Deceitful Game

Chapter 244 I Cry for You

Ai Shiping did not answer.

He simply raised his head and looked at the Oriental Pearl Tower, which had long since been extinguished.

The tower was covered with dark brown rust and radiation marks, looking like congealed blood.

The purplish-red lights of the neon signs that read "Ma Yi Meat", "Chang Lang Meat" and "Real Meat" shone dimly from the side near them, making the tower look like a vase covered in colorful glaze in the field of vision.

For a fleeting moment, Ai Shiping looked like a guest standing before a grave, holding a black umbrella in mourning.

When he started to stop joking around so much, Mingpo became a little scared.

Will you mourn for me?

Mingbo asked again: "For me now. For the me who doesn't even know you yet."

His voice wasn't loud. Unlike the people of Nestorian, who all shout like rock singers.

The elegant and composed tone of voice of people from Central is almost swallowed up by the perpetual white noise of the city.

"I can."

Before Ai Shiping could reply, Mingpo said to herself, "I'm sad that I'll never see that silly idiot who was always grinning like an idiot again."

"You are... a more mature version of him. But at this point in his life, he hasn't yet experienced the events that made him mature. I haven't witnessed him gradually become that kind of person."

"We might become friends again. I might even think one day that you are Ai Shiping... for example, when I awaken my memories, or when I am possessed by my past self, or when we merge into one."

"But at least now... you're no longer the carefree, kind, and cowardly friend I used to know."

"……I have no idea."

Ai Shiping finally spoke.

He turned to look at Mingpo, his eyes showing signs of weariness.

He wasn't angry at Mingper's words, and the complex emotion he felt couldn't be described as sadness.

It's just a kind of "I'm tired" weariness. Like the look in the eyes of every office worker in Central as they leave work.

"Perhaps I've always been mourning. Perhaps I've been mourning for a long time. But perhaps I don't even know... who I'm mourning. Is it Mingpo standing before me now? Or is it Apo, who is no longer here...?"

"Huh? I've known you since I was thirteen."

Mingpo's voice was very low, as if someone were eavesdropping: "You're telling me this now?"

"Me too."

Ai Shiping smiled slightly and turned his head: "Back then, you came to my city as a tourist alone. Do you know what tourism means?" "...You might as well ask me, 'Do you know what a city means?'"

Mingpo paused for a moment before answering.

Ai Shiping nodded and said calmly, "You didn't like coffee before, and neither did I. We liked iced cola. Even after I became a Deceiver, I still had a whole cabinet full of it in my freezer. I never finished them all... because I knew you might drink them. After I moved to Xiaofan's house, I never finished the cola in his fridge either. Even after... you were gone, I still kept at least one can. He had both bottled and canned cola, but I thought the canned ones tasted better."

Ai Shiping continued talking to himself.

For a moment, Mingpo wanted to say, "I didn't like coffee to begin with; you're the one who introduced me to it." But he couldn't bring himself to say it.

"So what do you want me to do?"

Mingpo rudely interrupted Ai Shiping: "Do you want me to become that person again? The 'Aper' you remember? The one without a prosthetic body, without a collar, and who has never killed anyone?"

His right eye became ferocious and bloodshot, while his prosthetic left eye remained calm and indifferent.

"You killed them."

Ai Shiping corrected him, "Even before, you weren't a good person."

"……ha?"

"It's just that he's not like you, able to talk about killing so casually. Killing a few blocks of Nest City residents is like eating a few slices of bread for dinner; you carry out a killing mission as if you've gone out for a stroll."

"I'm Ai Shiping from the Executive Department."

Mingpo countered, "What else can I do? Killing is my job. My value lies in my ability to kill faster, better, and quieter than others. Without this talent, how could I have become who I am today?"

Upon hearing this, Ai Shiping laughed.

It was as if he had let go of his worries.

"But if it were him..."

Ai Shiping took a half step back and said softly, "He wouldn't show such a cheerful smile before killing someone."

...What smile?

Mingpo was taken aback.

He even forgot when he laughed.

After a while, he remembered... that was when he jumped down from the height and said "Welcome to the Nest City".

Upon hearing this, even Mingpo himself fell silent.

He couldn't help but begin to have doubts.

When did he start laughing while working?

Because in Mingpo's own memory, he didn't like this job at all.

But as a company employee... he really had no choice.

If he were a high-ranking executive, perhaps he would have felt pity; if he were a lowly employee, perhaps he would have laughed maniacally and given the middle finger to the company's spire. But he was a company dog ​​stuck in the middle, neither rising nor falling. His life was even given to him by the company.

For a fleeting moment, Mingpo felt a twisted pain.

He was even a little jealous...why Ai Shiping could so freely and easily despise the world-ruling company, while he, the "hungry wolf of the executive department," was like a tamed dog.

He was jealous that Ai Shiping could live such a free life, even if it was only in his thoughts.

"Damn it, you're such a stupid dog, Ai Shiping."

For no apparent reason, Mingpo suddenly started cursing her best friend: "You've been looking for me for over ten years? And then you come looking for me in this rotten world?" "I'm partly to blame too."

Ai Shiping's gaze was deep, his hands in his pockets, as he calmly said, "I had many opportunities to kill Shen Yiqi. But I missed them. I thought... he wouldn't be the one who needed to be dealt with the most. I thought he was someone you hadn't killed... so, someone I could trust." "...Who... is he?"

Mingpo was about to ask, "Who is Shen Yiqi?" when she suddenly realized that she opened her mouth but couldn't say the name.

Ai Shiping looked at Mingpo with a hint of pity in his eyes: "It's someone whose name you can't even pronounce. It's a name you'll forget forever in a minute."

"He is the god of your time, an invisible, inaudible, and indescribable being, the 'protagonist' who passed the final test, a follower of Nyarlathotep... and the culprit who made this world what it is."

"The culprit?"

Mingpo read it softly.

Yet it also felt somewhat absurd.

Because in his mind, he couldn't even sense any problems with this prosperous and advanced world.

Perhaps it's because Mingpo's perspective exists only within this era itself, or perhaps he has been tainted by the gloomy atmosphere of this era.

"Then why were you able to pronounce that name?" Mingpo countered.

"Because the version of him I know is not the final 'complete' version. Rather, it is the original boy who was like the sun."

As Ai Shiping spoke, he continued walking forward.

Mingpo followed behind him.

"Do you know?"

With his back to Mingpo, Ai Shiping said, "There were actually three corporate wars. But only the last one was ultimately etched into the timeline. The first corporate war was in 2035, the second in 2070, and the third in 2003."

"I participated three times, but I only lived to be forty."

"I travel through time and space, constantly going to the past and future to fight with people. The world is revised three times on a large scale before my eyes. My mortal friends are constantly being hanged in paradoxical time and space. They keep forgetting me, constantly becoming the wronged dead, being drawn into the game of deception, and constantly becoming the paradox of 'never having appeared'."

Ai Shiping began, "I am a veteran who has participated in three corporate wars, yet my body bears no scars from any of those wars."

As he spoke, he led Mingpo into an unfamiliar building.

It looks like a residential building.

This made Mingpo look vaguely familiar.

This seems to be...

Ai Shiping led him to knock on the door.

But no one came to open the door.

"You asked me," Ai Shiping suddenly said, "whether I would mourn for you."

"I'm telling you... I will. When I awakened my past life memories, I cried."

"I hadn't cried in a long time. But when I 'woke up,' I couldn't stop crying."

"I am crying for you, Mingbo. Because I know that we will eventually part ways."

It's not "Amber", but Mingpu.

Just as Mingpo was about to say something, the door was opened from the inside.

The person who opened the door was none other than the hooded child from the surveillance footage!

Mingpo raised an eyebrow, about to say something.

Ai Shiping walked into the house with his hands in his pockets and said quietly, "His surname is Gao—Gao Tiansheng's Gao."

"His father is the chairman of Gaotian Life Insurance."

In that instant, Mingpo swallowed back the curse that was about to escape her lips.

He instinctively stood at attention.

Ai Shiping turned around and paused.

He said sarcastically, "Look. If it were you before, you wouldn't have tolerated him; you would have kicked him right away."

"You can't really be called a wolf now. You're just a tamed dog."