Mini World Game Console

Outside Abyss Bay Port, a minibus carried a middle-aged driver and six passengers. Four of them were middle-aged men in gray coats, and one was a young woman.

"Ah Sheng, haven't you finished writing yet?" The middle-aged driver turned to look back at one of the middle-aged men. The man was writing on a piece of paper. He asked with a strong, standard Mandarin accent, "What does this 'signing' mean?"

"Ah Sheng, signing just means signing," the middle-aged driver said irritably.

"Then what should I write?"

"Ah Sheng, haven't you signed something before?"

"No. What exactly should I write?"

"You need to think about it, Ah Sheng."

"I don't know. What exactly should I write?"

The young woman couldn't help but intervene, "It means to sign your name."

The middle-aged man finally understood. He whispered something to his three companions, and then they all used ballpoint pens to write their names on the paper.

The middle-aged driver "heh-ed" irritably and muttered something no one could hear clearly. It was probably nothing good. He took the paper, glanced at it, then shoved it back to the middle-aged man in the gray coat with an extremely poor attitude.

The young woman frequently traveled between the Abyss and Ben Gang and was no stranger to this kind of behavior.

While not all border-crossing drivers were like this, a significant number did indeed have terrible attitudes. They were hardly willing to speak politely, displaying a strange arrogance, and often answered passenger questions with rhetorical ones. They were just drivers, after all.

If this had happened elsewhere, passengers might have simply gotten off the bus and ignored him. However, these drivers typically worked for travel agencies, and the fare had already been collected; it was no loss to them if you didn't take their bus. Moreover, many travelers were unfamiliar with border crossing procedures and wouldn't know how to find another ride after disembarking. So, they often just endured it, as it was only for a short leg of the journey.

Besides, the driver's only real issue was his tone. The interaction would last an hour at most, and complaining to the travel agency would likely achieve nothing. At worst, it would dampen one's travel spirits, completely ruining the mood for the tourists.

Once the forms for the border crossing were filled out, the driver opened the automatic door. He got out to help them with their luggage and let the six of them disembark to go through customs at Abyss Bay Port.

Out of politeness, the young woman said, "Thanks." The other three middle-aged men disembarked without a word. Only the middle-aged man in the gray coat, the one who had repeatedly asked about the form, bowed his head to say thanks. He even patted the driver's shoulder in a friendly gesture.

The middle-aged driver frowned slightly. This man's hand doesn't seem very clean, he thought. However, he said nothing, merely pointing to the border checkpoint. "Go through customs, then head to parking bay number 6. Find the Mainland-Port Transit bus and show them the sticker I gave you."

As the middle-aged men and the young woman turned to leave, she heard the driver snort, "Mainland bumpkins." He then slammed the car door shut and drove off.

The young woman glanced at the middle-aged man beside her. He was watching the departing minibus with a meaningful expression. She said awkwardly, "Not all Ben Gang people are like that... but we ourselves feel that many people from Ben Gang have poor service attitudes."

"It's alright," the middle-aged man said. "Trouble often comes from careless talk. I just think that if he keeps acting like this, he'll get himself into trouble sooner or later."

Although the young woman felt embarrassed by the rude Ben Gang driver, she didn't want to join in cursing her own compatriots. So, as they walked, she quickly changed the subject. "Are you here to tour Ben Gang? In that case, you need to use the Inland exit and entry channel."

"No." The middle-aged man produced a Mainland Travel Permit. "I'm traveling to the Inland for tourism. I'm a Ben Gang native."

The young woman was slightly taken aback. You're a Ben Gang native, and you speak Mandarin so fluently? Yet you didn't even know that 'to sign' means to write your signature?

In the Inland, that particular term for "signing" isn't commonly used. That's why the young woman had instinctively assumed the man was from the Inland, and his perfect standard Mandarin only confirmed her belief.

However, she was only briefly puzzled. Soon, the crowd queuing at the border checkpoint separated them. These days, border crossing was fully automated. The young woman passed through smoothly, found the Mainland-Port Transit bus, and boarded, ready to head to Lianjiang.

On the bus, the young woman saw that the four somewhat peculiar middle-aged men were already seated. Once the bus was full, it departed. After a bumpy ride of over two hours, the bus arrived in Lianjiang City District.

Most passengers on the bus were either asleep or half-asleep listening to music. Suddenly, someone shouted, "Driver, I want to get off!"

Everyone was startled awake, including the young woman. She saw the four middle-aged men hurriedly disembarking. As one of them passed her seat, a card fell from his trouser pocket. She picked it up, glanced at it, and quickly grabbed the man's hand. "Bai Zhu, your travel permit!"

However, the man shot her a strange look, jerked his hand free, and then ran off after the other three without a backward glance. In no time, they had completely vanished.

The young woman was momentarily stunned; Something is very odd, she thought. But she couldn't chase after them now. She handed the travel permit to the driver for safekeeping, figuring that if the man realized he'd lost it, he would know to ask the driver for it.

Upon reaching the Lianjiang Hotel, the young woman checked into her room. Exhausted from the day's journey, she decided to take a bath and change, planning to go to bed early. After all, she was on a business trip and had a meeting with the counterpart company the next day.

But as she lay in bed, she suddenly recalled the four middle-aged men she had encountered earlier.

They were strange, very strange.

She remembered that when they were filling out the entry forms, the other three men had remained silent, waiting for their Mandarin-speaking companion to instruct them.

And the middle-aged man who had lost his Mainland Travel Permit, whose hand she had grabbed, was also very strange.

The young woman hadn't realized it at the time. Now, recalling the incident, she felt that the hand she had grabbed was exceptionally fair and delicate. The skin felt smoother than her own. It couldn't be a woman's hand, but it was at least the hand of a young man. It certainly didn't match that middle-aged man's weather-beaten face.

Did they wear makeup and smuggle themselves in? the young woman suddenly wondered.

But why go to such trouble, pretending to be Port People to cross the border… Ah, the Inland household registration system is quite strict. It's difficult to fabricate an Inland identity from abroad, but creating a Ben Gang identity in Ben Gang isn't that hard…

She recalled news from a few days ago: Inland had suddenly reduced visa quotas and even invalidated already-issued visas for foreign passport holders. This had led to several groups of foreign tourists being stranded in Ben Gang City. Foreigners currently have no direct way to enter Inland. So, finding a way to obtain a Ben Gang identity and masquerading as Port People to enter Inland... that's actually a viable plan.

So, among those four, only the one in the gray coat could speak Mandarin, and he didn't understand the Ben Gang dialect at all? After all, the Ben Gang dialect isn't an official language of the Mysterious Country, so it's normal not to understand it… What exactly is their purpose?

The young woman worked for a travel agency in Ben Gang, so the news from the past few days had made a particularly strong impression on her. In fact, her current business trip was precisely to address the problems caused by the tightening of Inland visas.

Lying in bed, her thoughts raced for a while before she suddenly chuckled. What are the odds I'd encounter foreign agents on a business trip…

Although the revival of Spiritual Energy had begun quite some time ago, for the ordinary people of the Mysterious Country, it merely represented an additional path for advancement. It gave everyone more to talk about in their leisure time and hadn't even significantly impacted public safety in the cities.

It had even brought some slight benefits to Ben Gang. The young woman knew that ever since the show *Midnight Walker* aired, Kowloon Park—where the Fairy Palace Food God had once set up a stall—had become a must-visit tourist destination. It occasionally attracted foreign professors and experts for research, modestly boosting Ben Gang's tourism industry.

Although watching Ren Naiser's videos made the young woman sense the turbulent changes happening in the world, these great upheavals were like distant storms to the ordinary people of the Mysterious Country; they could only feel the gentle sea breeze.

Those who had to work still worked, and those who had business trips still went on them.

The young woman yawned, then went to draw the curtains, preparing for bed. Her room was angled perfectly; the early morning sunlight would illuminate the interior, so she might not even need an alarm clock to wake up.

She casually glanced at the scenery outside, then froze.

In the distance, on the roof of a tall building, she saw a little girl emitting a faint white glow.

The little girl wore a small white tank top and a short white skirt with a red border. A red tie was fastened around her neck. Her legs were clad in over-the-knee white stockings, and her hands were covered with white, red-bordered sleeves.

She had white hair styled in twin ponytails. Bizarrely, two twitching, furry white ears perched atop her head, and nine fluffy, fiery white tails extended from beneath her skirt.

It was as if Cupid had strafed the young woman with a Gatling gun—I'm in love! she thought.

"So adorable…" the young woman couldn't help but walk to the window, as if wanting to get a bit closer.

However, the little girl seemed to notice her gaze and turned her head to glance at the young woman.

The little girl's large eyes, which seemed to be fitted with red Cosmetic Contact Lens Power, and the six red marks on her cheeks resembling fox whiskers, completely conquered the young woman's heart. Heavens, I'd pay any price for the chance to hold her and sleep for just one night!

Then, the next second, the young woman saw the little girl jump off the roof.

"AH!—"

She couldn't help but scream, watching helplessly as the little girl disappeared from her sight.

After a while, she collapsed onto her bed dejectedly. She clamped her legs around the blanket and hugged her pillow tightly, as if it were the little girl she had just seen.

I must be too tired; I must be hallucinating… she murmured. This isn't something out of the world of Anime Fans; how could such a person truly exist? Could it be because I'm planning to go to tomorrow's comic con that I hallucinated? If my business meetings finish early, maybe I'll go check it out…

However, she, who had sworn to remain DINK, now suddenly found herself entertaining the thought of finding a good man and having children.

But she failed to notice a small animal nestled under her bed. Hearing the young woman's self-talk, the creature's ears twitched, and its crimson eyes darted about.