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ntranslator: baumkuchen editors: serefina, glitterypanda

nThe fish weren’t very hard to catch. These fish rarely saw people and had raised themselves to be plump beyond compare. Each and every one of them was simple and dull-minded. Chi Xiaochi caught a medium-sized one, then turned to Blue and said, “Knife.”

nA sharp, short knife popped out of the weapon storage on its arm.

nChi Xiaochi took it. “Give me another longer one.”

nBlue, acting in accordance to his words, pulled out a combat knife. Holding it by the blade, it passed the knife to Chi Xiaochi.

nChi Xiaochi skillfully sliced open the belly of the fish with the short knife, scooped out its innards, and scraped off its scales. Then, after washing his hands in the lake, he skewered the fish with the combat knife and set it up above the flames.

nIn the previous world, Chi Xiaochi had bought out half of everything in the storeroom. This also included a few daily necessities.

nHe first marinated fennel seeds in white wine for a while, then grinded them up and mixed them with salt, cumin and pepper, smearing the mixture across the surface of the fresh fish cooking above the flames.

nAs the fish oil sizzled, Chi Xiaochi got up and went to the nearby forest to pick up a few chestnut-like nuts. After confirming with 061 that they weren’t poisonous, he washed them and threw them into the fire.

nNot long after that, a cooked chestnut with a burst-open shell popped out of the flames, exposing its light brown, scorching hot flesh.

nChi Xiaochi really enjoyed this silent time as he gathered firewood and cooked food. So did 061.

nOnly when picking up the chestnuts did he finally speak, his voice neither too soft nor too loud, for fear of waking up the exhausted Ji Zuoshan.

nHe said, “Liu-laoshi, it seems like it’s been a long time since we’ve been alone together now.”

n061 smiled. He also followed him in suppressing his voice. “Seems like it.”

nChi Xiaochi glanced over. “Oh, I forgot, there’s still Blue.”

nBlue was off on the other side, flipping the fish to prevent the fish meat from burning, as if very interested in the suddenly-appearing sauce.

nChi Xiaochi stared at the dancing flames. He asked casually, “Liu-laoshi, I forgot, but how could you have forgotten too?”

n061 coughed lightly. “Don’t forget, I used to be human too. Forgetting things is normal.”

nChi Xiaochi said, “I keep feeling like Blue is too intelligent. Say, can it hear us speaking?”

n061, “……Do you want to say something to it?”

nChi Xiaochi pondered this seriously for a moment. “Blue, I want to sleep with you.”

n061, “……Can you say something more serious.”

nChi Xiaochi, “I’m being very serious. I’ll have you know, stuff like machines are more sensitive to emotions than humans. Like the things I used before……”

nFollowing that, before the fish was fully cooked, their perfectly fine conversation topic turned into a sex toy appreciation assembly.

n061’s ears were burning. “Oh, you.”

nChi Xiaochi clapped his hands together. “Right, back when Elder Sun caught me in the act while on break from filming, he used this exact tone.”

nFor some unknown reason, 061 didn’t really want to widen the age gap between Chi Xiaochi and himself. He explained, “I’m still young.”

nChi Xiaochi asked him, “How long have you been working as a system?”

n061 didn’t state it very clearly, “In total, probably a bit longer than ten years.”

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n“When did you pass on?”

n061 said, “Probably in my teens.” He didn’t remember the reason or any specifics any more.

nChi Xiaochi was actually very understanding. “It’s good that you’ve forgot.”

nThe fish was done. He tore open the slightly burnt fish skin. The white, fatty, jade-like meat was steaming hot. With just a touch of his hand, his fingers were burned by the steam, making him hiss with pain.

n061 immediately shelved all of his wandering thoughts and moved Blue to take his hand, pulled him over to the lake, and submerged his reddened hand in the cool lake water.

nBeing held by the wrist like this, Chi Xiaochi suddenly felt a little unused to it.

nBlue was like Dong Feihong, making him think of a certain someone who had passed. He didn’t talk as much, but always managed everything for him without a sound.

nChi Xiaochi felt like there was something wrong with his brain. He could see flowers even when looking at a machine.

nHe said, “The fish is going to burn.”

nBlue said gently, “……There’s no rush.”

nIt wasn’t like Chi Xiaochi didn’t find it strange.

nOther than not being able to find someone like Lou Ying in the second world, in the first, third and current world, he kept seeing Lou Ying, or rather, people who reminded him of Lou Ying.

nHe remembered that 061 had said in the first world that as he went deeper into the task worlds, the worlds that Chi Xiaochi went to would gradually lose their similarity to his original world. If he wanted to meet a living Lou Ying again, it would get harder and harder.

n……So, why was it that he would coincidentally meet each world’s “Lou Ying” in most of the worlds?

nThinking of this, Chi Xiaochi had a vague answer in his heart.

nOnly after confirming that his hand wasn’t going to blister did he sit back down by the fire. As he used the small knife that had been washed clean to cut open the fresh, tender, roasted fish meat, he asked:

n“Liu-laoshi, did the two hosts you brought along before, both not return to their original worlds?”

nWhen those two were brought up, 061 sighed slightly. “En.”

n“Why?”

n061 said, “The ninth host was a junior high school teacher. He chose to stay in a world where the original host was a university lecturer, because he fell in love with one of his students during his task.”

n061 then said, “The tenth host was an ordinary, low-ranked civil servant. He chose to stay in an ancient world where the original host was an emperor. ……I don’t think I need to explain the reason.”

nChi Xiaochi raised his eyebrows.

nSure enough, as he thought, it was the people or human relationships in those specific worlds that made those hosts want to stay,

n……Then it wasn’t hard to explain Lou-ge’s appearance.

nChi Xiaochi asked him, “After all their tasks were done, did you ever go to visit them?”

n061 shook his head. “Once the contract between me and the host ends, I can no longer sense the host’s specific location.”

nActually, the tenth host was still very easy to find, but since ending his contract with him, 061 had met Chi Xiaochi and once bound, he hadn’t left since.

nIn just those two days of separation, his insides had already started itching unbearably.

nBut 061 very quickly noticed that as Chi Xiaochi looked at the sky, he let out a long sigh, a calm look on his face.

nEvery time such an expression appeared on Chi Xiaochi’s face, 061’s heart would sink uncontrollably.

nWhen he’d analysed that the original host might still be living within their body, when he’d discussed the Lord God’s scheme of choosing mission targets, he’d had this same expression.

nHe asked, a little uneasy, “What’s wrong?”

nChi Xiaochi had indeed thought of something disturbing.

nQuestion 1. Hosts used suicide to escape from the world. If what they’d killed was the original host’s body, then when they went back to the world they wanted to go to, whose body did they use, and whose identity?

nQuestion 2. If what they’d killed was the original host’s soul, and their body was still there, after they went back, how could a junior high school teacher take on the duty of a university lecturer? How could an ordinary civil servant be a good emperor?

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nHowever, he said, “Nothing.”

nHe liked tonight’s atmosphere.

nJust for tonight, he didn’t want to have other matters disturb this rare peace.

nHe looked up at the sky, his hands clasped behind his back. “Look, there are stars.”

nTonight’s atmosphere was truly not bad. The smell of the merry bonfire and the roasting chestnuts turned the night air sweet. As Chi Xiaochi ate fish and drank the leftover white wine and Blue patrolled the woods to prevent any wild creatures from harming its master, he talked to 061 about a lot of things that had happened when filming in the past.

nAs they talked more and more, Chi Xiaochi took another sip of wine. While tipsy and in a good mood from the wine, he candidly confessed what was on his mind, “Do you know, Liu-laoshi, several times, I thought that you were Dong Feihong…… that you were Lou-ge.”

n061 was still absorbed in the last joke. Hearing this, he almost choked on air.

nChi Xiaochi said, “That time…… That time when Lou Sifan found someone to beat up Dong Ge, and He Changsheng and I were about to run back, you kept trying to stop me, but when we were really about to run back, uncle rushed over. Say, how could such a coincidence exist?

n“And when I was eating a butter tart in Canada, he was also able to find me very quickly, as if he knew where I was all the time.

n“When Dong Ge was still alive, he didn’t have a single memory relating to this uncle, but in the end, when we came, this uncle appeared.”

nHearing this, 061 broke out in cold sweat.

nChi Xiaochi’s eyes, slightly damp from intoxication, blinked. “Was Dong Feihong you, Liu-laoshi?”

nBefore 061 could figure out how to answer, he heard his voice answer, unhesitating, “No.”

nHe was stunned for a moment, before realising what had happened.

n……It was the secrecy system’s shielding function.

nThis was one of the terms in the contract he’d signed with the Lord God. He couldn’t reveal his false identities to Chi Xiaochi.

nBut he hadn’t thought that the Lord God had actually counted his identity as “Dong Feihong” within the bounds of confidential information.

nChi Xiaochi paused. “……No?”

nHe muttered in a low voice, “……If only you were.”

n061 knew that he should be changing the topic now, but he couldn’t help but ask further, “Then why did you think that Dong Feihong was Lou Ying?”

nChi Xiaochi had drank himself a little dizzy. He leant against a nearby tree, and murmured, “……Intuition.”

n061 didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

nWhat kind of reason was that.

nHe asked, “Then when you realised something was wrong, why didn’t you say anything?”

nIn his impression of him, Chi Xiaochi wasn’t the type to push everything to the bottom of his mind.

n“In the past, I…… Two and a half years before I was hit by the chandelier, I was tricked by someone once.” Chi Xiaochi made a “shh” gesture, and his voice was soft from the alcohol. “……I got tricked really terribly.”

n061 knew that he’d drunk too much. His voice turned gentle, like he was coaxing a child. “You’re so smart, who could trick you?”

n“A bastard,” Chi Xiaochi said decisively.

n061 asked, “He tricked money from you?”

nChi Xiaochi drew out his tone. “He tricked feelings from me—— I’ve never told anyone about this, it’s embarrassing.”

n061 said in a gentle tone, “You’re making me very interested. How did he trick you?”

nChi Xiaochi propped his head against the tree. He said in a small voice, “Someone pretended to be my fan on the internet, and began sending me private messages every day. Afterwards, he told me he was Lou Ying, and asked me to meet him. I waited at the appointed place for a really long time, waiting until 3am in the morning, waiting until that restaurant was about to close, but he still didn’t come.”

n061’s heart hurt slightly for him. “You even believed that?”

n“……Being tricked once was enough,” Chi Xiaochi said softly, “I won’t trick myself again.”

nChi Xiaochi had drank good wine bought from the storehouse. The intoxication came quickly and left quickly. When Blue wiped his face with a clean cloth that had been dipped in the lake, he gradually woke up.

nHe asked, “What time is it?”

nBlue said, “It’s 10pm.”

nChi Xiaochi’s tone wasn’t actually all that despondent. He did a lazy stretch, and was comfortably helped up by Blue. “I hadn’t thought that I’d be eliminated on the first day.”

nEvery day, before 24:00, they all had to find the required items and place them into the nearest monitoring point. Only then would they be able to get new transmitters from the supervising officers, and receive the next day’s new task.

nIf they didn’t manage to collect the items, or didn’t manage to deliver them to the monitoring point on time, that meant that they would be eliminated.

nIt was currently already 22:00. The closest monitoring point was 15 kilometres away. Unless he could find a piece of Naman metal in an hour, he wouldn’t be able to complete today’s task.

nKnowing that he was basically already destined to be eliminated, Chi Xiaochi was very calm. “The heavens aren’t caring, there’s nothing I can do.”

nRather than pilot Blue, he and Blue walked out of the forest side by side.

nAnd when he reached a clearing, he could see even more of the boundless starry sky. Comets surged across the stars in a torrent, just like a waterfall.

nWalking under this beautiful scenery, Chi Xiaochi simply couldn’t look away.

n061 asked him, “You like stars so much?”

nChi Xiaochi hadn’t seen such a bright Milky Way and sea of stars before. He took a deep breath. “En.”

n061 said, “If you want, I can pluck a star down from the sky for you.”

nChi Xiaochi was amused, “Liu-laoshi, don’t fuss.”

n061 said, “Laoshi will do his utmost to satisfy his student’s requests.”

nHearing the solemnity in 061’s tone, Chi Xiaochi’s heart suddenly skipped a beat for no reason.

n061 said gently, “Sorry, since we took a rest just now, I’ve been running an analysis. It’s really taken some time.”

nChi Xiaochi, “……What do you mean?”

n“Us systems’ ability, is to move objects in parallel and change their physical forms under the prerequisite of maintaining constancy and equivalence. Just like how in the first world, I could turn a cup and tea into data……”

nAs he spoke, 061 looked up at the sky as well. “From what the data shows, the closest asteroid from here is rich in Naman metal. In about fifteen minutes, a piece of stardust from it containing Naman metal will fall in the desert about three kilometres away from here.”

n……This was something Lou Ying couldn’t do, but he could.

nThinking about it like this, a smile appeared in 061’s voice, “……This is the star I’m giving you. Thank you for your company tonight.”

nThe author has something to say:

nLiu-laoshi’s class on how to flirt with men has started!

nLiu-laoshi: Students, if your lover says they want a star, what do you do?

n【The honest duo】

nHe Changsheng: Bring him to the outskirts to see them.

nDong Ge: Bring him to the planetarium to see them.

n【The romantic rich second generation singer】

nCheng Yuan: Get my gege to buy a plane ticket to take me to the NamibRand Nature Reserve~

nCheng Jian: ……Hmph.

n【The adaptable puppy slave】

nShen Changqing: As long as there’s Help there, the best stars can be anywhere~

nHelp: Woof~

n【The man closest to the stars】

nJi Zuoshan: You guys are all wrong. That time Mister Chi said he wanted a star, Liu-laoshi simply gave him one.

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nbaum:

nsere: boi this chap!!!! THEY WERE SO CLOSE!!! also i love the author’s note~~

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