Volume One: Fire Trees and Silver Flowers

Chapter One: Prologue

Morning. Sunlight streamed into the bright, clean office.

"Swish—"

The chair in front was pulled out. John Bolton tossed a document directly in front of me and said, "Logan Reed, starting tomorrow you don't need to come to work anymore. You also don't need to participate in the bug fix work for the Destiny System."

"Uncle Bolton, what does this mean?" I said calmly.

"You're fired."

His brows were tightly furrowed, his face full of pain and regret. "I really don't know what you're thinking. You're the chief data analyst of Destiny Group, you led the creation of so many core datasets, you had such a bright future ahead of you, but you insisted on investigating some data anomalies. Now look, the board has made a decision and you're out."

"You're just letting me go like this?"

I gritted my teeth, suddenly stood up, pressed my palm on the termination letter, and looked straight at him. "There's definitely something fishy about the game 'Destiny.' Liam Thompson and Gavin Ford, those two top players, both vanished during the launch period. Do you really think that's a coincidence? And before that, Ethan Harris—I submitted so many requests for data reconstruction assessments, but you never approved a single one!"

"Is that your business?"

He couldn't help but shout, "The disappearance of those two is suspected to be a kidnapping case, and it's already under investigation. You're just a data analyst—what business is it of yours?"

"You think it's a kidnapping?"

I looked at him in disappointment. "Liam Thompson is no ordinary person. Who could possibly kidnap him?"

"Enough!"

He slapped the desk lightly. "Your unauthorized investigation into the company's top-secret data has already angered upper management. Now you're no longer part of Destiny Group. Take your things and complete your resignation procedures today. Leave!"

"Got it. You all take care of yourselves!"

……

I wandered aimlessly down the company corridor, all my colleagues looking at me with strange expressions.

That's right, I was fired.

I picked up my phone, opened WeChat, and sent a voice message to my good buddy: "Little Flynn, let's find some time to have a drink in the next few days? I'm in a bad mood."

"Sure, do you want me to invite a few girls too?"

"Up to you."

Chapter Two: Nicknamed 789

System is rebooting!

Engine starting!

System charging successful!

Initiating traversal!

……

"Buzz!"

Suddenly, my mind went blank, my body kept falling, as if being torn apart. In a dizzying spin, I abruptly woke from my dream.

My head felt groggy, as if I had awakened from a distant past. Just moments ago, the scene in my mind was a grand abyss and gigantic figures standing atop the sky, but in the blink of an eye, I was back in reality.

"Finally awake…"

Lying on the bed in a daze—this is crazy, even my dreams are filled with game scenes… What's wrong with me? Did I travel from the game world to reality? No, no… My memories slowly returned. Clearly, last night I got dead drunk with my best friend Little Flynn, and isn't this Little Flynn's house?

"Hmm?"

As I was thinking, a strong scent of perfume suddenly drifted to my nose.

"What's going on? Why does my room smell like perfume?"

I sniffed, reached out beside the pillow, and grabbed a silky, triangular piece of fabric.

"Huh?"

In an instant, it was like being struck by lightning—this is… a woman's clothing? Suddenly, anger surged in my chest. Why is there a woman's thing in my room?

"Little Flynn!"

"Little Flynn, get out here!"

After shouting angrily twice, a man pushed the door open, toweling his wet hair. Seeing me holding the fabric, looking like I was about to interrogate him, he gave an awkward laugh. "Ah… Little Reed, you're awake? Hahaha, I thought you'd sleep until the afternoon!"

"This thing, what's going on!?"

"This… this…"

His face turned red, then he suddenly said indignantly, "Damn, you're really something. Did you get so drunk you forgot everything that happened yesterday? If you hadn't gotten dumped, would I have gone to the bar with you and gotten wasted?"

"Huh? I got dumped?"

I was completely confused, couldn't remember a thing.

"You already forgot?" He walked over, put his arm around my shoulder, and laughed. "I'm glad you managed to get over your breakup. Looks like last night's drinking wasn't for nothing!"