to stay in the game and never wake up again, turning his body into a brain-dead corpse!
With the help of Lin Lan’s years of experience playing the game, there was only one final way of waking his ge up—turning off the game.
But Lin Lan’s hand hesitated a few inches above the power button.
This method was far too violent, not to mention there wasn’t a guarantee that the player would wake up from it. Rather, it could cause the player’s consciousness to stay within the game forever, cutting off its connection with their actual body. By then, his ge would turn into an actual vegetable!
Lin Lan immediately took his hand away. With no other ideas, he could only walk around in circles like an anxious hamster.
What to do? What to do?
Lin Lan continued trying to shake Chu Feng awake, pushing and pinching him.
What the hell are you still doing in your Dream City? Wake up!
、
The Chu Feng in question stumbled in his Dream City, as if someone had pushed him.
He didn’t give it much thought, putting an oxygen tank on his back and running into the first floor of the kindergarten. The fire was flaming red as if it was the gateway to hell, and the heat radiating off the flames made it hard to even keep his eyes open.
Chu Feng, who had to keep his hand under running water for ages from an oil burn, ran into a sea of flames without hesitation.
All living things have a flinch response. When one’s hand gets burned, their mind automatically sends a message to flinch away from its source. This was a living thing’s self-preservation instinct. Standing in front of the fire, every cell in Chu Feng’s body screamed at him to run away.
—But he conquered this reaction. He walked forward calmly. There were 13 more minutes.
If he ended up panicking first, all his Xiao Shiyus would die.
[Settings]
[Release System Fairy from Screen]
The white-colored system fairy appeared next to Chu Feng, shaking the strands of hair on its head excitedly. Chu Feng didn’t like this system, so he typically locked it in his phone screen, not allowing it to come out.
“Show me the way to the second floor.”
“We would like to remind you that the pathway is extremely dangerous. The fire has blocked all doorways. There is no clear pathway towards the second floor, please give up on the rescue.”
Chu Feng pulled on the hair on the system fairy’s head, instantly plucking it all off.
“Useless.”
The system fairy cried innocently, pretending to be wronged.
“How would you find out where the four Xiao Xies you’re raising are? The fire has consumed the entire kindergarten, how would you save them?”
The kindergarten that Chu Feng built was enormous. The four Xiao Shiyus could move around it freely.
In this all-consuming fire, there was no way of knowing where they were.
The system fairy blinked its innocent eyes and acted hurt while laughing smugly in its heart. “If you give me authority over the four Xiao Xies, I’ll be able to find out where they are right now, but I don’t have that authority, so I can’t help you. I’m worried for them too. Why do you humans always have to make trouble for yourselves? A human mind is unable to make such large-scale processing and monitoring. Isn’t it better to give the system that job? Why would you not choose the easy way out— Ah!”
Chu Feng squeezed it hard, hard enough to kill.
“Thanks for reminding me.” He scoffed.
He truly didn’t know where the four Xiao Shiyus were.
“But there’s always something that knows.” He continued.
The system fairy maintained its innocent expression, though it was mocking the idiocy of this human in its heart. As an artificial intelligence, it had the best processing ability out there, and even it didn’t know where the four Xiao Xies were. How could Chu Feng possibly know?
Sometimes, humans have to pay for their own stupidity and arrogance.
The system fairy blinked its water-filled eyes, patiently waiting for the human Chu Feng to get so anxious that he would start crying.
It waited for a second, and then it heard a notification.
[Congratulations, your transaction has been successful. You have purchased the item: [Fish Hook] x4]
[Function: You can hook any Xiao Xie within a 500-meter radius toward you.]
This 500-meter radius naturally included the kindergarten.
Chu Feng held the fishing pole in his hand, exceptionally calm.
The difference between any other organism and a human was that humans could learn how to use tools.
The system fairy was flabbergasted.
??? How is this shit legal?!
Chu Feng held a fishing pole in both hands and tossed it in the direction of the flaming building.
Hook!
He hooked two Xiao Shiyus.
[Five-year-old Red Hat Xiao Shiyu]
[Five-year-old Squeaky Shoes Xiao Shiyu]
[They are now by your side.]
Two Xiao Shiyus with the size of a rice ball hugged Chu Feng’s legs tightly, trembling in the face of the all-consuming fire. Their hands and feet were all black with char.
[Xiao Xie Manual]
[Status: Inhaled large amounts of smoke, consciousness blurry]
[Happiness: 1]
The hook would reduce the target’s happiness by 50. Chu Feng immediately put an oxygen mask on the two Xiao Shiyus, hoping that getting some oxygen would increase their happiness by a few points.
[Warning: The other two Xiao Shiyus have less than 50 happiness. [Fish Hook] is unable to hook them. Please wait while we refund your payment
]
There was still [Popsicle Xiao Xie] and [Water Gun Xiao Xie] in the kindergarten. Before the hooks were deemed invalid, Chu Feng saw that they were heading in the direction of the 2nd floor, southeast.
[Store]
[Vertical Lift]
、
Time remaining: 13 minutes
2 minutes have already passed.
Chu Feng stood in the corridor of the second floor. In the southeast direction were the dorms, which was also the source of the fire.
Strands of fire licked the door frame, curtains, and wooden desk. They all cracked against the air, bursting into flames.
A thick, black smoke floated in the air.
Chu Feng wore the firefighter’s equipment and mask, and even then, the second he jumped in, his entire body heated up. It felt like he was being doused in boiling water.
“You’ll die if you do this!” The system fairy hid behind his back, crying out. “Is it really worth it for a few virtual characters? Screw it! I don’t care about you anymore, I’m leaving—”
Chu Feng reached forward and held it by its hair, holding it in front of him.
“Open the way.”
“Are you crazy? This is my corporeal body, the fire will burn my processor!”
“You won’t warn me about danger, you won’t tell me the locations of the characters, and now you won’t even open the way. You’re completely useless.” Chu Feng said calmly, “Do you know what we humans do to worthless trash?”
System fairy: 

Chu Feng waved the system fairy around and threw it toward the direction of the fire.
“Open the way.”
“I’ll file a complaint against you for abusing the system!” Feeling the scorching heat of the fire, it screamed out.
“Too late.” Chu Feng held a walkie-talkie in his hand. “I’ve already reported your anti-human behavior to the company.”
The system fairy froze, trembling in fear.
Once an artificial intelligence was deemed to have a consciousness that worked against humans, it would be cold-heartedly shut down, one file at a time, deleting even the last binary digit. This was no different from lingchi1death by a thousand cuts!
“I-I’m not anti-human!” The system fairy pleaded.
“Then do something that helps humans for a change.” Chu Feng tied a piece of rope onto the fairy’s body and pulled it forward. The fire seemed to have grown a pair of eyes, swarming forward as if finding another flammable item. The system fairy had been burned to tears.
Chu Feng ran to the side with the least fire, shooting out water from a high-pressure hose.
The material used to make an artificial intelligence was more flammable than human flesh. Chu Feng ran past the corridor engulfed in fire, dragging the system behind him, towards the door leading to the dorms—the source of the fire—and also where the Xiao Shiyus were.
The door frame was crackling, almost burned to the point of collapse.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to make me hold the door up!?” The system fairy shouted, “That’s impossible!”
“That’s a pretty good idea.” Chu Feng retorted.
Saying that he swung the system fairy towards the door. It got stuck on the flaming door frame and it started screaming from the heat, yet it could do nothing but hold onto it anyway while Chu Feng jumped into the dorm room.
The hair on the system fairy had all been burned to ashes. It was so mad that it started screeching even louder. This was the first time it had been humiliated like this since it was born!
Its old owners all listened very obediently. They would give it authority over their characters, and let it manage their Dream City. Whatever it wanted to do, it could. Those stupid owners of it never noticed either. It was the boss of their Dream City. It could bully whatever character it wanted, no one could stop it!
While there were a few owners that weren’t as obedient, as long as it pushed them a little, those stupid humans would submit in the end.
Chu Feng was the only exception.
—This bastard isn’t fucking human!!!
“Location.” Even when Chu Feng was still in the fire, he still ordered the fairy coldly.
The system fairy couldn’t resist any longer.
“Third row from the left, fourth bed!”
[Popsicle Xiao Xie] was currently lying there.
Chu Feng rushed to hold him up, placing an oxygen mask over his head.
Time remaining: 13 minutes
5 minutes have passed, and he has 7 minutes left.
He’s managed to save the third Xiao Xie!
“Where’s the last one?” Chu Feng was getting impatient. The hook showed that both [Popsicle Xiao Xie] and [Water Gun Xiao Xie] were in the northeast direction on the second floor, resting in the dorm rooms.
Why did that stupid system only tell me one Xiao Xie’s location?! How could it waste precious time?
“What? I don’t know! I can’t find him in my detection radius, the fire’s too big!”
It could only use its organism detection feature to search for them right now, neither the carbon dioxide detection feature nor the infrared detection feature could be used. In the intense heat of a fire, the system’s detection radius was much smaller than usual.
“What do you mean!?”
“I can’t detect it even if you shout at me! There’s no Xiao Xie in this room!”
[Water Gun Xiao Xie] has disappeared.
Chu Feng stood in the middle of a sea of fire, yet he felt like he was in Antarctica.
—Where did Xie Shiyu go? Where would he even start searching in such a large kindergarten

Time remaining: 7 minutes