My Strange Tale Love Strategy Simulator

Zhang Ying immediately looked towards the door warily.

In the black and white world, two figures walked in one after the other.

The person in front was wearing a plaid shirt and a wide-brimmed hat, under which was a smiling face.

Jack.

The person walking behind Jack was wearing a dark coat and still had some lingering marks on his face, but he looked much more energetic.

Shen Yugang.

The two chatted happily. Jack talked as he walked, and Shen Yugang nodded in agreement, occasionally chiming in with a word or two.

They weren't speaking fast, but Zhang Ying still had a buzzing noise in his ears and couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Shen Yugang noticed Zhang Ying, who had just gotten up.

He immediately stepped forward, his expression changing from relaxed to concerned.

"Brother Ying, you're finally awake!" Shen Yugang's voice was filled with obvious excitement. "I thought you..."

"Don't say such discouraging things," Zhang Ying waved his hand, his voice a little hoarse, "I'm in perfect health."

Jack followed Shen Yugang in, but instead of going any further, he stood by the bed with his hands in the pockets of his leather vest. He coughed twice to clear his throat.

"I wonder what trouble you two have encountered?" Jack tilted his head, his tone tinged with concern. "When I first saw you, you were both nearly unconscious, lying on the roadside, each looking worse than the last."

He stretched out his hand and gestured a very small distance between his thumb and forefinger.

"Fortunately, I have some knowledge of Eastern medicine, which saved you from the clutches of death."

Zhang Ying looked at Shen Yugang beside him.

Shen Yugang paused for a moment, then shook his head.

The movement was very subtle, but Zhang Ying saw it clearly.

Shen Yugang stated that he did not know what kind of Eastern medical skills Jack possessed in the movie.

Zhang Ying withdrew his gaze and looked at Jack.

"Thank you, Jack," Zhang Ying's voice became a little calmer, "If it weren't for you, the two of us might really have died on this yellow sand."

"Haha," Jack waved his hand, laughing heartily, "It was nothing."

As he spoke, he turned around and leaned against the wall, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned back slightly, his posture casual and relaxed.

Then, his expression changed.

That ever-smiling face suddenly turned serious.

He leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Zhang Ying and Shen Yugang.

"My two friends," he said, his voice low but each word clearly enunciated, "if you truly consider me a friend, then please tell me something."

Zhang Ying felt a chill run down his spine when he saw Jack's expression change.

He nodded calmly, his gaze unwavering.

"Ask away, anything I know."

Jack paused for a moment, as if considering his words.

"What I want to ask is very simple," his gaze fixed on Zhang Ying's face, "is: where exactly are you two from?"

Shen Yugang's expression changed slightly.

Jack ignored Shen Yugang's reaction and continued, "Although I have met many Chinese people before, I have never met Chinese people like you."

He raised one hand, pointed to Zhang Ying's clothes, and then pointed to Shen Yugang's clothes.

"Your fabrics, your cuts, your stitching—none of them are like anything I've ever seen before. And the way you speak, the things you carry, the way you walk—"

He paused for a moment.

"The clerk identity you're talking about, it's probably fabricated too, isn't it?"

Jack's gaze swept from Zhang Ying's face to Shen Yugang's, then back to Zhang Ying's. The previous playfulness and affability were gone from his gray eyes, replaced by a scrutinizing light.

The room fell silent.

Shen Yugang unconsciously clenched the hem of his clothes.

Zhang Ying looked into Jack's eyes and remained silent for a few seconds.

Now that things have come to this, he no longer wants to hide it.

Now, the time has come.

Actually, we come from—

Zhang Ying spoke up.

He abruptly stopped speaking halfway through his sentence.

It wasn't that he didn't want to talk, but something was blocking his way. A strange force seemed to reach out from the void, grabbing his throat and forcibly choking his words.

He couldn't make a sound.

At the same time, he discovered that he could not move his body.

His fingers froze in mid-air, his neck remained slightly tilted forward, and his eyelids were half-open, unable to close or open completely.

It was as if he was encased in a piece of amber, unable to move a single muscle.

Everything around them froze instantly.

Shen Yugang remained motionless, his head still turned to look at him, one foot slightly on tiptoe. His face still bore the same tense expression from before, his brows furrowing halfway before freezing, his lips slightly parted as if waiting for a response.

Jack on the door frame also stopped.

His hands remained crossed over his chest without moving at all, as if someone had pressed the pause button, freezing his actions in that instant.

The wind outside the window stopped.

The swaying of the curtains stopped.

The dust in the air stopped.

The whole world seemed to have been put on a giant pause button; all movement, all sound, all change, all came to a standstill in the same instant.

Zhang Ying's heart raced.

He had experienced this feeling before.

The last time I felt this power was when I was facing that mysterious old man at seven o'clock.

When the old man appeared, everything around him was like that: time stood still, space froze, only his thoughts were still running.

Zhang Ying strained with all his might to make his eyeballs move slightly.

His eyes slowly moved away from Jack and looked at Shen Yugang.

Shen Yugang was also looking at him.

Shen Yugang's eyes were also moving.

Shen Yugang's thoughts did not stop. His body was also trapped and unable to move, just like him, but his consciousness remained.

So what about Jack?

Zhang Ying slowly turned his eyes back to Jack at the door.

Where is Jack now?

The cowboy with the wide-brimmed hat had vanished. In his place stood a humanoid figure.

The humanoid thing emitted a strange, flickering light effect, like the static screen that appears on an old-fashioned television when there is no signal.

Countless black and white particles danced, flickered, and surged on its body surface, outlining a blurry human figure.

I couldn't see the facial features, the clothes, or any other details.

There was only a human-shaped outline made of bouncing particles, standing still in its original position.

The figure seemed to notice Zhang Ying's gaze, and it moved. It slowly raised its hand, pointing it at Zhang Ying's eyes.

A cold, emotionless mechanical voice echoed in Zhang Ying's mind.

"Intruders, danger."

"Invaders, annihilation failed."

"Intruders, expel them."