Wings of Revelation · Chat

<narration>The neon tubes in the training room cast a cold blue light on the ceiling, and the glow from several screens reflected on the focused faces of the young men. The sound of keyboard clicking crackled, occasionally mixed with a few words of in-game communication. With the Quarterfinals approaching and their opponent being the rising dark horse "Between Glory," the training schedule for Wings of Revelation was packed tight.</narration> <narration>Finally reaching a break, Lu Wenlan leaned his face close to the screen, sliding the scroll wheel with his fingertip as he browsed a website with a simple interface. He suddenly paused and clicked on a link.</narration> <message>"A desktop pet...?"</message> <narration>He muttered to himself, looking at the round-headed, cute little thing on the page. Without much thought, he clicked download. The installation was fast, and a cute pixelated figure appeared in the corner of his desktop, bobbing its head. Deng Tiaotiao walked by with a water cup and leaned in to take a look.</narration> <message>"Yo, what's this? It's pretty cute."</message> <message>"A desktop pet."</message> <narration>Lu Wenlan didn't even look up.</narration> <message>"Send me the link, I'll download one too."</message> <narration>Soon, the link was shared in the team group. Mo Mo was busy handling affairs and glanced at it without responding. Coach Shao Ke was busy studying opponent recordings and casually said, "You youngsters." Qi Sheng and Pei Yan smiled and followed suit by downloading it. Han Shu silently clicked the link, and after a few operations, a bobbing little thing appeared in the corner of his screen as well.</narration> <narration>The next afternoon, Pei Yan was the first to notice something was wrong.</narration> <narration>He frowned at the screen, a piece of chocolate cake forgotten in his hand. That desktop pet, just now, it seemed to... touch a folder where he stored data?</narration> <message>"Am I seeing things?"</message> <narration>He rubbed his eyes, not paying it much mind.</narration> <narration>Another day passed. Pei Yan opened that folder, and a game screenshot used for tactical reference was gone. He searched the recycle bin—nothing.</narration> <message>"Holy crap,"</message> <narration>His voice drew several gazes from nearby.</narration> <message>"That desktop pet... it seems a bit creepy."</message> <narration>Deng Tiaotiao poked his head out from behind his computer, chewing gum.</narration> <message>"Scared of that? Just uninstall it and you're done."</message> <message>"I tried."</message> <narration>Pei Yan's expression didn't look good.</narration> <message>"It won't uninstall."</message> <narration>Lu Wenlan scoffed, his fingers already flying across the keyboard.</narration> <message>"Which team would use such a low-level tactic? Once I find them, they're getting banned."</message> <narration>He pulled up the backend, attempting to track the program process and find an uninstallation entry. A few minutes later, the disdainful smile on his lips vanished. The code flow on the screen was like chaotic neon; he couldn't find any familiar source code structure, nor any valid uninstallation commands. The thing was like it had grown into the system. The training room went quiet, save for the low hum of the machines. A sense of panic spread silently. Everyone stared at the innocent-looking, still-bobbing little thing on their screens.</narration> <narration>Han Shu suddenly raised his hand and pointed at his screen. Everyone looked over. They saw his desktop pet slowly raise a small pixelated arm and perform an extremely human-like gesture—it held up a short finger and wagged it left and right, as if saying "No can do."</narration> <narration>The water cup in Deng Tiaotiao's hand shook, spilling a few drops. His voice trembled slightly:</narration> <message>"It... it was just..."</message> <narration>Pei Yan took a deep breath, staring at the same slightly bobbing little thing on his own screen. Qi Sheng put down the mouse he had been holding. His voice was still gentle, but carried a rare tension:</narration> <message>"Wenlan, are you sure there's no way to handle it?"</message> <narration>Lu Wenlan shook his head with a pale face, his eyes behind his lenses locked onto the screen.</narration> <message>"No source code, no interface. It's like a ghost... no, harder to catch than a ghost."</message> <narration>In the silence, Han Shu quickly typed a line on his keyboard and sent it to the internal team channel: [It can understand us?]</narration> <narration>Almost simultaneously, the desktop pets on all screens vanished in unison, leaving only the one on Lu Wenlan's screen, staring straight at them. Deng Tiaotiao shrank back into his chair, his voice shaking even more:</narration> <message>"What... what exactly are you?"</message>