#1781 - Between each other (Bullying me for so many chapters just for eating instant noodles)

I don’t know how much time passed.

When Nana Ohba regained consciousness, her clothes were already torn. Her bulging belly had returned to its original shape. Her entire body was covered with a sticky liquid that was wet and smelled disgusting. She opened her mouth, and the mucus mixed with saliva gushed out of her mouth and nose, making the face of this beautiful girl suddenly become distorted and ugly.

But at this moment, Nana Ohba didn't even have the lingering thought to pay attention to such things.

She looked up blankly and saw Duanmu Huai standing in front of her with a camera.

"Next time I see you here, I'm going to post all of this online."

Duanmu Huai shook the camera in his hand.

"I know where your home is and which class you're in. You'd better behave yourself, or don't blame me for being rude."

These were the last words Nana Ohba heard. The next moment, she lost consciousness and fell into a coma.

“………………You really can do such an extreme thing, Xiao Ai.”

Returning to the battlefield with Noise again, Kurokawa Akane destroyed the last monster that rushed towards him. He watched the opponent's body decompose, then carbonize into black dust and disappear into the air. He couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

"Is it too much?"

Duanmu Huai swung the chainsaw sword in his hand and stabbed it into the body of the monster lying at his feet. He shook the hilt of the sword and watched the monster's body being torn, split, and then disappeared by the chainsaw sword.

"That solves it."

Duanmu Huai turned his head and looked around. This time, Noise's luck was both good and bad.

Fortunately, they appeared in the center of an underground shopping mall. In such a crowded place, Noise could have killed many people and turned this place into a hell.

But their luck was also bad, because Duanmu Huai and Heichuan Akane happened to be shopping here.

So when these monsters appeared out of nowhere, Duanmu Huai's chainsaw sword directly hit the opponent's face.

And then naturally nothing happened.

"Very good, solved, call it a day."

Duanmu Huai put away his power armor and chainsaw sword, then walked to the door of the convenience store next to him and made a gesture to the people hiding inside—they didn't have time to escape just now, so they were guided by Kurokawa Akane to hide here, while Duanmu Huai and Kurokawa Akane just stood outside and eliminated all the Noise.

"It's safe now, you can leave."

“Thank you, thank you…”

The people who had escaped death from Noise were filled with gratitude towards Duanmu Huai and Kurokawa Akane. They thanked the two and left. There was even a little girl who smiled and waved at Duanmu Huai.

"Thank you, big sister. Goodbye."

Duanmu Huai also raised his hand and waved at the little girl. Seeing this scene, Kurokawa Akane next to him couldn't help but sigh.

"If that child knew that you had played with a girl about his own age last night, took some indecent photos of her, and threatened to post them online, I wonder what expression that child would have."

Hearing Duanmu Huai's words, Heichuan Akane stared at him and was silent for a moment.

"Is this why Xiao Ai is always reluctant to get close to others?"

"What's the meaning?"

"I know. On the surface, you have a good relationship with Ruby, Mai, and Kana, and people like Yanami and Chitanda are also your good friends. But I always feel that there is a certain strange distance between you and us..."

As he spoke, Kurokawa Akane stretched out his hand and drew a line between himself and Duanmu Huai.

"I have also considered the reason, but now it seems that Xiao Ai Ni did it on purpose."

“………………That’s right.”

There was a flash of surprise in Duanmu Huai's eyes when he looked at Heichuan Akane.

Is this the power of summoning a spirit? In terms of psychological observation ability, Kurokawa Akane is probably the strongest among all the people Duanmu Huai has ever seen.

But Duanmu Huai had to admit that what Kurokawa Akane said was right.

If he had traveled through an ordinary world, Duanmu Huai might have wanted to live an ordinary life. But unfortunately, Duanmu Huai traveled through a terrible world, a world with the largest garbage dump in the galaxy and the most disgusting monsters hatched from this garbage dump.

What’s worse is that they are about to be resurrected.

Some people say that life is a shit game. As long as you are alive, you can only face those bad things. The only choice is to delete the account and start over. Duanmu Huai feels the same now. As long as he is alive, he must face these bad things.

Oh, you're wrong. Even if he died, he would still have to face these bad things.

Yes, this is the disgusting thing about this world. Unless your soul is completely annihilated and disappears without a trace, death is just the beginning of another period of pain.

Of course, the reason why Duanmu Huai did this is inseparable from the player’s experience in the game.

At the beginning, many players entered Xinghai OL, because there are indeed many charming characters in Xinghai OL, so many players also like these characters like playing other games, and because Xinghai OL has a high degree of freedom, players can choose to recruit these characters, or live with them, create a harem, etc., and everyone has fun.

In any other world, this would be a good thing, but the problem is that this is a very fucked up world.

The NPC that the player likes will be killed, or corrupted and fallen. If the player finds out early, it may be possible to solve it. But if the player finds out too late, he will watch the other party fall and turn into a demon, and then he will have to choose whether to kill her or be killed by her.

Or when a war breaks out, your harem is killed by the enemy...NPCs will almost never be resurrected if they are killed, unless they are soul cards. And after being killed, their souls will be taken into the subspace of the evil gods and become their playthings forever.

What's even more cruel is that players will also see them in the evil god's space.

In the past, Duanmu Huai had led a random team to the Corrupted Forest to do a mission. In one forest, they found a fruit on a twisted and rotten tree. The fruit had human-like faces. When the team leader saw one of the fruits, he burst into tears and completely collapsed.

Later everyone found out that the face that appeared on the fruit was the commander's former adjutant NPC. The commander, who was still a newbie at the time, liked this NPC very much and took her with him wherever he went.

As a result, one time when he was destroying the lair of the Corrupted Filth, his lieutenant was killed, his body torn into pieces, and only a pile of rotting flesh remained.

After that, the player was depressed for a long time before he recovered.

Unexpectedly, he walked into the garden of the Corrupted Filth and stabbed him again.

After that, the commander lost his mind and wanted revenge madly, but the result was a miserable defeat as expected.

In this regard, the old players have only one feeling.

Hehehe, this kind of pain is so delicious!

That’s right, there are quite a few players like the newbie commander. Some people were so frustrated after suffering a blow that they quit the game cursing “What a crappy game”, but there were still many players who insisted on playing. It’s just that they changed their minds afterwards and learned from their mistakes.

This is also the source of the mechanical flow and the Zerg flow.

As for the Zerg, we are all a swarm. We won’t feel sad or heartbroken if a few of them die.

The same goes for the mechanical flow. Machines are just data, so it doesn’t matter how they die. To ascend to the status of a weak machine with flesh and blood, one still needs a heart of steel.

The only thing left is to change your job to Soul Walker. After all, as long as you have a resurrection card, you don’t have to worry about the NPC following you dying.

Of course, there is a constant stream of new players joining the game. The same is true for new players who have suffered trauma. Then they will post messages under their own accounts or on forums. Some people angrily denounce the game company for being inhumane, while others cry and scream and curse why the game company tortures them like this.

For example, a player once posted that he started playing the game because he broke up with his girlfriend and wanted to fill his inner sadness. Then he met a beautiful and gentle girl in a planet world in the game. She was also very gentle to him, always following him around and cheering him up. This deeply touched the fragile heart of the newbie, and he swore that after the mission here was completed, he would leave this planet world with this girl.

Of course, if this is true, then it would be a "good ending".

But the problem is that this newbie is too capable. Not only did he discover the secret of the evil cult hidden in this planet, he also traced the source and finally found out that the girl was the vessel used by the cult to summon the evil god's servants.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

When the newbie arrived at the ceremony, the girl beside him had been twisted and transformed into a pink, ugly and twisted monster.

Then Meng Xin had to kill her himself.

Then he didn't even pick up the equipment dropped by the other party, and went to the forum to complain.

In this regard, the attitude of those veteran players is basically……………

"Hehehe, this damn pain is so sweet, this is the teeth I want to see!"

"Welcome newbies to join Star Ocean OL!"

"The anger and sadness that overflowed from the text reminded me of the past, when I was also so young..."

Many players have fallen into this trap, and the reason is very simple. Even if you see the complaints of predecessors in the forum, you will only think that they are not strong enough or have bad luck. If it were you, you would never make these mistakes. Moreover, the seniors have summarized their experience and lessons for you. Isn't it enough to just follow the strategy to avoid the pit?

But the fact is—everyone goes and steps on others with full confidence, then comes back crying and complaining, and then becomes one of the forum's accomplices, starting to take pleasure in watching others' suffering.

From this point of view, the relationship between the Inquisitor and other people is very similar to that between a doctor and a patient. It is not easy for a doctor to empathize with patients. After all, there are so many patients. If you empathize with every one of them, you will be very tired and may even collapse. After the player becomes an Inquisitor, the relationship between him and other NPCs is also like that between a doctor and a patient. When they see that you are in trouble, they will help you and want to solve it, but they will not be too emotionally involved.

The same goes for Duanmu Huai.

He had a good relationship with most of the people in the Tribunal, and even had close contact with some of them, but this was one thing and that was another. Once they encountered something that could not be reversed, Duanmu Huai had to make a judgment and cut off without emotion.

For example, what if spellcasters like Naruse Mio and Frillian's psychic powers go out of control and cause psychic damage?

Is it like in anime, comics and games, calling the other person back with deep affection?

Or purify it directly?

Duanmu Huai would naturally choose the latter without hesitation.

Too much emotion will only hinder action.

Therefore, no matter who he faced, Duanmu Huai would keep a distance to avoid this. To put it more extreme, even if his close comrades like Ann and Mary were killed or even corrupted in front of Duanmu Huai, Duanmu Huai had to make a decision calmly instead of rushing over in anger and giving himself up.

"That's what the Inquisitor said."

Duanmu Huai shrugged.

"There's only one thing we have to do, and what we have to do won't change, so a certain degree of distance is important. Otherwise, you'll just be crushed."

"Hmm...I don't think so."

"Yeah?"

"Um."

In response to Duanmu Huai's answer, Heikawa Akane smiled and nodded.

"Because you are willing to distance yourself from them, it means that you care about them. After all, if you don't care about someone, there is no need to distance yourself from them. Even if they die in front of you, you won't be shaken. Just like the two girls you bullied before, you didn't feel any guilt at all. By keeping your distance, you are actually acknowledging that their existence will affect your feelings, right?"

“……………………”

Duanmu Huai stared at Heichuan Akane silently, then shook his head.

"It's a waste of your talent to be an actor. I think it would be more suitable for you to be a detective or a fortune teller."

"Fortune-telling? You mean divination? Why divination?"

"Because you understand other people's psychology very well, isn't it easy to comfort others this way?"

"Isn't that the job of a psychiatrist?"

"A fortune teller is better than a psychiatrist."

A psychologist will only tell you to comfort yourself and not to argue with others over meaningless things as it is bad for your health.

But the fortune teller's story is very simple. He will tell you directly that that person is incompatible with you and that continuing to be together will only bring you trouble.

Well, people generally prefer the latter.

“Ding-ling-ling…”

Just then, the cell phone rang. Duanmu Huai picked up the phone, and then a hurried voice came from it.

"Ms. Duanmu, Ms. Kurokawa, where are you!?"

"We were shopping and killed a bunch of Noises that came out of nowhere... Why haven't the people who cleaned up the mess arrived yet?"

Duanmu Huai looked around with his phone in hand. Although the underground mall was not damaged much because they showed up in time this time, generally speaking, there would be soldiers to block the area. However, he and Kurokawa Akane had been chatting here for a while, but he didn't see anyone.

"Shengxiang College has been attacked by Noise! ​​There are so many of them! Please hurry...!"

However, the conversation was cut off before he could finish, leaving only a busy tone.

"Good fellow."

Duanmu Huai glanced at Heichuan Akane.

Could it be that the giraffe was irritated by me and was planning to steal my house?

This is interesting.