Chapter 23: We must be united when we have a fever together.

Chapter 23: We must be united when we have a fever together.

【

…

"You know that all of this is meaningless?"

He said:

"So-called emotions are nothing more than a means for humans to deceive each other. Love between relatives, love between subordinates, and love between lovers are all meaningless things."

My hateful fourth master gave me the last gentle smile that I can remember.

"Don't be fooled by humans. They are the most shameful beings."

He connected me to the program, and in the virtual world, I had countless masters.

I can be anything, I can be anything, I can have any accessories.

In the virtual world, I can't see the face of each master. I am just being used, like a silent weapon, a corpse controlled by someone.

...What am I, after all?

Is this the life I was supposed to have?

After one of the treatments, I opened my eyes and found that I could no longer see his face.

The faceless monster said to me:

"Are you feeling better?"

I stared at his completely unrecognizable face for a long, long time. In that cold silver-white color, I suddenly felt pain.

I showed a half-crying, half-laughing expression:

"Yeah, I'm much better."

I said:

"I've never felt so good."

…

My program started to have large sections of blank space and garbled characters.

Those long blank spaces began to devour my memory.

I gradually lost my memory. I couldn't remember what my family members looked like, or where I had lived. The officer's face also became blurry, leaving only his cold, silver-white eyes.

He looked at me, and kept looking at me, and then suddenly, his eyes turned black again, wet black eyes, no longer filled with love and pain, those eyes stared at me ferociously, as if questioning my existence.

The self-identification program was deleted, so I became increasingly confused, my program became completely chaotic, and I began to lose track of the difference between the master and myself.

Who am I and what am I? Is it a human? Is it a program? Is it some unknown existence? Do I really exist?

I fell into a long period of confusion, my data was spinning around in the entire simulation program, and for quite a long time, I just sat there, sitting there day and night, waiting for my lovely man, who might be my fourth master, to come over and ask me:

"What do you think?"

I no longer answered, but remained silent for a long time.

In this horrible world, I am gradually melting.

…

In one simulation, when my virtual master gave me an order, I didn't move. I just looked at his completely unrecognizable face.

"Why...why should I do what you say?"

I heard my own intermittent voice, which was stuck and confusing, like a program gone awry.

Like a miracle, in that chaotic sound, my program seemed to be rewritten, large areas of blank space were eliminated without any trace, and I realized that I actually mastered the program.

No, it's not just the program, I have already entered the entire artificial human system!

"So, what's the point?"

What's the point? What's the point? What's the point?

The data flew by at a high speed, but I kept chewing on these words over and over again. When I came to my senses, my virtual master had died in front of me.

Homunculi are absolutely, absolutely not allowed to kill their masters.

But have I ever done such a thing?

After exiting the program, I sat in my little room and saw the faceless criminal walk into the room. He asked me softly:

"how are you feeling?"

"I think I did something wrong."

"What kind of mistake is that?"

"I killed my master."

The criminal seemed to laugh.

"Yes, you are starting to get better."

He agrees with me.

Got the master's approval.

So, my illusory master, my evil doctor, my faceless demon.

Have I become someone you like?

What else do you want to turn me into?

…

I heard him laugh and open the simulation program:

"Want to try again?"

Five Excerpts from The Ship of Theseus

】

The sky was covered with dark clouds and the rain was falling like a waterfall. Although a place was reserved for Dazai Osamu, Dazai Osamu himself had a very cowardly personality and always rushed out from time to time.

But even if he didn't rush out, the rain would be all over his face due to the height difference between the two of them. Qian Jianmu looked at the child who became wet again in silence, and finally released his adult form.

But the wind and rain were too strong, and the umbrella was against the wind, making it even more difficult to walk. In the end, Sengenmaku got annoyed and simply dropped his umbrella, grabbed Dazai Osamu's hand and ran towards the shrine.

Dazai Osamu was stunned for a moment, but finally couldn't help laughing wildly in the rain.

The two people ran to the entrance of the shrine in the heavy rain, and saw from afar a gray group hiding from the rain under a tree next to the shrine. As if noticing their presence, the gray ball jumped up and waved at them.

Eh…?

This is... Edogawa Ranpo?

The rain was too heavy to talk, so Chigenmaku grabbed one in each hand, climbed up the stairs on the mountain road of the shrine, and pulled them into the room. When they finally reached a place that could shelter them from the wind and rain, they looked at each other and shivered together as the cold wind blew.

Ranpo was silent for a moment, but it only lasted for a moment, and the silence seemed to be washed away and disappeared without a trace.

"That's too much! That's really too much!" Edogawa Ranpo took off his wet hat and shook off the water on his head, but his hair still inevitably stuck to the sides of his face. He said angrily: "I have been looking for you for a long time! Really a long time!"

As he said this, he suddenly sneezed, and Dazai Osamu, who was laughing secretly at the side, also sneezed. Sengenmaku showed a rather helpless expression, drove away Dazai Osamu and asked him to go back and change his clothes. At the same time, he grabbed Edogawa Ranpo and brought him to his room, handing him two new clothes of Endo Shusaku.

"It won't be the right size, so just try to wear it for now. I'll send the rest of the clothes to be cleaned after the rain stops."

"So, are you going to bring that boy back this time?" Edogawa Ranpo took off his wet coat and complained, "I'm increasingly confused about what you want to do."

Chimamu pushed the man into the bathroom and took out a towel to wipe his hair, but the fifteen-year-old Edogawa Ranpo was already sixty feet tall, and Chimamu had to stand on tiptoe to touch his head. He paused, then handed over the towel.

Ranpo's eyes rolled slightly and he smiled triumphantly. He lowered his head and looked at him for a while, then bent down, grabbed his hand and asked him to put the towel on his head.

The hand holding the towel paused, Qian Jianmu ruffled his short hair, and after a few strokes, the boy stood up straight, holding the towel and said to him seriously:

"Don't overdo it!"

"It won't be excessive."

Qian Jianmu understood the meaning of his words and smiled helplessly:

“I’m just a writer.”

"You seem to have changed. Is there anything in this world that makes you stay?"

The white-haired boy smiled inexplicably and asked:

"Will Ranpo let me escape?"

"...Maku-kun, I will find you. I will always find you. But, even if I am the world's number one detective, I can't forcibly bring someone who is ready to disappear to this world."

Edogawa Ranpo looked at him quietly, his green eyes flashing, and that unique clear expression seemed to have seen through countless advances and retreats in time.

"I brought a sample copy of the last section of The Ship of Theseus. After all, this is just an illusory life. It doesn't matter what you put your life on."

He turned around, and his expression could no longer be seen:

"If you keep searching for answers on your own, you will lose the only place you have."

——

The sample issue was well packaged and placed on the table. Even though Edogawa Ranpo was soaked, the book was still dry, without even a single curled edge.

Chijianmu changed into a soft yukata and stared at the rain in a daze.

Nakai rushed back and prepared food for the three disabled people in the family, and also bought some snacks for Edogawa Ranpo. When I passed by his room, I saw his empty cup and made some new tea and brought it to him.

"Dazai seemed to have a fever, but he wanted to go out in the rain, and I didn't stop him."

The one who has been facing Dazai and having strange ideas from time to time these days is Nakai. Sengenmaku once saw Nakai standing in front of Dazai's door and asked him why he didn't go in. Nakai said:

"He's committing suicide. I'll wait."

Then Dazai Osamu would crawl out in a mess and complain to him about Nakai's cruelty. But surprisingly, he actually likes Nakai quite a bit.

Just, it's weird.

Qian Jianmu looked at the rain and felt a little headache.

"With this weather, it may not be good to go out these few days."

There are some medicines at home, not much, which were prepared for Dazai. The largest stockpile was of bandages, five large boxes in total. Anyone who sees this will say that their family takes their children's hobbies positively and even arranges everything properly if it means suicide.

When I was looking for medicine for Dazai Osamu, the president of the Armed Detective Agency happened to call and said that he had been commissioned by the Supernatural Special Agents Division and would be away on a business trip for about half a month. There was continuous heavy rain again, and he was worried about Ranpo going back alone, so he asked Ranpo to stay at the shrine for a few more days.

When I called, Ranpo was unexpectedly well-behaved, just nodding his head. His face was still flushed because he had just taken a shower. Qian Jianmu felt something was wrong, so he walked over and touched his forehead, then paused.

That’s great, because after being blown by the cold wind and caught in the rain for half a day, I got a fever again!

However, Edogawa Ranpo himself was very calm. He felt his own temperature and calmly judged that the fever would not be very high at all and would go away the next day. It was just a little more severe on the first day, which was not a big deal at all. But as soon as he said this, his eyes became circled, and he leaned aside and stopped talking.

Dazai Osamu was even more so. He had a fever and was caught in the rain. He was already a little mentally confused!

There were two children with high fever at home. Chijianmaku and Nakai looked at each other and saw a trace of fatigue and vicissitudes in each other's eyes. There is no quick fever-reducing medicine, and there are many unexpected factors when going to the hospital in heavy rain. In order to observe them closely, they had to arrange for Nakai and Dazai Osamu to live together, and for Sengenmaku and Edogawa Ranpo to live together, to prevent anyone from noticing their high fever in the middle of the night and to make it easier to take care of the patients.

The two patients had no human rights. After they muttered something, they were taken away and stuffed into blankets.

It was late at night. Chigenmaku replaced Edogawa Ranpo's towel with an ice-cold one. Feeling that his body temperature had almost dropped, he felt relieved and crawled into the bed, slowly falling asleep leaning against the boy's warm body.

He was relieved. Edogawa Ranpo, whose fever was gradually subsiding but still dazed, opened his eyes dazedly.

It’s so hot, is he still having a fever?

He touched his head, and surprisingly, the temperature had almost dropped, no longer the horribly high fever level.

Then, why is it so hot?

Edogawa Ranpo opened his eyes in confusion and slowly turned around. He saw a young boy leaning next to him. From his angle, he could only see the top of his white hair.

He suddenly woke up, stretched out his fingertips, and gently touched the boy's forehead under his hair.

——It’s so hot!

Why do you have a fever too?!

That's not right! Your fever is over 50 degrees? Whose fever is burning towards boiling? ! !

At this temperature, he wouldn't be burned to death.

In the darkness, Edogawa Ranpo opened his eyes wide in horror.

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