AUS Chapter 25: Kiss Liu Jiang Again

In open-world exploration games, the visible world is enclosed by an invisible but tangible air wall. It seems free, but you can only move within this designated area. Beyond the area is nothingness, and within it, everyone acts as if it’s normal.

I clearly saw the line of sky fire cut across an office building. Through the distant light, I could see many ordinary office workers inside, moving between their workstations, communicating, working as usual.

Unaware that they were living in a dream.

The waiter stepped forward, approaching the viewing glass like me, and stated, “Although this simulation appears real, they are simply self-contained simulation programs, including me. We are real, but foolish, oblivious to anything outside this world.”

I gripped the railing, choosing not to look back at him. I knew what he was trying to say.

He wanted to tell me that the Liu Jiang here was also one of these foolish and unaware NPCs.

If, before today, unaware of the Relive plan’s boundaries, I happened to come to the edge of the city with Liu Jiang, I would have looked up at the boundary, which resembled a divine miracle, and then turned to Liu Jiang for confirmation.

And he would have looked at me as usual and said, “There’s nothing there.”

The waiter beside me was about to continue speaking when I suddenly stepped back from the railing. I said, “Alright, enough. Let me go back.”

The waiter tilted his head and looked at me. I once again felt a sense of pressure from his gaze.

He asked, “Have you thought it through?”

Thought through that the people in the Relive plan weren’t real humans, and even if I could awaken them, the result might not be what I wanted.

I closed my eyes and nodded haphazardly. “Yes, it doesn’t matter anymore. Let me go back.”

The waiter turned to face me. The observation elevator stopped. The last image I saw was the beautiful cityscape of Liancheng outside the glass, and the constantly flickering and changing skyline.

I missed the last subway home.

I spent the night in the office building.

I found a vending machine in the stairwell that hadn’t been emptied yet. I bought two protein bars and a bag of chips with the loose change in my drawer. After drinking jasmine tea brewed from tea bags in the break room, I put two chairs together at my workstation to make a makeshift bed and fell asleep.

The apocalyptic night wasn’t quiet. In a daze, I heard the sounds of engines, wind, faint footsteps, and even voices. I woke up in a daze a few times; the dark workstation was empty.

After waking up, I decided to go home on time from now on.

For no particular reason, this feeling of making do on an office chair for a night was too much like the times I had worked overtime in the past.

Compared to working overtime all night, the apocalypse didn’t seem so scary.

I woke up at six in the morning. Waiting until Haozi and the others started work, I went downstairs to get a free cup of coffee and chatted with him for a bit.

I had a gut feeling now. I needed to interact with real humans. I needed to be normal, instead of being mentally consumed by the Relive plan, even thinking about awakening people in a program.

It was raining today. Raindrops mixed with mud splattered down. I ran into Haozi, and after greeting him, we huddled together under an umbrella.

Haozi spoke first. He said, “You look a bit pale today. Didn’t sleep well?”

I sipped my coffee and told him I didn’t sleep well because of the strong wind last night. Haozi hesitantly nodded, seemingly puzzled because there didn’t seem to be much wind yesterday.

I couldn’t tell him that I spent the whole night distinguishing between reality and dreams.

Since going back and forth into the Relive plan, I often had dreams that confused reality and the simulation. I dreamt that I was taking the subway to school, wearing my school uniform, walking to the school gate, and suddenly remembering that I had left my backpack at the company. I returned to the company, then remembered that I was going to be late for class. After struggling back and forth all day, I took the subway home, exhausted, not knowing which home to return to.

In a daze, the subway lights suddenly went out. I opened my eyes in the darkness and found myself in an apocalyptic world, different from both.

After drinking coffee and chatting for a bit, I returned to the office building under an umbrella.

Back on the office floor, I didn’t immediately go to the testing room. I walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the office, trying to sort out my chaotic thoughts.

I had a feeling that I didn’t dare look into the distance. I felt that if I looked up, I would see that aurora-like skyline again. Standing on the thin carpet of the office, I took a deep breath, opened my eyes, and only saw the distant gray sky, and the city below, with few traces of human activity.

Last night, before I exited the Relive plan, the system gave me a warning.

He said that if I had any further intentions of awakening NPCs, he would take certain measures to “remind” me.

I looked at him skeptically, ultimately choosing not to pursue the matter, and turned to leave. Now, standing in front of my office window, I recalled his words.

But I didn’t care. I had the courage to start over. The so-called “reminder” was probably just being kicked out a few times, bumping my head a few times. As long as he didn’t touch Liu Jiang. Although he was just a program in the simulation, he was still Liu Jiang, a Liu Jiang who was getting closer to the Liu Jiang in my memories.

To me, he was still Liu Jiang.

Putting on the helmet, I re-entered the simulation.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in the quiet night of Liancheng, the warmth in my chest yet to subside. I had just been running; my breathing wasn’t steady.

Occasionally, cars drove by. The air was filled with the scent of summer vegetation. Everything was normal, as usual.

I slowed my pace and walked forward slowly, all the impulses from before I last exited the Relive plan thrown to the back of my mind. I felt it would take me a while to get used to this sense of loss.

But I didn’t expect what happened next to completely overturn my sense of loss and leave me utterly bewildered.

The next day was an ordinary school day, an ordinary math class, an ordinary break. The only unusual thing was that Liu Jiang was absent without notice.

He hadn’t come in the morning. His empty desk held only a water bottle from the day before. He had skipped class.

I messaged him during break, but he didn’t reply. I asked his usual companions like Haozi and Liang Yi, but they didn’t know where Liu Jiang had gone either. I wasn’t a student council member or a class representative, so I couldn’t ask the teacher about his whereabouts.

So, after the second class ended, I switched outdoor cleaning duties with the student on duty that day, deciding to pretend to sweep while actually climbing over the wall to take a look.

Listening to the noisy students on the playground, I stood at the base of the wall, pretending to swing the broom, mentally calculating my escape route. From my current position, if I ran at full speed, it would only take ten minutes to reach his house, knock on the door, go inside, and find him.

But I hesitated again. What if he was just sleeping in at home?

What if something had happened at his home?

What if he simply didn’t feel like going to school?

Then, my skipping class to find him would seem—superfluous. Mainly, it wouldn’t befit my identity as a high-achieving high school student. I had never skipped class in high school, neither in the past nor now.

As I hesitated, picking up the broom and putting it down again, I heard the rustling of leaves behind me. The wind picked up; I still hadn’t decided whether to look for him.

Just then, a paper ball, neither light nor heavy, landed on the back of my head.

Damn it.

Who?

Anger flared up inside me. I immediately turned around to look, and the scene before me suddenly overlapped with an eternal memory in my mind.

Liu Jiang was squatting on the wall, backlit. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but I could clearly see the sunlight filtering through his almost translucent white hair, sending all the light into my eyes.

—Wait, white hair?

My expression must have been truly foolish, because Liu Jiang, backlit on the wall, suddenly jumped down. I heard the clinking of metal accessories colliding and saw a hint of concern on his face.

He asked, “Did that knock you silly?”

I said, “Don’t move.”

He didn’t move. I abruptly reached out and grabbed his hair, successfully eliciting a yelp from him.

He clutched his forehead and retreated repeatedly, yelling at me, “What are you doing?”

My hand was still raised in midair. I asked him, “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t dye your hair again?”

I thought it was another wig.

He stood up straight. I saw his face turning red. He said, “I thought I’d change my look. I thought about it all night and went to dye it this morning.”

He took a step back, pointed at himself with his index fingers, and asked, “How is it?”

I opened my mouth, finally seeing his face clearly with his dyed white hair.

Perhaps because I was looking at him at eye level, the blurriness from the last time I saw his white hair was gone. I stared directly at the face that had flashed through my mind countless times on many nights.

Long, narrow eyes, a high nose bridge, looking fierce when he wasn’t smiling, and too soft when he smiled. This half-smile, half-serious expression suited him best, because it looked like he would turn into a fox and run away in the next second.

He was wearing a slightly long black knit cardigan over a tank top. His bass bag hung from his shoulder like a half-wing. What was he wearing the first time? I couldn’t quite remember, but it felt similar, perhaps even better looking now.

Under the shade of the trees, dappled light fell on his shimmering silver hair. He seemed closer to me than the first time, both psychologically and physically.

I raised my hand again and tugged on the ends of his hair.

I asked, “How did you dye the tips of your hair?”

The color he dyed was the same as the first time, silver-white at the roots, black at the tips, looking even more like animal fur.

Having a clump of hair pulled like that should have hurt, but he didn’t flinch. His eyes were filled with a smile, as if I were praising him.

He said, “Pretty good technique, right?”

I was too busy looking at him to register what he was saying, absentmindedly nodding in agreement. “Yeah, same as before.”

Wait.

I slipped up!

But I paused for two seconds; nothing happened around us.

Liu Jiang was very close to me, blinking at me. Judging by his reaction, he didn’t seem to understand what I had said. This new look, which took two class periods to achieve, seemed to give him a different aura. He was as relaxed and composed as he was on stage.

I had only seen him perform once, and he was like this on stage that day.

Wait a minute. Since he didn’t understand, the system wouldn’t flag it as a violation. Could I continue?

But the system warned me not to try again.

The worst that could happen was being kicked out. Should I try again? Right now.

After taking a deep breath, I suddenly saw something flashing behind Liu Jiang. I focused my gaze and realized it was an ordinary display screen, hanging at the school gate, usually scrolling through weather forecasts, exam wishes, holiday greetings, or school rules and regulations.

At this moment, I saw the display screen flickering rapidly. Under my gaze, it went blank for a moment, then strings of identical characters scrolled across it, overwhelming, incredibly fast.

All the same six characters—”Do not continue attempting.”

Since the display screen was behind Liu Jiang, from his perspective, I was just staring blankly behind him.

“What are you looking at?” Liu Jiang asked, about to turn around.

Not good.

Liu Jiang would see it!

Actually, thinking about it, it wouldn’t be a big deal if Liu Jiang saw it. I could just casually tell him that someone in the school control room must be messing around, or I could pretend I didn’t see anything.

But by the time I had thought all this through, I had already cupped his chin in my hands and kissed him.