Wasteland's Only King-Chapter 51: Butterfly

"Bro!"

"Why are you here?"

"Hey, isn’t that the principal? The vice principal’s here too?"

"Yo, even the counselor showed up?"

Boys’ dormitory.

After Yu Chen took off his helmet, he saw a crowd packed at the door. Though a bit surprised, he didn’t nearly piss himself like his roommates did.

As Old Yu’s actual son, Yu Chen truly inherited and carried forward Old Yu’s ridiculous personality.

Case in point, right now.

Even with the principal and vice principal right in front of him, Yu Chen just greeted them, then dragged Yu Jin off to the side.

"Bro, is that the sugar mama you hooked up with?"

As he spoke, Yu Chen glanced at Yin Yao, who was standing at the door, head down, her face shifting between expressions.

"..."

Yu Jin wanted to argue.

But...

With the principal, vice principal and the others at the door, if he tried to say he wasn’t mooching off a woman—let alone Yu Chen, even he couldn’t believe it himself.

"Damn, bro!"

"Just by looking at the setup, I can tell—definitely not just some regular sugar mama, it’s a super powerful one with a serious background!"

Yu Chen gave him a big thumbs-up, full of praise.

Yu Jin didn’t say anything, his face suddenly turning cold.

In an instant.

Yu Chen went quiet.

Eighteen-year-old kid, standing at attention right where he was!

Just like Old Yu, he was also pretty afraid of Yu Jin.

Simple reason: all his life, if he screwed up, Old Yu might not always beat him, but Yu Jin definitely would.

"Where did the money come from?"

Yu Jin got straight to the point.

"Loot box. Opened it."

Yu Chen answered quickly.

As he spoke, he hurried to pull out his phone, showing Yu Jin the loot box records on Steam and screenshots of income from selling game skins.

"Seventy thousand?"

Yu Jin raised an eyebrow.

He knew Yu Chen loved to play this game, loved opening loot boxes too—just never figured he could actually make this much money.

But then...

His cheap little brother had always been lucky since he was a kid. Go scratch a lottery ticket, he’d win two hundred every time.

That luck seemed to carry over into the Wasteland game too.

Yu Jin had just seen that his awakened attribute was also "Luck."

"Spent ten grand on loot boxes, six left. Half for you, half for me."

"Don’t tell Mom and Dad about this, especially Old Yu. If he finds out, he’ll definitely skim a bunch off me!" 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Yu Chen kept muttering, while Yu Jin’s gaze had already landed on the helmet he just took off.

"Where’d you get it?"

"No idea."

"No idea?"

"Well... There was suddenly a pickup code sent to my phone. I went to the courier kiosk, brought it back, opened it up and found it was a Wasteland game helmet. Guess I’m one of the lucky players..."

After hearing Yu Chen’s answer, Yu Jin stood there, deep in thought.

The Wasteland game was anything but simple. High chance it linked to a completely real world.

In principle—

Yu Jin didn’t want his family getting involved.

But...

Just today alone, Old Yu and Yu Chen had already put on the helmet and logged into Wasteland.

And Yu Chen, thanks to his "Luck" attribute, had quickly become a Tier Two Evolver.

"Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?"

Yu Jin couldn’t make up his mind.

He looked up at Yin Yao.

But Yin Yao didn’t notice Yu Jin’s gaze, still completely out of it.

This reaction made Yu Jin narrow his eyes without thinking.

...

...

Yin Yao was feeling anxious.

Ever since she saw Yu Chen wearing the game helmet, the anxiety had bubbled up inside her nonstop.

"How did this happen?"

That thought echoed again and again in Yin Yao’s heart.

Last lifetime.

Yin Yao remembered very clearly—

Yu Jin was insanely strong, a Tier Nine Evolver, ruling over and conquering more than a thousand Refuge Cities.

But...

His brother Yu Chen had never shown up by his side.

Yu Jin was someone who cared deeply about his family, couldn’t stand seeing them get hurt—Yin Yao was certain about that.

Because in her previous life, there was a widely spread rumor on the wasteland—

His adoptive father, Li Min, crossed the wasteland as a refugee, got unlucky and respawned in a Refuge City under intense oppression.

That city’s Lord forced refugees out every day to mine, and when the Mutant Beast Tide came, instead of fighting them off, he used the city’s refugees as sacrifices to feed the beasts—just to weaken the tide’s attack.

City Lords like that existed all over the Wasteland World.

But...

This one got screwed, because Yu Jin’s father as a refugee also ended up being used as a sacrifice.

Back then...

The Mutant Beast Tide hit the Refuge City.

Li Min was about to be thrown outside and fed to the beasts.

Yet Yu Jin somehow got wind of his father’s location ahead of time...

It’s said—

That day, Yu Jin arrived, riding lightning.

That day, the Refuge City Lord was sliced by Yu Jin’s sword light into eighty thousand pieces, each personally fed to the Mutant Beast Tide below.

That day, the entire wasteland was stunned by Yu Jin’s merciless actions, so much so... that many Refuge Cities, when investigating new refugees, would add a mandatory question: "Are you related to Yu Jin?"

Even Yin Yao herself—

Once, she went outside to hunt mutant beasts and was attacked by a bunch of wasteland bandits. When she couldn’t fend them off, she borrowed Yu Jin’s name.

A simple "I’m a college classmate of Yu Jin," immediately made the bandits back off.

They didn’t fully believe it, but they simply feared and dreaded the name "Yu Jin"!

For more than a month after that incident, countless refugees and Evolvers across the wasteland, every time they ran into trouble, they’d drop Yu Jin’s name.

The effect was terrifying.

That whole mess of made-up connections and fake relationships only stopped after Yu Jin personally killed a female Evolver who claimed to be his "first love."

"How did this happen..."

Yin Yao recalled the memories of her last life, then looked at the helmet Yu Chen had just taken off and set on the table.

"Last time, Yu Chen definitely hadn’t crossed into the wasteland!"

"If he really had, Yu Jin’s side would never lack his presence. There were countless rumors about Yu Jin on the wasteland, but never anything about his younger brother!"

"But this time, Yu Chen got the game helmet..."

"Which means, in three days, he’ll definitely descend into the Wasteland World..."

Thinking of this—

Yin Yao unconsciously swallowed hard.

She knew just how dangerous the Wasteland World really was.

Yu Jin would cross over, eventually grow into an unbeatable Tier Nine Powerhouse. Yin Yao had never doubted that.

Even though her rebirth was like a butterfly flapping its wings, changing a lot of things, but...

Yu Jin’s god-mode power in the wasteland had already surpassed anyone’s comprehension.

He was like the chosen protagonist of the Wasteland World!

She was just a little butterfly—no matter how hard she flapped her wings, she could hardly shake the protagonist’s future.

But...

Yu Chen was different!

As Yu Jin’s brother, he was just an average college kid.

Yin Yao knew well—

Her rebirth had changed a lot of people’s destinies.

A few ordinary folks who should’ve gotten helmets, didn’t.

Her grandpa pulled together resources, bought up helmets from those people at high prices, treating them as strategic assets.

Those people got paid well, but lost their chance for the game beta.

Yin Yao wasn’t sure if these people would still be forcibly crossed into the wasteland in the future, but they definitely couldn’t grab an early advantage like last time.

On the flip side—

Because of Yin Yao’s influence, some who shouldn’t have gotten helmets did this time around.

They might’ve been meant to stay on Blue Star, enjoy peaceful and happy civilized life.

But because they touched the helmet, they were doomed to land in the treacherous wasteland in three days and struggle to survive.

Yin Yao was clear about all this inside, but she didn’t really care—didn’t get too worked up about it either.

But now?

When the "ordinary person" whose fate got changed showed up as Yu Jin’s brother—Yin Yao was panicking!

"If Yu Chen has an accident in the wasteland..."

"Or even dies before Yu Jin finds him..."

"And later, Yu Jin discovers it was my rebirth that caused all this..."

This scenario wasn’t just fantasy.

In wasteland rumors from last life, Yu Jin mastered no less than dozens of skills like Mind Reading.

He could easily dig out people’s memories, even follow Cause and Effect to settle scores and pay back grudges.

"I have to figure out a way to protect Yu Jin’s brother, immediately!"

"No, not just his brother—also his family and friends..."

"My rebirth secret will be discovered by him someday. If I don’t prepare now, even if I am lucky enough to hug his thigh later, he’ll shake me off hard..."