Chapter 73: Seventy-Two - s:

Chapter 73: Seventy-Two Chapters: "He Who Carries Wood for the PeopleSu Ming’an woke up on a soft bed.

The air carried a hint of rose fragrance, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a pink ceiling. As he sat up, he noticed an exquisite bedside table next to him with bright red roses on it and the sheer curtains at the window slightly drawn, the outside view unclear.

... A girl’s room.

He threw back the covers, but heard a crisp clink—he looked down and realized his right hand was handcuffed to the head of the bed.

... What’s this about?

He made his fingertip flare up and melted it, walked to the door to open it, but found it was locked, then went to the window, pulled back the curtain, and saw a backyard garden, a woman in a black dress watering the plants.

"Thunk, thunk, thunk." He discovered the window was also locked and tapped on the glass with his finger.

Yu Ruohuo looked over, her expression more serious than he ever remembered.

"Su Ming’an... I know you have questions. This is my house, a house I bought in the Main God Space, and only I know about your being here," Yu Ruohuo said to him from the other side of the window. "Don’t go wandering around before the Third World starts, I hope... you can just stay here for now."

"So it’s a house you bought." Su Ming’an did indeed find it much nicer than his cramped personal spatial ring. "Although I appreciate you letting me stay, you probably can’t stop me if I decide to leave..."

Yu Ruohuo stared at him intently.

There was something in her eyes that made him feel alienated.

"Your clone died; it shouldn’t be able to resurrect for the time being," Yu Ruohuo said. "This is the Main God Space, you’ve told me that dead is really dead here."

"Yeah, right?"

"I planted explosives in your room. If I see any sign of you stepping out of this room, I’ll detonate the bomb—after you passed out, people did a series of experiments quickly. We found out that after this update, as long as you don’t attack directly, you can hurt someone in the Main God Space through various indirect methods, like setting traps," Yu Ruohuo continued, looking at him. "I don’t want to hurt you... so stay with me, don’t go out, don’t leave until the next world returns, and peacefully continue being the Number One Player in the game world. Then, after you return, stay with me as well. I will always take care of you, okay?"

Su Ming’an stared at her for a while.

"Are you trying to put me under house arrest?" he asked.

"You just haven’t received the right education before, haven’t met better people. Just stay here, I’ll be your friend," Yu Ruohuo murmured pleadingly to him, tugging at the corners of her mouth, trying to show a warm smile, but that strained curve was so evident: "... trust me, I’ll make you understand."

"Were you a psychiatrist before?" he said, gauging Yu Ruohuo’s reaction: "... I see, I understand now."

She was treating him like a patient in need of psychological help.

She thought that by confining him here and talking to him every day, she could soothe him, guide him back to what she believed was the right path...

He checked the system panel for the time. There were about two days left until the beginning of the Third World.

Anyway, he had Spatial Displacement, and it was a good opportunity to check the reaction on the World Forum.

... Let’s stay a bit longer, he could leave anytime he wanted.

"Let’s chat later, I’m going to check the forum," Su Ming’an waved at her.

"... Don’t look at it," Yu Ruohuo tapped the glass. "Consider it a personal request... don’t look."

"I won’t," Su Ming’an pulled the curtain closed with a swish.

He sat on the bed and opened the World Forum.

... The number of fans had increased, as expected.

Su Ming’an opened the homepage and saw a whole page of posts about himself.

The posts at the beginning of the World Forum were all relatively rational thoughts; as for the rest, they couldn’t be generalized.

Some people believed his actions would be deified, others thought they were worthless. Most didn’t understand his intentions, but that didn’t stop them from letting various emotions sweep across the entire forum.

At the same time, Su Ming’an noticed that his private message box was frantically popping. As soon as he opened it, there were 99+ messages from Lv Shu—after all, he had only added him and Yu Ruohuo as friends.

Just as he was about to see what this guy had to say, he heard a "bang bang bang" noise from outside the window.

"..." Su Ming’an drew the curtains back and saw Yu Ruohuo’s face almost pressed against the glass.

Her beautiful almond eyes were filled with focus, seemingly intent on "guiding him back onto the right path." As soon as she saw him open the curtain, she immediately pulled her face away from the window, her lips slightly parting:

"... Don’t do that again."

"What?"

"... Do you really not understand, or are you pretending not to?" Yu Ruohuo’s eyes were firmly fixed on him, "Publicly committing suicide in front of everyone... Do you realize the impact it will have? Do you know how many people are standing behind you, how many are watching your every move?"

"I know." Su Ming’an said, "So what? What does that have to do with you locking me up?"

Yu Ruohuo slightly tilted her head, her cheeks reddening, a blush quietly spreading along her snow-white neck.

She awkwardly lifted the strands of hair by her ear, her long eyelashes trembling lightly: "... This kind of mechanism, this change of rules in the Main God Space, we would have figured it out sooner or later. There was no need for you to use death to tell everyone. As the Number One Player, what you should have done was to defeat Mizushima Kawa Sora in the arena... not to do something that takes everyone by surprise... Overall..."

She took a deep breath, as though gathering great courage. When she turned her head back to look at Su Ming’an, her eyes, through the glass pane, were filled with determination:

"... Promise me, be a qualified leader among the players, okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like your clone..." Yu Ruohuo’s skin was very white, perhaps due to the long hours in the office. As the blush slowly spread on her fair skin, it became exceptionally noticeable. She laid her hand against the glass as if wanting to touch his face but slowly curled her fingers:

"... A clone is also a possibility of your persona, which means you could become like that too, right?" She said with a forced smile, "In private, you can be yourself. But in front of the whole world, be more dignified, more gentle, at least try not to show your attitude so blatantly, okay?"

Yu Ruohuo had been following the World Forum.

She noticed that the audience generally responded well to the sudden appearance of the clone and commented that watching the live broadcast from the clone’s viewpoint in the Second World was much better than the previous experience. Whether it was the attitude, communication with the audience, or the tolerance and respect shown, the clone seemed far more suited to be a "Number One Player" than Su Ming’an himself.

They even felt regret for the clone, which was merely a duplicate; some suggested that it would be better if there was a switch, with the original becoming the clone, or even that future live broadcasts should be fixed on the clone’s perspective.

"Su Ming’an himself is just a kid who hasn’t grown up, always talking about eligibility, and his Cloning is much more mature than him!"

"He lacks even basic tolerance, if you ask me, the ’Number One Player’ should have been replaced a long time ago..."

...This was the perspective that Yu Ruohuo had seen on the World Forum.

She didn’t agree with their suggestions, but she couldn’t deny that she was somewhat shaken.

Having finally made rare contact with him, and even brazenly bringing him to her home, she thought expectantly.

...Could she play a role, to the extent of... helping him become the kind of person everyone liked and supported?

Su Ming’an looked at her.

His gaze changed slightly.

"I remember, at the end of the First World," he said slowly, with a hint of regret, "you once told me you thought I was just a slightly better than average student, but now you’ve given me a very different answer, you’re advising me—you also want me to become... forget it."

Yu Ruohuo’s gaze became somewhat fixed.

That instant she saw the look in his eyes.

Separated by just a thin layer of glass, though so close, she could gradually no longer see everything in the depths of his eyes.

"...I’ll try," Su Ming’an said.

She felt a momentary sense of relief, and as a smile curled her lips, she thought... how wonderful.

...It felt like she was guiding a disobedient child back onto the right path.

But at the same time, a sense of inexplicable loss was slowly rising; she quickly shook off this strange feeling of despondency and looked at him expectantly:

"Then, then remember—don’t just say weird things, show more respect to everyone, and have more tolerance towards other players... okay?"

"...If that’s really an essential boost," Su Ming’an pulled the curtains closed, "I will."

"Then, then..." Yu Ruohuo still wanted to be a little more presumptuous; she still wanted to talk to him, she still had many things she didn’t understand and wanted to discuss with him...

But in that instant, as the curtains were about to be closed, she met his gaze.

There was a deep fatigue in his eyes, the bloodshot like shattered glaze over frost, and when he looked over, that flicker of his gaze still carried an oppressive depth.

But Yu Ruohuo knew that this emotion, which made her heart tremble and was filled with a strong desire to possess, was never meant for her.

"Yu Ruohuo," he said, "the rules of the Main God Space have changed."

"So, so what does that mean...?" Yu Ruohuo still didn’t understand what he meant.

"..." Su Ming’an paused, "...never mind."

With a "whoosh," the curtains were pulled closed in front of her.

She touched her cheek, feeling a knife-like pain—that was the illusory pain that had settled there for a moment when his gaze swept across her.

Yet her heart was still content; she felt she had at least made some contribution to the world by bringing a somewhat off-track Number One Player back on course.

In the future... he would become more and more popular, she thought, with some happiness, and she didn’t bother the evidently tired man, taking her little watering can to continue watering the flowers.

Su Ming’an sat on the bed, continuing to open the private message box to see the 99+ messages from Lv Shu.

The first message was from right after the Cloning had killed himself yesterday, and he hadn’t replied. As time passed, this person kept talking as if to himself.

(Omitting 99+ private messages)

There was a gap of time, but the private messages continued one after the other.

The private messages ended there, the last one was from half an hour ago.

"It seems quite successful?" Su Ming’an thought, lying back down on the bed.

He heard a notification from the system:

... wait a second.

Su Ming’an saw a line of text on the system interface.

"A funeral??"

He immediately got up from the bed.