Living in Tokyo, all I want to do is laze around.

"of course."

Kitagawa Sakakisa stretched again: "Hmm, let's go then, we'll rest until the afternoon. Hey, Hanabi, are you going to work at the coffee shop this afternoon?"

Hanabi Hanabi glanced at Kai Uesugi when she heard the question and replied, "I'm not going. I'm off today. I just don't know if Kai-kun is going or not."

Kai Uesugi smiled and said, "I'm not going today either."

Kitagawa Sakakisa muttered, "I bet you wouldn't go to work today even if you had to."

Kai Uesugi: "Correct, but there's no reward."

"Alright," Kyushu Rika said to the group as she walked over, "Let's go back to the lab, we'll talk more on the way."

"Aren't we going to eat in the cafeteria?" Uesugi Kai asked.

“Nothing in the cafeteria tastes as good as what we cook ourselves! The school has a dedicated art research room with complete facilities and everything you could want,” Kitagawa Sakakisa said.

"The kitchen?" Uesugi Kai asked tentatively.

"Yes!" Kitagawa Sakakisa crossed her arms, looking quite confident.

"It's amazing that the school has a place like this." Uesugi Kai said in disbelief.

Rika Kyuu explained, "That's a place for research students. Sometimes they'll be working on a topic for a day or two, or even a few weeks. To accommodate them, the lab usually has a simple kitchen so they don't starve."

"Actually?" Uesugi Kai felt that she hadn't finished speaking.

"Actually, very few senior students use it often. We just go there to rest when we have nothing to do."

The four of them reached the corner of the stairs and went downstairs.

Kitagawa Sakakisa interjected, "Uesugi, why did you suddenly start taking classes here?"

"Life is always about giving yourself some challenges, isn't it?"

"It always feels like an excuse."

......

As soon as she entered the art research room, Kitagawa Sakakisa collapsed onto the sofa.

Kai Uesugi looked at the room's furnishings, his face utterly speechless.

This is hardly an art research studio!

It was basically a private little space for those girls.

They have everything from flower pots and cushions to water heaters, sofas, carpets, and even robot vacuum cleaners!

There was even a huge LCD TV in the middle, a white PS5 next to it, and a box nearby with a bunch of game discs.

"..."

What are all these... an art research room?

Kai Uesugi walked outside and looked at the sign above the door, where the words "Painting Department Research Room" were clearly written in large characters.

He went back inside, walked to the balcony, pushed open the balcony door, and peeked out.

The balcony space is small, but it is filled with potted green plants.

On a bamboo rack, there were all sorts of edible things, such as chili peppers, tomatoes, scallions, chives, and bean sprouts, with several potted Chinese cabbages piled up underneath.

Agricultural...Agricultural College?

"..."

Kaito Uesugi was speechless, which made him even more convinced that this was not the school's art research room at all.

Not at all.

He turned around, glanced around at the furnishings in the room, and asked the group:

"Did you buy all of these?"

Rika Kuju pointed to Sakakisa Kitagawa lying on the sofa: "She bought them all."

Uesugi Kai glanced at her and was certain that she was a wealthy woman.

"How did you do that?"

"It's very simple, just buy it."

"..."

Okay, you have money, what you say makes sense.

Hanabi Hanabi tied the apron straps behind her back and said to Kai Uesugi, "Kai-kun, why don't you sit on the sofa and play some games for a while? Hanabi will make lunch first."

"Don't you need any help?" Uesugi Kai asked.

"It's alright, Rika will help Hanabi."

After tying her apron, Kyuu Rika looked at Uesugi Kai and said, "I don't need your help. The kitchen here is too small. Three people wouldn't be able to move around freely. You and Kitagawa can just sit and play some games."

"Row."

Knowing that he might do more harm than good by helping, Kai Uesugi sat down on the sofa next to Sakakisa Kitagawa without any qualms.

"Here, for you,"

Kitagawa Sakakisa sprawled on the sofa and handed Uesugi Kai a white controller. "Here, let's play some games."

Kai Uesugi took the handle in his hand and looked it over.

It looks very strange.

"Uesugi, you don't know how to use it?"

"No." Uesugi Kai slid the steering wheel a couple of times in his hand.

Kitagawa Sakakisa fell silent.

"What's wrong?" Uesugi Kai asked.

"I'm wondering... are you even a modern person?" Kitagawa Sakakisa's eyes were filled with the same strange curiosity an archaeologist would have when they discovered a living, breathing ancient creature.

"I just rarely play games." Uesugi Kai pressed the buttons on the controller, flipping it left and right. "Controller games, I don't remember playing them in a long time."

“This is a console game, not a controller game,” Kitagawa Sakakisa sighed and said to him. “I was thinking of playing with you, having some friendly matches, but I think I’ll switch to another game…”

"casual."

What do you want to play?

"What is it?" Uesugi Kai asked back.

"It mainly depends on what you want to play."

“Slow-paced, preferably with a cultural element,” Uesugi Kai said after thinking for a moment. “I don’t really like fast-paced games; a slow pace is easier to get into.”

"Slow pace? Culture? What strange requests." Kitagawa Sakakisa glanced at Uesugi Kai, then got up and started rummaging through the pile of game consoles next to the console.

Shortly after, Uesugi Kai saw her pick up a red game board with a sign that said she was asking him if he wanted to play it.

"?"

Kai Uesugi didn't understand what "Red Dead Man" meant. Did it refer to the weathered man on the cover who was smoking a pipe and holding a revolver?

It doesn't look like it.

“Yes,” Kitagawa Sakakisa said, inserting the Blu-ray disc into the machine. “Didn’t you say you like playing slow-paced games? This one is slow, which is perfect.”

"Oh."

Kai Uesugi doesn't understand video game consoles, so whatever she says goes.

Kitagawa Sakakisa put the game disc away, turned around and lay back on the sofa, crossing her arms and watching TV.

"Aren't you going to play?" Uesugi Kai asked her, turning her head to the side.

"You're familiar with single-player games, but if you don't know how, I'll teach you."

"okay."

......

Kai Uesugi focused his attention.

On the screen, game company logos flashed by one by one, followed by melancholic music and artistic English fonts appearing on the black screen.

1899?

Uesugi Kai thought to himself, back then, it seemed that the Qing Dynasty had not yet collapsed.

Immediately afterwards, the screen went black, and the text flashed again.

The opening scene has a very contemporary feel to it.

Yes, Kai Uesugi really likes this vibe; at least it's not some hack-and-slash game.

Immediately afterwards, the scene shifts to a dark and snowy place.

In the dead of night, the carriages lined up here, their lights dim, and amidst the wind and snow, the sounds of wheels and horses' hooves were barely audible.

A man wearing a felt hat and a thick cotton-padded coat struggled to get off the carriage. He covered his hands and walked to the front carriage, shouting in a hoarse voice:

“Dutch! Abigail, tell her she’s not going to make it. We need to find a place to rest.”

The man named Dutch seemed to be the leader of the group. He glanced at the snowstorm ahead, then turned back to reassure him, saying, "Arthur has gone out to search. I sent him to scout out the surrounding area first."

Upon hearing this, the man nodded, pulled up his sleeves, and began to walk back, his body trembling in the wind and snow.

There was a man sitting next to Daqi. Their coats were covered in snow, their bodies were freezing, and their hands were red.

He said to Dutch:

"If we stop like this, we'll all be dead."

The scene continues, and a man named Arthur walks out of the snowstorm. He comes to Hawke's carriage, squints, and says, "I've found a place to take shelter from the snow..."

......

Seeing this, Uesugi Kai gripped the handle and asked Kitagawa Sakakisa, who knew a lot about these things, for advice:

"Are they hiding from something? Why are they going out in such heavy snow?"

Kitagawa Sakaki explained, "Well, this is the Van der Linde gang. They just pulled off a huge robbery in Blackwater, a successful but ultimately unsuccessful one. They had to flee, and they hid the $15 in stolen money. They want to go back, but the Pinkerton detectives are on a full-scale manhunt for them, so they can't go back at all."