The seawater was colder than expected.
The moment Xu Youyuan plunged into the water, the icy, bone-piercing pain nearly made her lose control and scream.
The Vampire was only about five meters away, swiftly closing the distance between them.
In the deep blue of the nighttime ocean, the Vampire’s elegant body tensed, arms outstretched toward Xu Youyuan, her slender legs undulating gracefully in the freezing water. With minimal effort, she cut through the waves like an arrow shot from a bow.
Soon, the Vampire grabbed Xu Youyuan’s hand and gestured toward a specific direction, signaling for them to swim there together.
Bodies sank into the sea around them, thrashing wildly, their contorted faces frighteningly close. Though Xu Youyuan knew they were NPCs—all of it fabricated—the disaster was rendered so vividly that panic could easily overwhelm an ordinary person.
As they swam, the Vampire silently watched Xu Youyuan, who remained entirely unfazed, only picking up speed.
Ahead, a black void hovered at the seabed. The Vampire motioned for Xu Youyuan to enter, and without hesitation, she swiftly plunged inside.
The moment she crossed the threshold, the seawater vanished from her body, its buoyancy dissipating in an instant. Her feet landed on a dark, slightly yielding surface, and her weight seemed to increase by dozens of pounds.
It was the work of the sensory chip, capable of transmitting every physical sensation directly to the user. In terms of realistic, nuanced feedback, "Dark Box" truly surpassed even "Reconstructed Universe."
"Follow me."
The Vampire drew close, her magnetic voice whispering into Xu Youyuan’s ear, the sensation amplified by the chip’s acute tactile sensitivity.
Xu Youyuan smirked inwardly.
Whispering in someone’s ear—a trope so overused in movies and novels, yet always effective.
Newly infatuated couples seemed to love it too, as if such a gesture could bridge distance and mark the beginning of something ambiguous.
But for a woman like Xu Youyuan, whose nerves had been teased so many times they’d calloused over, it was nothing but childish.
She could see right through these tricks meant for the young and naive. Every move, every word—Auntie Xu had seen it all, played it all before.
No blushing, no fluttering heart. Just a clear dissection of the other’s intentions.
She didn’t call it out, though.
Everyone on the "Dark Box" app knew what it was for. No need for pretenses. So far, Xu Youyuan wasn’t bothered by "Plasma Cream Cake"—in fact, she was curious to see just how far a world built around her preferences could push the limits. If "Fast & Furious 12" was a mere 2.5 in difficulty, then a scenario breaching 5.0 was beyond her imagination.
The Vampire led Xu Youyuan forward through the darkness until an old-fashioned car—devoid of any autonomous driving system—came into view.
Nothing else was around. Clearly, driving was the only way to progress.
Well-versed in gaming mechanics, Xu Youyuan knew this was the only option. And unlike most in this era of self-driving taxis, she actually knew how to operate a manual vehicle.
She took the driver’s seat without hesitation. The Vampire settled into the passenger side, buckling up.
"You’re staring at me like a thief," Xu Youyuan remarked as she started the engine. "Waiting to see me make a fool of myself?"
Leaning back in her seat, the Vampire propped her chin on one hand, watching with undisguised amusement. "This is from an old movie. A disaster flick—‘San Andreas.’ Ever seen it?"
"Heard of it."
"Good. If you had, it’d ruin the fun. Consider this a little test. If you can’t handle this part, there’s no point going further." The Vampire’s tone was light, almost playful. "I edited this scenario, so as the host, I control the pace. Pick a safe word—if it gets too much, say it, and I’ll stop everything immediately."
Xu Youyuan ignored her theatrics, zeroing in on the key detail. "Edited?"
"Right. Forgot you’re new to Dark Box. You can import movie scenes here, and the host can freely edit existing footage. To hit a 5.0 difficulty, I stitched together iconic clips from dozens of films. Disaster, fantasy, horror… you name it."
As the Vampire spoke, the world outside the windows suddenly brightened. Xu Youyuan’s eyes stung—now, she was driving along a winding mountain road.
A line of text appeared before her: *San Fernando Valley, 16 km north of Los Angeles.*
To her left: the mountainside. To her right: a sheer cliff. And ahead, a sharp curve.
The car wasn’t speeding, but it wasn’t cautious either. Xu Youyuan gauged the cliff’s drop—at least a hundred meters—and tried to slow down.
But the speed wouldn’t budge. No matter how hard she pressed the brakes, it held steady at 40.
"It’s part of the movie’s setup. Can’t change it," the Vampire said. "Don’t waste your energy."
Xu Youyuan focused, steadying herself for the turn.
Just as she approached the bend, a phone on the console rang. Eyes locked on the road, she muttered, "Like I’d answer that."
Then, another car appeared, heading straight for them at equal speed.
Xu Youyuan tightened her grip on the wheel. She knew the moment the cars passed each other, something would happen—a sideswipe, a collision sending her over the edge, or maybe gunmen spraying bullets from the other vehicle.
But to her surprise, the oncoming car whooshed past without incident.
*Strange.*
She frowned slightly.
The Vampire read her thoughts. "Disappointed? Think about the title—*San Andreas.*"
*San Andreas.* Right. The *quake.*
**CRACK.** A rock slammed into the windshield, spiderwebbing the glass. Xu Youyuan looked up—the mountainside trembled, then shattered, boulders raining down like hail.
She held her breath, swerving desperately. Most of the smaller rocks missed, but then—**BOOM.** A massive one struck the side of the car, hurling it over the cliff.
The vehicle tumbled violently. Without the seatbelt, she’d have been flung out a hundred times over. The hood smashed against a jagged outcrop, flipping the car upside down as it plummeted.
Dizzy from the relentless spinning, Xu Youyuan couldn’t tell sky from ground.
At one point, she forced her eyes open—only to see the abyss of the canyon below, gaping wide.
When staring vertically down into the abyss, it was impossible for Xu Youyuan not to feel even a flicker of fear. Her hands had already lost grip of the steering wheel from the sheer inertia, her body suspended mid-air, completely out of control. Shards of broken glass had sliced several bleeding cuts into her skin, and the impact should have shattered multiple bones—had it not been for the virtual scene deliberately lowering the pain threshold to a mere introductory level, an average person would have either been scared half to death or writhing in agony by now.
Her heart, much like the car, hung suspended in mid-air. Gritting her teeth against the pain and discomfort, Xu Youyuan continued her descent as the surroundings tore apart around her. In an instant, the deep ravine transformed into tracks, and she found herself seated on a rollercoaster hurtling downward at a violent speed!
It had already shifted to another movie!
The transition was seamless—the rollercoaster’s breakneck velocity and dizzying loops mirrored the sensation of a car plunging off a cliff so precisely that Xu Youyuan couldn’t immediately process the change.
“Crazy Coaster!” The Vampire beside her shouted over the roaring wind. “A 2034 release—last year’s film! During the holographic premiere, only three people in the entire theater didn’t vomit!”
The rollercoaster plunged from a hundred-meter peak, spinning wildly along the tracks before soaring upward again after scraping the lowest point. Xu Youyuan’s stomach churned violently, but the Vampire, clearly a seasoned rider, pulled a prop from her pocket and snapped it open—a round helmet that encased her entire face.
“Ugh… ugh!” An NPC in the front row was already rolling their eyes, gagging repeatedly.
As a deluge of vomit cascaded toward the back seats, Xu Youyuan nearly despaired.
Was this horror meant to assault the senses *and* disgust her?!
She raised her arm in a feeble attempt to shield herself when, with a *click*, her head was enveloped in the same helmet as the Vampire’s. Vomit splattered against the visor with a sickening *splat-splat-splat*, smearing across her field of vision.
Heart still racing, the rollercoaster ground to a halt with a series of metallic *clangs*.
The entire ride was left dangling upside down in mid-air.
Xu Youyuan: “…What’s the meaning of this? Are we just stuck here now?”
“Not a chance.” The Vampire unlatched a button beneath her helmet, letting it drop. From eighty meters up, even the sound of it shattering was lost.
After freeing herself from the helmet, she began unbuckling the safety harness. Hanging inverted, the Vampire announced, “The coaster won’t move again. We have to figure out how to climb back down ourselves.”
Xu Youyuan: “…”
By now, Xu Youyuan was starting to suspect she’d been duped. Her instincts weren’t wrong—but they weren’t entirely right, either.
This was merely the prelude to her being thoroughly played.
