I was the fourth disaster in Yokohama and was loved by everyone.

“Socks.” He raised his voice slightly.

"...Speak quickly, Dazai."

“【Umekawa Kuko】! 【Kawakami Socks】!” Dazai persisted.

"Yes, yes." Zhu Yu approached with some suspicion, circling the little figure of the Grand Tutor and looking at it again and again.

There's no debuff above my head, is there?

Is the game bugged?

Zhu Yu used the simplest and most straightforward solution—quickly exiting the app and then logging back in.

When she logged back in and saw Dazai standing there quietly and obediently, Zhu Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief. Good, it should be resolved.

"Huh—I didn't expect [Kuko]-chan to admit it so readily." Dazai seemed quite surprised, deliberately drawing out each syllable with an uncomfortably sticky quality. "I thought you'd keep pretending you had nothing to do with [Kuko]~"

Wait a minute, the player has always been upright and honest, when has he ever done such a thing!

"Slander, this is slander! When did I ever pretend I wasn't myself?" Although the sentence was a bit convoluted, Zhu Yu believed that Dazai, being a smart person, would definitely understand it.

Dazai sighed softly, as if he was very disappointed by Zhu Yu's dishonest behavior.

Chapter 46 Please Give Me One Million

"Your identity in the Port Mafia is [Kawakami Socks], and you even used supernatural gadgets to hide your true identity. This shows that you are trying your best to conceal it and do not want others to know your identity."

"It's a pity you actually revealed it to Chuuya. That little slug with an empty brain is very easy to trick into talking about... Hmm, maybe even the black-hearted Mori-san knows."

He mumbled something very quickly, which confused Zhu Yu. She could only make out the words "conceal" and "reveal".

She was somewhat bewildered, and asked a question that struck at the heart of the matter: "But... I didn't hide it from you, Dazai!"

What's going on in Guanzhong?

As for Mr. Mori... who is that?

Since Mori Ougai had never introduced himself to Zhu Yu, and the people around him never called him by his full name, in Zhu Yu's eyes, the leader of the red scarf was always an unknown person with a "???" above his head.

Naturally, it's impossible to connect the "Mr. Mori" mentioned by Dazai with the leader.

(A certain ruthless leader, far away in the Hong Kong underworld building, suddenly sneezed.)

In her view, she had been through countless ups and downs with Dazai NPC. As a regular teammate and the best support, he played an indispensable role in team battles. Zhu Yu believed that she had established a deep bond with Dazai NPC!

So... does he think she was only focused on playing with Chuuya and didn't include him?

An intuitive player suddenly realized, blinked, and said with an innocent look on his face, "Is there anything else you want to know? I can tell you everything."

Dazai's pupils contracted, and then his gaze fell on the other's face, cold and sharp, as if he were examining the truthfulness of the words. He said indifferently, "Is that so? But you seem to have never revealed your identity to me before."

He even discovered her true identity himself.

As for how he discovered it—on the afternoon of her battle with Lantang, the moment she leaned close to Lantang's ear with her back to him, she made a gesture of taking off her glasses. Although it was only for a moment, a suddenly familiar back view was enough for him to confirm it.

He simply remained still at the time, pretending that nothing had happened.

He just remembers that at that moment, his heart trembled slightly, not from joy, but from a kind of almost morbid satisfaction.

Every unspeakable secret is a calamity within Pandora's box, which its owner would surely want to bury deep in the earth, unwilling to let anyone open it.

It's fascinating to imagine her always acting as if nothing's wrong, and what a horrified expression she'd have if she knew her secret had been discovered.

Harboring a hidden malice, he coldly observed everything she did.

I thought the secret was a secret because no one knew it, but... all the details show that the little slug and Mr. Mori actually knew it, and it seems that she told them on her own initiative.

It's hard to describe how he felt at that moment. A fire was burning fiercely in his chest, yet his body felt cold.

He thought he didn't care and could pretend not to know anything to find [Umekawa Kuko] to cooperate, and then act as if nothing had happened to complete the mission with [Kawakami Socks].

But the feeling of irritability is like spider silk, unknowingly winding around the depths of one's heart, and the more one struggles, the tighter the restraints become.

Then, you are seen through by the person in front of you, and everything is laid bare in the sunlight without any mercy.

The single-celled organism that he had always thought was similar to Chuuya Nakahara now seemed to have transformed into an unimaginable monster.

The little monster kept tugging at him, trying to drag him into the sunlight as well.

I want to run, I really want to run.

His hands and feet had turned icy cold, as if he had been nailed to the spot by an awl. His soul floated in the air, watching his comical, immobile body. He saw his body open its mouth and ask, "...But you've never told me your true identity before, have you?"

And the little monster—

She paused for a moment, then gave a guilty look.

See? All that talk of "telling you everything" is just a bunch of stupid lies. His body felt heavier, and his soul floated even higher.

Suddenly, she turned her back, put her hands behind her back, tilted her head back, and deliberately avoided looking at him: "If—I mean, if—is it possible...?"

"Actually, I told you... Do you believe me? Haha, I haven't forgotten..." Her voice was a little slurred and gradually decreased in volume, until the last syllable was almost inaudible.

His carefully constructed facade was smashed open, leaving a crack.

"Pfft—" He realized he had unconsciously laughed.

In the blink of an eye, his soul returned to his body, while the person in front of him stubbornly told him with his back turned—I feel guilty, but I can't admit it.

*

Oh no, the player forgot to mention that.

Zhu Yu's pupils trembled.

When questioned by the NPC Dazai, the player was speechless.

(Sweating profusely) Hehe, the player, the player has already told you with his mind, it's just that you didn't receive it, so you can't blame the player!

The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. She immediately manipulated the little figure to turn its back to Dazai and casually covered the left half of the screen where Dazai's little figure was.

If you can't see it, you won't feel guilty.

She feigned composure: "If—I mean, if—is it possible that I actually already told you... would you believe me? Haha, I haven't forgotten..."

Haha, Dazai must have been fooled by the player's calm demeanor.

Zhu Yu was quite pleased with herself, so she stood there with her back to the Grand Tutor, waiting for this embarrassing dialogue to pass quickly.

Where is "Skip"? She desperately needs it!

After waiting quietly for a while, Zhu Yu breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that the little Dazai had not initiated any more conversations and thought the conversation was over. She prepared to leave the room, only to find that the little Dazai had suddenly moved closer to her.

Zhu Yu immediately turned around in alarm.

As a result, Dazai Osamu suddenly appeared face to face with her again.

Haha, I can feel the horror of the female protagonist being chased in "Flash○"...

"Hey, [Kuzi], why are you turning your back to me the whole time? Are you feeling guilty?" He raised his voice, sounding quite pleased.

"Haha, not at all, I just suddenly felt a little stiff." She said, making her character jump around a bit, then took the initiative, "Dazai, you're too suspicious." Yes, you're wrongly accusing the player (definitely).

"That's not good. How about this, you give me a million, and I'll teach you how to cure your paranoia." Zhu Yu felt like she had found a way to get rich.

"...[Kuzi], do you think I look like an idiot?" Dazai asked expressionlessly.

Zhu Yu said firmly, giving him a "don't hide your illness" look: "Look, you've fallen into paranoia again. The symptoms are—randomly suspecting others."

Dazai gave a forced smile: "If I really gave you a million, what could you give me in return?"

Chapter 47...wait, no!

"It's a trade secret, I can't disclose it. Cash on delivery." Zhu Yu said calmly, after all, what if Dazai knew beforehand and then refused to make a purchase?

Highly intelligent NPCs are terrifying.

Dazai gave a soft "humph" to indicate his refusal, as if someone who had seen through her secrets was probably no good either.

Well, although I was a little disappointed, it was within my expectations.

So, having stopped interrupting, she finally remembered the original purpose of starting the conversation, which had been forgotten 800 meters away.

"So, why did you come to see me today?" she tried to steer the conversation back on track.

Dazai, now back to his usual self, leaned against the wall of the cubicle, his shoulders slightly relaxed: "What I told you before wasn't a lie. The organization that's targeting you is our target for this mission—Standard Part. They suspect that the phone and data they can't find at the online acquaintances are in your possession. They'll probably be making their move soon."

Given her tendency to rummage through everything and put it in her pockets, Dazai himself strongly suspected that she was the one who took it.

Zhu Yu was furious: What kind of class do you have to dare to attack players!

To even suspect that a player took that thug's phone and data is an utter disgrace!

Wait...that's not right!

Zhu Yu, her hands trembling, took out her phone and opened the item description.

[The phone: It's not the latest model, but it still functions quite well; perhaps there's some secret hidden in the contacts.]

Zhu Yu finally remembered that the phone she was using now was the one she had taken from a thug's corpse. So, maybe, probably, it wasn't wrong for the player to be accused of taking the thug's phone.

But the data couldn't possibly have been obtained by the players, could it?

Wait...that's not right!

Zhu Yu rummaged through her backpack. Since the items in the game's backpack were arranged according to the order in which they were acquired, she slid the backpack to the bottom and finally found an item in the very bottom row.

[Top Secret Document: This document contains meticulously collected evidence of crimes and organizational intelligence from a certain dark force. It is top-secret information secretly gathered by an unlucky individual who wanted to protect himself. Read it and then burn it!]

Haha, what a coincidence!

But the items in the last row of boxes were things she had looted when she first landed in the game, got the key to the thug NPC, and stayed at the NPC's house temporarily. It all seemed to fit together in a strange way.

Zhu Yu held her phone in her left hand and the document bag in her right, lost in thought.

After all the twists and turns, it turns out the player really was the "culprit" (shocked face).

Dazai noticed the two things she suddenly held in her hands and frowned: "...These two aren't...?"

Zhu Yu nodded sadly, and the two of them stared at each other in silence.

For a moment, the air seemed to freeze.

It was Dazai who broke the silence first, taking Zhu Yu's phone and examining it closely.

Because Zhu Yu hadn't set a password, he unlocked the screen with a single swipe and entered the phone's operating interface.

Although the phone in the game has evolved into a smart touchscreen device, it is still at the level of the first-generation smartphone. It is small and thick, and there are not many fun apps. Zhu Yu, who has lost interest in this outdated phone, naturally only uses it to answer calls and receive messages.

Therefore, she did not touch the original contacts or emails in the phone.

Dazai quickly and easily browsed through the information left by the original owner, returned the phone to Zhu Yu, and casually took the file folder, shaking it: "Keep the phone for fishing, I'll take the file first."

"Your next task is to pretend to be an ordinary girl who has been kidnapped."

*

The fluorescent light bulbs crackled in the sealed interrogation room, like a dying silver serpent, their blinding white light illuminating the several NPCs around them with menacing expressions.

Their eyes were like those of hungry wolves, fixed on the girl before them, as if she were prey about to be devoured.

Zhu Yu was tied to a chair with her back to her body. The ropes were so tight that they made her skin, which was in direct contact with the ropes, feel hot and slowed down her blood flow.

The most obvious sign is that a notification pops up every minute saying "[HP-5]".

"Where are the documents? Where are they hidden?" The man in the suit, who was in the lead, tapped the table with his knuckles, and the expensive watch crystal reflected a flash of cold light.

He was the head of the branch sent by the organization to Yokohama to develop "organ trading," so he could be considered a leader.

The organization made a hasty retreat from Yokohama last time, leaving many loose ends unresolved. Now that they've returned to Yokohama, it's natural that he'll be responsible for cleaning up the "problems" left over from last time.

This orphan girl named "Meichuan Kuzi" seems to have information that her informant failed to dispose of. As a dark organization that is not exactly benevolent, they seized an opportunity to kidnap her.

Better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free. Regardless of whether she has "information" or not, she wouldn't survive the moment she saw their faces.

After all, fresh organs are always in short supply, and this little girl looks young, so her organs must be of good quality...

Thinking this, the man in the suit swept his cool gaze over Zhu Yu, assessing which of her organs was the most valuable.

"I...I really don't know what kind of information you want. You must have the wrong person." Zhu Yu tried her best to make the fear in her words seem more genuine. To avoid giving herself away, she kept her head down, letting her loose hair fall naturally to the side of her face, obscuring her expression.