Chapter 2: How Can I Bear This?

  Chen initially lived in an apartment in downtown G city.

  Typical birth apartment design, more than 40 square meters is not big, but one person is completely enough. Moreover, Chen Chu is a person who rarely returns "home". Of course! The tenant of this rental apartment doesn't care whether he comes back or not. At the beginning, a total deposit of 10,000 yuan was paid, with a monthly rent of 600 yuan, plus Chen Chu never went to pay his own water and electricity bills, property management fees, unknowingly the 10,000 yuan had been spent without leaving any remaining.

  He walked up to the door and looked at the notice on it that said Chen had gone to pay the fees. Chen didn't tear it off, pretending he hadn't seen it, opened the door and went in.

  The house was very clean, which was Chen Chu's living habit. Even though he had fallen on hard times now, he would not let his place of residence be like a doghouse. Feeling his way in the dark, Chen Chu came to the bedroom and only turned on the light after pulling up the two layers of curtains at the window.

  The computer was on, and Chen Chu knocked back a response. The website was open, displaying a row of mostly incomprehensible numbers, along with the logos of various domestic teams. As he gazed at the rows of red numbers, Chen Chu suddenly burst out laughing: "Haha, haha, haha, haha, if there's going to be an upset, it can't all be upsets in one week's matches, I'm really a god!"

  Another complete "**", more than a dozen votes, and none of them were correct.

  Chen often thought that in the future, on rainy days, he shouldn't go out. With his current luck, it's very likely that he'll get struck by lightning.

  With a sigh, Chen Yu shut down the website and started searching for news related to "Threshold". He took a look at the search volume, and it had actually broken 100 billion! This was a terrifying number, and it also proved how much this special game was anticipated.

  As for games, Chen Chu didn't have much interest, but his good brother Huan Bing was very fond of them. When they were in school, Huan Bing would often skip class and run out to play online, which got him beaten up by their family many times.

  With one hand propping up his head, Chen Chushen went through each point one by one, not letting go of any information related to this game. Gradually, Chen Chushen's eyes changed "This is very similar to the concept I proposed when I left the company...", Chen Chushen's previous profession was a "concept engineer", mainly responsible for developing some "projects that are far from the current social foundation but are worth targeting for long-term development".

  Chen Chu had proposed the concept of "opening up a new era with a new background". Because of this concept, Chen Chu successfully sat in the position of development department supervisor, with an annual salary of one million which is not considered much. However, Chen Chu can get "3% conceptual royalties", that is to say, if his concept is successful, Chen Chu will become one of the richest people in the world on that day.

  It's hard to imagine that Chen Chu, who had such a promising future, would become a compulsive gambler now.

  As he delved deeper, Chen Chu's expression became excited "Even better than I imagined..." While others looked at the game's profession and playability, Chen Chu looked at the value it could bring and the changes it could make to the future. This was an occupational disease.

  Unconsciously, an hour had passed, Chen Chu felt his eyes were a bit tired, he leaned back in the chair and decided to take a rest.

  Just then! The doorbell rang suddenly, making Chen Chu's expression dazed. "Who comes at midnight?" With doubt, Chen Chu got up and walked to the door. Looking out through the peephole, Chen Chu's mouth twitched.

  "Open the door, I saw you coming back on the elevator monitor!"

  She rubbed her nose and Chen Chu pushed open the door with a friendly smile on her face: "Sister, it's so late, why aren't you resting yet?"

  It was the owner of the building who came to the door, Chen Chu was a little puzzled, even if it was a few months' rent that was owed, it shouldn't be necessary for the landlady to come to the door, and besides, it was so late.

  This is a middle-aged woman who looks well-maintained, but that expression ruins everything: "Chen Chu, I didn't come to see you about the rent."

  "What brings you here?"

  The landlady glared at Chen Chu with a mixture of wariness, annoyance and a hint of puzzlement that was hard to detect. It was complex, but Chen Chu had picked up on it all.

  "I heard from the security guard today that some people from society came looking for you this afternoon."

  Chen Chu's eyes narrowed slightly as he immediately guessed what had happened.

  "Our apartment building is mostly young people, with more girls than boys. Chen Chu, if you get into some kind of trouble and those thugs come running here every day, it's not safe for these girls to be coming and going."

  "Sister, just say it directly."

  "I'm not sure what you did, but I hope these people won't come again. If they do, I'm sorry, you can move out."

  Chen Chu sighed and wondered why the landlady was still waiting for him to return home in the middle of the night. It turned out that something like this had happened: "I will resolve my troubles as soon as possible."

  "It's best if you can do it this way. Also, your rent has already been paid by someone."

  Chen Chu was taken aback: "Who?"

  The landlady stared at Chen Chu for a while and then said in a strange tone: "A woman."

  "What's it like?"

  "A very pretty girl, about the same age as you. I really don't understand, a quiet and gentle girl like that...” As she spoke to this point, Mrs. Bao felt that she had said too much, so she patted the door: “Remember what you promised me, or else I won’t be polite!”

  "Don't worry, big sister."

  She let out a snort and left.

  Chen Chu leaned against the door, racking his brains but couldn't think of "who would help me pay the rent?" If it was a man, it must be Huaibing, but if it was a woman, Chen Chu couldn't think of anyone. The so-called "woman luck" had long since disappeared with Chen Chu's downfall.

  He walked back into the house, closed the door and sat down on the sofa with a frown. As he leaned back, he suddenly thought of something, took out his wallet and looked at the photo inside "Is it her".

  "Ding ding ding ~~" A strange noise interrupted Chen Chu's thoughts, he got up and walked into the bedroom. The sound was coming from the bedroom. After entering the room, his gaze swept across and saw that the adapter on the computer desk was flashing red light.

  Chen Chu quickly walked up and picked it up, only to find that the numbers on it jumped to a whole number "24: 00", with a button flashing white light below. With doubts, Chen Chu pressed it down, but there was no reaction at all.

  The humming noise continues, this sound is very annoying.

  Alas, holding onto the buzzing that wouldn't stop. Just as Chen Chu was about to throw it into the bathroom and lock the door, leaving it to scream, the time display on top changed, showing a wrist pattern. This was clearly some kind of prompt, and Chen Chu immediately reacted by putting the connector on his wrist, then pressing the button. The sound stopped, but a slight electric shock sensation came from his wrist, followed by "Connection successful, countdown 10, 9..." echoing in his mind.

  This is the world's first virtual game, when it started to appear in people's vision, Chen Chu was having a hot and busy day, so he was very confused about this situation. Before that, there were reports about "Critical Point" which were all about the internal settings of the game. In fact, any player with an access device would understand that at this time, they should find a comfortable place to lie down, rather than like Chen Chu, who, when the countdown ended, fell straight to the ground.

  Deep in sleep, Chen Chu didn't feel any pain, but the black and white images that appeared before his eyes were deeply attractive to him. In 2010, as sensing devices gradually entered some high-end home game consoles, the industry began to open up more advanced equipment that could make players feel more immersive, with a sense of presence that only allowed the brain to receive "similar" or "completely realistic" images. Therefore, sensing technology began to develop in the field of brain information transmission. After 17 years, in 2027, this technology was recognized by society and achieved almost perfect test results. Unexpectedly, in the past five years, this technology has created today's virtual game "Critical Point".

  This was the astonishment in Chen Chu's heart at this moment. He wasn't stupid and wouldn't think that he had suddenly crossed over, but everything before his eyes quickly made him understand that he was already inside the virtual world of "Boundary".