Afterlife Department - Chapter 649 - Vanity

I got transmigrated into a game I’ve never seen before.

I thought it was a top-notch RPG and spent 30 years on it.

I retired as a war hero and planned to spend my remaining time leisurely.

But it turns out, it was an academy story?

The Interstellar Fleet from the game appeared before the ordinary youth, Bai Zhongqi, and the player became the Chancellor of the Empire, opening a new chapter for his brethren and Earth as they set out for the vast sea of stars. The nations of Earth were engaged in cunning and fierce competition for the future of the Intergalactic Era. Bizarre and varied alien civilizations were waiting for Earth’s explorers to discover them. It was a cruel, dark jungle where only the fittest survived, and a world filled with opportunities and magnificent adventures. But for Bai Zhongqi, this was simply a laid-back story about leading Earth’s friends, furiously climbing the tech tree, beating up aliens, and dominating the Galaxy.

The orphan Chen Ziyang from Lower River Village, raised on food from a hundred families, was later adopted by the old Divine Doctor in the village. He learned the “Divine Dragon Controlling Phoenix Technique” and embarked on a monstrous and legendary life.

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.