Huh? Isn't This A Galgame?
Chapter 139 - 136: The Distant Past

Speaking of this, Yang Mingzhong laughed at himself, "You probably think I was really stupid back then, right? How could a player possibly marry a character from an instance? It's simply ridiculous."

Those female characters were, after all, female ghosts. Players went into the map, and if it wasn't for strategy points and mainline quests, they would avoid these female ghosts like the plague. Just getting close to them already made most players sweat nervously; how could any player fall in love with a ghost from a horror game?

However, Wei Junjie, or now Yang Mingzhong, was born with a tough disposition. Even as a newbie who had just passed the trial map, he was almost perfectly controlling his fear in front of female ghosts below ten stars, ensuring they wouldn't reveal their ghostly form.

In the eyes of the then older single virgin Wei Junjie, Li Shuyi in her normal state was nearly perfect.

He became an oddity in this game—he actually fell in love at first sight with a female ghost.

Although Li Shuyi was a female ghost he needed to strategize on, Wei Junjie secretly made up his mind that he must marry this woman.

Of course, such feelings seemed utterly ridiculous to most players.

So Yang Mingzhong had no intention of sharing this journey of emotions with the man across from him.

However, Wen Nan, upon hearing this, showed not the slightest hint of mockery and instead asked another question, "You married her, but once the mainline task ended and you cleared the instance, wouldn't you have to leave? She's not a controllable role, and her star level isn't sufficient. You can't take her away, can you?"

Yang Mingzhong was stunned to hear this.

Before the account reset, he had told several players, whom he considered brothers, about his past. They would all either laugh or tease him, and the conversation would stop there.

No one had ever, upon hearing his story for the first time, immediately put themselves in his shoes and thought of the difficulties he faced at that time.

This meant the person across from him not only directly recognized his actions but also wholly accepted his ridiculous idea of wanting to be with a ghost forever.

An unusual emotion surged in his heart. Yang Mingzhong picked up his coffee cup, took a sip to calm his emotions, and continued, "If it were in other instances, perhaps it wouldn't work, but in this instance, there is a special item that can help me."

Wen Nan instantly understood his meaning, "You triggered the soul thread?"

Yang Mingzhong nodded, "To stay in this instance, I'm willing to become her puppet."

Seeing a trace of unusual emotion flash in Wen Nan's eyes, Yang Mingzhong further explained, "My wife loves me very much. Although she bound my five limbs with soul threads, she never tried to control me. My body always belonged to me. I just used this method to stay by her side for a long time."

Wen Nan nodded, "And then? Why did you lose her? Because of that car accident?"

"Yes, but not entirely—

"Ultimately, this matter was all my own fault.

"If I had continued to play the role of a good husband here and lived peacefully with her, the tragedy afterwards would never have happened.

"But at that time... I became weary.

"This map was too small. Completing a few days' tasks might not seem problematic, but if you stayed here long term, doing similar tasks every day and watching players come and go, you'd feel it's like a tiny fish tank. I was like a fish being watched, becoming increasingly uninteresting and suffocating.

"I developed the thought of wanting to escape here, and my wife sensed it. She told me that if I wanted to leave, she would be willing to sever the soul threads to let me go.

"But I couldn't bear to leave her. I refused her proposal and continued to stay here with her, living a repetitive yet happy married life.

"Until one day, a man with his arms covered in control patterns appeared. He told me he could solve my current troubles—

"He could grant my wife a control pattern so that she could become my exclusive role and leave this map with me forever.

"He only had one small request: I needed to join his guild.

"For me, this was a heaven-sent opportunity. I almost had no hesitation and directly signed a gentleman's agreement with him.

"He fulfilled his promise by imprinting a pattern on the back of my wife's neck, and I successfully controlled my wife.

"On our wedding anniversary, I drove home with hopes for the future, intending to take her away.

"But on the road, that car accident happened.

"I didn't die; I was saved by that man and became a member of his guild.

"Initially, I tried to return to this instance to find her, but at that time, my level was too low, and my equipment too scarce, making it impossible.

"Later on, I inquired about her from other players and learned she had restarted her life, thoroughly forgetting about me and living anew.

"I thought our story was over, and I should move on.

"Subsequently, I've controlled numerous roles, but never again did I develop feelings.

"Until not long ago...

"I received a text message from my wife in the system's role chat window.

"She said she missed me, every day, every minute, every second, she missed me...

"At that moment, I knew, no matter what, I had to return."

At this point, Yang Mingzhong stopped and didn't continue.

The story sounded quite sad and seemed free of issues.

But Wen Nan, after deliberating carefully, couldn't help but furrow his brow.

In truth, there were several unreasonable parts in this—

"You said that person granted your wife a control pattern, so why doesn't Li Shuyi have one now?"

"It's a golden pattern," Yang Mingzhong said.

Wen Nan looked at him silently.

He had perfectly strategized Li Shuyi. If there were indeed a pattern, even if it was the highest level of the golden pattern, he should receive a system controllable notification, right?

Yang Mingzhong was momentarily stunned, realizing Wen Nan, unlike members of the Ghost Control Master Alliance, wasn't familiar with the characteristics of control patterns; perhaps he didn't understand what he meant. Hence, he continued to explain:

"Out of every thousand strategy characters, only one control pattern will appear. Out of every thousand control patterns, only one is a golden pattern.

"The exceedingly rare golden pattern has a characteristic—if a player disappears entirely from this game world, then this golden pattern will disappear with the player, and the controlled character will either vanish directly or completely reset to factory settings."

So, Li Shuyi was reset to factory settings?

"Then why does she still remember you?"

Yang Mingzhong shook his head, "I don't know."

In fact, it wasn't just that Li Shuyi retained her previous memory.

What's more, even if Li Shuyi remembered him, as a low-level character, she didn't have the privilege to send messages to Yang Mingzhong, who had left this instance.

How could that message have been sent?

Also, Yang Mingzhong had traversed this instance and clearly remembered the mainline task he received previously was entirely different from the current one.

But he couldn't speak of these matters.

This involved instance spoilers, and the moment he wanted to speak them aloud, the game system would automatically mute them.

However, he could be sure—this map was certainly problematic.