A band simulator, but all girl-heavy!

204

Chapter 204: Breaking Fangkui.

"Are you saying... that I should consider my own personal situation and transform our ideals, our Crychic, into a profit machine?"

Toyokawa Shoko's eyes were filled with a variety of emotions. She tightly grasped her wrist, which Aoi had just grasped, and said with a faint trembling voice, "I will never do this... absolutely not."

"Why? Everyone will definitely agree... and will be willing to help Xiangzi."

Aoi asked anxiously, confused.

"Yes, of course... But what's the difference between that and kidnapping? Everyone knows that I'm unfortunate, so they have to sympathize with me. No matter how they think about it, they will consider that this is for Xiangzi. They won't think about whether they want it or not, but will prioritize whether I need it or not..."

Xiangzi's hands became stronger and stronger, and his eyes shifted away from Aoi again: "I won't do that... Let's not talk about whether it has come to that point, even if it is that serious, I won't do it."

"I don't understand... Does Xiangzi mean that I don't have to do anything and can just watch Xiangzi suffer like this?"

Aoi lowered her eyelids, and her emerald eyes were no longer dotted with the sunshine-like luster, and all that was left was the sparkle reflected by her tears.

"...I told you, I'm fine now and I don't need you to do anything, Aoi."

Xiangzi sighed deeply, trying hard to suppress the dark emotions that were about to overflow in his heart, and whispered: "If you insist, I just need you to keep it a secret, okay?"

"...Everyone has the right to know, right? Why... Xiangzi always wants to hide his difficulties and sorrows? We are friends, aren't we?"

"Friends need to have secrets, right? Besides, sharing negative energy is itself a form of negative emotion contagion... I don't think it's a good idea to let your friends share your negative emotions."

"That's not right! I don't care about other people...but we grew up together, Xiangzi...I want to take on your sorrow, isn't that right?"

Aoi shook her head vigorously, tears welling up in her eyes.

"You're always so stubborn at times like this... I've said enough. I don't need any help, and there's no need for you to discuss anything with everyone. Just pretend you never came today."

Xiangzi frowned and used up the last bit of strength in his soul to say this defiant sentence, then turned around and closed the door.

But the pair of hands with the warmth of spring came up again and tightly grasped Xiangzi's wrist. With tears in her eyes, she stared at Xiangzi almost crying, and tried to persuade him with trembling lips:

"Xiangzi...don't, it's you who's stubborn...Mingming, as long as you accept help and have everyone by your side, everything will get better...won't it?"

The dark flames ignited the flammable dark emotions in Xiangzi's heart.

All the anger, sadness, resentment and grievances from these days gathered together and engulfed everything of Xiangzi like a raging fire.

Her expression briefly turned ferocious, and she shook off Aoi's hands with almost frantic force. Her pupils shrank to their smallest possible size, and she glared at Aoi in front of her with violent trembling. Between her clenched teeth, she squeezed out words that she would never be willing to say in her entire life:

"That's enough!! Saotome Aoi... leave me alone! Don't you understand?! It's actually easier now that you're not around!!"

The sound component in the air seemed to disappear under the bombardment of this sentence.

Not only Aoi, but even Xiangzi was stunned where he was, with his lips parted blankly, as if he was completely unaware of what he had just said.

Aoi in front of him just dropped her hand that was thrown away in a daze, tears streaming down her eyes uncontrollably, but she said nothing, just stared at Xiangzi blankly, letting the tears drip down her cheeks in silence.

At this moment, Xiangzi realized that he had done the worst thing at the worst time.

"...That's all. Goodbye."

But she did not try to save the situation. The tendency of self-destruction occupied most of her mind, driving her to just glance at Aoi quickly before turning around and closing the door.

Then, he just slid down slowly against the door, sat helplessly on the floor, covered his face and cried.

[Hint: Unlock Toyokawa Shoko's special personal side story 'I Don't Need You'.

That day, you failed to convince Xiangzi and returned home dejectedly. After that, you did not receive any message from Xiangzi. You were just wandering in self-blame, guilt, and grievance, feeling sorry for not being able to help Xiangzi and feeling very hurt by Xiangzi's words.

She just needs help. She is just in a very bad mood and state. If you, as a good friend, back off, who else will help her?

You persuade yourself in this way, but you feel helpless about the current situation...]

How come even this kind of plot has CG...

Aoi, lying on the quilt, felt a little breathless for a moment. Her breathing was blocked by a strong and oppressive air, which even made her chest feel stuffy.

The new simulation really helped her find the truth of everything, including why Crychic always broke down and was interrupted after Live like a curse.

She had considered many possibilities, even wondering if something had happened to Xiangzi himself...but she hadn't imagined such a heavy situation. A mere junior high school student, forced to run away from home with her father, burdened with a massive debt, living the life of a rich young lady one day, and facing the burden of life the next.

In addition to the above conversation, Xiangzi's self-esteem did not allow her to accept help from others, so she had no choice but to quit the band after the situation continued to deteriorate.

Is this really how a girl band anime should be? Aren't these anime supposed to be about youthful school stories? Why is the social pressure even stronger than in GBC?

At this point, Aoi couldn't blame Xiangzi anymore, but at the same time, she felt the situation was very difficult and she didn't know how to proceed. Xiangzi was obviously unwilling to accept help, and forcing her hand would trigger Xiangzi's resistance, just like the situation just now.

But if we leave it alone, Xiangzi will definitely quit the band...

Is the only way to deal with Xiangzi by forcing love on her and tying her up to be a maid in Saotome's house?

Aoi thought about it for a long time, and finally decided that she should discuss it with other people. After all, according to previous experience, there was still some time before the rainy day when Xiangzi officially left the band, and they still had time to discuss and prepare.

You spent the entire night calming down, finally coming to terms with things. The next day, you decided to discuss this matter with Mu at Tsuki no Mori. Mu, Xiangzi's childhood friend, should also be aware of this. After all, the Wakaba family couldn't be completely unaware of the Toyokawa family's misfortune. After this peaceful discussion, you could decide what to do next.

That should have been the case, but due to Tsukinomori's strict rule that mobile phones cannot be brought into the campus, after you returned home to get your hired phone, you saw the shocking message in the band group.

Shoko Toyokawa abruptly announced in the group that she would quit Crychic, and that the band's activities organization, arrangement and composition, and even the keyboard position could be handed over to you.

In response to other people's questions, she simply said that this was the final notification message and she did not plan to meet with everyone offline to explain.

Note: Shoko Toyokawa (keyboardist) has left the band Crychic.

Band cohesion - 50%.

The Crychic band has added a special debuff: 'Broken White Moonlight'. If no special action is taken, the band's cohesion will continue to decrease significantly over time.

After seeing this message, Aoi felt a buzzing in his head. The headache, helplessness, and anxiety he had experienced when facing the Crychic simulation came back in an instant.

Although the original sympathy and tolerance for Xiangzi still existed, there was also a hint of anxiety and confusion at this moment.

What the hell... With this buff already applied, is this a completely bugged Crychic simulation? They maxed out their relationships and favorability from the start, yet it still accelerated the C group's demise.

She originally thought that she had a chance to take down Crychic in one fell swoop, but now Aoi feels that she is still too arrogant, and she has even given up on herself.

But it’s not over yet…

She also has a special skill called 'Not willing to compromise even if it means being broken'.

205

Chapter 205: The Ghost of Spring.

[Important Note: The special skill 'Unwilling to Compromise Even if Broken' gives the player the right to actively use the skill once when the band's cohesion is greatly reduced at one time. When this skill is actively triggered, it will be adjusted differently based on the specific circumstances of each simulation and the player's mood. There will be significant differences depending on the simulation experience and the player's emotional state during the simulation.

This time, a special skill branch, "The Ghost of Spring Day," will be unlocked. This effect binds you to a designated character, triggering a multiplier increase in their favorability. This effect lasts until the band's cohesion drops below 10%. Note: This effect can only be bound to one person, and all plots will revolve around the bound character. Simulations will only display plots related to the bound character, while the favorability of all other characters will be reset to zero.

The above effects will not disappear unless the player automatically unbinds, or the debuff of continuous cohesion decreases and cohesion is above 30%.

Since many of the consequences of this branch are irreversible and have far-reaching consequences, please carefully consider whether to use the 'Haruhi no Ghost' special branch.

Is this still a battle continuation?

Seeing that Xiangzi had left the band, in order to prevent the upcoming simulator settlement, Aoi wanted to check the specific effect of the combat continuation skill obtained during the thorn group simulation. However, he found that it seemed to be different from the combat continuation he understood.

I originally thought that after the health bar was depleted, I could still survive for a while, transforming into a hot-blooded comic book protagonist who wouldn't fall no matter what. But after reading the description, it seemed like I had become the protagonist of the sci-fi movie "Interstellar", and after my cohesion reached zero, I turned into a ghost that only someone could see...

It seems similar? But why does she have to reset everyone else's favorability to zero? And what does it mean to reset it to zero? Does everyone suddenly dislike her?

Aoi was a bit confused by this description. Normally, she would have been a bit more cautious and considered it carefully before deciding whether to use this skill. But now it was different. After learning the truth about Xiangzi's withdrawal from the team and the shock of leaving early, she could only see one line of words.

——Greatly increase the growth rate of the bound character's favorability.

Why bother with all that! If she can't bring Crychic back to life this round, she'll stop playing C-Team simulations. If she can't do it, she'll just bark like a puppy in front of everyone else!

The ideological struggle did not last too long, and Aoi soon checked the band's cohesion at the moment. Due to the early withdrawal and the accelerated establishment of Group C, they did not experience too many bond plots, so the cohesion did not increase much. So far, there is only about 16% left.

At the current deceleration rate, she would probably be forced into simulation settlement on the second day of simulator time.

Therefore, Aoi decided to activate the special skill directly and proactively.

[Special Skill: 'The Ghost of Spring' has been activated... Due to a malfunction in the simulator system, after activating this skill, the world line will be reset back to the main world line. Please confirm the bound character in advance.

'Toyokawa Shoko' has been selected as the binding target. Are you sure?

already confirmed.

The skill effect has been activated...

Strong obsession and emotion connect you to a girl named Toyokawa Shoko. Only she can touch you, see you, hear you, and feel you... However, what will be the price of all this?

……

Something unusual is happening.

Shoko Toyokawa's intuition seemed to vaguely realize all this. She felt as if some subtle changes had taken place in the world, so subtle that she could hardly perceive it. But it was like an invisible wound in her heart. Even though she felt a faint pain, she could do nothing about it.

What has changed? What's gone wrong?

Is there something that...will never come back?

The next day when Xiangzi woke up in his shabby rental house, the first name that came to his mind was Saotome Aoi.

The feeling of regret came over her uncontrollably, hurting her already fragile and irritable heart. Just yesterday, she said something very excessive to her best friend who wanted to care about her and help her.

That was not her original intention. Aoi was very important to her, perhaps even surpassing Xiaomu. The girl was like a non-blood-related sister of Xiangzi, accompanying her through every bit of her childhood, and writing many beautiful memories together in her memory.

She even considered that if she really quit the band one day, she might completely cut off contact with the companions she had hurt, but she could not do that with Aoi and Mu alone.

If even those two leave...what will be left in her world?

Thinking of this, Xiangzi touched her mobile phone on the bedside table, opened the social software hesitantly, and wanted to send a message to Aoi - her self-esteem may not allow her to apologize directly for the time being, but she did want to invite Aoi to the cafe to chat.

This wasn't just out of guilt, but also out of uneasiness. Ever since she woke up, that inexplicable panic had been sweeping over her, as if an invisible alarm was constantly urging her on, making her feel restless.

However... she didn't find Aoi in her social media.

She flipped through the list for a long time, and then, still unwilling to believe it, ran to the search bar and entered Aoi's ID, but found nothing, as if Aoi had never existed in her social list.

Aoi deleted her?

Xiangzi was a little panicked and quickly took out the phone book in his mobile phone, wanting to call Aoi - but Aoi was still not in the list, let alone the saved contacts, there was not even a call record.

This is obviously impossible. After all, the phone will always save the call records. Even if the other party blocks the call, the call records will not disappear out of thin air...

Did someone delete all the call records when she wasn't paying attention?

How else could one explain this? How could this be possible? It was as if... someone named Saotome Aoi had vanished from this world.

His sanity was fading as time passed. Xiangzi paused for less than half a second before immediately contacting Mu, anxiously asking Mu if he could still contact Aoi.

The news he received made Xiangzi feel dizzy and even felt as if he was still in a nightmare.

【Who is Aoi? 】

Mu only replied with these few words.

Just a few simple words.

pat.

The cell phone fell to the ground from his suddenly weak hands, making an unusually crisp sound, but Xiangzi just stared at his hands blankly, his golden eyes shrinking and trembling, and he didn't react for a long time.

...What a joke.

Was this a prank that Aoi and Mu had played? To get back at her for suddenly quitting the band... I don't know how Aoi managed to convince Mu, who was so well-behaved, but this joke was clearly too much.

Xiangzi tried his best to suppress his rapid breathing, bent down to pick up the mobile phone on the ground, and walked out of the room without even bothering to wash up. He ignored the person who was still sleeping soundly in the living room and walked quickly towards the entrance.

She was going to go directly to Saotome's house to confront him...

This is just a protest against this unconscionable prank, that's all.

Maybe I can also... apologize for her excessive words yesterday.

As Xiangzi thought about this, his left hand, which had shaken off Aoi yesterday, began to tremble constantly, so he had to try hard to clench it with his other hand in order to barely stay calm.

206

Chapter 206 This rain is sour.

The sky gradually turned cloudy.

It was as if the gentle spring day had gradually run out of energy. The formerly warm and bright sunshine was now obscured by the gray rain clouds. Only a few white spots of light could be seen faintly through the thin layers of the clouds. The entire sky was gloomy, as if it was brewing tears.

Walking on the street covered by dark clouds, a sentence suddenly popped up in Toyokawa Shoko's mind for some reason.

——Spring is over, but what is coming next is not summer.