Aoki had always thought that everything in the simulated world was fake.
Even though he had truly obtained props from the simulation, he still didn’t believe that world really existed.
Wasn’t it all fabricated by the System?
Lin Qiyou’s and Nongli’s worlds were connected, so weren’t they both fake?
But no matter how much he tried to deny it, felt perplexed, or didn’t understand, the people standing before him would not lie.
Would not… lie?
No, that’s not right!
Aoki instinctively felt this was some kind of scam. He stepped back two steps, glancing left and right. Maybe this was some illusion magic, and someone had cast a spell on him—so that Lin Qiyou appeared before his eyes.
Who was it?
“Yuelan?! Is it you?!”
Aoki called out Yuelan’s name. He admitted, he now had a kind of PTSD when it came to Yuelan; whenever something bad happened, he’d immediately suspect her.
“Yuelan?”
Lin Qiyou lowered her sword. “So you really are connected to her?”
Aoki ignored her, walking past to the empty interior of the chapel.
Only a third of it had been decorated. Everything looked slapdash and shoddy. Aoki’s lonely figure made Lin Qiyou fall silent. After a moment, she followed.
Aoki was speaking, directing all his suspicions and accusations at Yuelan, while Lin Qiyou listened in silence.
“You knew I was awake a long time ago, didn’t you?”
“Why use illusions to face me?”
“All those hallucinogenic potions—just to control me mentally, isn’t that it?”
“Come out! Say it to my face!”
After a long while, when Aoki’s steps finally stopped and his angry gaze turned to disbelief, Lin Qiyou finally spoke. “What did I say to you before?”
“……”
Aoki narrowed his eyes, saying nothing. Lin Qiyou continued, “In front of me, you always… have grievances, but never say them.”
“……”
Aoki frowned.
“I also said, no matter where or when, I will come to save you.”
Both Aoki and Lin Qiyou were unexpectedly calm.
They sized each other up. After a while, Aoki spoke, “Lin Qiyou?”
“Eat.”
Lin Qiyou nodded.
“Why are you here?”
Aoki instinctively touched his abdomen.
“To save you.”
Lin Qiyou stared at Aoki’s hand.
“Save me?”
“Yes.”
“……”
Aoki still wore a suspicious look. He reached out and fumbled in his chest. Lin Qiyou, in sync, lifted the robe covering her waist.
She held a silver bell in her hand, and there was one at her waist as well.
Aoki shook his, and the silver bell at Lin Qiyou’s waist rang out in harmony.
Now, Aoki had no choice but to believe.
After getting messed with by his rare little sister-in-law Yuelan, the fairy from the simulated world had become real!
So, Lin Qiyou’s reason was…
To save him?
Aoki closed his eyes. The first simulation was the words Lin Qiyou had said to him.
“Are you scared? You’re mine—I’ll protect you.
“I’ll help you speak up when the time comes and let out all your bottled grievances.”
“What grievances? Who dares to wrong me?”
“I swear, no matter where you’re bullied, I’ll help you.”
“That’s a bit much!”
“Pinky swear!”
“As long as I shake the bell, I’ll know where you are.”
Aoki opened his eyes, staring blankly at the silver bell on Lin Qiyou’s waist.
“I’m sorry.”
“Hm?”
“I said… I’m sorry.”
Lin Qiyou’s face was solemn. She took a deep breath and said:
“Let me complain a bit first, all right?
Why is it that I had to become your tormentor without even knowing it?
Clearly, I knew nothing, always imagining giving you freedom, only to be told in the end that it was me who was bit by bit consuming you.”
Aoki sighed, but in the end didn’t say, “I have my reasons.”
“But, after all this time, I’ve come to terms with it.
Lin Qiyou, just as she said, only wanted to vent a little. She sheathed her sword. “It’s true that I wronged you—there’s no changing that. The parasite eggs in the flesh were born sinful.
So, so… now, I’m using my own strength to come to this world, using my own effort to find you.
I saw you were in a predicament, so I came to rescue you from disaster.”
“Your own strength? Rescue me from disaster?”
Aoki didn’t immediately understand what Lin Qiyou meant.
Her own strength—did that mean the spirit vein?
But where did this “disaster” come from?
Wait, the swordsman in white… the massacre in Rose Capital…
Suddenly, Aoki remembered that Benji City in the simulation had also experienced these things.
“Yes. To save you, I’m willing to do many things.”
Lin Qiyou seemed to have caught Aoki’s thoughts. She smiled lightly, speaking of those things as if they were nothing.
“Aoki! Run! She’s here for you!”
Suddenly, Cuihua’s voice rang out. Aoki turned his head to find Cuihua standing behind him, her face full of fear. “She’s the butcher of Rose Capital!”
“Looks like it’s a misunderstanding. I thought she was Yuelan’s lackey.
I found my way here through the alchemy furnace blueprint you designed.”
Lin Qiyou waved to Cuihua with a friendly smile.
Aoki looked back at Lin Qiyou. “You mean, the Yuelan incident was your doing?”
“I went to Rose Capital to find her and discovered she was a mad saintess. All those cultists were her lackeys and attacked me first. My counterattack wasn’t a massacre.
However, Yuelan’s disappearance had nothing to do with me. Someone else moved her out of Rose Capital.”
Lin Qiyou was not one to lie, so after a few seconds, Aoki chose to believe her. At the same time, he thought about the so-called Rose Capital massacre.
If Lin Qiyou hadn’t disrupted the Capital, Yuelan wouldn’t have been moved out; if Yuelan hadn’t been moved out, he wouldn’t have had such an easy time simulating lately.
And all of this was because of his alchemy furnace, his medical records…
So this is the butterfly effect?
Aoki gave Cuihua a calming gesture, then asked Lin Qiyou, “Then, do you know about the other faction?”
“The other faction—I only know the person’s name… Lord Nongli. Nongli.”
“What did you say?”
Aoki’s eyes widened. “She’s real too?”
*****
…….
After leaving Qin Feng’s place again, Nongli’s expression was filled with anger.
That Qin Feng seemed to be doing it on purpose—whatever was asked, he didn’t know, and even if tortured, he wouldn’t say a word, stubborn as ever.
Who exactly was the Aoki that Qin Feng spoke of?
“Tch…”
Nongli headed to the pavilion to listen to those officials read reports aloud, but after only a short while, she found it boring and dismissed them, then dismissed the maids as well. Suddenly, something one of the maids said made her pause—she should be handling official business at this hour, yet all she wanted was to escape, to go find that human brat and make that so-called bet.
And every single time, she was the one who lost.
Just a distraction?
Thinking this way, Nongli felt she was only lying to herself. He was just a medicinal catalyst—so why did her heart stir so much when she thought of him?
Not long after, two female physicians came to see her, wanting to discuss the matter of Aoki entering the medicine.
If Aoki and Lin Qiyou were present, they would surely recognize these two.
Because they were the very ones who had once transplanted the spirit vein.