Chapter 182: The Ones Who Can’t Be Shaken Off (1)
Su Mingxiu found her consciousness slipping into a hazy blur.
She could faintly hear a booming roar, but she couldn’t make out the details. Calmly, she sorted through her memories, confirming that the part about the system hadn’t disappeared this time. Then, she started reviewing everything from her first system mission onwards.
After confirming that her soul power was gradually increasing and preventing the system from manipulating her, Su Mingxiu calmly waited for the system to announce the background of this mission.
But she waited a long time. Other than discerning that the roaring sound was getting closer and clearer, she didn’t hear any sounds in her mind.
Suddenly, she opened her eyes.
In the pitch-black environment, a single beam of light shone from the opposite corner, drawing her attention. Su Mingxiu stood in place, realizing she couldn’t move at all.
The light flickered, radiating outwards from the opposite side…illuminating her flank.
And the booming sound she had heard earlier was coming from behind her. It was a line of dialogue amidst the music: “Even if you are cold and heartless, I don’t care. I thought a sincere heart could warm you, but the one thing I didn’t expect was that you clearly love her, yet you use me as a shield, making me suffer the hardships that belong to her…”
“Are you done? If you are, get lost. You’re an eyesore.” Oh.
So, she was in a movie theater.
Su Mingxiu listened to the melodramatic, stilted dialogue. Her eyes flickered as she looked at the screen to her side. From this angle, she couldn’t see any of the movie, only the changing lights of the theater.
She noticed that she was wearing a light blue jumpsuit. Her left hand held a broom, her right hand held a bucket, and she had a plain employee badge pinned to her chest. The name on it was so random that she was stunned for a moment:
“Theater Cleaner A”
Su Mingxiu: “…”
Damn system, you’re dead.
She glanced at the audience in the darkness below, their heads a dense mass. With her good vision, she could spot a familiar face in the couple’s seats in the middle of the last row.
Su Mingxiu was about to take a step in that direction, trying to get a clearer view, when she realized her body was like it had been hit with a freezing spell. She couldn’t move at all, like a puppet whose program hadn’t started.
At the same time.
The person she was watching was cautiously placing the empty Häagen-Dazs ice cream cup to the side, trying to move away. Unfortunately, a hand around her waist pulled her in the opposite direction. “What’s wrong?”
Rong Rong couldn’t help but let her gaze shift to the person who was holding her. The pure white suit was like a white rose blooming alone in the darkness. The neat, short hair had a slight curve, the only softness in her otherwise austere features.
She looked at the person who exuded an aura of “I can close a two-hundred million dollar deal in minutes,” and gave an awkward yet polite smile.
“N-nothing.”
But her gaze couldn’t help but glance at the person’s head, where a large pink heart was jumping up and down. The number “99” was written in the middle of the heart.
…What is this tacky, vulgar thing?
Rong Rong was still baffled, thinking that she had been single for too long and was starting to fantasize about girlfriends in her dreams when she suddenly heard a “zizizi” static sound in her mind, followed by a calm, mechanical voice:
[Welcome to the “Breakup Strategy” holographic game. Congratulations on becoming the 101st lucky internal beta tester for the game. All experiences in this game will provide you with the most realistic sensations! I am System 001, and I am happy to serve you. A 30-minute newbie protection period has now begun, and a newbie gift pack has been issued. Would you like to open it?]
Huh?
Rong Rong was seriously reflecting on whether she had been under too much work pressure lately. Otherwise, how could her subconscious create such an outrageous dream? A breakup strategy? She was a single dog; did she need to add this useless knowledge?
Before she could think more, the person holding her waist chuckled softly and leaned in towards her.
Rong Rong’s eyes widened, her whole body stiff as a board. Before she could figure out what to do, she suddenly heard a bottle drop on the ground; it was from the next seat over.
She was startled and reflexively looked down, seeing an empty, crumpled cola bottle roll to her feet. Before she could lower her head, she noticed that the person holding her had loosened their grip slightly, saying with a hint of helplessness in her ear, “I knew that not booking the entire theater would bring trouble… But what can I do? I love how kind you are, always not wanting to cause trouble for others.”
“But, for coming to this kind of place for you, you’ll compensate me well tonight, right?”
A whole train of thought was running through Rong Rong’s head, making a “woo woo” sound. She didn’t dare to answer this dangerous question and used the excuse of returning the bottle to the person next to them.
Then, before the person next to her could say more, she picked up the bottle and passed it to the next seat, leaning over, “Did you drop this?”
The moment she asked the question.
She saw clearly the person sitting next to her.
The other person was wearing an exaggerated Baroque-style dress, pink and puffy, paired with a long-brimmed hat and light golden curls, making her look like a porcelain doll come to life. Rong Rong was shocked by her delicate makeup, then she noticed that this person also had that tacky heart on their head, with the number 100 inside, but it had stopped jumping.
Just as she handed over the bottle, the person under the light-colored hat slightly curled their lips, revealing a light, unconcerned smile. Slowly, they raised a hand… passed the bottle and grabbed her wrist.
“I dropped it.”
Rong Rong heard the other person say.
She: “?”
Before she could speak, she suddenly felt herself being violently pulled towards the other person, almost like her arm was being peeled off.
But soon, she couldn’t pay attention to the pain because a sharp blade, which had appeared out of nowhere, was piercing through her chest.
In the midst of the intense pain, she looked down and saw the blood gradually staining her clothes. She heard the “doll” who had pulled her over sniff at her neck and sigh as if in admiration, “Such a strong smell of money.”
“You’re all dirty.”
Rong Rong: “…”
She cursed in her heart. Before her consciousness faded into darkness, she heard a voice in her mind, “Detecting that the player is in the newbie protection period. Death record erased. Loading the storyline again.”
When Rong Rong, who had experienced a First Blood, opened her eyes again, she found herself still sitting in the movie theater. Thinking about the feeling of being stabbed through the heart, she unconsciously broke out in a cold sweat.
Then she started calling out to the system, “Is there no background introduction to your game?”
The system answered sincerely, “Yes, would you like to play the background animation for you now?”
Rong Rong thought about the perverted doll sitting next to her and the cola bottle that she didn’t know when would roll over, and she fearfully replied, “No, no, no, wait. Let me find a safe place before you play it.”
“Why are you covered in sweat? Are you cold?”
At that moment, the “two-hundred million” person next to her asked with some concern, and went to place a hand on her forehead. But Rong Rong suddenly jumped up, and left behind the words, “I want to go to the restroom.”
The woman looked up at her, smoothed her slightly folded collar, and replied unhurriedly, “Okay, come back soon.”
Rong Rong took off running.
As she turned the corner, she accidentally bumped into a figure in the darkness. She gave it a quick glance, not seeing any pink hearts or numbers, left a quick “Sorry,” and ran quickly out of the theater. She didn’t know if the NPC heard her.
Su Mingxiu, bumped by her, finally felt she had regained control of her body. Thinking about the bloody scene she had just witnessed, a thoughtful expression flickered in her black eyes. In the deafeningly loud theater, no one heard her meaningful words, “It’s okay.”
Inside the restroom.
Rong Rong, feeling like she had finally escaped this “Crazy Movie Theater,” leaned against a stall, panting, trying to recover from the fear of being killed once. Then, she heard a sound in her mind.
[Ding, detecting that the player’s mental state is not good. Would you like to adjust the game’s realistic sensations?]
[How do I adjust them?]
As soon as she asked, the girl saw a few bars appear in front of her, like adjusting the volume on a computer, but the names at the top were “Pain”, “Perception Sensitivity.” Below were checkboxes for “Death Record Screen Capture”, “Turn On Shura Field Warning”, and more.
Her fingertips hovered over them, not sure how to choose, feeling a bit dizzy.
[Why don’t you start by playing the opening anim-]
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Before she could finish talking to the system, Rong Rong heard the sound of someone knocking on her stall door. She felt her heart leap, like a hand had suddenly clenched it. “Who is it?”
“Baby, it’s me.” A very familiar voice.
It was that pink doll!
Rong Rong’s whole body collapsed. She didn’t dare not open the door. After a moment, a girl with red eyes, shivering, wearing a light blue round-necked dress came out of the stall, revealing a pitiful expression that, to an outsider, would be extremely sympathetic, but in reality, she was scared to tears:
“Why… why did you come here?”
The person wearing the fancy dress raised a hand and touched the tip of her nose. “You’re asking me? We agreed to watch a movie together. I waited for you for so long, and you ended up sitting in the seat next to me?”
“I mixed up the seat numbers. Who knew the person next to me would be someone who kept bothering me…”
Rong Rong half-truthfully wiped her tears, feeling like she might not be stabbed to death by this porcelain doll this time. She even secretly glanced to see if the other person was pulling out a blade.
“Don’t be afraid. I will protect you.” The other person reached out and pulled her out. Feeling her body still trembling, they couldn’t help but hug her, whispering comforting words.
Rong Rong: You’re the one I’m afraid of.
She sobbed fake tears in the woman’s arms, her chin rubbing against the lace trim on the other person’s shoulder, which was a bit painful. She was about to say something when she was suddenly lifted onto the sink, her back against the cold mirror.
The person holding her slowly looked over her dress, revealing a very disapproving look, “I wanted to ask you earlier, baby, why are you wearing such ugly clothes? This dress covers all the good points on your body. It’s so tacky and ugly. Can I change it for you?”
Rong Rong: “?”
She was still wondering how to change it when she saw the other person pull out a very familiar blade.
W-wait!
Half a minute later, the person sitting on the sink stared blankly at her originally ordinary dress, which had now become a barely-there, stringy style. She had instantly turned from an innocent girl into someone exuding temptation…nightclub style.
Rong Rong was stunned. Before she could react, the person who had satisfiedly put away the blade pressed on the back of her neck, wanting to lean in for a kiss, when suddenly they heard the sound of the stall door opening again.
“Click.”
The two of them turned their heads at the same time, seeing a figure in a wheelchair, weak and frail, as if a strong gust of wind could blow them away.
But the person in the wheelchair had very deep facial features. The sickly look on their face didn’t diminish their beauty; it made them look even more breathtaking.
She smiled gently, but her gaze was on Rong Rong, and she spoke slowly, word by word, “Did I disturb you, sister?”
Rong Rong looked at the red heart and the number 99 on her head, just like the “Two-Hundred Million” and “Doll,” and she felt numb. While she was still stunned, she noticed that the person in the wheelchair’s body swayed, looking like they were about to fall. She reflexively jumped off the sink and reached out to catch her.
“Sister still can’t let me go?”
“But…” the person she caught, weakly holding her, still looked like she couldn’t take care of herself, “Didn’t you promise me that you would only illuminate my life?”
Rong Rong heard a “puff” sound.
It was the sound of a knife piercing her body again.
She looked down again and saw blood. As her consciousness gradually faded, she thought, Thank god I lowered my pain sensitivity earlier! Damn it!
[Detecting that the player is in the newbie protection period. Death record erased. Loading the storyline again.]
[How many?]
Sitting back in the movie theater, Rong Rong calmly spoke in her mind.
System: “What?”
“How many boats…” Rong Rong, with her hands folded over her stomach and a particularly peaceful expression, asked it expressionlessly, “Tell me! How many boats am I stepping on in this role!”
Ah!
She let out a giant bear roar in her heart, thinking that she had just been a single person for over twenty years and hadn’t contributed to the country’s three-child policy. If she was at fault, the law could punish her. She really—
Did! Not! Deserve! This!
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