Acting coy

An Yu‍⁠‍⁠​‌​‌‌​‍⁠‌​​‌⁠‍‌‌​‌​​ felt as if he had been kissed for a long time.

The embrace holding him gradually warmed, cozily enclosing him, making him feel, for a moment, as if he were in the real world. Like every ordinary yet extravagant Main City resident, he possessed humanity’s last vestige of prosperity, and… was loved.

Loved.

His heartbeat abruptly skipped several beats.

“Are you cold?” Qin Zhilu reached out and pinched An Yu’s nose. “The tip of your nose is ice-cold.”

He took An Yu’s paw with his human hand and led him back. “Brain has inventoried the registered deceased population of the Main City and listed the 5 individuals most likely chosen by Molly. Ling Qiu was one of them. Having ruled him out, we need to find the remaining 4.”

An Yu hummed in agreement. He wanted to pull his hand away, but just as he took a step, that instinct to hop up made him abandon the thought.

21’s body felt like a stiff, difficult machine. Even suppressing the instinct to hop with every step was a challenging task. As he walked, he wondered, are rabbits really such low-level creatures?

Qin Zhilu glanced at him. “What are you thinking?”

An Yu looked up. The rabbit’s golden eyes were even more vacant and helpless than a human’s. His pupils shifted. He asked softly, “When Commander usually interacted with 21 on the terminal, did you often hug and kiss it too?”

“No.” Qin Zhilu’s gaze returned forward as he continued walking. “Why would you think that?”

An Yu’s brain felt somewhat stuck. 21’s learning data was too scarce; he seemed to have reverted to his initial state because of it, unable to handle such counter-questions.

Qin Zhilu didn’t seem to expect an answer and calmly explained on his own, “21 is just an AI raised on a server. It wasn’t the one who shook me during missions, it wasn’t the one who secretly read my memories, it wasn’t the one who accompanied me to clear the aberrant tide, it wasn’t the one who defended me before Black Tower, and it wasn’t the one who owes me a huge sum of money and a cartload of small breads—”

Qin Zhilu turned his head, looking down at An Yu. “Didn’t Ling Qiu teach you that hugs and kisses can’t be used to express care in general social relationships?”

An Yu used 21’s sluggish brain to think for several seconds, then shook his head lightly. “He didn’t teach me. Maybe he had thought I would never experience these things.”

Qin Zhilu offered no comment. An Yu asked again in a low voice, “What is not a general social relationship?”

“Everyone’s standards are different,” Qin Zhilu replied. “By my standards, what had just happened was it.”

An Yu’s inflexible rabbit foot tripped on the open ground.

Immediately after, he heard Qin Zhilu add, as if talking to himself, “Of course, I hadn’t expected to encounter such a set of standards myself either.”

An Yu didn’t understand the meaning of the Commander’s murmur.

21’s brain is truly terrible at thinking about human relationships. If he tried too hard, he could clearly feel his brain lagging and his thoughts sinking into a vacant state.

After Molly abandoned Wu Ju, the university student she chose for her consciousness descent this time was named Bai Yu. She clearly hadn’t expected humanity to discover her new identity so quickly and was thoroughly immersed in the real world. After signing up for the next day’s night run, she was dragged by her classmates to the bakery to stock up on food. This time, she couldn’t calculate the queue situation and ended up waiting outside the shop for a full two hours.

Read at Mizushi Novels

Visit Mizushi Novels

Xu Shuangshuang looked up from her ledger. Her gaze lingered on Bai Yu for only an instant before she stretched lazily, walked to the shop door, and flipped the “Bread Almost Sold Out” sign over to reveal “Closed for Today, Thank You for Your Patience.”

Support the original translation

Read on Mizushi Novels

A message from 716 appeared before An Yu via the terminal.

Don't scrape

Don't copy

-Don’t worry. She only knows 21 is the AI Qin Zhilu set up. She probably can’t be 100% sure 21 is your reflection.

Read at Mizushi Novels

Visit Mizushi Novels

Xu Shuangshuang lowered her head, copied the ID, and said languidly, “He had to help me check the accounts. After working like crazy for so many days, there was a pile of handwritten accounts waiting. Of course he isn’t getting away!”

Support the original translation

Read on Mizushi Novels

“Mmm…” Bai Yu’s eyes darted around, and she smiled. “I saw it on a gossip thread. He seems to be often picked up and dropped off by Black Tower and Spire cars.”

Don't scrape

Don't copy

Before she could finish, the curtain behind the counter was suddenly pulled aside, and a figure in a black trench coat emerged.

Read at Mizushi Novels

Visit Mizushi Novels

The voice was cold, not arrogant, but possessing a sense of detachment naturally emanating from extreme emotional restraint.

Support the original translation

“Mhm.”

Military boots stepped firmly on the floor but made no noise. The figure strode towards the sofa and soon stood before 21.

He reached out and moved 21’s terminal aside, gentle yet non-negotiable.

“Quickly finish reading. You need to go back and sleep.”

The words were firm, but the voice was much softer.

Bai Yu subtly shifted her body, watching 21’s reaction intently. After several seconds, the person hunched over the table slowly sat up straight and tilted his head back to look at the tall figure before him.

“Commander…” 21 reluctantly glanced at the terminal that had been moved away—

On the Cloud Island, Qin Zhilu expressionlessly said, “Can I not look at these? Ling Qiu didn’t teach me accounting.”

In the bakery, 21 retracted his gaze from the terminal and yawned. “Can I not look at these? Ling Qiu didn’t teach me.”

716 raised an eyebrow and helplessly handed the terminal back to him. “Then just refuse your employee’s request directly. Why are you asking me?”

On the Cloud Island, Qin Zhilu continued to respond emotionlessly, “I can’t win an argument against her.”

21 sighed and mumbled softly, “Can’t win against her.”

Bai Yu chuckled, turned back to Xu Shuangshuang, and whispered, “It seems the gossip thread isn’t wrong.”

“Huh?” Xu Shuangshuang was baffled. “What else did the gossip thread say?”

“It said the bakery boss is a weirdo. Only cold to strangers, but very docile and easily bullied around people he knows.” Bai Yu took her bread and winked at her. “Gotta go. See you tomorrow.”

The wind chime tinkled softly as the shop door opened and closed. The two girls carrying bread quickly disappeared into the night, arm in arm.

On the sofa, 21 took a deep breath and immediately scooted into the corner, hugging his knees.

“Thank you, Commander,” he seemed to be speaking to the air. “I could indeed feel her observing me. Was she watching me just now?”

Qin Zhilu hadn’t finished typing when he saw 716 sit down beside 21 and console him in a low voice, “She was indeed observing you, but you performed very well. Flawless.”

21 looked up. “Did I? I only repeated two of the Commander’s sentences.”

716 nodded and smiled, raising his hand and making a pinching motion above 21’s head, as if pinching non-existent rabbit ears. “Although it was only two sentences, it was enough for Molly to make a judgment. After all, you would absolutely not learn how to act coy from the raw data, but An Yu is quite proficient at it.”

21 was baffled. “Those two sentences just now… were acting coy?”