Openly wielding firearms (6)
The game's timeline begins a week before the Superpower Practice Class officially opens, which happens to be the day she had the accident.
After entering the game, Shu Ningmiao had already mentally prepared herself for everything—in order to understand this game, she specifically bought a book on common dating games on the market to study. Although she didn't get a happy ending, she at least became familiar with the process.
She probably doesn't have much talent for playing games.
The protagonist's default name is Erici, and there's no need to change it; you immediately enter the story.
Like all the dating games she's played, "Secret Love" has a simple, even somewhat clichéd, opening.
Erice is an orphan girl from the slums. Her awakened superpower gave her the opportunity to come to Lingtian District; otherwise, she might never have boarded the train from Yingjian to Lingtian in her entire life.
The upper-class students at Cornunos' school treated her like a toy for amusement, frequently sending her on errands and making her look foolish.
She endured her anger silently and often hid in the quiet music classroom to cry secretly, which is how she met Shi Yu.
Shi Yu heard her crying and came to her rescue. With his help, Erice found that the bullying around her was not so obvious anymore, but the contemptuous and indifferent gazes were increasing, suffocating her.
It turned out that Shi Yu had a fiancée, a haughty and beautiful young lady whom she had encountered many times in class. The young lady's dress never made a rustling sound when she walked, and her laughter and her words always maintained a hypocritical and arrogant attitude.
When they met, her gaze only lightly swept over him, as if she saw some insignificant trash. She seemed to have never known what inferiority was, and wherever she appeared, she was always the center of attention.
Soon after, Eric met Su Ni and saw with her own eyes that Su Ni always had many inexplicable scars on her body. Under her questioning, Su Ni finally told her that Shu Ningmiao not only did not want him to get any of the property, but also beat and scolded him at every turn.
She felt even more indignant. How could there be such a vicious woman in the world? She had everything, yet she was still so greedy and jealous of others, not wanting them to have a good time.
Despite her anger, Shu Ningmiao was indeed very strong. In her first demonstration of her superpowers, she easily defeated Erici, making Erici even more self-conscious.
The story was too long, and the early part consisted mostly of everyday trivialities. Shu Ningmiao wasn't interested in the romance between Eric and Su Ni, so she skipped all the plot points and went back to the flowchart to read the synopsis of each chapter.
After unlocking the story, she can browse the entire story flowchart at any time in the menu. After fast-forwarding through all the story, the game's progress stops at Chapter 5, but judging from the un-unlocked progress later, Chapter 5 is less than a quarter of the entire story.
As for why it stopped at Chapter 5, it's because she died in Chapter 5.
It's possible that because the game detected that she wasn't the protagonist, she couldn't see the events after her death. The events after Chapter 5 were all dark, making it impossible to progress and unlock more content.
Shu Ningmiao compiled all the plot points related to herself. The content was short and contained very little useful information. As a foil to Shi Yu and Su Ni, the targets of her romance, she rarely had direct interactions with Erici. This was to be expected, as she would not have even noticed Erici if it weren't for the game.
As a villain who is only slightly more powerful than cannon fodder, she doesn't appear much in Erigi's story.
In short, her image as a cold, greedy, and vicious person in the protagonist's mind is 70% due to Su Ni's feigned pitifulness and 30% because the protagonist blames her for half of the bullying he suffered because of Shi Yu.
In this light, the "survival tips" the game has been giving her all along are indeed logical; the basic logic is to keep her away from the original storyline to avoid death.
So how exactly did she die?
Although her image has plummeted in the protagonist's eyes, she hasn't done anything particularly bad.
The protagonist is the protagonist, so of course he has to be kind and innocent enough. You can't just kill her because she looks down on people, right? Isn't that what she should do?
According to the game's storyline, Erice had always avoided her, but he had no choice but to stand up for his friend Su Ni and reprimand her severely in front of everyone, which made her resent him from then on.
After that, Erice was constantly subjected to subtle harassment from her because of her excellent grades. As the class monitor of Class A, Erice even slandered the female lead in front of Weston, causing the female lead to suffer the teacher's ridicule for no reason.
Shu Ningmiao: ?
Is she so powerful that even Weston has to listen to her?
Putting everything else aside, has Weston ever said anything nice besides his sarcastic remarks? Could it be that because Weston is going to date the female lead later, he's shifting the blame onto her?
Shu Ningmiao felt that every sarcastic remark Weston made came from the bottom of his heart.
In short, the seemingly weak but actually very strong female protagonist, after being repeatedly harassed by Su Ni, not only did not back down, but also learned from her mistakes and worked hard. In the second supernatural ability practice class, she and Su Ni defeated Su Ni to a pulp, helping Su Ni gain everyone's recognition. The female protagonist saved Su Ni's heart and completely reversed the original situation.
Shu Ningmiao, the pride of the world, always strives to be number one in everything. Unable to accept the reality of failure, she goes astray.
What exactly happened to her is unclear from Erici's perspective. Before the protagonist could punish her, she died inexplicably in a compartment of the Zhunti Tower at the String Light Academy.
That's it? After looking at it for so long, she still died without any explanation.
Shu Ningmiao read through Chapter 5 again. In this chapter, Ai Ruiji noticed that Shu Ningmiao was different from usual. Her face was very pale, she was very emotional, and her eyes were covered with a haggard bluish-black color.
Eric wanted to tell others about these abnormalities, but thinking of Shu Ningmiao's usual smug attitude, he felt that she must be unable to accept her failure, and deserved to be like this now.
As a result, the entire school was forced to suspend classes the following day.
A student passing by the top of the tower discovered Shu Ningmiao's body.
Because the school deliberately covered it up, even suspending classes to prevent the news from spreading, some people spread rumors that her death was dishonorable. It is said that she used extreme methods to enhance her abilities, resulting in a backlash that was entirely her own fault. Coupled with her previous conflict with the female lead and others, which led to her failure, this constructed the truth of "going astray." However, in reality, the cause of her death is still very unclear.
This is what was mentioned in her death as "going astray".
Unbelievable! So she's the kind of person who goes crazy if she loses even once?
After her death, the Shu family quickly transferred all their assets to Su Ni's name. Abandoned in Yingjian District from a young age, she suffered endless hardships and was despised because of her status as an "illegitimate child." Su Ni actually hated Shu's father and didn't want that dirty property at all. With the female lead's support, she destroyed the Shu family's Pandora's Seat. Shu's father was so angry that he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized, and the Shu family fell into ruin from then on.
This is what is referred to as "family bankruptcy" in the death ending.
Shu Ningmiao thought to herself, "Anyway, I'll be dead by then. It's good that it's broken." Just thinking about how her father was sent to his death by his own son made her want to laugh.
Looking at the unlocked game storyline, it's not far removed from reality; the protagonist's impression of her is no different from that in the game.
The first event, the first test of her superpowers, is about to begin. Here, she defeats the protagonist, but also ignites his fighting spirit.
The information she now knows includes the time and place of her death, as well as the dubious circumstances of her death.
She died after her second supernatural ability test, and on the top floor of the Zhunti Pagoda.
On the surface, the direct condition that triggered her death was being defeated by the female protagonist and Su Ni in the second superpower practice, but she always felt that it wasn't that simple.
All the teachers' offices at String Light Academy are on the top floor. She had been there before, and judging from the CG scene, the place where she died was a very dirty cubicle, perhaps a storage room or something like that.
She needs to find an opportunity to go to the top floor and investigate again.
Although we don't know what happened, as long as she isn't defeated by the protagonist, it should be fine, right? If she doesn't fail, she shouldn't suddenly lose her mind and take a risky approach.
No, she should find an opportunity to kill Su Ni without anyone noticing. That would resolve at least 80% of the conflict.
Suddenly, an angry pop-up window appeared on the screen.
"No, you need to change yourself. Try to befriend the main characters and make Erice think you're a kind person who's tough on the outside but soft on the inside!"
Shu Ningmiao tried to communicate with the pop-up window: "Why?"
If, as the game's plot suggests, everything is her own fault, then what does it have to do with the protagonist? As long as she doesn't court disaster, that's all that matters.
Ignore the pop-up dialog box; it keeps popping up new notifications on its own.
Survival tip: Players should break up with Shi Yu as soon as possible.
Survival Tip: Players should reconcile with Su Ni and clear up the misunderstanding with the protagonist.
Survival Tip: Players should lose to the protagonist's team in the first ability test; do not excessively pursue power.
Shu Ningmiao read through the three tips one by one, and they were just the same few sentences as before, with nothing new.
She discovered that the game's system wasn't as intelligent as AI; it was more like a pre-programmed, dead program with no value in communicating with it.
If she has no capacity for thought, then why do we keep trying to prevent her from dying?
The game interface paused for a few seconds before reappearing.
Players are advised to carefully follow the survival tips to avoid a death ending.
Shu Ningmiao said, "No."
Not only will she not follow these hints, she will also continue to follow the original plot.
First, she doesn't believe that she used some extreme means to increase her strength because she couldn't accept failure, which led to the backlash. In the CG, she has a clear wound on her chest, and there must be another reason for her death. Perhaps it will be mentioned in later chapters of the game, but she can't see the plot after she has died.
Secondly, her death is not directly related to the protagonist. If these clues are followed and the subsequent plot is completely changed, the factors threatening her life will not only not disappear, but will become more hidden.
She needs to follow the original plot to change her fate at the most crucial moment of death.
Only if the plot remains unchanged can she gain the upper hand; otherwise, what's the use of knowing the future?
Moreover, she can only see the first five chapters of the story now, so she needs to be even more careful in using this tiny bit of precognitive advantage.
In a short time, Shu Ningmiao had already figured out her next move.
In addition, she noticed a suspicious point.
"Wei Sheng Qian Heng" never appears in the game's storyline, up to Chapter 5.
In her first practice of using superpowers, Shu Ningmiao's teammates were Shi Yu, who was a support-type user, and Chris, who was a special-type user.
Why did this change happen...? Was it because a subtle difference in one of her actions altered the original plot?
Shu Ningmiao could only suppress her doubts.
Her most important task right now is to get first place in the first superpower experiment, not only to maintain the original plot and continue, but also because of Wei Sheng Qian Heng.
We must ensure that our teammate, Weisheng Qianheng, achieves satisfactory results in order to satisfy the Yangsong Church and expedite the transfer of Pandora's Spring. No matter what, only what you have in your own hands is truly real.
Of course, if she dies, then it's all for nothing.
The story can only be read up to chapter five, which is mostly about the protagonist's emotional journey. There is no point in studying it repeatedly. Only then did Shu Ningmiao open the last new feature she hadn't seen yet - "Load Save".
After opening, the save slot interface is similar to that of a normal game, but unlike the many save slots in a normal game, the save slot interface of "Secret Love" is just a single, lonely save slot.
Shu Ningmiao doubted whether this function could actually load and save like a normal game, but she still tried to save her game using this save slot.
The pop-up window that appeared reminded her—
"You are not currently at a save point. Please save at the correct save point."
Where are the save points?
——
Campus life, which had been stagnant since the start of the semester, was stirred up by the overpass collapse that occurred a few days ago.
The mysterious organization that blew up the overpass quickly became a hot topic of discussion among students on campus.
"Isn't this much cooler than the pilot?"
"I heard that the organization is full of non-superpowered people... How did they get in?"
Similar discussions took place more frequently at the Cornunos main campus, where non-superpowered students who had failed to awaken their powers were clearly more interested in the organization, while superpowered students at Stringlight Academy were preparing for the upcoming superpower practice.
Erice couldn't join in the discussion; she was overwhelmed with her studies.
Erice felt once again that everything in the world was absolutely terrible.
While studying in a public school in Yingjian District, she consistently achieved top grades, which enabled her to be recognized as an honors student and complete the preparatory course without tuition fees.
However, after entering the String Light Academy, she suddenly found it difficult to keep up with the course pace of the main school in Cornunos. The teaching resources of the top-tier university and the Yingjian District, which is close to the slums, are worlds apart.
In Cornunos, she often didn't finish her daily homework until the early hours of the morning.
The preparatory education she received did not include such detailed and in-depth courses, such as appreciation of famous paintings and art history. In her previous school, these were collectively referred to as "fine arts," and she had to start learning her less commonly taught languages from scratch.
Ai Ruiji's score on the quiz in Pingyi language class was only above average, not bad. He glanced at the test paper and a hint of bitterness appeared on his face.
Shu Ningmiao sat in front of her, her palm pressed against the test paper. She didn't even look at the score and was chatting and laughing with a few girls.
The content of Shu Ningmiao's test was different from hers; it was said to be a final exam.
The result was, unsurprisingly, a perfect score.
Before the exam, Ke Shu Ningmiao even missed a week of classes due to an accident and was hospitalized.
She had never understood the differences between people more clearly than she did now.
Eric actually ran into Su Ni in the cafeteria that morning. He saw that Su Ni looked gloomy and seemed to have something on his mind again.
According to Linlu, Shu Ningmiao has taken over the family's energy production site, which will likely make things more difficult for Su Ni at home in the future.
After much persuasion, Linlu finally let go of her prejudice and reluctantly agreed to let Su Ni eat with them, but only when no one else was around.
Seeing that Su Ni hadn't been looking well lately, Eric could only try to comfort her, asking if she was worried about Shu Ningmiao.
...He must be worried that Shu Ningmiao would bully him even more after taking over the family's resources. Ai Ruiji sympathized with his plight, but Shu Ningmiao had helped her last time, whether intentionally or unintentionally, which made her feel very complicated now.
On the one hand, she felt that Shu Ningmiao seemed to be quite different from the other people in the academy, but on the other hand, Shu Ningmiao was indeed hurting her friends.
Su Ni shook her head, then nodded. Her face was excessively pale, but her lips and the corners of her eyes were an unnatural red, making her look like a ghost pulled from the water. Her voice was hoarse: "I'm just a little worried about her. She had that accident on the overpass last time..."
Eric was a little surprised. Even though Shu Ningmiao had treated him like this, did he still worry about her as his older sister?
Su Ni didn't eat much. Her hands were under the table, and her fingernails anxiously scratched her arm, leaving many bloody marks.
He did indeed intend to sever ties with Shu Ningmiao when he gave her the pendant. He only wanted to use the organization to achieve his own goals and had no intention of taking responsibility for the trouble they caused.
Anyway, Shu Ningmiao will definitely throw away the things he gives her very soon.
Even superpowered items are the same.
—He knew all too well how much Shu Ningmiao hated him.
But he never expected that those people would blow up the overpass that night. If he had known, he would never have let Shu Ningmiao leave the Shu family.
My sister almost died.
Thinking of this, a sickly crimson appeared on Su Ni's pale face. Blood gushed from between his fingers on his arm, but he felt no pain at all. His fingertips dug into the torn flesh and trembled slightly.
Pleasure and anger stung his brain slightly; emotions were the only pain he could feel.
After a while, Eric finished eating and called him to go to class together. Su Ni stood up, her thin arm was intact, but her expression was always filled with a kind of inexplicable sorrow.
Linlu put down her knife and fork, observing him suspiciously. Could he really be a naive, unassuming girl who only admires her older sister?
She didn't believe it.
But she liked Erici's innocence and kindness and was willing to protect her naive purity.
There are too many smart people in the college, so there's nothing wrong with thinking simply.
Erice decides to team up with Linlu and Su Ni. Her special ability is the special type "Light", Linlu is the attack type "Ice and Snow Maiden", and Su Ni is the special type "Transfer".
Their configuration was very reasonable and powerful, which made the usually insecure Erice full of expectations for the results of his superpower practice.
Meanwhile, Shu Ningmiao was facing the useless support-type number one Shi Yu and the useless support-type number two Wei Shengqianheng.
Shi Yu awakened his special ability at the very beginning of his life. He seemed uninterested in anything other than music and made no attempt to hide it. Shu Ningmiao knew about his special ability very early on.
Shi Yu's special ability is "Colorful Melody", which is a support ability that can add buffs to musical notes. In addition, it can also attack through musical notes.
This is a seemingly perfect, all-around support ability, but most importantly, Shi Yu's ability requires musical notes as a medium, meaning he must first play music while carrying an instrument.
The power of a superpower is linked to one's proficiency in playing a musical instrument.
Shi Yu can play almost all musical instruments, but he is not good at every one. He spends 90% of his time playing the piano and has won almost all of Pinheit's piano competitions.
His superpowers are only fully realized when he uses the piano, but the problem is that he can't carry the piano around everywhere.
Shu Ningmiao suggested he use the harmonica. Shi Yu was reluctant, but he reluctantly played it in the end. However, the buffs and attacks he released were very weak.
—So weak that Shu Ningmiao wouldn't even bother to dodge when she was in an 'angry' state. Even if the musical note attack hit her, it would be like a string being stretched and plucked at her body, causing no pain or itch.
Piccolo, flute, ocarina, hand drum... After experimenting with all the small musical instruments, Shu Ningmiao suggested that the Shi family invest in producing a piano cart with wheels so that Shi Yu could sit on it and move around while using his superpowers, otherwise his superpowers would be utterly useless.
Aside from the incredibly weak attacks, the buffs that Shi Yu applied through the small musical instruments were also of little use.
Through different musical passages, he can apply various buffs such as healing, speeding up, slowing down, and controlling, but by the time his healing takes full effect, Shu Ningmiao's wounds have already healed on their own.
As for Wei Shengqianheng, his special ability "Forgiveness" has a radius of 15 meters in diameter centered on himself, which is surprisingly large.
Shu Ningmiao felt that if he hadn't been adopted by the Yangsong Church, he might have been recruited by the Pinneh Security Bureau to specifically target crimes committed by people with superpowers.
The overpass explosion and collapse incident is a typical example of crimes committed by people with superpowers. Regardless of their motives, a crime is a crime, and innocent people are injured or killed because of it. The nature of a crime will not change because of their slogans.
Upon closer reflection, Wei Shengqianheng's ability is still useful. If he encounters an ability that he cannot handle at all, having Wei Shengqianheng activate "Forgiveness" might change the situation.
However, their team had no fighting ability other than her.
Shu Ningmiao could only take advantage of the fact that the practice of her superpowers had not yet begun to practice extra in the training ground. She knew very well that there was always a price to pay for any benefit, and there was never any free advantage or advantage in the world.
Since the superpower practice is about to begin, Yelüqi can no longer keep making them run. Recently, Pandora's basic control and attack training have been added to the physical training courses.
The most basic control attacks, if mastered, can become a decisive combat force, which is why Yelüqi said that superpowers are not everything.
A powerful superpower may not necessarily be able to exert its full potential in the hands of its master; and a weak superpower, when used skillfully, may not remain weak forever.
After having dinner with her friends in the cafeteria, Linlu and Su Ni both applied for off-campus accommodation. Ai Ruiji hurriedly returned to the dormitory alone and happened to run into several teachers walking out of the Zhunti Pagoda.
Among them were their homeroom teacher, Weston, and their physical education teacher, Yelüqi.
Weston's usual aura makes it easy to overlook his height, but looking at him now, he's really tall. When Eric bumped into these people, a thought flashed through his mind. Standing next to Yelüqi, who was like a giant, he didn't seem to be shrunk down.
She quickly bowed her head and said, "Hello, teacher!"
She greeted Weston, but only Yelüqi kindly returned her greeting and inquired whether she had eaten.
Erice looked up and found that Weston seemed not to have seen her at all, or perhaps had no recollection of her whatsoever. He didn't even move his eyes, and was talking to the teacher next to Pan, turning the terminal in his hand.
Good heavens, he looks...so familiar.
She looks a bit like Shu Ningmiao.
Compared to Su Ni, their arrogance is so similar that it makes one wonder if they are related by blood.
Eric quickly lowered his head and ran away, but he became curious. All the teachers from Class AF were present. What were so many teachers doing together? Were they researching exam questions for superpower practice?
She couldn't help but look back again, and saw a blond middle-aged man walking at the very front of the teachers' group, implying that he was the highest-ranking person there.
Could this person be the principal?
She was lost in thought.
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