Ark Simulator, don't I have no physical form?

(...They're always like this.)

He should have kept his distance, he should have been wary, but their advances were irresistible to him.

The nightingale sat beside him, her fingers gently smoothing his wind-blown hair.

“You’ve been very quiet today,” she said softly.

Su Rui paused for a moment, then said, "...I was just thinking about some things."

"About Originium?"

"Ah."

Nightingale's fingers paused for a moment, then she gently pinched his earlobe.

"Don't overthink it," she said softly. "It's all in the past."

Su Rui lowered her eyes and did not answer.

Shining stood beside the bench, her grey-purple eyes silently watching him.

“Nightingale is right,” she said, her voice low and firm. “The past cannot be changed, but the future can.”

The next day, when Suri opened his eyes, Nightingale was curled up in his arms, her long golden hair spread out on the pillow, a few strands wrapped around his fingers like some kind of soft restraint. Shining was leaning against his back, her arms gently around his waist, her breathing steady and warm.

(……here we go again.)

He sighed softly and tried to move away, but as soon as he moved, Nightingale unconsciously tightened her arms in her sleep, holding him even tighter.

"Mmm... just a little longer..." Her voice was heavy with sleepiness as she rubbed her cheek against his chest like a spoiled cat.

Suri's ear tips felt slightly hot.

(...Someone who is usually so gentle becomes so willful when asleep.)

He turned his head and found that Shining had woken up at some point, her gray-purple eyes quietly watching him.

“…Good morning,” he said softly.

Shining didn't answer, but simply reached out and gently pinched his earlobe before burying her face in his neck, her breath brushing against his skin.

(...Even Shining is like this?)

Su Rui stood frozen in place, unsure how to react.

At breakfast, Nightingale sat at the table, propping her chin on her hand, her eyes fixed on Su Rui.

"What's wrong?" He put down his coffee cup and asked, somewhat puzzled.

Nightingale blinked, a slight smile playing on her lips: "I want to eat the bacon on your plate."

Suri paused for a moment, then looked down at her plate—fried eggs, toast, and a few slices of bacon—a very ordinary breakfast.

"...Don't you have one yourself?"

“But yours looks tastier,” she said matter-of-factly.

Suri sighed and used her fork to pick up a slice of bacon and handed it to her.

Instead of reaching out to take it, Nightingale leaned forward slightly and bit the food he offered, her lips lightly brushing against his fingertips.

Su Rui's fingers trembled slightly, and she quickly withdrew them.

The nightingale smiled, its eyes crinkling like a child who had just pulled off a prank.

(...It was definitely intentional.)

Shining sat quietly to the side, cutting the fruit on the plate, but Suri clearly saw the corners of her lips turn up slightly for a moment.

As he was leaving, Su Rui instinctively picked up his coat, but as soon as he put it on, Shining came over and reached out to straighten his collar.

Her movements were very light; her fingertips occasionally brushed against his neck, leaving a slightly cool sensation.

"Okay," she said softly, but her fingers remained on his collar, not withdrawing.

Volume 12, page 716: The eyepiece is so advanced, it gives you a better way to use it.

Su Rui looked up at her: "...Is there anything else?"

Shining paused for a moment, then tilted her head slightly, her grey-purple eyes looking directly at him: "Kiss me."

Suri's breath hitched.

(...So direct?)

He hesitated for a moment, then lowered his head and gently touched her lips.

But Shining grabbed the back of his neck as he tried to pull away, deepening the kiss.

She only let go of him when she heard the nightingale's soft laughter from behind.

"Satisfied?" Su Rui asked somewhat helplessly.

Shining gave a faint "hmm," turned around, and walked towards the door. Her back remained upright and calm, as if she hadn't done that willful thing just now.

While shopping, Nightingale stopped in front of a jewelry store.

“Suri, look at this.” She picked up a pair of silver earrings that sparkled in the sunlight.

"It suits you very well," he commented honestly.

Nightingale shook her head and held the earring up to him: "It's for you."

Suri was taken aback: "...I don't have pierced ears."

"You can start now," she said with a smile, her eyes filled with an undeniable expectation.

Su Rui subconsciously took a half step back: "...Let's forget about it."

Nightingale's lips drooped slightly, and a hint of disappointment flashed in her golden eyes: "...Is it not okay?"

Her voice was soft, tinged with grievance, like a small animal drenched in rain.

Su Rui was at a loss for what to do.

(...he's using this trick again.)

He sighed and finally relented: "...only hit one side."

Nightingale immediately laughed, tiptoed, and kissed him on the cheek: "I knew you'd say yes!"

(...I was definitely tricked.)

Back at the hotel that evening, Su Rui sat on the edge of the bed, her fingers unconsciously rubbing her newly pierced ears, which still throbbed slightly.

The nightingale knelt before him, holding a sterile cotton swab in her hand, and carefully wiped him clean.

"Does it hurt?" she asked softly.

Suri shook her head: "It's alright."

The nightingale leaned closer and gently blew on his earlobe: "How about this?"

The warm breath brushed against her sensitive skin, and Suri's ear tips instantly turned red.

"...Stop fooling around."

The nightingale smiled slyly and deliberately blew another breath: "It's clearly very effective, isn't it?"

Suri sighed and gently pinched her cheek: "...Enough is enough."

Nightingale blinked, then suddenly grabbed his wrist and pressed his hand against her face: "Go ahead and pinch me, I won't dodge."

Her cheeks were soft and warm, and Suri's fingers froze slightly, unsure whether to continue or withdraw.

(...too cunning.)

When Shining came out of the bathroom, this was the scene he saw—Suri's hand was pressed against Nightingale's face, and the tips of his ears were so red they were almost bleeding.

She raised an eyebrow, walked to the bedside, and gently pinched Su Rui's other earlobe.

"Do we have to fight here too?" she asked casually.

Suri immediately shook her head: "...No need."

Shining hummed in agreement, her fingers still lingering on his earlobe, gently caressing it: "...What a pity."

(……pity?)

Su Rui suddenly felt that her future days might not be so peaceful.

The afternoon sun in Siesta lazily spilled onto the wool carpet in the hotel suite. Suri's fingertips danced lightly on the mechanical keyboard, and the code on the screen rolled silently like flowing water.

Nightingale leaned back on the armchair by the French windows, an open medical journal resting on her lap, her golden eyes fixed on Suri's profile illuminated by the blue light of the screen. Shining stood three meters away on the observation deck, her grey-purple pupils reflecting the shimmering waves of the distant sea, her left hand always resting lightly on the hilt of her sword.

The doorbell rang suddenly.

Nightingale's eyelashes fluttered slightly, and Shining's thumb had already pried open the scabbard by half a centimeter. Suri didn't even stop typing; she simply said to the air, "I can smell Ceylon's perfume even through the door."

When the door opened, Black was fiddling with the metal cap of a lighter, while Ceylon held a military-grade laptop with a Siesta City Hall asset label affixed to it. "Looks like our hacker has even automated visitor identification?" Black tucked a cigarette behind his ear, the hem of his trench coat brushing against the enamel vase in the entryway.

Suri finally turned around in his gaming chair, and the code matrix on the monitor immediately switched to a 3D model of the Siesta Port, with seventeen red dots moving rhythmically in the container area. "The standard tactical formation of Columbia's 'Greywater' company." He pressed Enter, and the screen immediately displayed the equipment list for each mercenary. "So, you're here to warn me that someone is trying to hack into the City Hall's main database?"

Ceylon's fingertips froze above the laptop's touchpad.

Nightingale's teacup clinked crisply on the coffee table. Shining had somehow appeared behind Suri's chair, the cold light reflecting from the edge of his scabbard drawing a silver line across the monitor. "The firewall they tried to breach three hours ago was a decoy," Suri said, opening another terminal window displaying a constantly replicating encryption protocol. "The real data siphoning is happening on the smart bracelets of the city hall janitors."

Black suddenly grabbed Ceylon's wrist as she was about to operate the laptop: "Don't touch the touchpad." She stared at a barely perceptible pixel flickering on Suri's screen. "He's using your machine as a springboard."

Ceylon then realized that his laptop fan had stopped spinning at some point—meaning all the computation had been moved to an external terminal. Suri's iris reflected the cascading data stream: "Correction, it's using their satellite relay station as a botnet." He pressed a key combination, and the port surveillance screen suddenly switched to the interior of a dimly lit server room, where six technicians wearing headsets were cursing at the suddenly blacked-out monitor.

"This is... Rembitox's backup data center?" Ceylon's breathing became rapid.

"It used to be." Suri turned the ring on her ring finger, and a blue light flashed across the face of the ring. Suddenly, all the screens in the server room simultaneously displayed the image of Siesta's city flower. The piano version of the background music for "Siesta Holiday" began to play on a loop in the mercenaries' communication channels.

Nightingale's fingertips lightly touched the edge of Su Rui's monitor, and golden Originium Arts particles outlined the mercenaries' neural network diagrams on the LCD panel: "Their tactical goggles..."

"It's turned into a Siesta tourist information system." Suri swiped the touchpad, and QR codes for coupons for nearby seafood restaurants popped up on each mercenary's HUD screen. The leader angrily ripped off his goggles.

Ceylon's laptop suddenly regained control, and a complete analysis chart of the mercenary employers appeared on the screen. Black frowned, staring at the intertwined shareholding structure of "Rhine Labs" and "Blacksteel International": "You even managed to dig this up?"

"Their accounting system uses outdated encryption from twenty years ago," Suri's voice carried a hint of professional regret. "I had to limit the processing speed of a simulated quantum computer to 1% to prevent the system from crashing."

Volume 12, Chapter 717 is just a rumor.

He turned to Ceylon, "The vulnerability in the city hall's database has been patched, and while we're at it, we've also given their janitors a new batch of wristbands with neural firewalls."

Shining's scabbard gently pressed against the back of Suri's chair: "Who are the mercenaries' target?"

"I... but they only know one legend." Suri pulled up the last file, which contained a heavily pixelated photograph. "Someone offered me a seven-figure sum to work for her." He closed all the windows, and the suite fell silent. "But right now, this employer is probably busy figuring out why his Swiss bank account suddenly donated the same amount to the Siesta Children's Foundation."

Blackie tossed the lighter towards the ceiling and caught it again: "So we just came all this way for nothing?"

"No." Suri took three USB drives from the drawer. "The city hall's security system needs a physical upgrade." When Ceylon took the USB drives, she noticed that their initials were engraved on the metal casings, and the internal storage capacity was displayed as an unusual 0TB/0TB—this was some kind of encryption method she had never seen before.

Nightingale's fingers brushed through the stray hairs at the back of Suri's neck, and the medic immediately noticed that his skin temperature was 0.3°C higher than usual. Shining's sword hilt gently pressed against his left shoulder, a Sarkaz-style "safety confirmed" gesture.

"Next time..." Ceylon suddenly looked up as she put the USB drive into her inner pocket, "Could you at least leave some evidence of the attack so I can write a report?"

Su Rui blinked, and all the smart devices in the suite suddenly started playing a promotional video from the Siesta Tourism Bureau in sync. When Hei Da laughed and went to turn off the tablet, he noticed a small smiley face made up of pixels in the corner of the screen, with the words: 【for Ceylon】 below it.

Nightingale's lips pressed against Suri's burning earlobe.

The metallic scraping sound of Shining sheathing his sword drowned out Black's teasing remark to Ceylon: "At least he's learned to joke."

Outside the window, the sound of the waves in Siesta mingled with the distant, frantic communications of the mercenaries, like a discordant symphony.

The lights in the safe house were dim, with only the cold glow of the computer screen reflecting on Su Rui's face. His fingertips tapped lightly on the keyboard, and the code flowed across the screen like water, each line precise and error-free, as if he had already foreseen all possibilities.

Nightingale sat in the armchair beside him, her long golden hair cascading over her shoulders, holding a cup of black tea that had long since gone cold. Her gaze wasn't on the screen, but rather quietly fixed on Suri's profile—his slightly upturned lips, his composed fingertips, and his eyes that appeared exceptionally deep in the reflection of the code.

(...He was too composed.)

She gently set down the teacup, the ceramic touching the glass coffee table with a barely audible sound. Su Rui's fingers didn't pause, not even her eyelashes trembled.

Shining stood by the window, her grey-purple eyes scanning the night outside through the gaps in the blinds. Her silver braids hung down her chest, the black ribbons almost blending into the shadows in the dim light.

"Safe," she whispered, removing her fingers from the sword hilt and turning to look at Su Rui. "Any progress?"

Su Rui's lips curled up slightly, and she lightly tapped the Enter key.

"It's done."

The code window on the screen suddenly shrank, replaced by a split-screen monitoring view—on the left was Ceylan's back view, standing next to the command vehicle in the port's container area, quickly issuing instructions into the communicator; on the right was Black's real-time view, her tactical goggles transmitting back the thermal image of the corridor ahead.