Walking the night road too often, you’ll eventually meet a ghost. He didn’t hate this so-called “Grace Clark” enforcer—he only blamed himself for not being careful enough.

So, the clear light faded, the Yin-Yang Seal dispersed, and Brian Clark gave up all resistance.

With nothing left to block it, the black wind swept through. When the clouds and wind had passed, George Washington had already collapsed limply to the ground, lifeless. The black-and-white youths had vanished without a trace, leaving only two terrified children and a cold-faced woman on the bridge.

This scene was witnessed by the villagers, who spread it as a tale of life and death’s cycle, taking the black-and-white youths for ghosts of impermanence.

The people sighed: George Washington lived eight hundred and eighty years, yet could not tell his wife the truth.

……

With a sudden “whoosh,” in a narrow, dim little room, a young man sat up from a sensory recliner, a bitter smile on his face.

The young man’s complexion was a bit pale, his long-unexercised body looking somewhat thin. His eyes shifted, glancing at the upper left corner of the holographic screen in front of him.

The AI brain immediately caught his gaze, pulling a flashing, urgent red email from the upper left to the center of the screen, enlarging it. A soft, clear synthesized voice began to speak.

“Email from the Virtual World Management Headquarters. It lists all the crimes you committed in the virtual world ‘Earth’ and the corresponding punishments.”

The young man raised his hand to rub his forehead, looking very troubled.

The AI brain responded at once: “Master, is this gesture meant to indicate you are currently unwell, in an attempt to elicit sympathy and reduce your punishment?”

The young man gave a wry smile. “Reduce my punishment? Let’s not talk about that. Just read it—I’m listening.”

He had lived for over eight hundred years in “Earth,” this massive virtual reality game. His mind had become muddled, to the point where he’d forgotten the difference between reality and the virtual, so much so that he failed to spot such an obvious trap today and walked right into it.

Worst of all, he’d left behind clear confessions himself, with irrefutable evidence. No matter how he tried to argue or appeal, it was useless.

This time, he was truly finished.

The AI brain dutifully read out the harsh punishment in a gentle voice.

“Brian Clark, male, age twenty-four, unemployed, residing in Earth, Greater China Zone 55, Level One.

Charge one: Severe disruption of game balance.

In ‘Earth,’ your total payment amounted to 1,000 credit points, purchasing 8 years of lifespan. But you exploited a game loophole, overspending by 872.325 years. According to the universal credit calculation protocol, the Earth operator is claiming 928,650,000 credit points from Brian Clark.”

Brian Clark had just heard the first charge. Seeing that string of zeros after the compensation amount, he instantly felt drained, as if all his strength had been sucked away.

According to the universal calculation protocol, the credit points required to purchase game lifespan did not increase linearly, but exponentially.

Eight years cost only a thousand credit points, but for an ordinary person to live seventy years, it would take over a hundred thousand credit points—a considerable sum. That’s why, in “Earth,” there was a saying: “A seventy-year life is a rare thing since ancient times.”

But he had lived for over eight hundred years. With the game’s compensation added up, it became a staggering astronomical figure of nine hundred million.

That was over nine hundred million credit points—almost equal to the total monthly trade volume of Zone 55. Yet his annual welfare subsidy was only two thousand credit points. How could anyone possibly pay that back?

Just as Brian Clark was feeling utterly powerless, drenched in cold sweat, the AI brain mercilessly read out the second charge.

“Charge two: Virtual rape.

During your illegal consumption of 872 years, you had forty-nine wives, all of which were illegal unions. Of the forty-nine women, three gave up their right to pursue the matter, while the other forty-six chose to sue. Depending on the degree of harm suffered by each woman, the total compensation amounts to 8,648,586 credit points.”

Another heavy blow. Once, sweet words in the boudoir; now, they turned on him without mercy. Heartbreaking.

Brian Clark groaned a few times on the recliner, looking like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water.

When you owe so much, you stop worrying. After the blow of nine hundred million credit points, this eight million or so was nothing. What else could he do? At worst, he’d use his broken body to pay off the debt.

“Can you tell me which ones didn’t sue?” Brian Clark asked weakly, a bit curious.

“Due to confidentiality agreements, without the parties’ consent, their identities cannot be provided.”

“Oh…” Brian Clark let out a long sigh, feeling some comfort in his old heart. At least three lovers remained—his life hadn’t been entirely in vain.

The AI brain delivered the final blow: “Master, this is the last time I will call you ‘master.’ You are heavily in debt, and in the foreseeable future, you cannot repay more than 1% of the compensation. The Solar System Federation Government has stopped all your welfare benefits. To restore them, you must take up employment. After you start working, all income beyond the minimum subsistence allowance will be used to repay your debts. From now on, your every move will be monitored by the Central AI.”

This meant that Brian Clark’s comfortable life on Level One of Zone 55 was over.

If he didn’t quickly find a paying job, he would either starve to death or be forcibly expelled by the Federation Government from the comfortable inner solar system to the outer solar system—to explore unknown worlds, like on Europa, the icy moon, where life and death would be left to fate.

But now, finding a job on Earth was unimaginably difficult, the competition fierce beyond belief. He figured he really might end up on Europa.