To ascend, I had no choice but to create games-Chapter 885 - 486 Virtual and Reality

"Leon hasn’t been to work in seven days," Huang Ping said, eyeing the empty desk with a sense that something was amiss.

Even though he mentioned he would take a few days off to really dive into "Heartbeat City," being away this long seemed a bit much.

Plus, Leon had finished all his work, and Huang Ping had nearly taken care of the other game versions for North America so if the kid didn’t come back soon, they’d run out of work to do.

Moreover, Leon had missed last Friday’s game night. Suddenly short one import idiot to tease, everyone felt rather lonely.

"Where the heck could Leon be?" Monkey wondered aloud, "I wanted to hear more insider blunders from Druid Entertainment."

"People’s secrets shouldn’t be pried into, or you might accidentally get involved in something sensitive," cautioned another.

"I reckon that’s not a secret at all. Isn’t it obvious that their executives are all idiots?" Huang Ping pondered and decided Monkey had a point.

Although they were quite concerned about Leon’s whereabouts, they waited until the end of the workday before finally getting through to him on the phone.

It took over ten seconds for the call to be answered.

As the mobile connection went through, Leon’s voice could be heard, seemingly in a supermarket, as Huang Ping could make out the noisy background sounding like promotional announcements.

But Leon’s voice sounded odd.

He seemed to be on some sort of program, speaking with an abnormal cadence, enunciating with excessive clarity, and using oddly formal vocabulary.

Moreover, he kept throwing in the occasional English phrase, prompting Huang Ping to say subconsciously, "The price of a shirt is nine pounds and fifteen pence."

After a moment of silence, Leon asked seriously, "Pray tell, good sir, what are you referring to?"

"Why are you spouting Classical Chinese? Quite the polyglot for a foreigner, aren’t you?" Huang Ping teased.

"You’re the barbarian; your whole family is barbarian! I am inspecting my pastures. Seeing such bustling activity and peace everywhere is most comforting. The fruits and foods are fresh and lovely here, greatly enhancing my mood."

As Leon continued speaking in this bizarre manner, everyone exchanged puzzled looks, and Xu Qingling, overhearing, began to look up the contact information for local mental health institutions, contemplating whether to include mental health screenings in the company benefits.

The group communicated silently with each other before Huang Ping carefully said, "Leon, you haven’t encountered any issues lately, have you? Like coming down with a serious illness?"

"I am in perfect health, no problems whatsoever. Correct me if I’m mistaken, but tonight is our night to meet. I’ll see you this evening."

Huang Ping wanted to ask more, but Leon hastily hung up, apparently in a rush.

"He’s hung up," Huang Ping announced.

"Leon’s normally such a straight-laced kid, what got into him so unexpectedly?" Xiao Douzi blurted out, "Have we been too hard on him?"

"Have we?" Monkey asked in disbelief, "I’ve never hassled Big Brother Leon; I’ve always admired him."

"Stop it, you had the most fun when Living Immortal set him up," Huang Ping called out Monkey’s bluff.

Xiao Douzi tried to distance herself from the matter, but upon reflection, realized she wasn’t exactly innocent either.

Helpless to resist, everyone found the simple-hearted Leon just too tempting not to poke fun at.

Ten minutes past the end of the workday, realizing everyone was still lingering, Sanmiao, who was curled up inside a cardboard box, protested with a series of meows, then shooed everyone out before returning to her slumber, satisfied.

Unable to fathom what was up with Leon, Huang Ping and the others decided to stick to their original plan for their game night, hoping to get to the bottom of Leon’s peculiar behavior.

At 6 p.m., Leon arrived as promised.

Upon entering, he was greeted by six eyes fixed on him intently.

Scanning over the three people, Leon furrowed his brow and asked, "What’s with you all? Why do I detect in your gazes 37.1% guilt, 50.1% curiosity, and 12.8% amusement?"

"Are our looks a pie chart now?" Huang Ping asked, puzzled.

"That’s some lethal observation, can you even see the decimals?" Monkey asked in amazement.

Xiao Douzi took a hard look at Leon, then inquired, "Your vision’s always been fine, why the glasses all of a sudden?"

"These are AR glasses; they enhance my reality experience. Oh and this is my girlfriend, Princess Alice; I wanted you all to meet her today."

Leon casually extended his hand as if to rest it on the waist of a companion, though nobody was by his side.

Seeing Leon behave this way, Huang Ping, Monkey, and Xiao Douzi exchanged glances, each finding the same message in the others’ eyes.

The kid was not okay.

He was having hallucinations.

Meanwhile, Leon frowned, "Strange, why do you think there’s something wrong with me? Princess Alice is right here, can’t you see her?"

"Calling her ’Princess,’ wow, he’s really gotten into character."

"What should we do now? This has gotten beyond what we expected. Maybe we should just call the police."

"I agree, but at this time, just play along with him to avoid upsetting him."

"Could you maybe lower your voice when talking behind my back?" Leon said, reproachfully touching his forehead.

"But I’ve got a problem too, got too obsessed with ’Heartbeat City’ and forgot you couldn’t see her."