Chapter 46 Platinum Supermarket: Say it again, who are you thinking of?
"We're planning to go back to Platinum Joy Supermarket to check on things. Do you want to come with us?" Shi Yu asked Jiang Yan after Mu Zhuo left.
"No, thank you." Jiang Yan shook her head, thanked Shi Yu, and let go of Shi Yu's hand that was supporting her. "You guys go ahead, I need to calm down, don't worry about me."
After saying that, he turned around and went back to the room behind him, closing the door behind him.
Chen Su asked, "Shall we depart now?"
Gu Heng's only condition for seeking refuge with them was that they not harm Jiang Yan, but he didn't mention that they should protect her. Shi Yu had just asked Jiang Yan if she was willing to travel with them. If Jiang Yan agreed, they wouldn't mind protecting her as well, but Jiang Yan chose to go alone.
They have done more than enough; what happens to Jiang Yan afterward is none of their business.
Shi Yu didn't move, his gaze still fixed on the door Jiang Yan had closed. After a long while, he shook his head and said, "She's just gone through extreme grief. I'm worried about her. I want to wait for her..." He hesitated for a moment, then looked at Chen Su, "Why don't you go first?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Shen Su's face was full of disapproval. "How could I leave you alone? Of course I'll wait with you. Even if we die, we'll die together!"
Shi Yu: "..."
This guy always spouts witty remarks without thinking, so you can't be too picky about the words, or you'll get really angry.
Worried about affecting Jiang Yan, the two kept a little distance apart, but not too far, and could see the office door from a distance.
The two found a smooth rock and sat down shoulder to shoulder, looking up to see the red sun slowly emerging from the woods ahead.
The morning fog was thick, and the clouds were also quite thick, blocking the strong sunlight, leaving only a huge red disc hanging in the air, which was quite beautiful.
Shi Yu was mesmerized by the sight of the rising sun.
Come to think of it, this seems to be the first time they've sat together like this to enjoy the sunrise?
Shen Su wanted to know what Shi Yu was thinking at a time like this, so he asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Shi Yu said, "I'm thinking about Lu Boyue."
Chen Su: "?"
Say it again, who are you thinking of?
It turns out that Shen Su had misunderstood.
"I'm recalling the first day I entered the game." Shi Yu was immersed in her thoughts, speaking slowly and clearly. "I first ran into Jiang Yan and the other two in the supermarket, and soon after, Lu Boyue appeared. Not only did he appear, but he also gathered the four of us players together in a very short time, which shows that he knows every player's information very well."
"Of course, this can also be described as the permissions that the system grants to the dungeon boss."
"But usually, players need to find the BOSS in the dungeon themselves. This is part of the game experience and one of the difficulties that the game gives to the players. There is absolutely no reason for the dungeon BOSS to come to the player on its own from the beginning. I never paid attention to this before, but now I think it is very strange."
Chen Su rested his chin on his hand, nodded after listening, and said, "The situation in my instance was similar. I was also teleported to Platinum Joy Supermarket. Not long after I entered the supermarket, Lu Platinum Joy found all four of us players and then took us to his office."
“Yes, take him to his office.” Shi Yu caught the key words and continued along this line of thought, “When Lu Boyue picked up the four of us, he took us directly to his office. We were in the supermarket at the time, but he didn’t show us around. This can be interpreted as Lu Boyue being hospitable; he wanted to entertain us and let us rest since we had come from afar.”
“But every day after that, we spent our days in his office looking at documents, discussing, having meetings, and trying to come up with solutions for him. At night, we would go back to the hotel he arranged for us to sleep… Lu Boyue would only appear briefly each time, tell us something, assign a task, and then disappear. Without his guidance, we couldn’t just wander around aimlessly. Our itinerary for the past few days was almost fixed between the office and the hotel.”
"We did ask Lu Boyue for the information about the supermarket and the Lu family, but Lu Boyue's actions from the beginning have all seemed to be aimed at bringing about this result?"
Shen Su interrupted, "The information you mentioned?"
Shen Su frowned slightly and continued, "We didn't ask Lu Boyue for any information. Lu Boyue gave us the information on his own initiative, saying that we would probably need it. And the information was extremely detailed, including reports, ledgers, and other documents involving trade secrets. He even gave us the Lu family's genealogy."
"After that, we were treated to good food and drinks, and we were so engrossed in the information that we didn't think about going to see the supermarket itself." Shen Su thought for a moment and came to a conclusion. "Lu Boyue seemed to be very happy about our investigation into his family, which can be interpreted as him being very satisfied with the direction of our investigation."
“That’s right.” Shi Yu nodded. “He was leading us to investigate in this direction, but when we listed all the suspects and contacted them one by one, it seemed that each of them could be ruled out? In other words, the fundamental reason why Platinum Yue Supermarket could not go bankrupt was not due to the company’s senior management or the Lu family.”
Why would Lu Boyue do this?
After raising this question, Shi Yu continued to analyze: "If Lu Boyue is the Lu family member in the copy, he would definitely want the supermarket to go bankrupt as soon as possible so that he can inherit his father's estate, instead of trying to mislead us into investigating in the wrong direction."
“So I was wondering if it’s possible…” Shi Yu turned to look at Chen Su and said calmly, “Lu Boyue isn’t Lu Boyue, but a player?”
Both of them fell silent after those words were spoken.
Based on these analyses, this is no longer just "possible," but "very likely."
The live stream remained silent for several minutes before people started spamming the chat.
Then the comments section became increasingly uncontrollable—
[After their analysis, it seems Lu Boyue really does have a problem? Other members of the Lu family have one NPC per instance, but Lu Boyue is serving ten instances all by himself. This doesn't seem like the system exploiting NPCs; it's more like… the system punishing the players?]
[If Lu Boyue is a player, then his punishment would definitely be more than just serving players in ten instances. There might be additional tasks, such as preventing the supermarket from going bankrupt? Is that why he's trying so hard to divert everyone's investigation?]
[Everyone, go check this out! Has any top streamer turned on their muting feature?!]
[Qin Ke, the top streamer on the wealth rankings, has been online for 103 hours! But I can't access his livestream room, and the other streamers in the Platinum Supermarket segment have also been streaming for 103 hours! I don't believe this is a coincidence!!!]
[Ha, I remember Qin Ke seemed to have violated a major system taboo in the last game? Being thrown in as punishment seems plausible?]
[Lu Boyue's character, a fool with lots of money, is such a perfect match for Qin Ke, the number one on our wealth list!]
[Decoded! Lu Boyue is Qin Ke!]
.
At 9:15, Jiang Yan came out of the house.
Her eyes were red and swollen, but the tears on her face had been wiped away, and she had temporarily emerged from her grief.
The sun had risen high above the trees, and the blinding light made it hard for her to open her eyes. She closed them briefly, and then opened them again once her eyes had adjusted to the light.
The sunlight stung her, making her want to cry, but it seemed she had no tears left to shed.
The sun rises, and today is a brand new day.
Just from this moment on, every single day thereafter.
That taciturn, restrained, and affectionate man will never appear by her side again.
Jiang Yan started walking along the road. She seemed to know what she was going to do, but she also seemed not to. She just walked aimlessly until she saw Shi Yu and Shen Su still at the clothing factory.
"You...you haven't left yet?"
Jiang Yan was somewhat surprised, but she wasn't so narcissistic as to think that the other person was deliberately waiting for her.
In real life, acts of kindness from strangers may occasionally occur, but in the game, apart from Gu Heng, she has never trusted anyone and does not believe that "pure friendship" can happen between players.
"We were just about to leave," Shi Yu said, speaking before Shen Su could, then asked Jiang Yan, "Want to come along?"
Jiang Yan actually had no clue what to do.
However, her current condition is indeed not suitable for her to act alone.
She said, "Okay."
.
Meanwhile, in a cozy safe house that is spatially independent of the ten [Platinum Supermarket] instances but synchronized with the game instances in terms of time, Lu Boyue is enjoying the air conditioning, eating potato chips, drinking soda, and playing a mobile game.
No, it should be Qin Ke.
Qin Ke, the player who was ranked first on the wealth list, was thrown into this system as punishment.
Qin Ke's true appearance is not the same as Lu Boyue's.
Lu Boyue is considered a top-tier handsome man, but Qin Ke's good looks surpass Lu Boyue's.
This man had a face that belied his age, with pale skin, phoenix eyes, and long, upturned corners. A small, bright red mole under his eye added a touch of allure to his appearance, yet overall, no one would mistake him for a woman.
He was wearing a light gold silk robe, the collar loosely revealing his collarbone and a patch of snow-white skin. His waist-length silver hair fell to one side and was still a little wet, probably because he had just taken a bath.
She clearly embodies the words "seductive" and "sexy" from head to toe.
However, he was playing video games, but this behavior didn't spoil the mood; instead, it made people feel that he still had a childlike heart.
Logically speaking, Qin Ke's appearance was more stunning than Mu Zhuo's. The reason why Qin Ke did not surpass Mu Zhuo to become the former top of the beauty ranking was because the system clearly stipulated that players could not occupy the top spot on multiple rankings.
This room is a safe house that Qin Ke bought at great expense.
Nobody knows exactly how much it cost, but it certainly wasn't cheap.
The function of a safe house is that even if the game instance is destroyed, players who are in the safe house will remain safe and sound.
Qin Ke played the game for a while, then turned on the auto-play function. He then used his authority as the dungeon boss Lu Boyue to watch the live streams of ten dungeon players.
The instances have been merged, and players are now competing for survival spots.
At times like this, players won't even think about whether the supermarket will go bankrupt.
Then he only needs to lie down and wait for the instances to merge into one, determine the final winner, and ensure that Platinum Supermarket does not go bankrupt during this period, and his punishment will be over.
Suddenly, Qin Ke paused in his drinking of the sugary soda.
Why are three people heading towards Platinum Joy Supermarket?
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