Chapter 162 - ’Haven’t Seen Three People?

Chapter 162: Chapter 160: ’Haven’t Seen Three People?"Welcome!"

The clerk in the clothing store, seemingly unaware of the commotion outside, brightened at the sight of Su Ming’an’s coat, and with a flattering smile, ushered him inside.

There was a distinct emblem on Su Ming’an’s trench coat, perhaps the insignia of the Regular Army. Throughout his walk on the main road, everyone steered clear of them.

He walked into the store and saw many fabrics displayed on the counter, colorful and assorted.

Having only bought ready-made clothes from department stores since he was young, he had never considered that this was a store solely for fabrics; he could only glance towards the wall, where a few ready-made garments were hanging.

...But those styles, those layers upon layers of cream-like lace and the overly extravagant gemstones didn’t suit his aesthetics at all.

He should perhaps be thankful that Qin Wang’s tastes were similar to his, which spared him from wearing such strange clothing initially.

The little girl lifted the curtain and walked into the store, seeing the clothes hanging there.

"Do you like this style?" she asked, seeming surprised, "Previously, I had picked similar ones, and I recall you always refused to wear them... saying they looked like butterflies..."

Su Ming’an silently gave a nod of approval for Qin Wang’s aesthetics.

He was somewhat resistant, but thinking of the next steps in their plan, he reluctantly pointed to one that seemed less flashy.

"Just that one."

he said, and then the clerk immediately beamed and helped him fetch it:

"Your taste is really good. This is made of flax fabric from Kehua State. Look at these patterns, all hand-detailed by a master tailor..."

"The fabric is mediocre, and the patterns look poor." Hui Shuhang promptly interjected. The little girl seemed quite unconvinced, pointing out all the defects in the garment until the clerk’s smiling face stiffened.

"There hasn’t been high-end fabric trade recently in Kehua State. Looking at this pattern, it appears to be a recent creation, certainly not made of flax fabric," she said, suddenly remembering that the garment was Su Ming’an’s choice, and she abruptly stopped.

...Continuing would only imply criticizing his taste.

Su Ming’an watched the clerk, too angry to speak, and took the garment.

"Just this one." Su Ming’an said.

Holding the garment, he walked towards the fitting room.

He was thinking about their next moves.

His Shadow was automatically withdrawn upon entering the game and remained so until it was needed again; thus Shadow had not appeared. He thought that once he entered the fitting room and was out of Hui Shuhang’s line of sight, he would release his Shadow to quickly teleport away.

Otherwise, if he stayed in the square, even releasing his Shadow wouldn’t help him escape.

Now that he was finally out of that Majesty’s sight, if he could just deceive Hui Shuhang, Shadow could make a getaway.

He went inside, turned around, and as he was about to close the door, he felt a bump against his abdomen.

The little girl had suddenly barged in, her flax-colored hair nearly caught in the doorway, her elaborate skirt trailing behind her almost getting torn by the swinging door.

She looked up, baffled.

Su Ming’an looked down, equally baffled.

—Until she reached out to unfold the garment in Su Ming’an’s hand, and then moved to unbutton his coat, that Su Ming’an suddenly realized something.

He abruptly remembered how Hui Shuhang assisted him with his trench coat in the first phase, the movements utterly natural.

He had thought this Qin Wang was useless enough, needing a little girl nanny to care for him, and now even needed help changing clothes.

The comments suddenly burst into excitement:

"Get out." Su Ming’an pushed her hand away immediately.

With her standing there, there was no point in using Cloning; there wasn’t enough space.

Hui Shuhang looked up, her eyes full of confusion.

As if she had not expected to be rejected, her hand unbuttoning her shirt stopped mid-air while her figure didn’t move at all.

"I can’t." She said, "It’s dangerous."

Her tone was firm, her words unclear and disjointed.

Su Ming’an sighed lightly.

The next moment, a slight glimmer appeared in his eyes.

Hui Shuhang’s eyes flickered, as if sensing something, she quickly looked up and saw a boy suddenly appear, clinging to the top of the changing room.

"Goodnight," Shadow said, as he triggered the Spatial Vibration with all his mana!

Hui Shuhang raised her eyebrows, and energy instantly surged through her body. Su Ming’an immediately felt a tidal wave of powerful energy crash towards him, causing him to gasp briefly, the sound distinctly audible in this simmering space.

He could see Hui Shuhang so close to him, her face suddenly showing a hint of hesitation.

In that brief moment of hesitation, the Spatial Vibration instantly shook the small changing room.

Hui Shuhang suddenly turned around, lunged at him and subdued all the energy that could harm him, holding him down with a protective posture.

"Boom—"

In an air that seemed to boil, he was completely knocked over by her small figure. She blocked him from the violent Spatial Impact with her slender body.

He opened his eyes, seeing her calm, burgundy eyes. Those eyes were looking at him, and they showed no sign of disturbance.

Then, the glimmer in her eyes gradually faded.

The Spatial Vibration was widespread and unavoidable in the small space. Su Ming’an had thought that since Hui Shuhang wouldn’t leave, he had to resort to his second plan—if he couldn’t escape unseen, he’d just eliminate this threat directly.

This plan was based on the principle of damaging the enemy at a significant cost to himself; after all, under Shadow’s Full Force Strike of Spatial Vibration, he couldn’t escape and had to endure the attack with Hui Shuhang.

Although he’d lose his life, his Cloning would still exist; his only loss would be Occupation Points.

...But he never thought that Hui Shuhang would not resist at all and would choose to fully protect him instead.

The boiling air gradually calmed down, and Shadow landed from above, barely managing to stand on one foot in the corner.

"It’s so cramped." He glanced at the unconscious Hui Shuhang: "To think that it worked on the first try, I thought at least one of us would die. This girl, she really seems to care about you. But she didn’t consider that I might harm you too."

Shadow’s appearance was originally that of Su Ming’an, different from Qin Wang.

Hui Shuhang saw a stranger suddenly appear in the fitting room, yet his first reaction was not to kill him.

Even if she sacrificed herself to protect Su Ming’an, wasn’t she afraid that the stranger, Shadow, might attack Su Ming’an again?

"Maybe she has realized something," Su Ming’an said softly, "After all, Qin Wang and I are completely different."

After more than a decade of companionship, he didn’t believe Hui Shuhang couldn’t always see the difference between him and Qin Wang.

"Kill her," Shadow said, "She is only temporarily unconscious now. She is strong; losing consciousness won’t last long. If you want to run, it’s safest to kill her here."

"No, one of my missions is to keep her alive."

Su Ming’an crouched down, slowly picking up the unconscious loli from the ground. Her body was very light, feeling like a feather in front of the Bright State strength value, and through the fabric, he could feel her bones pressing against his hands.

Her eyes were closed, her long eyelashes casting tiny shadows, and her eyes, always laden with deep meanings, now closed, made her look like a sleeping little girl.

"What do you want to do then?" Shadow asked with a smile, "There are many ways to keep someone from going back to report yet keep her alive: break her legs, or cripple her strength, causing her to be disabled and severely injured. Or feed her life-sustaining drugs, keep her in that deserted cellar. With over four more days to guarantee safety, these methods are not bad."

Su Ming’an didn’t respond.

"What?" Shadow raised an eyebrow, "Feeling sorry? Having second thoughts? I remember I shouldn’t be this kind of person—an NPC, after all. To complete the mission, you should not hesitate to adopt these methods... You’ve already attacked, what are you hesitating for if you don’t want to play both sides? I remember I’m not an indecisive person."

"No, I’m considering an issue," Su Ming’an looked up at the ceiling of the fitting room.

A Nightingale-like bird was perched steadily on the pole above, its bright, gem-like silver eyes silently staring at him.

This was a bird that always followed Hui Shuhang.

The previous spatial vibration had no effect on this bird at all.

"Find an inn and put her down," Su Ming’an said.

"Huh?" Shadow looked very surprised.

"We are still part of the Regular Army camp; I’m afraid that attacking her would deduct Regular Army contribution points."

He noticed the look of disdain on Shadow’s face.

"You can’t be serious... such a lame excuse," Shadow’s expression was full of disdain, "...but you are the original body, what you say goes. If that’s your reason, I’ll take it as true."

Su Ming’an looked at this Shadow that looked exactly like him, amusement and futility appearing on the face that was the same as his own, which looked very peculiar.

"Let’s go," Su Ming’an said as he carried Hui Shuhang and walked out.

At the same time, he also heard a system notification:

The next system notification took him by surprise.

He paused slightly in his steps and immediately checked on Hui Shuhang, but she was indeed unconscious.

...What exactly did she like about him?

Su Ming’an couldn’t understand.

The staff of the clothing store waited outside, still listening for any noise from the changing room.

After all, after that youth, who appeared to be a noble, had entered, the little girl had also gone in.

In such a cramped space, and a changing room at that... They couldn’t help but think of the kind of things people often think about.

Then, they got what they had hoped for: huge commotions came from inside the changing room.

Wearing knowing smiles and waiting for people to come out, they saw Su Ming’an emerge holding the unconscious little girl.

Su Ming’an tossed gold coins at them since the dress was damaged during the spatial vibration. He had no concept of the value of money, but seeing the gleeful expressions on the staff’s faces, it seemed enough for compensation.

Although he disliked the look the staff gave to Hui Shuhang, that was all, he wouldn’t take someone’s life just over a glance.

As he left and the staff began to openly discuss, "Didn’t expect it, huh... so young and already so bold..." "Playing in the changing room, nobles sure know how to have fun" "Wonder what it feels like, I’d like to try too..." raunchy topics like these, another man walked out of the changing room, captured in their sight.

The staff’s expressions froze.

"What?" Shadow raised an eyebrow, with a smile that was not quite a smile, "Never seen three people together?"

The staff’s expressions turned to petrification.

They stood rigidly in place, their gazes like that of children seeing Godzilla dance in front of them.

Shadow, in a good mood, walked out and then casually sent back a spatial vibration. It wasn’t powerful, but it was extremely insulting and would have the staff busy cleaning up for a while.

After hearing the notification for acquiring Occupation Points, he happily caught up with Su Ming’an, as if he’d forgotten about the previous incidents.

Su Ming’an found an inn and then settled Hui Shuhang into the best room available.

She would wake up soon, and he needed to leave quickly.

After taking away the spatial knapsack from Hui Shuhang, he closed the door, went downstairs, and saw a bird silently watching him.

The nightingale’s silvery eyes stared at him continuously. It didn’t chirp, and its flight was very quiet, always silently following Hui Shuhang, and now it began following him like a small shadow.

He walked out of the inn, roamed the streets, and upon leaving the city, he noticed several figures who had followed him out.

"You’re being watched." Shadow said.

"No, it was expected, they are actually watching you," Su Ming’an said, "You currently look like me, and those players remember the appearance of Number One Player."

Su Ming’an had already seen calls for location in the channel.

Messages like "I saw the Number One Player in Kriliri Town, just left the city!" were plentiful because suddenly many people reported it and the answers matched, so many began to believe it.

"You must have a plan," Shadow said, "You intentionally didn’t let me cover my face, or teleport away, so now... are you trying to fish?"

Su Ming’an looked ahead.

The lush forest was right before him, and a wave of moisture hit his face along with the scent of plants.

As he stepped into the shadow of the forest, he said to Shadow, "I want some people to understand—not everyone can be their target."

"Fishing alone here is dangerous," Shadow said, "But indeed, you aren’t going to be anyone’s stepping stone."