Chapter 167 I Hate You
Tu Lanxun was still in a daze until she walked into the convenience store. She almost couldn't sit on the chair, staggered backward, and stared at the light on the ceiling for a long time before she felt her eyes dry.
"What's wrong with you?" The computer ghost emerged from the screen.
Tu Lanxun stared blankly, "Kris is no longer in this world."
"What?"
"Zhang Dongkang, the second brother of the ghost bandit," Tu Lanxun repeated, "Kris is no longer in this world."
The computer ghost sat on the monitor, swinging her legs. "He might have been deceived by Kris. What we squeezed out was just false information that was believed to be true."
Tu Lanxun finally looked up. The monitor was playing a Flash animation of a small decoration game, with pixel furniture stacked into a colorful candy house. She asked, "Isn't the game world the same as ours?"
"Which one are you talking about? Those earth-like game worlds floating in the universe are certainly not, but the computer games we play..." The female computer ghost suddenly froze, her eyes reflecting a faint light, and her expression became increasingly weird.
"Yes, what is the difference between the Gray Cave and the Fantasy Magic House you are playing? They are both games. If the Fantasy Magic House invades the earth one day, the Fairy Tale Candy Man will also be able to commit murders." Tu Lanxun said.
The computer ghost looked like she was in a state of panic. "I don't understand."
"Seven years ago, Kris triggered a mysterious game to invade Earth. Over thirty years ago, Viola committed suicide and became an AI lifeform. It's fair to say she switched worlds, leaping from Earth into the digital realm. She was Kris's forerunner and mentor." Tu Lanxun gazed up at the overhead light, trying to discern the dancing dust particles beneath its halo. "What Viola did is called enlightenment, the so-called individual ascension, abandoning life for a higher dimension. Kris wants to go one step further. He wants to create a new world. He wants to transform this place into his own."
The computer ghost was confused and asked, "Didn't he say he's no longer in this world? If he wanted to conquer the Earth, he should have stayed here. How could a general leave the battlefield?"
"Most of the time, why would a general go deep into the front lines to kill the enemy?" Tu Lanxun knocked on the cash register. The soda cans were like green mountains, the wires of the receipt machine were like winding underground rivers, and the cigarette cabinet on the side rose from the ground like a battle map in a small room. "Unless the decisive battle is imminent, the most effective way for a general to traverse the battlefield is to overlook the sand table, rather than immediately plunge into bloodshed and sacrifice. The same is true for Kris. In order to better evade pursuit and command the situation, I guess he upgraded himself."
The computer ghost girl said: "To the game space? Which game space?"
Tu Lanxun leaned back and said, "I don't know, but it's not the Dream House."
#
Tu Lanxun returned to her bedroom. This time, she didn't have to calculate the 20.22 meters. No shadow tugged at her from afar. Lying on her cold, lighted bed, freedom felt like a boundless ocean, suffocating. She might be the first person to be drowned by freedom.
A casual chat with Mikhail is still ringing in my ears.
"Why is his limit of distance exactly 20.22 meters?"
"That year, N was in a car accident and was thrown out of the car window 20.22 meters." Mikhail sighed at the time, "That was the distance between life and death for him. But why it happened to you, I don't know."
Tu Lanxun lay there for a while, then grabbed the gaming helmet on the bedside table and put it on her face. She loaded the sound effects into her eardrums, and stood up again in the virtual world.
Main character [Wang Aila] loading...
Entering the [Gray Cave] simulator...
The game begins.
Tu Lanxun turned on the cheat mode and adjusted the time flow to the slowest. It was now morning in the gray cave. She was running between the stagnant suspended bus and the tall building, heading towards the place where she had separated from N last time.
N, or rather, Doctor Nightingale's residence, was still there. She didn't have time to take the elevator, so she ran up the stairs, the sound of her own breathing echoing in her ears. As the picture froze in front of the electronic door in the sunlight, Tu Lanxun could hear her own heartbeat, not the one in the game, but her real flesh and blood beating against her bones.
Would he happen to be in there?
Is Wenchong’s suggestion credible?
Tu Lanxun manipulated Wang Aila to ring the doorbell. The elegant melody was suppressed and distorted by the electronic components, becoming as gloomy as a drop of water. After the ringing died down, Tu Lanxun stood still for a few seconds. The door did not move at all.
She felt unwell in her heart.
She pressed it a second time, and the ringtone floated in the air. Tu Lanxun's eyes were attracted by the small light in the cat's eye. She hoped something would happen, but the cat's eye remained bright and no human figure approached from inside.
Tu Lanxun's arms were stiff at her sides, her ears were buzzing. After a long period of silence, her eyes became firm, and this firmness seemed even more like stubbornness because it shone with a fragile light. So she rang the doorbell for the third time.
The dripping melody made the space feel tedious, as the light seemed to dim by two degrees. Tu Lanxun was suddenly caught by a new idea: if the door couldn't be opened, she would find a hammer to pry it open, or climb up from the outside water pipe. Breaking the glass wouldn't be difficult...
Before she could finish her thought, the door opened from the inside.
First, a crack appeared, and then N's face was taken in. His brows were still cold and chiseled, like white mountains under the moonlight. Disappointingly, his eyes were intact, looking at her intently.
"Why are you here?" The moment N's voice sounded, two waves of heat hit Tu Lanxun's eyes.
Tu Lanxun didn't answer. He squeezed in through the crack in the door and cleared his throat. "Why don't you open the door?"
N didn't answer, quietly following Tu Lanxun, keeping two steps apart, just as he had when he was still bound to her at 20.22 meters. The TV reflected Wang Aila's ordinary face. She wasn't herself, and he wasn't necessarily himself. Tu Lanxun desperately wanted to know N's background, but he couldn't ask, or perhaps he couldn't bear to hear the answer.
"Are you okay?" Tu Lanxun laughed at his own wording in his heart.
"I don't understand what you are saying." N replied.
Tu Lanxun observed the furnishings around her. N's house was no different from the last time she came. The photos that had been placed on the coffee table were gone. Everywhere was spotless, and there was a shadow buried in the gap in the corner of the sofa.
N walked over and closed the curtains in the living room, darkening the room and blocking Tu Lanxun's sight.
He smelled of disinfectant, completely replacing the scent of night grass and trees. If that was the Doctor Nightingale in the game, Tu Lanxun was afraid that he would be stuck in this house forever.
"What do you want to talk to me about?" N asked again: "I have a gym plan today."
Despite the official tone, Tu Lanxun's heart did not cool down, but became even warmer.
This was not the attitude that N used when speaking to her, nor was it the attitude that Nightingale used when speaking to [Wang Ella].
The new third attitude indicates a fact: the N in front of him is not the real Nightingale, and the attitude he uses when speaking is not directed at the shell [Wang Ella].
There's hope.
Tu Lanxun sat down casually and chatted, "What fitness activities do you like recently? Weightlifting, running, or swimming?"
N looked at her silently and said slowly, "Swimming."
"Oh. Do you prefer swimming in a swimming pool or in a lake in the wild?" Tu Lanxun asked again.
N's face brightened a little, but his voice was still hoarse, "I've been to all of them."
Tu Lanxun opened his eyes wide to prevent the liquid from slipping, and couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth. "Then your hobby must be very unfashionable, like dragging people to go diving in the lake, or setting fire to a swimming pool without water."
N retorted, "It's much healthier than a self-employed businessman who counts gold every day..."
Tu Lanxun opened his mouth wide, wanting to cry, laugh, and curse at the same time. He pointed at him and said, "You..."
Before he could finish his words, they were already walking towards each other. Tu Lanxun lunged forward, and in an instant, his waist and back were tightly clamped. N's breath, a breath he had never felt before, blew on the back of his head. A voice came from the side of his ear, and strands of air squeezed out from between his teeth: "I miss you so much."
"You were already dead." Tu Lanxun hugged N back even harder, tapping and pounding on him. "By the way, weren't you dead? Nan Shaochen saw it all."
N let go of Tu Lanxun and led her back to the sofa. He put his arms around her again and tilted his head to glance over. "It's fake."
Tu Lanxun asked, "What about the first three treaties?"
N laughed.
Tu Lanxun broke free from N's fingers, sorted out the thoughts in his mind, and finally took a deep breath and said, "You need to be observed to die... Ah, only when your death is observed as much as possible will others who observe you think you are truly dead... Wait!"
She covered her mouth and said in horror: "Then I will..."
"It's fine in the game simulator," N said. "The simulator can block almost all external intrusions, but we can't rule out a very small possibility."
"By the way, how did you get access to the simulator... I know, Wen Chong gave it to you." Tu Lanxun understood. "Were you observing me from inside the door? Are you worried that Wang Aila might be from the Heavenly Kingdom Group underneath?"
N shook his head: "I was just outside and felt someone ringing the doorbell, so I slowed down and came in."
"Where are you really now?" Tu Lanxun couldn't help but ask.
N nudged towards her and continued to lean on the back of the sofa to look at her. "On an island in the southern hemisphere."
That was relatively safe. Tu Lanxun and N continued to stare at each other. She didn't want to ask any more questions, and he might not tell her even if she did. So Tu Lanxun said, "Why are you looking at me?"
N revealed a trace of grievance: "When I was in my twenties, wasn't I pretty?"
Tu Lanxun really wanted to say that he was in his twenties when he died, and he always looked in his twenties afterwards, and it made no difference to her.
"It looks good," Tu Lanxun said. After a moment's thought, he felt it was a bit flat, so he added, "It looks really good!"
N curled his lips and moved his face so close that Tu Lanxun couldn't see clearly. He pointed at his eyes and said, "My eyes are not broken at this moment."
After a pause, he waved his right hand in front of Tu Lanxun again: "My hand in the game world is not deformed either."
Tu Lanxun was stunned.
After saying that, N turned his head and faced Tu Lanxun, "I hate you."
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