V2 C7 P4 5 6 (Patreon)

P4

"Without me saving you, you would’ve died last time. So what’s wrong with giving your cake to your lifesaver?"

At this time, she actually used this to suppress me...

"Lifesaver?... You even have the audacity to say this! Wasn't that game recommended to me by you?"

"How did I know that there would be a self-aware AI in the game at that time! There has never been any related news before!"

"Isn't there something in the organization that can detect AI?"

"That is used by programmers, and I don't know all the detection results!"

"Oh, it turns out that your status is not very high."

"Are you trying to provoke me?"

Shen Qing stopped the knife in her hand, and the tip of my knife was inserted into the cake all the way to the bottom without any hindrance.

Oh no, it seemed like what I said was correct...

"Listen, only the programmer and the boss know the result, no one else knows-including you and me."

Shen Qing's sharp eyes made me feel a little hairy in my heart.

"Mhm… can you two share it, okay?"

Ying, who had been listening to our bickering, saw the tension in the atmosphere, but made suggestions at the right time.

"I’m not hungry at more. I'll go out to find the target."

Shen Qing put down the knife in her hand.

“……”

She stood up, walked to the door and opened the door, and then left the room.

It seemed like she was angry, but it was not my fault at all. Obviously it should be a happy morning, if it weren’t because she greedily wanted to eat the cake Ying made for me. But...

"Did I say the wrong thing?" I asked Ying.

"...I can't analyze the situation just now, Yuan, I'm sorry."

Ying was silent for a while, and then apologized to me.

"...It's not your fault. Don't worry about her, she'll be back in a while."

After comforting myself, I stretched out my hand to eat the remaining cake, and… maybe leave a little bit for that terrible person.

………..

At 6 o'clock in the evening, raindrops began to fall from the gloomy sky for a long time.

Shen Qing never came back, and I started to worry about her more and more. It was not that I was afraid of her being killed by Rainy Night Murderer. Even if she was in danger, she could disconnect and leave the game at any time and then notify us, but that might also make us lose the clues of Rainy Night Murderer.

I looked outside the window, the raindrops falling in the dim sky gradually became denser, and they were about to converge into a stream on the ground soon.

——At present, Ying's Level of Affection to me was 100, and Shen Qing was 98, which was more than other characters. There was no doubt about it.

If Shen Qing was right, that the murderer would kill the character with the highest Level of Affection... then both of them may become targets.

The Rainy Night Murderer always wore a raincoat to kill people on rainy nights. The reason why I was only worried now was because the raincoat dress was conspicuous and special in the weather without rain, so the murderer would not take any action.

Only in the heavy rain would such a dress be normal, so once it rained, the murder would definitly take actions.

‘What to do... Go out to find Shen Qing or stay in the house? If I go out, Ying's safety can't be guaranteed, or should I take Ying to find Shen Qing?’

"Since you are worried, Let’s go out and look for her together. I have no problem."

Sure enough, Ying was really the considerate little angel. Since she said so, there was nothing to worry about.

Ying and I shared an umbrella and walked on the rainy street. If we didn’t call for Shen Qing’s name loudly, it would have been a very romantic thing. In the endm, it was all because this game deliberately did not set any mobile portable communication products in order to increase the atmosphere of suspense, which led us to use the original way of tracing people.

In this big city in the game, it would take ages for us to find Shen Qing without any clues. Where would she go? I wondered.

Then  I began to simulate her thoughts. Ying’s proposal and my idea eventually matched each other. It was indeed possible for her to be that place at the moment. Apart from that place, we couldn’t think of anywhere else. So we decided to go to the place we both think of.

P5

We arrived at the school gate 10 minutes later. On Sunday night, the iron gate of the school was naturally closed, and even the guard was not there. Then, it didn't take much effort for us to get into the school.

But would Shen Qing really be here...

It was almost dark, and the campus was as quiet as a haunted house. Coupled with this pouring rain, everything revealed a bad feeling. To be honest, I was afraid that we would be a step late and see the sight of Shen Qing falling in a pool of blood… Although she would not really die in the game, seeing the death of a living companion would still leave a psychological shadow on people.

This was like the scene at the end of "The Story Of Cherry Blossoms", but this time it became Ying and I looking for Shen Qing. We called Shen Qing's name everywhere we went, but there was no response. Going upwards, until we pushed open the door of the roof——

"Shen Qing?!"

“……”

Shen Qing leaned against the railing of the rooftop, turning her head because of my arrival. She frowned slightly as if she felt annoyed when she noticed us.

"I've been looking for you for a long time..."

After all, I said the wrong thing at that time. It was my fault that she was angry and she left us. I unconsciously felt a little bit guilty.

"Why are you looking for me? Isn't it enough to stay in the house and protect Ying?"

"I……"

Of course it was impossible for me to say that I was worried about her safety. It was so mushy. So the second half of my sentence suddenly got stuck in my throat.

"...Of course to ask you to go back to eat cake."

Telling her this reason was much better than telling her that I was worried about her...

"Pff, you are still thinking about eating cakes at this time? Is there a problem with your mind? Oh, you always have a problem with your mind."

At this time, she still wanted to auruge with me. Only she had a problem, right?

"Don't say that Yuan. We came here because..."

I hurriedly covered Ying's mouth to prevent her from saying the next thing.

"...Well, it's very dangerous to stay outside now because of the rain. Let's go back and talk about it. Moreover, the murderer may come out of the rain at any time. "

“……”

Shen Qing did not respond, but went straight to the entrance of the rooftop.

“？”

I was wondering about her attitude, but she glanced at me and signaled me to follow. She was really not frank, she didn't even want to say that she would go back with me. As I walked out of the teaching building again, I carefully observed the surroundings along the way, for fear that a certain raincoat murder would suddenly rush out with a knife and sent the three of us out of the game together.

Although we would not be really killed, the feeling of pain would be very realistic.

"I have a taser, you just have to worry about yourself."

Shen Qing burst out laughing when she saw me like this.

"Why do you have a taser?"

"I made it from school lab materials, idiot."

"It's safer to walk together. If the murder in the raincost gets close to you quietly or pretends to be someone you know, will you still be able to react in time?"

"No matter who comes, I won't lower my guards. To be honest, if you and Ying hadn't appeared together in front of me just now, I would have electrocuted you."

"Are you kidding me? A murderer can't pretend to be a player no matter how much it pretends, do you think it is a horror suspense game?"

"Of course, now matter how hard the murderer tried, they would not be able to impersonate an idiot well, and in terms of you, I just want to taze you.”

"You……"

Along the way, we were bickering non-stop... After all, it was a short journey, and after only a few words, we were already standing in front of Ying's house.

When I opened the door, I was still frightened, as if someone would jump out of the house. However, no one jumped out. The room was as quiet as when we left, and the remaining cakes were on the table. I was still worried, so I asked Shen Qing and Ying to wait at the door after closing the door. Then I went to check the inside and out of the house again.

Still no one.

What happened? Was the Rainy Night Murderer absent from work? I had never heard that an AI would be absent from work.. Of course, if it was Awakened AI, it would be another matter.

Maybe... The Rainy Night Murderer was secretly watching from some windows?

I immediately turned my head to the nearest window. There was an empty street outside. The orange street lights gave off a dim light in the rain. The branches shook gently, but there was nothing else.

It was weird.

P6

"What do you think of this situation?"

Shen Qing shook her head, it seemed that nothing happened to her either.

"Let’s wait."

The rest of the time was very difficult to get through, we could neither sleep nor relax. We could only sit silently on the sofa..

That was how we spent the night together.

"Huh? The rain stopped?"

The boring waiting made us groggy, except for Ying. In Ying's exclamation, we found that it was already morning, and the rain had stopped without us knowing it.

But the murderer did not appear in the end.

"Do you think it is possible that the murderer was caught by the police? That's why he didn't show up last night?"

"What silly thing are you talking about, I haven't heard of that kind of plot..."

Shen Qing said  but then she changed her mind again-

"It’s indeed possible if there is a secret participation of Awakened AI."

"Anyway, if the rain stops, it means that there is no danger for the time being. But the game is not over yet, so let’s first go out and see if there is anything strange before going to school as usual." I stood up and said.

On the one hand, the reason was that it was too uncomfortable to sit in the room all night, and their spirit had been in a state of tension. On the other hand, they faintly felt that something was wrong. Maybe it would be clearer if they went out and took a look. The streets outside were no different from the past except for the fresh air after the rain.

Everything was the same as before, nothing unusual. It was so normal that it gave me a very strange feeling... Maybe nothing would happen, and the murderer was just an incomplete in-game setting, I couldn't help thinking like this...

But soon I realized that I was still too naive. When the head teacher announced that Lin Liyu was not coming to school when I went to school on Monday, I knew where I was wrong.

What was more puzzling was that when I went to find Bai Qingyue and Yang Jiahui after class, I also received the news that they were absent from class.

Something was wrong... There was no way that the three people would get sick and miss school at the same time. This was probably a special event. If it was a special event that could make three people absent from class together, then the most likely thing was...

"The Rainy Night Murderer's target is not you at all, but Lin Liyu and the other heroines in the game!" I immediately ran back to the classroom and expressed my thoughts to Shen Qing.

"What makes you say that?"

I told Shen Qing that Lin Liyu and the other two girls did not come to class. Shen Qing touched her chin and thought for a while after listening.

"...Well, if it is indeed caused by the Rainy Night Murderer, why did he choose them? You have confirmed that their Level of Affection recorded in the Book of Level of Affection is not as high as me and Ying."

"This is indeed really weird. My thoughts are that you just occupied the body of the original game characters. Your approach is beyond the norm, and it does cause some unforeseen things to happen. Another possibility is that the Rainy Night Murderer would only choose the main heroines of the game, and as long as the Level of Affection of those heroines exceeds a certain value, they will become his goal."

"Your analysis is not bad..."

To my surprise, Shen Qing actually praised me.

"Then there is no point to keep playing now. We must reload the game and go back to yesterday to protect the three of them."

I still remembered the things before the teacher left. She was the first victim of the Rainy Night Murderer. As a player, I could not prevent her tragedy from happening.

But at least this time I would save Lin Liyu and the other two...

"Okay."

Shen Qing didn't argue, and agreed to my plan with Ying.

Reloading the game until Sunday morning, the sky was still clouded.

The plan was for the three of us to find and protect them individually. This plan was not perfect, because we may not be able to protect each other and we would encounter danger ourselves. Before the separation, I told Ying and Shen Qing again and again that when they were in danger, they should go offline first and then send a message outside the game to notify me afterwards.

I was very worried about the two of them, especially Ying, the most unstable existence.

"No problem, Yuan. I have always wanted to share some work for you. It's great to have this opportunity."

Recalling Ying's various self-blame in reality, I couldn't say anything to stop it. Ying probably really wanted to do something for me. In the game, I could feel that she was desperately trying to help me...

However, what she could do was very limited if she was just an ordinary female high school student. Even so, from cooking to buying clothes, and now helping me protect Yang Jiahui, Ying was trying her best.

I still needed her help because my ability was too weak. I tried to suppress the worries in my heart, after all there was no other way but to ask her to be more careful.

"Saying so many mushy words, it is not a life and death separation, okay?"

The sensational atmosphere that was finally built up was completely destroyed by Shen Qing...

"If you try to accept this kind of words, it will help you feel the warmth of the world."

"I don't want to experience that kind of thing."

She turned her head in disdain.

"Your Eighth-Grader Syndrome is too serious. You should go and get treatment."

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