Run San: “……”
“And besides, no matter how you look at it…” Lin Huai narrowed his eyes and said, “this is obviously a task designed for a female character, isn’t it!!”
Faced with his complaint, Run San could only rub the bridge of his nose and reply, “Actually, in the past, this role was always played by a woman. However, in the previous game… a small accident occurred.”
Lin Huai: “…What kind of accident?”
“A heaven defying, earth shaking female protagonist completed all the tasks. However, on the day before leaving the instance, a tragedy happened.” Run San’s face suddenly flushed red. “She came… that thing that comes every month…”
Lin Huai: “……”
Run San: “A massive number of replicas were produced and her mission failed. My childhood friend flew into a rage because of this. Not only did she curse me out as a creepy man, she even slammed the outline into my face. So from that point on, the role of ‘Tomie’ has been played by men.”
“But,” Lin Huai’s face twitched slightly, “do you really think the students would choose a man to play the so called ‘Miss Ryokawa’?”
“You don’t understand.” Run San said smugly. “My childhood friend once said that the end of all romance is anti appeal.”
Lin Huai: …
“Then what about Chu Tianshu?” he suddenly asked. “The one who came in with me, he…”
“He’ll enter the game together with the other players in half a month.”
After confirming that Chu Tianshu would also arrive, Lin Huai finally felt at ease and decided to carry out these tasks diligently and conscientiously.
However, only seven days later, he was driven nearly insane by this world in which everyone treated him as a great beauty.
Either explode in silence or perish in silence. Lin Huai not only chose to explode, he also chose to make others perish. During this half month, he not only worked hard to earn money but also used all kinds of violent methods to reduce others’ favorability toward him… This was also the reason why everyone now looked at him as if he were some kind of demon or monster.
And yet…
“Ahhh, Senior Lin is really so pretty! He glared at me! He glared at me! ……”
“Senior Lin kicked me hard just now! He must’ve noticed that I’ve been staring at him the whole time. I’m not going to wash these pants, I’ll keep them forever as a precious memento……”
“I already carried home the stool Senior Lin sat on yesterday. Hehehe……”
Lin Huai: ……
“…So that’s why they moved my stool away?” he thought in near despair. “I even thought I’d finally succeeded in lowering their favorability and inciting universal bullying.”
Every day, Lin Huai struggled desperately to become more disliked. Once again, he kicked his way out of the welcoming yet perverted crowd. Never in his life had he been so acutely aware that he could not stay in this world any longer, otherwise, sooner or later, he would go mad.
Thinking of this, he fiercely rubbed the tear mole at the corner of his eye, the one imbued with strange power and also the source of all his suffering.
Amid the whispering crowd, he walked alone, angry and desolate. When he lifted his eyes, he saw the end of the crowd.
There, standing quietly…
It was a black car.
“Why is there a car here?” he murmured.
Lin Huai once again voiced the same question as all the onlookers around him.
“Senior Lin! Senior Lin!” A short girl jumped up when she heard his question. “That car belongs to a transfer student who arrived today!”
“He looks super rich!”
“That’s right and because he was too lazy to park, he just gave the car to the security guard and told him to deal with it however he wanted!”
“Where did this absolute king of flexing come from?!”
Lin Huai: …If you don’t need the money, you could give it to me.
He roughly understood the identity of the car’s owner. A transfer student… Without realizing it, half a month had already passed.
So this person was also a player standing on the opposing side?
But such a flamboyant move… Lin Huai twitched the corner of his mouth. He really wanted to see what this person looked like.
After all, because of that damned Task One, he was now severely short on cash. If this car belonged to an NPC, he might not have considered making a move but since it belonged to a player from the opposing camp, the meaning was entirely different.
He couldn’t help but smile at the thought. The gloomy look on his face instantly brightened, lighting up with excitement.
“This car looks like it could sell for at least two hundred thousand…” he mused. “Find a chance to kill the owner and the car will be mine. Hehe…”
He lifted his face, putting on a professional, businesslike smile, sweet enough to be flawless. Then he pushed through the crowd and walked toward the owner of the car.
“Hello, classmate, we-”
The next second, the moment he saw the young man leaning casually against the car, his expression froze completely.
Lin Huai: ……
“How could it be you,” he said slowly, word by word. “So it really is you. Of course it’s you.”
The young man leaning by the car broke into a bright, open smile and waved at him. “Long time no see.”
Lin Huai: ……
The crushing loss of two hundred thousand completely overwhelmed any joy he might have felt at reuniting with a friend. Amid the tangled swirl of emotions, his eyes filled with unmistakable disappointment and his face darkened heavily.
Chu Tianshu, whose right hand was still hanging awkwardly in the air: ……
He couldn’t understand it at all. Just a moment ago, Lin Huai had been smiling brightly, practically glowing with excitement yet the instant he recognized Chu Tianshu’s face, he had turned dejected and walked away.
That stunning young man who stood out like a crane among chickens seemed to have loved him for just a fleeting moment before losing interest and passing indifferently through his world.
Chu Tianshu didn’t know that Lin Huai had abandoned an entire criminal plan because of him. He only assumed the other was still caught up in the emotions of not having seen him for days. So he stepped forward, draped an arm over Lin Huai’s shoulder and said, “You don’t look very happy?”
“I just lost two hundred thousand because of you… ” Lin Huai replied.
Chu Tianshu: “?”
“Alright, disperse, disperse!” A middle aged woman who looked like the dean of discipline walked out from the school gate. When she saw Lin Huai and Chu Tianshu “tugging and pulling” at each other, she immediately flew into a rage. “Lin Huai! How dare you fool around with another man again! Do you have any shame at all?!”
Chu Tianshu: …?
Under the dean’s scolding, the rest of the crowd slowly streamed into the school. As one student passed by the two of them, she spat viciously.
“Peh!” she said angrily. “Shameless gold digging fox!”
Chu Tianshu: …?
After her, another student walked past. Unlike the previous girl, the direction of her spit was aimed squarely at Chu Tianshu.
“So what if you’ve got a bit of money?” she snapped. “Take your filthy hands off my male god’s shoulder!”
The crowd gradually dispersed. Chu Tianshu and Lin Huai looked at each other, one utterly confused, the other helpless.
“…They,” Chu Tianshu struggled to organize his thoughts, “what do they mean? Dating? Rich guy? Fooling around?”
“It’s nothing. Just treat them all like idiots,” Lin Huai said coolly. “This is a world where everyone thinks I’m a beauty. Here, they don’t even allow me to have a normal friendship between men.”
The Master of Illicit Arts, who had just gotten out of the car, couldn’t help sighing to Qu Mei when he saw Lin Huai. “Hey, hey, look at that NPC. He’s so pretty. Obviously a guy yet that beautiful, he’s like a white bamboo rat among black bamboo rats…”
He turned his head, only to be met with the vacant, sluggish face of the chubby doll.
Master of Illicit Arts: ……
Clearly, Qu Mei had taken advantage of the earlier chaos to hide somewhere out of sight. What he left behind was only the doll he had forcibly stuffed into an ill fitting school uniform jacket.
“Oh right, I haven’t introduced you yet,” Chu Tianshu said, pulling the Master of Illicit Arts over. “This is our teammate for this round. This bald one is called Master of Illicit Arts. This chubby one is called Qu Mei ”
“Amitabha,” the Master of Illicit Arts clasped his hands in greeting. “Benefactor, may I have your phone number? Not to flirt, just that I have some Buddhist teachings I’d like to discuss with you…”
Chu Tianshu: ……
Lin Huai: ……
The Master of Illicit Arts was forcibly shoved under the car by Chu Tianshu. Qu Mei’s doll also quietly slipped away at that moment. With the two enormous third wheels gone, the two of them were finally able to face each other and have a one on one conversation.
“Lin Huai,” Chu Tianshu turned around. “You!!”
“Do you think I’m good looking?”
Chu Tianshu: OAO?
He fell silent for a moment. “Huh?”
“I’m just checking whether you’ve already been affected by the BUFF,” Lin Huai said, pointing at the tear mole on his face. “I’m a bit worried that our pure friendship might get polluted… Don’t misunderstand!”
In his line of sight, Chu Tianshu stared at that tear mole and fell silent.
Lin Huai’s heart sank.
“What is that?” he heard Chu Tianshu ask. “Eye gunk?”
Lin Huai: ……
“It’s a tear mole! A tear mole!” he snapped furiously. “The tear mole that comes with the Tomie BUFF! A soul stealing, heart capturing tear mole!”
“Oh, a tear mole…” Chu Tianshu scratched his head. “That’s kind of weird. I feel like you look better without makeup.”
Lin Huai: ……
“It’s just an extra mole, you’re still you,” Chu Tianshu continued. “If you really think it looks bad… why not just cover it with a bandage?”
Faced with such a straight man response, Lin Huai began to doubt his previously invincible charm and felt utterly lost.
In the end, he could only accept this sincere friendship. Chu Tianshu glanced at his watch. “It’s almost time for class. You should go in first, don’t let the other players see you. We’ll talk after class?”
“Oh. Okay.”
Lin Huai turned and walked into the school.
After Lin Huai left, Qu Mei, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke. “What are you trying to do?”
Chu Tianshu turned his head back, narrowing his eyes slightly. “What do you mean, what am I trying to do?”
“That person, he’s Tomie, isn’t he?” Qu Mei said calmly. “I originally thought ‘Tomie’ was an NPC but now it seems he’s a player as well. Just an unlucky one who happened to draw a task that puts him on the opposite side of the vast majority of players.”
“You know him and you don’t want him to die,” he continued his analysis. “You want to pull us in and gain our help.”
“You’re overthinking it.” Chu Tianshu laughed without the slightest courtesy. “I haven’t fallen so low that I need to rely on you to protect someone else.”
Qu Mei: …..
A trace of anger surfaced on his face. “Then are you saying you just acted on a whim and gave us a ride?”
“Yeah.” Chu Tianshu shrugged. “Is that not allowed?”
“Are you kidding me? Do you really dare say you have no ulterior motives at all?” Qu Mei sneered. “The two of us already know Tomie’s true identity. Granted, the fact that Tomie is actually male does go a bit beyond common sense but as long as we tell the others who he really is, he’ll die immediately. If you have any plans, there’s no need to keep hiding them…”
“Then I advise you not to do that.”
“And what if I insist?”
“Then you’ll die.” Chu Tianshu smiled.
A powerful sense of danger surged up in Qu Mei’s heart. Intense killing intent radiated from the smiling young man before him and only at this moment did he realize that the mental connection between himself and his puppet… had been severed.
“Honestly, I don’t really care whether you live or die,” Chu Tianshu said. At some point, a blade had already appeared against Qu Mei’s artery. “To be frank, I don’t really want to fight you. I’d rather not be laughed at by others for coming to a mid level instance just to bully rookies.”
“You!!”
“But the ‘Tomie’ setting is just too troublesome,” Chu Tianshu said, twirling a lock of his hair. “As long as the main body is injured and bleeds, copies will be created. If the copies are injured and bleed, more copies will be created. Children and grandchildren without end… Sure, a legal harem is everyone’s dream but when it comes to counterfeit goods all wearing the same face, I’ll have to decline.”
“So, to prevent that kind of situation from happening, I can only step in a little, abandon my dignity and beat up some noobs.” The young man sighed softly. “As for your main storyline, I don’t really care. It’s a competitive game, after all. If you’re scared stiff and don’t dare lay a hand on him, he’ll probably be bored to death. So I’ll leave you around to give him some entertainment but…”
The blade pierced shallowly into Qu Mei’s skin and bright red blood flowed down along the edge of the knife. “If you make him bleed, don’t blame me for cutting my losses in time, alright?”
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
Congratulations. You survived the chapter. Now survive the coffee request. 😈
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 111 · Although the author really didn’t want to writeChapter 112 · An explanation of the main storylineChapter 113 · Lin Huai’s QuestionChapter 114 · Hello classmateChapter 115 · Let me introduce the protagonist’s family backgroundChapter 116 · The innocent and naive Lin XiaohuaiChapter 117 · The Trisolarans ArriveChapter 118 · He Isn’t Fighting AloneChapter 119 · Why Here?Chapter 120 · A World Where Everyone Is Sculpted in ClayChapter 121 · How Could It Be YouChapter 122 · I want to sell my carChapter 123 · The Mysterious Transfer StudentsChapter 124 · Gu BeichenChapter 125 · The Male Lead of This StoryChapter 126 · A Voice Never Heard BeforeChapter 127 · You’re Tomie, aren’t you?Chapter 128 · I’ll give youChapter 129 · I just want to be with youChapter 130 · The Principal’s OfficeChapter 131 · Chu: I Disbanded Your Hate GroupsChapter 132 · Speak ProperlyChapter 133 · A Trisolaran Enters the Grand View GardenChapter 134 · Ji FengjianChapter 135 · About Me and YouChapter 136 · Kayako Likes ItChapter 137 · YouChapter 138 · I’ll Beat MyselfChapter 139 · I Want to See MyselfChapter 140 · The Trisolarans’ First Experience of Love and SexChapter 141 · The Trisolarans Try Romance Once MoreChapter 142 · The Trisolarans Try Romance for the Third TimeChapter 143 · It’s All This Buff’s FaultChapter 144 · The Way You Straight Men TalkChapter 145 · Why are you taking it so seriously?Chapter 146 · Chu Tianshu Shows Off His MusclesChapter 147 · Enter the DreamChapter 148 · Leave a little secretChapter 149 · Shadow StreamerChapter 150 · Don’t Look at MeChapter 151 · The Trisolarans betrayed StalinChapter 152 · Then I WillChapter 153 · The Trisolarans rewrite the Book of Life and DeathChapter 154 · What Career Could Be More Important Than Your Wife?Chapter 155 · Aren’t We Already Together?Chapter 156 · MVP of the Entire FieldChapter 157 · Meeting the FamilyChapter 158 · A Phone Call Across Time and SpaceChapter 159 · Lu Jin, You’re So MiserableChapter 160 · The Lands Of DaughtersChapter 161 · The So Called Pregnancy StreamChapter 162 · The Street Where Only the Two of Us ExistChapter 163 · No bare faceChapter 164 · Question 1: Do you have hair loss?Chapter 165 · LaxativesChapter 166 · Where Exactly Do You Exist?Chapter 167 · Seven ZeroChapter 168 · The issue of 0 and 1Chapter 169 · Wind ChimeChapter 170 · Visa and Wind ChimesChapter 171 · Continue to persecute Lu JinChapter 172 · Examiner: I’ve fallen in love with himChapter 173 · Lin Huai intimidates scalpersChapter 174 · Night of EvilChapter 175 · Congratulations to the Male Guests on Successfully Finding Their PartnersChapter 176 · Before ThisChapter 177 · The gong says he is terrifiedChapter 178 · The Tasker CampChapter 179 · I’m So ScaredChapter 180 · The Final Transitional ChapterChapter 181 · Four Beauties Among the FlowersChapter 182 · Plum FragranceChapter 183 · Dry Weather and Flammable ThingsChapter 184 · The Heartless Sword ManualChapter 185 · Only MeChapter 186 · The North PoleChapter 187 · Let Brother Lin Learn to Meow Like a CatChapter 188 · Good Night