Chapter 949: Chapter 770: If the Sun Explodes in One Year_2

He immediately shot a disdainful look and said, “Wait, you’re not reporting my whereabouts again, are you? Freak!”

“What else can you think about besides that?”

Xu Shuo cast him a sidelong glance.

Pei Sheng pouted. “Well, if you could keep a clean record, we wouldn’t have this problem. Forget it, it’s not important. What have you been up to these days, being so secretive? I’ve noticed you going out several times but have no idea what you’re doing. Most of the company’s work has been handed over to Ziwen to manage, and you rarely check on the offline stores anymore. –Wait, don’t tell me you’re planning to quit and hand the business over to someone else?”

Saying this, Pei Sheng suddenly widened his eyes as if he had unraveled a big secret.

Xu Shuo couldn’t hold back a chuckle at his words.

Pei Sheng eyed him suspiciously, but the young man remained silent, staring at him with a curious expression, as if examining some sort of rare specimen.

The intense gaze made Pei Sheng feel thoroughly uncomfortable.

“Can you just say something?”

Scratching his neck uneasily, Pei Sheng said, “Is it money you lack, or something else? The studio belongs to all of us; there’s no need for you to shoulder everything alone.”

Xu Shuo sighed, stood up, and patted him on the shoulder.

Then, under Pei Sheng’s puzzled gaze, Xu Shuo picked up a piece of chocolate from the table and placed it on his chest. Before it could fall, Pei Sheng caught it.

“Here, go play somewhere else. But don’t leave tonight; your brother will be coming to pick you up.”

“…”

Pei Sheng looked at him in complete bewilderment.

And upon hearing that his elder brother would be coming over…

Pei Sheng’s first instinct was to escape immediately!

But Xu Shuo swiftly grabbed the back of his collar and, with a calm smile, said, “Don’t run; you might get hit by a car.”

Pei Sheng: “”(;D;)no!!”

…

After scaring off Pei Sheng, Xu Shuo let his expression fade and sat down to check the calendar on his computer.

It had been less than half a month since schools reopened across the country.

If the authorities really planned to release the news…

It would likely be after the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Or perhaps right on the Mid-Autumn Festival itself.

After all, families would be reuniting, and dropping such news during the celebrations would surely “delight” everyone. And if the happiness went overboard, people could comfort each other.

Quite amusing, really.

Xu Shuo flicked the screen of his laptop and suddenly stood up to leave the office. Instantly, everyone outside hastily resumed looking busy.

The staff from the new department, on the other hand, noticed that their big boss had come to visit again.

At first, they thought he was here for an inspection.

But Xu Shuo walked straight into Pei Sheng’s office instead.

Pei Sheng was packing up his things, preparing to flee.

At the sight of Xu Shuo, he was so startled that the chocolate in his hand fell to the ground.

“Big brother, did you really need to come here and watch over me?”

Pei Sheng stared at him in shock.

Xu Shuo closed the door, leaned casually against the desk, and calmly said, “I want to ask you a question.”

“What question?” Pei Sheng asked, his curiosity piqued.

“If you knew you only had one year left to live, would you feel happy?” Xu Shuo asked.

“???”

Pei Sheng tilted his head in confusion.

Then, incredulously, he asked, “Dude, have you been pulling all-nighters lately? Otherwise, why would you ask such a stupid question?

“I haven’t even hooked up with a hundred girls from my WeChat contacts yet. Do you think I’d be happy if I knew I only had a year to live?

“Besides, no one would feel happy in such a situation, all right! At least ask if they’d feel sad–what kind of nonsense is ‘happy’??”

Pei Sheng looked utterly baffled, as if questioning his own sanity.

In response, Xu Shuo simply stared at him, expressionless.

After a brief moment of silence, Pei Sheng reached out to feel Xu Shuo’s forehead and then touched his own.

Hmm, no fever, no chills.

“Alright, let me put it another way.”

Xu Shuo spoke again, “What if the sun were about to explode, destroying Earth? Humanity would only have one year–maybe even less–to live. What would you do then?”

Realizing he wasn’t joking, Pei Sheng began to grow genuinely puzzled. “Uh… let me start by asking: why are you suddenly talking about this?”

“Just a hypothetical scenario.”

“Then why are you even hypothesizing this all of a sudden?”

“Keep talking and see what happens.”

Xu Shuo picked up the computer mouse from beside him.

Pei Sheng faltered but, unusually, didn’t back down. Instead, he frowned and said, “Well, what do you want from me? If you ask me this random thing, what am I supposed to do?”

After saying this…

A sudden thought crossed Pei Sheng’s mind.

He stared at Xu Shuo in shock, asking, “You… you didn’t get diagnosed with something terminal, did you? Like only having a year left? Is that why you’ve been sneaking off to the hospital for chemotherapy lately?!”

As he spoke, he reached out to grab Xu Shuo’s hair–after all, people undergoing treatment often lose hair.

But, unfortunately…

The hair he grabbed was full and thick.

And real.

Xu Shuo swatted away his hand in disinterest and turned to leave. –How foolish of him to expect Pei Sheng’s brain to entertain any serious thoughts.

“Hey!”

Just as Xu Shuo was about to open the door, he stopped in his tracks.

He turned and looked at Pei Sheng, who had called out.

“If the sun really blows up and Earth is doomed, then in that year, I’d probably try to win over all the girls in my WeChat list first. And… that project we’re working on–I guess I wouldn’t have to finish it, right? I mean, there’d only be a year left anyway…”

Pei Sheng muttered, raising a hand to point outside the office toward the new department teammates hard at work.

Hearing this, Xu Shuo glanced at him, then at the one-way glass wall overlooking the department.

He could see the programmers visibly losing hair at their desks.

After a moment, Xu Shuo gave him a small smile. “No, you still have to finish it.”

With that, he opened the door and walked out.

Pei Sheng: “???”

“What the hell–you bastard! If the Earth’s going to blow up, why the hell do I still have to work?!”

Shocked and infuriated, Pei Sheng couldn’t help but yell.

In an instant, the people outside the department quietly glanced toward the office, but upon seeing their big boss exit, they quickly returned to their tasks.

As for Pei Sheng’s outburst…

No one actually took it seriously.

After all, jokes about “Earth blowing up” were common; after silently chuckling to themselves for a moment, everyone got back to work.

But Los watched as Xu Shuo’s figure disappeared in the distance…

It seemed he had something on his mind.

The authority over this world granted by the First Palace had already been lifted.

So now, even the existence of players, Script Space, and the “Abyss” could all be revealed to ordinary people without concern for maintaining world Order.

After all, this world was already on the brink of collapse.

…

By the end of the workday…

Pei Sheng was indeed picked up by none other than Pei Hong.

Given Pei Sheng’s struggles, it was clear he had been dragged back to the Pei Family estate, and whether he’d emerge unscathed later was anyone’s guess.

As night fell…

The studio closed as usual.

No one stayed for overtime.

After returning to his residential area, Xu Shuo stood by the window, looking toward the budget shopping mall in the distance. The neon lights surrounding the mall reflected in his dark pupils, making them shine faintly.

After the new school term started, Xu Xi had moved into the school dorms.

The house had become eerily quiet as a result.

Xu Shuo stood there for some time, observing the seemingly unremarkable mall, then glanced at the surrounding buildings before turning away from the balcony.

In the building opposite the residential area…

A sleepless surveillance agent yawned and signaled their replacement to take over.

…

…

The heavy veil of night deepened.

Pedestrians on the streets grew fewer and fewer.

The City Center District, devoid of nightlife, was eerily deserted.

Inside the budget shopping mall, now darkened, rows of shelves stood quietly. The red indicators of surveillance cameras blinked faintly. The entire mall was silent and still.

Yet suddenly…

A crack began to form in the void, spreading slowly across the air.

Like water trickling across a glass pane, the crack meandered erratically, extending from the empty space above to the mall floor below.

Then it pierced through the floor, continuing downward.

Reaching the underground parking lot.

And then further down.

Until it entered the bedrock beneath the parking lot.

The crack, measuring about five or six fathoms in length, finally stopped expanding.

It stood silently in the void, two stories high. After an indeterminate amount of time passed, it began to slowly seep wisps of pitch-black Qi.

The Qi soon spread and tainted everything around it.

No matter if it was solid matter or the air itself.

…