Chapter 2: Disconnection and Connection!

The accident happened so suddenly that Garen was left stunned for a moment. Then, it occurred to him: with this computer that could connect to another world, couldn't he bring everything from that world here for his own use? Without delay, he plugged in his headphones and first opened QQ Music on the desktop. He randomly clicked on a song called "One Plum Blossom" from the Pop Chart, and soon, the sounds and music of another world began to flow...

"True feelings are as vast as the prairie, layers of wind and rain cannot keep them apart, eventually the clouds will break and the sun will rise, and endless sunlight will shine upon us..."

The first verse was fine, but when the second verse began and another singer's voice took over, Garen was startled so badly he almost fell off his chair.

He glanced at the unfamiliar performers—Huang Bo and Zuoxiao Zuzhou—and shook his head in disbelief at how unconventional it was. He immediately switched to the top song on the chart.

As soon as the intro of the song "Just Once" started playing, Garen held his breath. When the vocals came in, his eyes widened in astonishment.

"Just once, I want to take you to see the ends of the world,
On sunlit days, we'll laugh out loud,
In the free and easy air, we'll quarrel and frolic,
Do you know, you're all I ever want,
The world is still small, I'll accompany you to the ends of the earth,
In a worry-free corner, we'll stop searching,
In days without care, we'll slowly grow old,
Do you know, my every heartbeat
Follows you..."

Garen clapped his hands in excitement. This singer was remarkable—his vocal skills would even put the renowned Zhang Lei of this world to shame.

He promptly downloaded all the songs performed by this singer, Aska Yang, and transferred the best ones to his own phone.

While transferring, Garen discovered that this laptop didn't have wireless transfer capabilities—it could only use a data cable. More importantly, it couldn't connect to the internet in this world, so naturally, he couldn't download any local software, either.

Garen was both elated and dismayed—elated because this laptop might change his fate, dismayed because he couldn't use it to video chat with Chen Yingying.

"Sigh, looks like I'll need to buy another laptop," he muttered.

He counted his cash—just over two thousand yuan left, and another five thousand in his account that he couldn't touch, as that was earmarked for his family. He would have to wait until he found a job and earned more money.

At the same time, Garen worried about what would happen if the laptop broke down or the system crashed—or worse, what if the connection to the other world's internet was suddenly lost?

He left his room and called out to Cai Fei and Wang Qilin, who were still playing video games in the living room. "Hey Cai, Qilin! Hand over all your storage cards and USB drives!"

"What for? You're not planning to download anything inappropriate, are you?" Wang Qilin eyed Garen warily, a trace of disdain in his gaze.

"Screw you!" Garen kicked him playfully. "Quit talking nonsense and go get them!"

"I have a portable hard drive, four terabytes. Want it? Take it, it's yours," said Cai Fei with a generous wave. His family owned a mine and had more money than they knew what to do with; he was always straightforward and never minded things like this.

Garen was delighted but shook his head. "No need to give it to me. I'll just borrow it for a while and return it later."

"Ah, don't mention it! But I do have one condition: once you've downloaded some good videos, remember to share them with your brothers!" Cai Fei grinned lasciviously, winking at Garen.

"Gosh, you two are birds of a feather! No good at all," Garen retorted. "I'm not downloading any porn, I really have something important to do!"

Fearing they wouldn't believe him, Garen added, "There are some concert videos I consider priceless, so I want to preserve them. Don't get the wrong idea!"

"Oh, is that so?" Cai Fei looked disappointed. "Well, I'll still give it to you. I have plenty of hard drives—get a few each birthday. I'll give you a new one!"

With that, he went back to his room and soon returned with a brand-new hard drive.

"Thanks! Thanks a lot!" Garen beamed. To reciprocate, he added, "If you guys really want those kinds of videos, I'll ask a friend to send over a few and pass them on to you later."

"Really?" Wang Qilin jumped up and ran to his room, fetching a USB drive. "Heh, 32 gigs, plenty of space. Just don't delete my ballet tutorial videos!"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Garen swore. "Look at yourself! Take a leaf out of Cai's book!"

Wang Qilin protested, "We're all honest scoundrels here—no need to act like a hypocrite."

"There are plenty of beautiful girls on campus. You two should hurry up and get girlfriends. Don't spend all day thinking about those unhealthy videos, or you'll end up depraved," Garen scolded.

"Heh! The girls at our dance academy are the prettiest! Each one is tall and gorgeous—the happiness of being with one is beyond words," Wang Qilin bragged, as if all the girls at the dance academy were his girlfriends.

Cai Fei chimed in, "There are some pretty girls at our martial arts academy, too. I saw a few the other day, just didn't have the nerve to ask for their numbers."

Wang Qilin butted in, "Maybe those girls were just visiting their boyfriends at your school. Why would beautiful, well-built girls go to your sports university for hardship? Cai, you might be disappointed."

"Shut up!" Cai Fei glared angrily and grabbed Wang Qilin, scolding, "You can insult me but not my university!"

"Do you really represent the whole university?" Wang Qilin shot back.

Cai Fei grew even more furious, and the two immediately wrestled, with Wang Qilin inevitably ending up pinned and howling on the sofa.

Garen watched them tussle, chuckling before returning to his room.

Back at his computer, Garen connected the portable hard drive and started a massive batch download—every kind of music: classical, pop, rock, folk, songs and instrumental pieces, the lot—just in case.

While downloading, he put his phone to use, playing through the top-charting songs he’d just transferred, including "Just Once," "Wherever You Are," "South of the South Mountain," "Once Upon a Time," and "Those Flowers." He also downloaded classics like "Ten Years," "Nunchaku," "What I Miss," "Exaggeration," and "Breakpoint."

Listening to these tracks on a loop, he searched online for the most influential figures in the other world’s music scene. After finding Lo Ta-yu, Jacky Cheung, Wong Ka Kui, Jonathan Lee, Jay Chou, and others, he downloaded all their discographies to the portable hard drive.

As Garen surfed the vast internet of the other world, a notification suddenly popped up in the middle of the screen: Network connection lost!

"Ah!" His face fell as he checked the ongoing downloads—sure enough, all had stopped.

Panic set in. This was bad, really bad—he hadn't expected trouble so soon.

He fiddled with the laptop for more than ten minutes, but nothing worked. Frustrated, Garen beat his chest and slumped, crestfallen, into his chair.

It was just past eleven. With a job search ahead the next day, he had no choice but to get ready for bed early, falling asleep with headphones on, listening to songs from another world.

He left the laptop running, hoping the network might reconnect overnight and his downloads could resume.

That night, Garen slept fitfully, dreaming incessantly. He could feel that everything in his dreams was related to the other world, but the details eluded him.

He woke before seven, his mind preoccupied with the network issue.

The first thing he did was check the computer—surprise! The network had reconnected. Judging by the logs, it had only been down for about ten minutes, coming back around 6:30 a.m.

Garen tried to find out why the outage had happened, only to discover something even more alarming: several web pages wouldn’t open, showing a 404 error. While the inaccessible sites were mostly forums and message boards—a small range—it was a warning sign. He had to speed up his downloads, and he sensed that eventually this laptop would become nothing but a useless brick.

Thus, Garen expanded his download list to include not only music but also movies, novels, TV series, variety shows—everything. Worried the portable hard drive wouldn’t be enough, he resolved to scour the secondhand market for more.

But first, he had to address his own survival.

He took out a map and marked a few locations. Besides Houhai, there were many bars near Qianhai, and even Sanlitun and the 798 Art District were now under consideration. Although those places were much farther from his apartment, he would need to go the extra mile if he wanted to make money.

After washing up, Garen texted Chen Yingying a few times. The laptop fuss had made him forget to call or video chat last night, so he apologized in his messages, promising to make it up to her in the evening.

He went downstairs, grabbed a large bowl of fried bean sauce noodles for breakfast, and packed a bun and a tea egg for lunch to save money.

Just as he finished eating and stood up, his phone rang. It was the landline from home. He answered, and his mother greeted him before gently bringing up that his younger siblings' tuition for the second half of the year was still short. The school had sent several reminders—could he find a way to help?

Garen did a quick calculation. "Mom, I'll wire you six thousand yuan right now. If that's not enough, let me know. I'll send it in a bit. Make sure you get some good supplements for my little sister. She's about to take her college entrance exams, and her nutrition is important."

"Alright, I know. Just look after yourself in the city. Bars can be chaotic places—don’t get into trouble..." his mother admonished gently.

Garen’s eyes grew misty at her words. He hung up, sent the transfer at the bank, and set off on the job hunt.