Life Game In Other World
Chapter 100: The Ruins (Please favorite, follow, and vote for the monthly ticket)

Chapter 100: Chapter 100: The Ruins (Please favorite, follow, and vote for the monthly ticket)

"Dad!"

Liu Nan jumped off the boat and gave the middle-aged man a hug, then turned her head to He Ao and said, "This is He Ao."

Then she looked at He Ao and likewise introduced, "He Ao, this is my dad, Liu Zhengyun."

The middle-aged man closed his book, slowly stood up, and smiled at He Ao, "Young man, we meet again."

"Yes," He Ao also revealed a smile, "Uncle, hello."

The middle-aged man before him was the same ’uncle’ he had just met at the abandoned construction site, the one who had shared a lot of knowledge with him and had a penchant for teaching. He Ao hadn’t expected him to be Liu Nan’s father, as he seemed amazingly well-preserved, looking to be in his thirties.

"You know each other?"

This time it was Liu Nan’s turn to be surprised.

"I happened to meet him while I was wandering around this afternoon," Liu Zhengyun said with a big laugh as he stood up, walked between Liu Nan and He Ao, and squeezed Liu Nan to one side, leaning against He Ao,

"The preparations inside are almost done, let’s go in and have a meal."

"Okay."

He Ao nodded.

Liu Zhengyun’s house was a simple lakeside villa, with an exterior design made up of geometric shapes that gave it an artistic touch. The decoration inside the house was also quite luxurious.

When He Ao and Liu Nan followed Liu Zhengyun inside, busy waiters were delivering dishes to the table, and the kitchen seemed bustling.

Such a scale of chef team would usually not be resident in a home, and according to Liu Nan, this house wasn’t frequently used, so the chefs were likely hired temporarily.

"I was thinking of arranging a table at some hotel," Liu Zhengyun explained as he walked, "but after some thought, since you’re Nannan’s classmate, a family dinner seemed more fitting."

He always stood aptly in between Liu Nan and He Ao, causing Liu Nan to frown.

"It feels quite nice."

He Ao said with a smile, not minding Liu Zhengyun’s actions.

The table was already filled with a variety of delicacies; creatures from the mountains, land, and sea were all well represented.

However, He Ao didn’t actually care about what others invited him to eat, whether it was exquisite delicacies or plain millet bread; he would sit down and eat it all with a smile.

Every family has a different situation, some gestures are just fine as long as they are made.

But seeing that the waiters were still serving dishes, He Ao turned his head to Liu Zhengyun and said, "Uncle, I think this should be enough for the three of us? Any more would be a waste of food."

"Alright."

Liu Zhengyun smiled and gestured with his hand for the kitchen to stop.

The three of them took their seats at the table, with He Ao and Liu Zhengyun sitting first, then Liu Nan walked around them and sat next to He Ao.

There wasn’t much conversation at the dinner table, as Liu Zhengyun had the chefs leave first. The house quickly became quiet, with just the three of them left. He Ao was used to eating silently by himself, so he had no desire to chat.

Liu Zhengyun, on the other hand, went from personal physical fitness to talent to unusual environments and talked about everything from beginning to end without stopping.

As he spoke, He Ao leaned in towards Liu Nan and whispered, "Is your dad involved in some kind of sideline business?"

Liu Nan bit her white teeth on the end of her chopsticks and thought for a moment, "He used to be a professor at Dongdu University."

Oh, a teacher then.

No worries.

He Ao continued to quietly eat his meal.

Finally, Liu Zhengyun grew tired of talking. He stopped, took a sip of wine, and asked He Ao in a soft voice, "Xiao He, what do you think of this house?"

"Pretty good."

He Ao cracked open the lobster shell, retrieved the meat from inside, and nodded slightly.

"This house was given to me by White Bird Group in lieu of payment they owed. It was designed by a famous architect from Nandu. Although it’s not the most expensive among these villas, its market price should be around twenty-five million now."

He paused there, looking at He Ao, "How about I give you this house?"

He Ao looked up at Liu Zhengyun.

Before he could speak, Liu Nan leaned over and said, "Don’t listen to him. This house leaks. When it rains outside, it rains inside,"

Then she pointed at the artistic, arched beams and walls next to them, "Decorating these twisted and turned walls is a real hassle, and they’re hard to sell. Apart from looking good, they’re useless. Don’t take the house—make him give you cash."

Liu Zhengyun’s face had clearly darkened as he tapped the table, "Is my house really that bad?"

"Well," Liu Nan considered for a moment, "it does have its perks. The property fee is expensive, but their service attitude is also bad!"

He Ao could tell that Liu Zhengyun really liked this house. Liu Zhengyun had that scholarly, artistic vibe, so he was quite defenseless against such an artistic and poetic lakeside villa.

Liu Nan, on the other hand, was more realistic by comparison.

This time, He Ao was on Liu Nan’s side.

Seeing that He Ao hadn’t spoken, Liu Zhengyun knew that he had taken in Liu Nan’s words.

He sighed and looked at He Ao, "If you don’t like my house, I have a second proposal for you. Do you know about the ’ruins’?"

He Ao stopped what he was doing, appearing to listen carefully.

Liu Zhengyun found this pleasing and began to explain in detail, "Simply put, the ’ruins’ are an alternate dimension. The passage to this space first appeared eighteen years ago and has been opening periodically ever since, allowing some people to enter.

But the entrance to it appears randomly each time, not in any fixed area. Once inside, the place where you appear is also random.

The concentration of Transcendent energy inside the ruins is much higher than that of the real world, and it’s teeming with all sorts of crazy monsters and Transcendent beings. Ordinary people who enter have a good chance of acquiring Transcendent powers, and Transcendents, if lucky, might find strong contaminants or ways to enhance their own powers.

Of course, where there’s gain, there’s risk. By entering the ruins, one can benefit but is also very likely to die."

Then, he paused before continuing, "The next opening of the ruins will be in three days, on an oil-extraction island on the high seas that I control. I happen to have one spot left that I can freely allocate. I can give this spot to you, but it requires that you first join the Research Institute."

"Are there any signs of living humans inside the ruins?"

He Ao suddenly asked.

"No," Liu Zhengyun shook his head, "We have not found any traces of living human activity, but there are human relics. Our current hypothesis is that the human civilization within the ruins went through a major disaster, leading to the extinction of the entire human civilization. That’s why we call that space ’the ruins’."

It sounded a bit like a Copy World, but with no humans. He Ao thought for a moment and asked further, "How big are the ruins approximately?"

"We haven’t fully explored the entire ruins, but we’ve conducted optical experiments and found that the surface of the ruins is curved."

"Is it a planet?"

"Correct," Liu Zhengyun nodded and drew a circle with water on the table, "We’ve roughly calculated that the ruins are about a dwarf planet with a diameter of 1000 kilometers and an area of about 3 million square kilometers.

However, the ruins seem to have undergone some artificial modification. Its gravity is similar to that of the real world, and there are no obvious stars around it. The illumination relies on some space lighting systems that are still floating outside the ruins and operating normally."

That ruled out it being a Copy World.

Copy Worlds have regular day and night cycles and a sun, and they are much larger than a dwarf planet. If the body size of people in the two worlds is about the same, then the area currently controlled by the Federation using Fortress Cities alone far exceeds 3 million square kilometers.

But upon confirming that it wasn’t a Copy World, He Ao became somewhat interested in the ruins.

"So what’s your choice?"

Liu Zhengyun looked at He Ao.

Liu Nan, who had been silent until now, also raised her head and looked at He Ao.