As dawn broke and the rain cleared, only a faint orange hue graced the horizon, like a painter's first draft, not yet painted with vibrant colors. A light mist hung in the air, and Nagano Prefecture remained shrouded in tranquility that morning.

After waiting all night, Akihara Kazumitsu finally boarded the bus to Shizuoka. As soon as he got on, he fell asleep, reminding the system to wake him up when they arrived. Seeing that he was extremely tired, the system didn't hold it against him and readily agreed.

Amidst the bumpy ride, Akihara drifted into a restless, shallow sleep.

……

The sky and earth are the ultimate black and white, while the horizon is a mixture of gray.

A person was sitting in front of Akihara. The person was wearing a black protective suit with a hood, and his face was hidden in the shadow of the brim of the hood and could not be seen clearly.

They sat facing each other, falling into a long silence.

"What do you think we're doing?" the person on the other end asked, their voice unusually familiar.

“I think…maybe we’re playing chess,” he replied after a moment’s thought.

Then a black and white chessboard appeared before them, with the opponent playing white and him playing black. The two began to play, the atmosphere strangely harmonious.

The man was also wearing thick protective gloves. He picked up a pawn and placed it on position e4. As the piece fell, Akihara vaguely saw W, dressed as a mercenary, laughing maniacally as he pressed the detonation button on the bomb.

"Bang—" The flames and smoke gradually faded away, and Akihara, unaffected, bent down, picked up the corresponding black piece, and placed it on e5. This time, the scene before him was from a low angle, and Amiya was anxiously holding his hand, calling him "Doctor."

White Horse F3 attacks E5 Black Soldiers. This time, he is holding young Katarina's hand as they walk across the wasteland.

The dark horse C6 protects the E5 black soldier. Chernobog, Ace's silhouette, flashes by.

……

The white queen was captured, and as he touched the opponent's queen with his own piece, the white piece immediately turned to dust, scattering like quicksand in the wind, just like Theresa's body falling backward after being assassinated.

The black soldier reached the enemy's baseline and transformed into a vehicle. He saw Amiya reach out her hand amidst the flames, her expression sorrowful and pitying, black magic coalescing into a sword in her hand. The young demon king murmured, "How shall I repay your injustice?"

He looked up at his opponent, the firelight dispelling the shadows and illuminating the man's face beneath his hood.

His pale hair contrasted sharply with the dark hues of the sky; his empty, cold eyes tinged with crimson; his bloodless, deathly pale skin; and a face that was identical to his own.

The man sat there quietly, as if he were an evil spirit from an old era.

……

"We've arrived! Wake up!" The system played a loud alarm clock with gongs and drums, and shouted along with the rhythm of the alarm.

Qiu Yuan's head throbbed from the noise. He rubbed his stiff neck and slowly woke up, glancing out the car window to find it was already broad daylight. He felt uncomfortable all over his body: headache, stuffy nose, neck pain, back pain, numb legs…

"I hope I don't catch a cold?" he asked the system in a low voice as he got out of the car.

"Can't you tell yourself?" the system scoffed. "Yesterday you were slammed against a wall by the aftershocks of an explosion, and you got soaked while trying to be a hero. Is it strange that you caught a cold?"

"I just... when I was in Terra, whenever I caught a cold, I was immediately dragged to the sterile environment of the medical department to get an IV drip. I've never had a cold with such mild symptoms before..." Akihara replied with a slightly nasal tone.

The system remained silent. The Rhodes Island doctor, surprisingly, lacked common sense.

Akihara trudged home with difficulty. However, misfortune never comes singly. Just as he was eagerly anticipating collapsing onto his bed, he was met with several envelopes shoved under the door.

He bent down and picked it up, wincing, and saw the words "Fee List" in large letters. He glanced at it briefly: rent, utilities, garbage disposal fees... Qiu Yuan's vision went black.

"System, what's going on? Doesn't this house belong to Akihara Kazumitsu?"

"He's still a student! You don't expect him to already own a car and a house, do you?" the system said sullenly. "Serves you right for being stingy! Serves you right for not using the memory rewind card back then! Serves you right for lying to me! Humph!"

Akihara sighed and casually tossed a few letters onto the kitchen stove. He turned on the gas stove, filled a pot with water, and heated it. After doing this, he threw himself onto the bed, sprawling out without any regard for appearances, and began to strain his nearly rusted brain to search for Yazui Masahiko's memories.

He has no fixed address and changes his rented place every now and then... His only fixed asset is his car... He has no liquid assets. He either uses his money for drinking or deposits it into a fixed account every month. Upon further investigation of the memories related to this account, it turns out that the account owner is actually Masahiko Yazuri's mother.

Akihara sat bolt upright in bed. "No way? Not only did I inherit Masahiko Yazuri's identity, but I also inherited his mother?"

The system's gloating expression was palpable. "Don't say that, host. Saying that will be considered swearing."

Akihara collapsed back into his shell, and asked the system in a weak voice, "What about Akihara Kazumitsu? Does Akihara Kazumitsu have any family members who need support?"

"Of course... wait, you're trying to trick me again!"

Seeing that the system had stopped talking in time, Akihara Kazumitsu rolled over in disappointment. He muttered to himself, "I need to make some money as soon as possible."

Suddenly, he seemed to remember something. "Where's Gin? Did he reply to my message?" As he spoke, he took out his phone from his pocket, where a new message had already appeared.

Before opening the message, Akihara noticed the time it was received: around 6 a.m., when he should have just gotten into the car and fallen asleep.

"Gin, you actually have a pretty regular schedule." Akihara Kazumitsu was shocked.

"I mean, is it possible that Gin once again worked overtime all night and didn't have time to reply to your message until after six in the morning?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible! If it were true, he would have been working through the night for three days straight!" Akihara Kazumitsu buried his face in the pillow in despair, and after a long while, his indistinct voice could be heard. "If the Black Organization is also a company with excessive overtime and extremely inhumane practices... I guess I need to reconsider my next strategy for making money and accumulating points."

Working like a beast of burden in the lab while doing manual labor for the Black Organization... When did I become the king of wage earners?

"Anyway... anyway, take a look at the text message first." As a silicon-based being incapable of experiencing human emotions, the system couldn't immediately understand the other party's reluctance to work.

"Sir, is it possible that you've been manipulated by your mastermind? Your daily working hours clearly exceed the eight-hour workday. Do you get overtime pay? Do you have social insurance and housing fund benefits? By the way, did you and your mastermind really sign a labor contract?"

system:……

The system weakly replied, "Strictly speaking, our system and the mainframe are not in an employment relationship, so there are no labor contracts, wages, social insurance and housing fund contributions, overtime pay, etc."

"Just because it's always been this way, does that mean it's right?" Akihara asked, heartbroken.

The system remained silent for a moment. "I...I think I'll go ask my seniors..."

Finally, he had even managed to make the system emo. Akihara, feeling refreshed after building his happiness on the suffering of others, opened the text message. As usual, Gin gave a brief reply, telling him to meet at a certain bar at a certain time tomorrow night, and that he would give him a code name.

"A trap..." Qiu Yuan pondered. It seems he needs to make some simple preparations before going.

……

Wait, did he forget something?

Akihara Kazumitsu sprang to his feet and rushed into the kitchen.

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