Chapter 16: The Revelation of the "Assassin"

Of course, saying that it conquered the entire Earth is an exaggeration. The map eventually only expanded to neighboring countries, and Lu Yusheng only played up to conquering Jiang City before stopping.

There was no particular reason. Although the character illustrations were few, they weren't ugly to the point of being unbearable. What really deterred her was the constant killing throughout the entire story.

Fortunately, although the era before she traveled to had less restriction on the internet, it would have been too bloody and violent to actually kill all the NPCs. So most of the time, she would fight them until they were powerless to fight back, or dismember a few of their parts.

Even so, this game is widely recognized as one of the top ten games you would least want to go into if you were to travel into one of the games you've played.

But upon closer reflection, Lu Yusheng realized it wasn't a big deal.

Hua Manlou is arguably the most mild-mannered person she has met here so far. When faced with trouble in the game, players can choose to fight back or endure it. If you play from the perspective of a purely good person, you should be able to achieve a slightly more genuine, kind and beautiful ending, right?

After all, this game is called "Killer Chronicles," not "Criminal Simulator"...

Lu Yusheng gave him a brief introduction to the gameplay and concepts of this type of game. Seeing that Hua Manlou didn't seem too resistant, he opened the game that he had just downloaded.

You were an assassin from the 21st century, but you were ambushed and killed by your enemies during a mission...

Upon hearing the first two sentences, Hua Manlou subconsciously frowned. He was a person full of love and cherished life, so he always felt somewhat resistant to this kind of profession.

Immediately afterwards, the narration switched to the protagonist's voice.

In order to increase the sense of immersion, these kinds of games usually do not provide voice acting for the characters controlled by the players. In particular, the voice actors they find are unlikely to be accepted by most players. Gradually, players have become accustomed to the mute protagonist.

This game is different. Not only did they hire voice actors, but most importantly, the voice actors' voices are a perfect match for the protagonist. As soon as they open their mouths, the cold, indifferent, and aloof feeling comes out.

"What's going on? Shouldn't I be dead?"

A voice as crisp and clear as ice in the height of summer came from Lu Yusheng's phone.

"So charming," she thought to herself.

It's a pity that although the voice actor's voice was good, he always spoke in a pretentious way in order to fit the protagonist's character, so in the end, it didn't become the motivation for Lu Yusheng to continue playing.

The AI ​​background audio was replaced with a real human voiceover, and Lu Yusheng had already commented on the voice in a few breaths, while Hua Manlou was even more surprised.

"This thing can even change its voice to speak?"

Despite having heard Lu Yusheng's flawed explanations, he still couldn't believe that something in the world could produce so many sounds simultaneously.

“Of course, this is easy to do in my hometown. I’ve shown you how to record sound; you just need to have a few more people record it,” Lu Yusheng replied calmly.

Although it was somewhat immoral, she couldn't help but feel a sense of relief at that moment, thankful that Hua Manlou was blind and couldn't see the guilty look on her face.

Fortunately, Lu Yusheng was holding the phone himself; otherwise, if he had felt the vibration near the microphone, he might have wondered if there was really someone inside.

Hua Manlou didn't ask any more questions, as if his doubts could be dispelled with just one sentence from her.

In the game where no one paused, the narrator continued:

You thought you were going to die, but when you opened your eyes again, you found yourself in what looked like an ordinary public toilet.

As you were wondering, a memory gradually surfaced in your mind. It was a scene from about half an hour ago: several teenagers who looked to be eighteen or nineteen years old, with a smirking expression, surrounded you, snatched more than a hundred yuan of pocket money from your pocket, and then locked you in the toilet next door, quite annoyed.

They had originally intended to pour another bucket of water, but the cleaning lady was very organized and hadn't left behind any mops, buckets, or other tools for carrying water. In the end, the boys had no choice but to give up and leave amidst their pleading.

After a brief pause, the scene on the screen changed, and the narration followed:

"Bullying"—these two words quickly flash through your mind. As for what happens after the bullying, your "experienced" self guesses that you've encountered the legendary rebirth.

"What does 'bullying' mean?" Hua Manlou asked Lu Yusheng humbly.

"It's when one or a group of people bully another person. It could be physical, like beatings, or it could be psychological, like inciting others to isolate the bullied person. I know it mostly happens to teenagers."

"I see..." Hua Manlou indicated that he understood.

No one knows that the boy who was bullied back then, when he opened his eyes again, had transformed into you, a once young and experienced assassin.

In your past life, you were a lone, top-tier assassin, but you were betrayed and killed. Unexpectedly, fate smiled upon you, and when you opened your eyes again, you were reborn as a 17-year-old high school student. Given a second chance, you vow to find the murderer who betrayed you in your previous life.

[Your code name in the underworld is Leng Yuan, but no one knows that your real name is actually...] The voice then stopped.

—A page for entering a nickname popped up on Lu Yusheng's phone screen.

Lu Yusheng explained: "At this point, you can give the main character you are playing in the game a name. It is usually limited to one to seven characters. After you have chosen this name, other people you meet in the game, that is, the supporting characters, will usually call you by this name."

Hua Manlou thanked her for her answer and didn't ask any further questions.

Seeing that he understood, Lu Yusheng said no more. For some reason, she always had the feeling that if Sikong Zhaixing were here, he would definitely name the game character Lu Xiaofeng.

The other party quickly made a choice and confirmed the nickname.

This is where Lu Yusheng's role comes into play. Although the game can recognize surrounding voices, the step of entering a name is one of the few that cannot be avoided and must be done manually.

There's not much to say about Hua Manlou's nickname. Like many newbies who are new to video games, he simply gave his real name.

As the nickname is entered, the game sound continues:

Almost no one knows your real name, "Hua Manlou," let alone your plans to set a trap beforehand. But let's put that aside for now. The most important thing right now is to get out of this predicament of being trapped in the toilet. You can—

1. Climb out through the gap at the top of the toilet cubicle;

2. Remain calm and wait for the next person to use the restroom before asking them to open the door.

Taking advantage of the silence that subsided once again, Lu Yusheng quickened his pace and explained, "These are the options I told you about in the game. You just need to answer '1' or '2' after the question. The thing to note is that this game is just a simple puzzle, not very complicated, so it can only react to your answer while giving you a choice."

Remember, at this point, it's best not to say anything that sounds like '1' or '2', lest you trigger its mechanism and have it take that as your choice.

After rattling off a string of words, I was relieved to find that the game didn't respond. It seems that the game isn't that sensitive to sound.

At that time, Lu Yusheng chose option 1, since it was the beginning of the game, essentially the newbie village, a time for exploration. She couldn't stand being left in a public toilet.

"I see, I understand now." Hua Manlou nodded. Although some unfamiliar words often prevented him from fully immersing himself in the world depicted in the game, he began to think about it seriously.

"Choose 1. It's better to be cautious since we're just starting out." Hua Manlou said with a smile, and this time his voice was quickly caught.

The phone immediately responded, displaying a long string of ellipses on the screen to indicate that time was passing.

Finally, after the "an hour has passed" message appeared, footsteps could be heard on screen.

"An hour?"

Hua Manlou strictly followed Lu Yusheng's instruction to "ask anything you don't understand" and immediately extracted the unfamiliar word.

Lu Yusheng casually pressed the pause button next to [Auto Play] and said, "In my hometown, it means half an hour. Our ancestors divided a day into 24 hours from 12 hours."

She kept her word and patiently explained every question Hua Manlou asked, and then went on to tell him what time each hour corresponded to.

"A very innovative idea. Are the dates changed?" Hua Manlou was quite surprised by the concept, but he didn't offer any opinions.

"No, that's not true." Lu Yusheng denied it outright.

It simply means changing the lunar calendar to the Gregorian calendar, but saying that here would probably be considered quite disrespectful.

At this moment, the sun outside was gradually setting. Hua Manlou seemed quite interested in this new concept of time, so he continued the previous topic and asked, "What time is it now in Miss Lu's hometown?"

Lu Yusheng glanced back at the clock inside the house and gave a rough estimate: "Around three o'clock."

Although Hua Manlou was blind, he had his own way of judging time. He did a slight calculation, and it was about the same as his current judgment, so he said with certainty, "It is Shen Shi (3-5 PM)."

“...Yes.” Lu Yusheng was somewhat surprised by his speed of adaptation and memory.

A moment of silence followed between the two.

The conversation ended so abruptly… Lu Yusheng thought to himself, then silently continued the game.

A note from the author:

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