Eyes Everywhere

People's teacher Xie Shuangtian woke up one morning inside some kind of survival game.

He got out of bed, and the bed frame creaked and cracked. He looked up at the ceiling, and a patch of gray-black plaster nearly fell into his mouth.

Outside the window lay a ruined city, littered with rubble and broken walls.

Well, would you look at that. Back to the days before liberation overnight.

Xie Shuangtian thought despairingly that he should have read a little more of the game guide before going to sleep.

To stay alive, Xie Shuangtian pulled himself together and started selling roasted sweet potatoes for a living, only to be arrested by the urban management squad.

This lousy game actually has urban management officers too???

The captain of the urban management squad had an icy face and a terrifyingly fierce demeanor. A people's teacher had never seen anything like this, so he turned and ran, but was still caught and dragged back.

Lu Jing's ice-blue eyes rested coldly on him. "How many times have you been out here selling?"

Xie Shuangtian replied earnestly, "This is my first time."

Lu Jing's voice was devoid of warmth. "Almost everyone we catch says that."

"It really is my first time." Xie Shuangtian emptied his pockets and took out three coins. "This is all I've made."

Lu Jing frowned and looked Xie Shuangtian up and down.

Xie Shuangtian said helplessly, "I've only sold two sweet potatoes all day. I really can't afford to pay your fine..."

Lu Jing looked at the freshly filled-out ticket, whose offense was listed as "Cracking down on pornography and illegal publications," and fell silent for a long moment.

*

Only after learning about the game's world did Xie Shuangtian understand how terrifying it was.

Countless eyes watched and peered from the shadows. Their world was like a glass box in a monster's palm. The slightest mistake could bring monsters out of nowhere to tear them apart without mercy.

And he possessed the most powerful ability in this place: insignificance.

He was so insignificant that he wouldn't attract the attention of any observer.

Just as he had been in his old world, a poor, powerless teacher sent to a village deep in the mountains...

And yet, even so, he had boundless energy.

He walked into a classroom at military headquarters and asked the young students, their faces stern and their ranks in formation, "What is the purpose of your efforts?"

The students recited the regulations. "Eliminate all sources of instability among humanity and avoid attracting the observers' attention, which would cause monsters to descend."

"No." Xie Shuangtian shook his head. "What we must eliminate are the monsters."

"We cannot give up even an inch of our free land."

"We grow strong to seize that precious, distant freedom."

Just as he had once said to his students as a rural teacher: "Is the only purpose of studying to make big money out there and find a good job?"

The students looked confused. "Isn't it?"

Xie Shuangtian shook his head. "I hope you'll see a wider sky and always remember that you are birds with wings."

"You will fly wherever you want to go, break every shackle that binds you, and realize all kinds of value in your lives."

Blurb revised on June 3, 2023. Screenshot saved.

Theme: We spend our whole lives striving for freedom