”Leo, why isn’t the proposal for this stage play done yet? Hurry up, don’t you know that Director Wang is pushing it very urgently!”
“Leo, look at these artists you contacted. What a bunch of misfits. Can’t you find some popular ones to come over!”
“Leo, work overtime today. The director said there’s a problem with the stage lighting. You go contact the person in charge.”
“Leo, the clothing factory said the workers are on strike. Our costumes will probably be affected. You find a way to quickly get me a new place.”
“Leo, did you urge that screenwriter to revise the script? Is it done?”
“Leo…”
At two-thirty in the morning, in the only room still lit in the residential building late at night, a haggard middle-aged man with dark circles under his eyes sat in front of the computer, tiredly tapping on the keyboard.
He was currently staying up late to revise the proposal required by his leader.
The bad news was that this was already the fifth version he had revised. The previous few times were all ruthlessly rejected.
The good news was that this was his last task for today. Oh no, it should be said that it was the last remaining task from yesterday.
As he finished typing the last line of the proposal, Leo let out a long sigh.
Finally, it’s done.
He glanced at the clock beside him. It was almost three o’clock…
His body had already sent countless signals of fatigue. Leo stood up from the computer desk. Perhaps because he got up too abruptly, or because he had been sitting for several hours before, he felt a moment of dizziness.
Leo quickly held onto the desk lamp beside him and took a good while to recover.
After simply brushing his teeth and washing his face, Leo turned off the lights and lay down on the bed.
However, even though his body was already very tired, he just couldn’t fall asleep. Anxiety filled his mind. Worries about the future, uneasiness about work, annoyance with facing the leaders, all sorts of things made him toss and turn in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
And for Leo, this had already become a kind of habit. He often had to stay up until four or five o’clock before he could barely fall asleep stiffly, and then he had to get up at seven to go to the company.
Speaking of which… When did I become like this?
Leo, who couldn’t sleep in bed, couldn’t help but recall that twenty or thirty years ago, he was a young man who had just started out, had a passion for society and the future, harbored great ambitions in his heart, and had plunged into the entertainment industry to chase his dreams, wanting to train excellent actors and become a great director.
However, the reality was that after so many years, although he wasn’t completely mediocre and had become a so-called assistant director, in fact, this position neither had the authority of a director nor had to undertake all kinds of dirty and tiring work, under the guise of accumulating experience for him.
He didn’t know if he had accumulated experience, but he had developed severe anxiety because of it.
Thinking of this, Leo sighed heavily again in the dark room.
When would I be able to break through?
Am I really… not suited for this industry?
Man, I really want to quit…
Just as Leo was once again struggling in his mind late at night, as he had done before, a ding-dong suddenly sounded from his phone beside him. It was the notification sound for a new message.
As an assistant director, even when sleeping at night, Leo didn’t dare to put his phone on silent, afraid of missing any instructions from his director or other production leaders.
After all, there had indeed been times when he had finally fallen asleep, only to be awakened by a phone call at three or four in the morning, and then went to pick up a leader who was already dead drunk at the KTV.
This time it should be some work again, right?
Thinking this, Leo sighed, picked up his phone, and unlocked the screen. He habitually went to check the social software, but there were no new messages.
“Huh?”
Leo made a strange sound, which quickly turned into surprise, because this message came from a game account that he had forgotten for a long time, or to be precise, had been put in the corner for about twenty or thirty years.
The email in his inbox now was exactly from the game account he had bound back then.
“Fallen Chronicles!?”
Leo rubbed his eyes and looked carefully several times before confirming that it was “Fallen Chronicles,” not the currently popular mobile game “Fallen Chronicles II.”
A game from twenty or thirty years ago had come back from the dead?
After clicking in out of curiosity, Leo found that it was indeed true. The original “Fallen Chronicles” had actually released a new DLC (expansion pack) now.
DLCs were quite common in single-player games, equivalent to additional supplementary content, just like extras or side stories for novels.
But for a game that had been dead for twenty or thirty years to still release a DLC, it was the first time Leo had heard of it.
It was this sense of oddity that made Leo, a corporate slave who was busy as hell every day and had long since stopped playing games, take another look at the new expansion – “Reunion.”
Strangely, the expansion had no introduction, only a video.
Just with the mindset of taking a casual look, and also as a kind of nostalgia, since he couldn’t sleep anyway, Leo clicked on the video.
He had originally thought it would be one of those uniformly formatted promotional videos, but as the footage unfolded, Leo was stunned.
Because…
“Lord Leo, long time no see.”
The first sentence at the beginning made Leo dazed, and certain memories that had been forgotten in the depths of his mind along with the game account were gradually awakened as the game character appeared on the screen.
“It’s been quite a few years since our world was saved by Lord Leo. We haven’t let down Lord Leo’s expectations. We’ve worked together to rebuild our homeland and ushered in happiness and peace in a world without miasma. The only regret is that it would be great if Lord Leo could also be here.”
“But I know that Lord Leo also has his own matters, his own world, his own dreams, and continues to strive in a place we don’t know about.”
“The reason for sending this message is to report the recent situation to Lord Leo. Although there are indeed some new tricky crises… With me and everyone, we should be able to get through them smoothly. Of course, if Lord Leo could come back and command us again…”
“Time flies so fast. That’s about it… Oh right! Lord Leo must take care of your health and rest, don’t keep staying up late, and don’t get stuck on problems!”
“What? How do I know? Well… After all, in our world, Lord Leo was also an indecisive person, often hesitating for a long time over a single decision. I suppose in your world, you must also be such a person, right?”
“But I and everyone know that it’s because you have a strong sense of responsibility and are afraid that your mistakes will cause trouble for others, so you are always very cautious and have high requirements for yourself every time.”
“Phew! Without realizing it, I’ve said so much in one go. Then as the final closing words…”
“Good night, Lord Leo.”