Chapter 130: Ending, Departure, Promise (asking for monthly ticket)

It was the early morning of July 21st, and the sky was just beginning to brighten.

The cries of seagulls could be heard from the horizon. The first ray of sunlight shone through the sky at dawn, tearing apart the curtain covering Tokyo Bay and shining into the empty attic.

Xia Pingzhou's eyelids trembled slightly, and he slowly woke up from the mattress on the floor.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Tokyo in late summer. The sky was a clear blue, and the sound of horns honking from the Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay continued.

He took a deep breath, rubbed his forehead, and turned his head groggily from the pillow.

Ayase Origami was no longer in the attic, but he noticed that compared to last night, he was now covered with a thin blanket, which must have been put there by Ayase Origami.

"It's so rare... This cold-hearted young lady would care about others." Ji Minghuan stood up, yawned, with tears of sleepiness in his eyes.

He stared at the blanket for a while, thinking to himself: "I thought the young lady would be angry with me... Last night, I knocked her out when she was about to breathe on Zhou Jiuya, but she didn't blame me?"

The next moment, a black and white panel suddenly popped up in front of his eyes.

[Due to the increase in popularity, the code name of this game character has been updated. 】

[The current code name of the second unit is——"White Crow Brigade Member No. 12: 'Chess Player'". 】

"Why is that?" Ji Minghuan tilted his head. "Most of the bodyguards at the auction last night died. Who can spread my name?"

He scratched his messy hair, thinking in confusion:

"It can't be someone from the Ghost Train Group... Ke Qirui knew that Xia Pingzhou and Black Pupa were working together. From her perspective, she should be able to see that I deliberately let Black Pupa rescue Su Zimai."

"Since there is no reason for her to leak my information to the association and the mafia, it seems that... the camera at the auction site must have captured me. There must be a lot of miniature cameras hidden in that kind of place."

Thinking of this, Ji Minghuan no longer worried about where this nickname came from. Instead, he called up the character panel of the second machine and allocated attribute points very efficiently.

[The "Spirit" attribute of your second unit "Xia Ping Zhou" changes from B+ to B++ (the power of your "Chess" will also increase accordingly)]

[The current attributes of Unit 2 are: Strength: D-level; Speed: B+ level; Spirit: B++ level]

[Currently holding "3" skill points, do you want to develop the character skill tree immediately? ]

Ji Minghuan poked the prompt box expressionlessly, and then Xia Pingzhou's character tree popped up.

On the black and white tree, three rugged branches of varying lengths come into view, like the devil's hands, reaching out from hell towards the sky.

[Branch 1 (Group): Recruit soldiers (already learned) → Soldier training (already learned) → Build artillery vehicles (already learned) → Cavalry training (to be learned) → Unknown → ...]

[Branch 2 (Brave): Chess Evolution (already learned) → Chess Second Evolution (Condition: You need to spend a total of "10" skill points on other branches before you can learn this skill) (Learning this skill requires "2" skill points) → Unknown → ...]

[Branch Three (Soul): Demon Hunter (needs to consume “1” skill point to learn) → Unknown → …]

He raised his hand and pressed the "Cavalry Training" icon for a long time. The words reflected in the young man's pupils changed from dim to bright, and finally bloomed with a black and white luster.

[1 skill point has been consumed, and the skill of the branch "Group" has been successfully acquired - "Cavalry Training" (Train one of your soldiers into a "Cavalry", mount a warhorse, and equip a lance. When the cavalry is present, the combat effectiveness of the remaining soldiers will be greatly improved).]

Ji Minghuan thought for a moment and said, "The cavalry should be the 'horse' in chess, and the bishop is the 'elephant'. So it seems that I have collected a complete set of chess."

[The next skill of the branch "Group" has been opened for learning: "Puppet King" (gives your King chess piece the right to move, and when the "King" is on the field, the "Morale" of the "Soldiers" and "Cavalry" will be improved - the attribute value is slightly improved.)]

"Oh... the king is finally not a cripple who can only stand there and get beaten. Come out, my puppet king!"

Ji Minghuan's eyes lit up slightly, and without thinking, he raised his hand and pressed the "King of Puppet" icon for a long time.

[1 skill point has been consumed, and the skill of the branch "Group" - "Puppet King" has been successfully learned. ]

[The next skill of the branch "Group" has been opened for learning: "King's Flash" (after learning, the king's ultimate power will be unlocked)]

[Learning this skill requires "3" skill points. ]

"What will the final power be?" Ji Minghuan scratched his chin and muttered, "I can't afford it. Unit 2 only has one skill point left."

Thinking of this, he had no choice but to use his index finger to press and hold the skill on the last branch.

[1 skill point has been consumed, and the skill of the branch "Soul" - "Demon Hunter" has been successfully acquired (when you kill a demon, you have a chance to obtain a "disposable demon chess piece" of the same type). ]

[The next skill of the branch "Soul" has been opened for learning - "Bridge between Man and Demon" (learning this skill requires "2" skill points). ]

"Bridge between Man and Demon?" Ji Minghuan raised his eyebrows and clicked on the detailed introduction page of this skill.

[Bridge of Man and Demon: Briefly fuse one of your chess pieces with the demon chess piece (the fusion time depends on your "spiritual attribute". The higher the spiritual attribute, the longer the fusion time.)]

[Hint: When the maximum fusion time is reached, the fused chess piece will be split into two.]

"Huh? Fusion of demon pieces and chess pieces? So, can it be used to strengthen the queen piece? For example, fuse the flame demon and the queen to create a 'fire queen' or something like that."

Ji Minghuan talked to himself with great interest.

He pulled the corners of his lips, feeling a little excited for a moment. After all, in theory: this skill can be developed into infinite combinations, fusing the devil with the bishop, or fusing the devil with the king, or fusing the devil with the soldier...

Not only that, the effects of fusing different demons are different.

He only needs to let the second unit spend some time hunting demons, relying on the effect of "Demon Hunter" to collect a large number of disposable demon chess pieces, and he can explore and arrange many powerful fusion groups and use them harmoniously in actual combat.

However, the prompt box that popped up in front of him was like a bucket of cold water poured over his head, making his heart slightly chilled.

[The number of skill points you currently have: 0 points. ]

"Okay...it's done anyway."

After allocating all the points to the machine, Ji Minghuan lay back on the mattress tiredly, closed his eyes and took a nap.

Ten minutes later, he opened his eyes, slowly moved away the quilt and got up, put on the slippers beside the bed, and went into the bathroom to wash up.

After tidying up his messy hair, he controlled Xia Pingzhou to go downstairs.

When I looked up, I saw Ayase Origami sitting quietly at the counter of the cafe.

She did not sit at her seat and read the haiku collection as she usually did, but sat on a wooden stool behind the counter, with a glasses case in front of her.

The glasses case was open, revealing a pair of somewhat old reading glasses.

There are obvious signs of repair on the reading glasses, and it looks like they have been patched up for many years. The owner must cherish this pair of glasses, otherwise it is hard to explain why they have not been replaced.

The girl in kimono lowered her eyes and looked quietly at the pair of reading glasses.

After a moment, she broke the silence amid the cries of gulls.

"Takikage said..."

"What did you say?" Xia Pingzhou asked.

"He said that he just wanted to be an ordinary butler... He joined the brigade because of me." She said, "If I had chosen to stay with him in the Ayase family, what would happen now?"

Xia Pingzhou was silent for a moment, then walked over, pulled a chair and sat opposite her, saying disapprovingly:

"Then there is a high probability that you will be killed by the Brigade at the auction as guests of the underworld."

He paused and said, "That being said, a young lady of your status should have someone to attend in your place."

"Who died?"

"Only Takiying and Lan Duoduo, the rest of the group survived."

"I see."

Seeing that Ayase Origami fell silent, Xia Pingzhou did not speak anymore, but subconsciously turned his head and glanced at the kitchen of the cafe. At this time in the past, Oda Takikage should have prepared breakfast for the two of them.

"A certain kitten scratched its owner from behind last night." After a long silence, the girl in kimono suddenly said.

"If I hadn't knocked you out, more people would have died." Xia Pingzhou had a blank expression on his face. "If you want revenge, now is not the time. Revenge is a very difficult thing. You have to think carefully and wait for the right opportunity. If you take a wrong step, all your efforts will be wasted."

After all, I am also waiting to take revenge on the Ripper, how can I not have experience? he thought.

"That's good."

"To be honest, I thought you would blame me."

"Lan Duoduo and Taki Ying are already dead, and I don't want you and Jack to die too, otherwise I will have nothing..." The kimono girl paused, "So, it's good."

Xia Pingzhou thought for a moment and asked nonchalantly, "What if you wake up and find that we are all dead?"

Ayase Origami was silent for a while, then tilted her head and gave him a lukewarm look.

"Kitten, panting."

"Speaking of which, this incident has caused such a big stir that we have completely angered the eight major Japanese underworld families." Xia Pingzhou said, "This incident has caused a sensation throughout Japan last night. You can see news reports on TV now. Some of the bodyguards are quite famous... Especially that 'Yakura Takeshi', she is a popular walker in Japan and has received a lot of public attention."

He paused. "The underworld is mobilizing forces across Japan to search for us. We can no longer stay in Tokyo. It's only a matter of time before Oda Takikage's cafe is found. The hacker said that he has prepared a human smuggling boat for us, and we can take the boat to leave Tokyo."

"I know." Ayase Origami said expressionlessly, "We'll leave after you pack your things. When the brigade is disbanded, you can move freely until the next operation begins."

“When will the next action come?”

"I don't know. I'll wait for the leader to notify me." Ayase Origami shook her head and asked in a low voice, "Do you want someone alone?"

"I don't care. I have nothing to do after the disbandment."

"I suddenly want to change my clothes." Ayase Origami raised her eyes from her glasses case, "Would you like to go shopping for clothes with me?"

"Forget about the mall in Tokyo. Let's wait until we leave Japan by ship. Otherwise, we'll be caught easily." Xia Pingzhou thought for a moment. "I see you only wear the same kimono. I've been wondering if this kimono has any special meaning to you, like maybe it was left to you by your deceased mother?"

"I was just too lazy to change, so I just bought the same one and put it in the closet."

"oh."

Ayase Origami lowered her eyes and put her glasses case into the sleeve of her kimono. "Let's go."

"Um."

The two stood up from the counter, took one last look at the soon-to-be-closed cafe, and then walked towards the wooden door. The wind chimes tied to the door swayed in the morning breeze, making a clear sound.

"Xia Ping Zhou."

The girl's cold voice was wrapped in the morning breeze, coming softly from the side, blowing Xia Pingzhou's black hair.

He was suddenly stunned and wondered if he had heard it wrong.

This was the first time he heard this name from her. In the past, it was either "Kitten" or "Newcomer". So he turned his head with a little surprise and looked at Ayase Origami beside him.

In a trance, the fair face of the kimono girl was covered by the sunlight from the Tokyo Bay, and her expression could not be seen clearly.

"Xia Pingzhou," she whispered, "don't die."

(End of this chapter)