Chapter 17 : The Neighbor’s Child

If the door was opened without inserting any chips, then this door would not lead to any game venue.

Ming Po stuffed the phone by his bedside, the one with no internet connection, into his pocket. Then he opened the door and once again walked into this gray-white, silent present world.

He was in quite a good mood right now, and even began humming the tune of Singin’ in the Rain.

Outside the apartment was the old-fashioned elevator he was familiar with, one that seemed a bit too outdated in this current era. Ming Po tried pressing the button, but as expected, he could not interact with it.

However, for some reason, he also could not pass directly through the wall and jump down the elevator shaft.

Just as Ming Po was thinking about whether he should go down to the second floor and jump out the window to test whether this version of himself, who had already died once, would still fall to his death, the door opposite him suddenly opened.

A girl wearing a long black trench coat, with an instrument case on her back, walked out holding a phone.

She was similarly gray-white and had an astonishing height… less than half a head shorter than Ming Po, who was 186 cm tall. She should be approaching 180 cm. That kind of height was not considered short even for northern men. As a southern girl, one could imagine how many heads she turned when she walked down the street.

She did not see Ming Po at all and instead stood directly in front of the elevator. Her body nearly overlapped with Ming Po’s.

“…”

Ming Po did not move. He merely watched as she walked toward him.

As if sensing a little coldness, the girl reached out and buttoned the collar of her trench coat as well.

He stared blankly at her, and sealed memories gradually revived.

Ming Po knew her. One could even say he had watched her grow up.

Her name, or nickname, should have been “Yueyue,” or something with a similar pronunciation. He was not clear about her surname. He only knew that her father was a very tall man from Inner Mongolia, though he had never asked about his specific job. Ming Po only knew that her mother was very impressive, a university professor who taught viola. It was said that she had even won awards when she was young.

Sometimes, the graduate students she supervised would come to her home to help out, and she would also give lessons at home.

Yueyue had been born when Ming Po was in third or fourth grade in elementary school. Back then, she cried loudly at night, making an unbearable racket. But Ming Po’s personality had been relatively introverted and shy at the time. He was too embarrassed to go over and ask the neighbors to be quieter, and also too embarrassed to tell the auntie about it, so he could only toss and turn and force himself to fall asleep.

Later, after she grew a little older, the couple across the hall also gradually became busier, and the two families gradually became familiar with each other. Sometimes, when her mother went out on business trips or competitions, she would entrust Yueyue to the auntie at Ming Po’s home to look after.

As the saying went, herding one sheep was herding, and herding two sheep was also herding. The employer had no objections, the auntie had no objections, and Ming Po had no objections either. When Ming Po was little, he was not as silent and quiet as he later became, so the two of them actually got along quite well.

Back then, Ming Po would watch anime at home, and she would follow along and watch with him. When he played games, she would also sit beside him and watch.

It was just that Ming Po liked playing games like Dad ‘n Me, Grand Theft Auto, and Silent Hill at the time, so he could not bring someone else along to play with him. The only game he could play with another person was the newly released Samurai Warriors from back then, but the little girl was too young and could not understand how to play it.

Later, when he moved away, she was still in kindergarten. By the time he moved back, he had not seen her again.

Now, judging by her age, she should have just started university.

Why was she coming out of her house?

And that instrument case on her back… was she in a band?

Did playing in a band really require sacrificing one’s education as the price?

Ming Po was a little curious, so he stood still in place and looked at the messages on her phone screen.

And “Yueyue” clearly did not know that there was currently a ghost overlapping with her and standing together with her. She only typed messages rapidly with her fingers.

Sure enough, it was a band that was about to perform.

Ming Po shook his head and was too lazy to meddle. He followed her into the elevator.

He stood rather bored in the elevator and watched as it descended.

The girl seemed somewhat sensitive. She kept looking left and right uneasily, as if she sensed something, yet she could never figure out where the problem was.

At that moment, a message popped up on the phone screen, drawing Ming Po’s attention:

[Cucumber Martial God: Did you hear? Lawyer Chen was shot dead yesterday!]

…Lawyer Chen?

Ming Po raised an eyebrow, realizing something.

It couldn’t be Fox, could it?

“Eh?”

Yueyue let out a stunned sound, froze for a moment, then quickly typed.

The message she sent appeared on the right side:

[Someone can still get shot dead in China these days?]

[Cucumber Martial God: Not in China. I heard he was shot dead in France.]

[Great British Detective Orange Shirley: Could he have been robbed? No stealing, no England; no robbery, no France.]

[Cucumber Martial God: I don’t know, but on Yinfu, they’re saying he was assassinated! I heard he offended some big shot.]

“Shot dead…”

Ming Po chewed over those words.

No clear motive was given, no one was caught, and all they knew was that he had been shot dead… No matter how he looked at it, this was suspicious.

Fox seemed to have been an intelligence broker. Could he really have offended someone?

Yueyue clicked her tongue and replied:

[You believe online news too? And which Lawyer Chen are you talking about?]

[Cucumber Martial God: The one who livestreamed.]

[Great British Detective Orange Shirley: Don’t you feel like things have been kind of chaotic lately? More than a dozen celebrities and influencers have died this month! Should we maybe perform a few fewer shows? What if we get famous?]

[Cucumber Martial God: ?]

[Qunmaosi, Can Sing Gong Xi Fa Cai: ?]

[?]

[If you’re really afraid of dying, stop riding that second-hand motorcycle of yours.]

[Cucumber Martial God: True.]

[Great British Detective Orange Shirley: Honestly, I’m not surprised at all when I hear a motorcycle-zone streamer had an accident.]

[Great British Detective Orange Shirley: That Jasmine-chan from last week also challenged a dump truck one-on-one and turned into jasmine paste. I actually liked her quite a bit.]

[Her boyfriend was in the accident with her, you really want to like her?]

[Great British Detective Orange Shirley: Forget it. No need to launch a full assault on a dump truck.]

…That seemed to be Raccoon.

Ming Po suddenly realized something.

More than a dozen celebrities and influencers

Could it be that when the Deceitful Game grabbed people, it did so according to some kind of rule or shared trait?

But “Rabbit,” who had died several months ago, had also been grabbed over. Then what use did this sudden batch of deaths have?

Or was it that someone was using quantity to make up for probability, trying to send a certain person or certain people into the game?

Then how was I dragged in?

I’m not some influencer… I don’t even have a public personal account.

[Nyarlathotep: I actually have mysterious intel.]

[Nyarlathotep: It’s said that this batch of influencers actually aren’t fully dead. They’re fighting Kobe with elbows in some mysterious place to compete for revival-match slots.]

[Great British Detective Orange Shirley: …Honestly, that hell joke is a little immoral, isn’t it?]

[Nyarlathotep: How should I put this…]

[Nyarlathotep: Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything.]

Immediately afterward, those two messages were recalled. Then the messages he had sent above were also recalled.

“…Hm?”

Ming Po let out a sound of surprise.

There was actually an unexpected harvest?

Did this riddler… know something?

Could it be that the Deceitful Game was not like those infinite-flow novels, where everything needed to be kept secret from outsiders? Even a random little street band had someone with information?

Or was the one with a problem actually this person? Had he come into contact with some Deceiver… or did some kind of Deceiver organization exist in the real world?

But after following her and watching up to this point, they had already left the residential compound.

Watching Yueyue walk in the opposite direction from him, Ming Po shrugged and did not follow.

It was not as if she could run away. If he really wanted to ask anything, he might as well investigate after she returned later.

She couldn’t possibly go out for a performance and then vanish, right?

Compared to that, he should make a trip to the company first.

The scale of No-Face God Studio was not particularly large, so it did not have a separate company building.

The company was located on the thirteenth floor of a relatively remote office building.

Ming Po still did not manifest himself. Instead, he directly hitched a ride on the elevator—he entered first, saw someone press the button for the thirteenth floor, then nodded in satisfaction and stayed there.

If there had been no one, Ming Po had planned to go out and wait for the next round. Or go there through the emergency stairs from the twelfth or fourteenth floor.

Climbing fourteen floors

If there was no benefit, he absolutely would not do something that stupid.

However

Ming Po glanced at the young man beside him who had pressed the thirteenth floor. He felt the guy looked somewhat unfamiliar.

Speaking of which, are you someone from our company?

Why do you look so ordinary?

Ming Po knew that their company’s boss might be a bit of a face-con. Whether the employees were male or female, at the very least, ugly ones were not wanted. Most employees also had rather decent talent and some quirks. Even someone with a strange personality like Ming Po was not especially outstanding inside.

But after the elevator reached the thirteenth floor, Ming Po impatiently followed that young man out, only to discover that the layout around him was somewhat unfamiliar.

Looking around, Ming Po’s memories began to recover.

In his vague impression, there should have been signposts at the company entrance, as well as a large number of merch items and posters.

There should have been two one-to-one life-size standees of “Aiwass” and “Isabel” placed here—these were two important popular characters in the game he was responsible for. One could say they were the two most popular characters in the protagonist group.

Then beside them, there should have been a merch wall, filled with all sorts of official game merchandise—figurines, plush dolls, badges, standees, artbooks, trading cards, and a pile of gorgeous sculptures that had been made but were not for sale.

In the end, there was nothing here.

Only twenty or so boxes of Coke piled together. The plastic wrapping on the top layer had already been torn open, and half of it had been taken away.

Did the company collaborate with a Coke company? Why did they suddenly stock so much free Coke?

Ming Po was a little curious.

Although the company also had all sorts of drinks inside, those were placed in vending machines and could be bought by scanning a QR code or employee card. Of course, their boss was quite generous. Everyone had a daily free quota for drinks and snacks.

He bent down slightly, then furrowed his brows in disgust.

…Why is it cherry flavor?

Is this something humans drink?

Just as Ming Po was planning to go to the restroom and transform out, he suddenly saw the company name on the wall.

[Pikopiko Cat Studio.]

A studio Ming Po had never heard of.

“…?”

Ming Po froze for a while.

He felt confused as to whether the company had changed its name or moved away.

Then he impatiently headed to the restroom and took out a Time Chip.

“Manifest for [one hour].”

He commanded softly, then bit the red copper chip between his teeth.

(End of Chapter)