Lucky billion players, you've never seen one before / I can accumulate my own luck

"Many people go to his lectures, he... must be quite famous, right?"

Melissa said uncertainly.

She hadn't specifically investigated Professor Chen's reputation, and could only make a rough estimate.

“When we were looking for Professor Chen’s residence, there was a detail that I don’t know if you noticed.”

Fan Xiao pointed out, "When we stopped staff members and some passersby to ask, everyone knew Professor Chen. After asking around, we haven't encountered a single resident who didn't know him."

"..." Melissa recalled for a moment, "It seems so... I'll try again!"

After saying that, she ran towards a street in the distance where there were many pedestrians.

Five minutes later, Fan Xiao and Ying arrived at the edge of the block where the school was located.

Melissa's figure suddenly teleported to their side.

Fan Xiao noticed her immediately and turned to ask, "How is it?"

"..."

Melissa did not answer immediately, but instead looked back at Van Shaw with a suspicious gaze.

She asked instinctively, "Why do I feel like... you're trying to trick me into doing chores for you? And you're specifically picking these kinds of troublesome tasks?"

"You're overthinking it," Fan Xiao said speechlessly. "You ran out in a flash, how can you blame me for that?"

Although he did try to entice her with his words, he was just throwing out bait and guiding the conversation. The other party insisted on taking the bait and following his lead... what could he do?

How can you blame him?

"...Your guess is correct. Everyone in this city does indeed know Professor Chen."

Melissa got back to the main point: "I went to a crowded and chaotic area and asked around. After five minutes, I didn't find a single person who didn't know Professor Chen. It seems... the plan to hold a large-scale matchmaking event for Professor Chen is not advisable. His fame has already spread throughout the city. If any woman liked him... he would already be married."

She said with some disappointment...or despair, "There are millions of people in this city, and not a single one of them is interested in Professor Chen... Why is that? I don't think he's ugly. He's just a bit too ordinary."

Hearing this, Sakura frowned slightly and said, "I also feel that he is not ugly. In addition, he is very talented. Even if most people are deterred by his appearance at first, as long as they listen to his lectures often and get to know him over time, it shouldn't be that... no one of the opposite sex will fall in love with him, right?"

"When you think about problems, don't always start from the logic of reality; you should start from the logic of this instance."

Fan Xiao reminded them, "The rules of this city are distorted, operating perfectly according to Professor Chen's theory. You could say that only extreme phenomena exist."

"Even Professor Chen himself acknowledges that there are exceptions outside the theory, but this city does not, and has forcibly prohibited the occurrence of exceptions."

"It's normal for no one of the opposite sex to fall in love with Professor Chen in this city."

He shook his head slightly: "That's why we need to send Professor Chen back to the fourth floor of that central building so that he can seize control of this instance and restore the distorted city to normal."

"But under these distorted rules, we simply can't find anyone who can truly fall in love with the young Professor Chen, and therefore we can't send the middle-aged Professor Chen back to the fourth level..."

Melissa said helplessly, "This seems to be a vicious cycle. How can we break this deadlock?"

Fan Xiao did not answer the question immediately.

His thoughts drifted elsewhere.

Everyone in this city knows Professor Chen, which is actually quite unusual.

It's possible that everyone knows Mitchell Sinderson, since he's a big star and does this kind of work.

But Professor Chen... given his status, he shouldn't have such a high level of fame.

Perhaps this anomaly is related to the restart of the instance.

He had previously guessed that the instance restart was the ability of the middle-aged Professor Chen, whose purpose was to awaken the minds of all the ordinary-looking residents of the city through repeated reincarnations, and to embark on a noble path of self-redemption.

In order to achieve this goal, Professor Chen must spread his theory far and wide and make it known to all residents.

So... a reboot shouldn't mean starting everything from scratch; changes to certain things should be preserved.

For example, residents who are aware of Professor Chen and his theories will not lose their relevant memories after entering a new cycle of reincarnation.

After several cycles, almost all the residents became aware of Professor Chen's existence.

At this moment, Melissa, seeing that Van Shaw hadn't answered her question, assumed he was also stumped and said, "We've run into a problem. Dungeons don't give players impossible tasks, so we must have overlooked something..."

After a few seconds of contemplation, she continued, "I can't think of any clues for the time being. If you also have no leads, the cooperation will have to be postponed. We will have to abandon the third mission and focus on the first one."

"It's impossible to help Professor Chen find true love," Fan Xiao said bluntly. "In this instance, under these rules, there simply isn't a girl who's all eyes to him."

"Uh... to deny all possibilities outright?" Melissa was slightly surprised. "So, you're also planning to give up?"

“Who said I was going to give up?” Fan Xiao said. “Since there’s no real one, let’s just find a fake one. It’s that simple.”

"...A lie can't fool Professor Chen!"

Melissa reminded him, "I just mentioned this idea. If the middle-aged Professor Chen can see through lies, the young Professor Chen will most likely be able to as well."

"So lying won't work. At the same time, we can't interfere with the residents of the City of True Love, which blocks our way of artificially creating 'Professor Chen's admirers'...etc!"

At this point, she suddenly remembered something—while players cannot mentally interfere with residents, mental interference between players is not prohibited!

For example, at the very beginning of the dungeon, she used mental techniques on the two cannibalistic players, causing them to fight each other.

Even acts of psychological intervention may go undetected by the city's law enforcement teams, falling under the category of extra-legal means.

Thinking of this, Melissa, acting on instinct, took a step back, her eyes filled with wariness as she looked at Fan Xiao.

She asked, "You're not thinking of interfering with the players' minds to make one of them fall in love with Professor Chen, so they can get past the second floor, are you?"

Who will this guy choose as his admirer?

If he dares to lay a finger on me, I'll kill him... Melissa was ready for battle.

"You have quite a broad mind; you can even think of such a despicable method."

Fan Xiao curled his lip and said, "Don't lump us together. I have no such thoughts in my mind."

"Professor Chen, the young man, knows we are players. It would be strange if such an open deception method could work on him!"

"Even... this kind of behavior that insults his intelligence will most likely provoke him and increase the danger of our progress."

"So how do you plan to find a fake one?"

Melissa's curiosity was piqued.

Fan Xiao shook his head and said, "You should go back to school first and collect more Rings of Love. I need to investigate some things."

"Don't worry, the cooperation plan won't be postponed. Once my investigation is complete and you've collected all the Rings of Love... the operation can begin."

"..."

Melissa really wanted to go and see, but she couldn't think of a suitable excuse for the moment, so she had to give up.

As a partner, it wouldn't be fair if she didn't contribute and just went along with things haphazardly.

……

After Melissa left, Vanshaw led Sakura in another direction.

Sakura recognized that this was the direction leading to the library and couldn't help but ask, "Are we going to the library to investigate information?"

Fan Xiao didn't answer, but gave Ying a knowing look.

Sakura immediately understood and deployed the cover to prevent eavesdropping.

Fan Xiao then said, "No need to investigate, just take a walk. When I said 'investigate,' it was just an excuse to get Melissa out of the way. That girl is quite clever; she's always trying to maintain control, and she might be secretly using gadgets to monitor us."

cherry:"……"

Fan Xiao continued, "Professor Chen's answer confirms all my previous guesses. Now we just need to collect all the rings and then we can start working on clearing the game in one go."

Upon hearing this, Ying asked with slight surprise, "You know how to find true love for Professor Chen, the young man?"

"Professor Chen's true love doesn't exist in this city, so we can only find him a fake one... What I just said is not made up, it's the truth."

Fan Xiao stated the conclusion directly: "Professor Chen's true love is a female version of Mitchell Sinderson! And Mitchell... regardless of gender, is a character that Professor Chen has imagined. They are fake, hence their looks are so high that they seem inhuman."

“Mitchell corresponds to the third floor of the ‘City Tower’—the colored floor, symbolizing Professor Chen’s heartfelt desire—he longs for a colorful and high-profile life, surrounded and admired by everyone.”

"You should understand what I mean, right?"

"This is the intelligence we obtained in the simulated world..."

Sakura followed this line of thought and continued to ponder it.

She quickly grasped Fan Xiao's meaning: "There are two Mitchells. The male version of Mitchell should be the embodiment of Professor Chen's desire for a high-value lifestyle."

"And the female version of Mitchell... is she a manifestation of Professor Chen's longing for a partner?"

"Does he yearn for a perfect woman to fall in love with him as a person?"

At this point, her brows furrowed slightly: "Professor Chen once said that the person he most wanted to find was someone whose eyes were only on him, regardless of whether they were beautiful or ugly... In the end, he still prefers pretty women?"

"You can't say that."

Fan Xiao shook his head and said, "Mitchell is a figment of his imagination. Since it's a figment of his imagination, there's nothing wrong with making it as perfect as possible."

"Furthermore, Professor Chen suffered the pain of deception and betrayal in love during his youth, which made his thinking somewhat extreme."

"Mitchell may have been a product of his imagination during this period, and has nothing to do with Professor Chen, who had already transcended worldly concerns in his middle age."

After a pause, he offered his solution: "As long as we distort our perceptions and align ourselves with Professor Chen's theories, our appearance rating will be restored, and our disguise ability will also be restored. This is the first step."

"The second step is for me to disguise myself as the young Professor Chen and go to the female version of Mitchell. As the embodiment of Professor Chen's desire for a partner, she will most likely fall in love with him the moment she sees him... which means she will fall in love with me. At that time, I will obtain her love ring."

“Mitchell’s love ring represents true love—Mitchell’s true love for Professor Chen. It can make up for the inner regrets of the young Professor Chen. With it, we can get through the second floor.”

"..."

"You can do that?" Sakura was speechless for a moment.

The answer was surprisingly simple?

After calming herself down, she said, "No wonder... no wonder Mitchell, as the person in charge of the third floor, didn't stay on that colorful floor but instead stayed in the City of True Love as a celebrity."

"This is a dungeon design—we can only successfully pass the second floor if we obtain her Ring of Love outside the City Lord's Tower first."

"No wonder..."

No wonder Van Shaw said before that the second mission was the easiest to handle, and the only one who could be handled was the female version of Mitchell Sinderson—all he had to do was transform into Professor Chen to trick the female version of Mitchell into giving him the Ring of Love.

Of course, the prerequisite is that self-perception distortion must be completed first; otherwise, the ability to disguise cannot be used.

After a few seconds of silence, a complex emotion welled up in Sakura's heart.

She murmured to herself, "In the end, Professor Chen still couldn't find true love. Mitchell was just his fantasy, a product of his own imagination..."

Chapter 607 The Princess's Kindness

Hearing Ying's slightly melancholic murmur, Fan Xiao shook his head and said, "Just treat Mitchell as a simple instance design. We don't need to pity Professor Chen, and Professor Chen himself doesn't need other people's sympathy. He has already jumped out of the predicament of love, but the instance has pulled him back. What we need to do is help him jump out again."

"It seems...that's the case."

Sakura thought about it and agreed with this viewpoint.

If Professor Chen, in his middle age, had been in control of the instance, the City of True Love certainly wouldn't be as distorted as it is now.

"In this world, how many people can find true love that transcends self-interest? And how many can find true love that is reciprocated? Can't you live without someone of the opposite sex? Is your life just about romance?"

Fan Xiao's tone was cold and rational: "Some things are not worth forcing. Professor Chen has long since come to terms with this."

"He found his path to redemption before the city became a copy."

"He may still have a longing for true love in his heart, but he is no longer obsessed with love, and his life is already more wonderful than when he was trapped in love."

At this point, Fan Xiao's tone became somewhat emotional: "Middle-aged Professor Chen intended to help others. He spread his theories to help others trapped by the original sin of appearance. He transformed his personal love for the opposite sex into a great love for the community."

"He hopes to guide most ordinary people who are trapped in the original sin of appearance to embark on the path of loving themselves and redeeming themselves."

"We can sympathize with the young Professor Chen, but as for the middle-aged Professor Chen... we should just respect him."

He quickly changed the subject, a look of anticipation on his face, and said, "I'm actually a little curious now. What changes will occur in this instance after we send Professor Chen back to the third floor? What will the rules be like when the instance opens next time?"

"Perhaps it will be renamed the City of Redemption."

After giving a casual reply, Sakura asked, "What are we going to do next? Really go to the library?"

“If we’re going to put on a show, we have to go all the way,” Fan Xiao said. “Let’s go to the library first, read for a while, and then come back. Anyway, we don’t need to collect the Rings of Love.”

cherry:"……"

It was probably the first time she had ever seen a player slacking off in a dungeon, and she was momentarily speechless.

They do absolutely nothing themselves, leisurely waiting for others to finish their work before stealing the fruits of their labor... What beasts they are!