Chapter 40 What kind of meeting do the mortal enemies of Platinum Supermarket arrange?
The restaurant fell silent for a moment.
Shi Yu and Shen Su received the system message at the same time. They turned their heads to look at each other as if they sensed something, and stared at each other for a few seconds in the quiet air.
Lu Chengjing seemed to have heard something at that moment, and his expression suddenly turned serious. He had no time to pay attention to Shen Su and Shi Yu's situation. Before Shi Yu could speak, he stood up to say goodbye: "I remembered that I have something to do, so I'll be leaving first."
Shi Yu nodded, without saying anything more.
The restaurant was booked by Lu Chengjing. After Lu Chengjing left, only Shi Yu and Shen Su remained in the dining area.
The melodious strains of a violin filled the restaurant, and the room was filled with the delicate fragrance of roses. Chen Su still had one arm draped over the back of Shi Yu's chair, and he poured himself a glass of champagne with his other hand. Under the candlelight, the liquid in the stemmed glass appeared a bright pale orange.
“The copies overlapped,” Shen Su said, taking a sip of champagne.
Shi Yu: "Mm."
Shi Yu followed Chen Su's movements, his gaze falling on the base of the wine glass, then the glass wall, and then the rim... Shi Yu looked away.
— Shen Su used his cup.
There were only two wine glasses on the table, one his and one Lu Chengjing's. Shen Su couldn't very well use Lu Chengjing's glass, so Shen Su's behavior was reasonable.
only……
Even though it wasn't the first time he and Shen Su had shared a cup of water, he still had an indescribable feeling in his heart.
But that feeling was definitely not disgust.
"The copies will overlap again after 24 hours."
Shen Su placed the wine glass back on the table. As he spoke, he appeared relaxed and at ease, as if they weren't in a horror game and weren't facing any danger, but simply having a meal... no, no, just a casual date.
What is he thinking?
They must have been misled by Lu Chengjing's confession and the atmosphere of the restaurant.
Shen Su is not gay.
Even if Shen Su is gay, they are mortal enemies. What kind of date would mortal enemies have?
Shi Yu shook his head and leaned back in his chair. His back bumped into someone's arm. He glanced at it out of the corner of his eye—the arm had originally been resting on the outside of his chair back, but at some point it had moved to the inside of the chair back, the wrist slightly bent, and the large palm hanging down on his shoulder blade.
Shi Yu was already slender, and in comparison, his shoulder blades appeared even more thin, as if they would break with a gentle squeeze from that large hand.
Shen Su was not only taller than Shi Yu, but his entire frame was also larger than Shi Yu's, even his hands.
Although Shi Yu had never seen Shen Su's naked body, judging from the muscle lines in Shen Su's arms, Shen Su must have a lot of muscles.
He and Shen Su had been rivals for over a decade, their verbal battles always a back-and-forth affair where one would win today and the other would win tomorrow. Neither could gain the upper hand forever, nor could the other suffer losses indefinitely.
But if he and Shen Su resort to force.
Shi Yu thought that he probably wouldn't be able to gain any advantage even once.
However, now is not the time to think about such things. Shi Yu withdrew her gaze and responded with a "Mm".
The restaurant fell silent again, but the live stream room was anything but quiet.
What do you mean by a six-hour operation time? To put it bluntly, isn't that just making players kill each other? And an eight-player dungeon is already full? I don't see where the dungeon is full.
[Alas, power resides in its hands; right and wrong are decided by its own words.]
Is the replica merging process randomized by the system? It seems there's no pattern to it.
The system is random, yet it's not entirely random; it acts arbitrarily, since the overlap of instance one and instance three maximizes the dramatic effect.
[If the dungeons keep merging, only four people will survive in the end... Several of these dungeons feature my favorite streamers, and I don't want them to die!]
[Let's put aside the question of life and death for now, let's not think about the future, let's return to the present: candlelight dinner, roses, champagne, music... Don't you think they look like they're on a date?]
Why is Chen Su sitting so crookedly? Why is his arm draped over the back of Shi Yu's chair? Is he marking his territory? Are all straight men like this?
【We straight men don't act like that, tsk.】
[That subtle yet intense possessiveness, tsk.]
【No, have you forgotten who booked the restaurant? Who arranged the candlelight dinner with roses and champagne! As the saying goes, "Don't forget the well-digger when you drink the water," how can you forget Mr. Lu Chengjing's contributions without making any acknowledgement?!】
[Thanks to Mr. Lu Chengjing for generously providing the environment and props!]
[Thanks to Mr. Lu Chengjing for generously providing the environment and props!]
[Thanks to Mr. Lu Chengjing for generously providing the environment and props!]
...
The live stream's bustling atmosphere contrasted sharply with the restaurant's quietness.
Shen Su seemed to be in a bad mood.
Shi Yu came to this conclusion in her mind.
Because Shen Su is usually very talkative, even if he says very little, there will never be an awkward silence between them. But today, Shen Su only said these two sentences and then stopped talking.
However, it's also possible that the merging of the instances made Shen Su unhappy and unwilling to speak.
The quiet restaurant was suddenly filled with noise.
First, at the front desk, two girls who looked and dressed exactly the same stared intently at each other behind the bar. Then, a commotion came from upstairs, followed by the sound of a fight in the restaurant's kitchen.
The noise grew louder and louder, the sounds of fighting coming from all directions of the restaurant. Then a body was thrown down from upstairs, crashing into the crystal chandelier in the lobby and slamming heavily onto the floor. The blood-covered man twitched a few times and then fell silent.
The man leaning against the railing on the third floor clapped his hands and wiped the blood from his face. He was wearing the same lobby manager's clothes as the corpse on the floor in the center of the lobby.
With a loud crash, the kitchen door was smashed open, and a group of workers carrying cleavers, machetes, and iron bars rushed out. Everyone was bleeding, but they seemed to feel no pain as they swung their weapons at each other, each blow fatal.
Their targets are all copies of themselves.
"It seems that not only players need to compete for survival, but NPCs do too."
After Shen Su said those words, Shi Yu moved her lips as if to say something, but her wrist was grabbed by Shen Su's rough, warm hand.
Shen Su's voice landed above him, "Go quickly."
The two dodged the attacking NPCs and rushed out of the restaurant.
The restaurant was left in a mess after the fight, and the situation outside was not much better.
Traffic on the entire street was paralyzed, with cars lying haphazardly in the middle of the road, some still smoking. Everywhere—beside the cars, on the road, on the sidewalks—NPCs were fighting each other, most of them lacking any fighting skills, wildly swinging their fists until one of them died.
The Lu's Hotel, where they stayed, was diagonally opposite the restaurant. The building soared into the clouds and was the tallest building in the area.
Therefore, people who jump from the building can still scream in mid-air, but in the blink of an eye, not even a complete skeleton remains.
The violent impact shattered the bones and internal organs of the human body on the spot, splattering blood everywhere. Shen Su reacted quickly, blocking in front of Shi Yu and pulling open his trench coat to completely cover Shi Yu.
Blood splattered all over Chen Su, while Shi Yu, who was in his arms, only had a few drops of blood on her trouser legs.
Shi Yu was a little stunned.
It wasn't the dead body that scared me, but the act of falling from the upper floor. In that instant, my brain didn't have time to think; it was a completely subconscious reaction.
Why would Shen Su make such a subconscious reaction?
Shi Yu didn't have time to ask questions, nor was this the right time to ask. Shen Su took off his blood-stained trench coat and casually covered the mangled body on the ground. He then grabbed Shi Yu's wrist and continued walking in the opposite direction from the hotel.
“We received the system message, and the other players naturally received it too. Everyone is sleeping in the hotel right now, so we can’t go back to the hotel.” Shen Su said as he pulled Shi Yu’s wrist and strode forward.
The system's intention in issuing this task is not hard to guess: the two instances are merged into one instance, four players become eight players, and there are only four spots for survival. After six hours, if the number of players exceeds four, the system will start randomly assigning players to die.
The system now presents players with only two paths: First, wait six hours for the system to decide who lives and who dies. Second, fight each other for one of the four survival spots.
Who will the system choose to die? Nobody knows. It's fine if someone else dies, but what if it's yourself?
Is it about leaving life and death to fate?
Or should we take life and death into our own hands?
The vast majority of people would choose the latter.
It's the early hours of the morning. At this hour, players from both instances have gathered at the hotel. The streets and alleys are the battlefield for NPCs, while the hotel is the battlefield for players.
Shi Yu didn't want to kill anyone, but she also didn't want to be killed.
Going back to the hotel is out of the question, so we can only find somewhere to hide for now and then see how things go.
Shi Yu nodded and followed Shen Su to a less crowded area. After a few steps, he suddenly remembered something, grabbed Shen Su's hand that was holding his, and pulled him to a stop.
"Wait a minute, there's still someone at the hotel."
To be precise, it's not a "person".
It is a spirit pet.
Come to think of it, he hasn't told Shen Su about Lin Fengbai not dying and existing as a spirit pet.
Shi Yu was lost in thought for a few seconds, not noticing that Shen Su's fingers stiffened slightly. "Your assistant?"
"Mm." Shi Yu nodded.
As he spoke, he opened the game panel, wanting to see if there was a remote summoning function to summon Lin Fengbai back directly. Unexpectedly, Lin Fengbai had already returned and was lying in his inventory... Well, he really didn't have to worry about it at all.
Shi Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's alright, let's go." He let go of Shen Su's hand, took a few steps forward, and when he didn't see anyone following, Shi Yu turned around, looking puzzled.
"Aren't we going to rescue your assistant?" Shen Su asked.
I don’t know if Shi Yu misheard, but Shen Su’s tone didn’t sound very nice.
Shi Yu said, "He's back."
Chen Su looked around and frowned: "Back? Where?"
There was a share button on the game panel. Shi Yu pressed it so that Shen Su could see his game panel. He pointed to the miniature Lin Fengbai icon in the item bar and explained, "It's probably because the doll Lin Fengbai gave me in the last dungeon worked. Lin Fengbai didn't die and came out with us, but because of the different form, he can only stay in the item bar."
"You can't summon him in real life, but you can in the dungeon. The summoned Lin Fengbai is no different from a normal person and has memories."
Shen Su's brows slowly relaxed: "So, your assistant is Lin Fengbai?"
Shi Yu found Chen Su's half-smiling yet half-unflinching expression somewhat amusing, and retorted, "Otherwise? Who did you think it was?"
Shen Su didn't speak again, his gaze falling on Shi Yu's game panel. He glanced through it briefly, then tapped the origami crane icon next to Lin Fengbai's icon and asked, "What's this?"
"The origami cranes that Lin Fengbai folded were folded in this instance, using paper from within the instance. I don't know how he managed to put them into his inventory... I tried it myself, but it didn't work. Perhaps only Lin Fengbai has this ability."
As they spoke, a description of the props popped up—
Item Name: [Origami Cranes]
Prop description: 666 origami cranes folded by Lin Fengbai for you.
Item Function: Schrödinger's Luck +1
Attack method: None
"He gave it to you?"
Shen Su's gaze fell on the item description, his tone somewhat strange.
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