Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

"Did you find it? Black Jade."

It was a basin in the room, and a black thing, shaped like a tadpole or a comma, was spinning around in it.

Upon hearing Uesugi's voice, it floated into the air and then pulled a bottle of red wine from its dark body.

"Well done."

Uesugi was generous with his praise.

Moyu didn't seem particularly affectionate. After handing the red wine to Shangshan, he went back to soaking in the basin.

During the time they spent together, she had a general idea of ​​the shikigami's temperament. It wasn't very affectionate, but it was reliable and would follow orders without getting out of control.

Human society is like a blank sheet of paper, and many things need to be taught from scratch.

For example, this bottle of red wine took quite a bit of effort to make.

Uesugi sat down in the chair with the bottle in his hand, instinctively reaching for it to forcefully open, but then suddenly stopped halfway through.

She cleared her throat, trying to project a gentle demeanor, and slowly picked up the corkscrew, gently unscrewing the cork. Then she took out the decanter and slowly poured in the deep red wine, her movements remarkably steady.

She sat there with her legs crossed, trying her best to keep from swaying.

After a difficult wait of about half an hour, she finally picked up the decanter and poured the wine into a stemmed glass with a gentle demeanor.

She lifted the wine glass, swirled it gently, brought it close to her nose to sniff, a cryptic smile on her face, and ran her fingertips along the rim of the glass, leaving a thin layer of white frost spreading outwards.

She raised her glass in a gesture of respect to the cat poster on the wall, then took a small sip.

"Ugh—Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey."

"It's sour!"

The exquisite and elegant mask collapsed instantly, Uesugi's small face crumpled up, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably. The strange, sour taste of the red wine assaulted her nostrils and brain. She never imagined that red wine could taste so bad.

Is this some kind of vinegar poured from a wine bottle?!

She quickly grabbed the Coke next to her and took a big gulp. The sweetness of the carbonated drink barely washed away the disaster in her mouth and reset her sense of taste.

Everyone says that room temperature cola is not as good as urine, but that depends on what you compare it to.

Compared to this stuff, it's practically a divine wine.

"Ah, elegance is so hard!" Uesugi wailed, collapsing onto the bed as if giving up, and sighing at the ceiling.

But the next second, she suddenly did a sit-up, her eyes burning with an indomitable spirit, and she gritted her teeth.

"No way! If I don't meet those elegant growth requirements, I'll never unlock my core abilities in this lifetime."

The Mount Fuji incident intensified her sense of crisis more than ever before. If she continued to fall behind other players, she would become truly dispensable in the future.

Although keeping a low profile and concealing her whereabouts suited her wishes, she couldn't always rely on others for protection; she couldn't guarantee that she would never face a life-or-death crisis.

She needs to unlock her cat form as soon as possible, as that is the core of her power.

Moreover, after transforming into a cat, combined with Mo Yu's stealth abilities, her safety will be greatly enhanced, and she will no longer have to worry about anyone following the clues to find out her true identity.

Elegance! I must be elegant, meow!

She quickly changed her sleeping position.

That said, how do ladies sleep?

Uesugi tried a few classic anime-style sleeping positions, such as lying on his side with his palms together on the pillow and his legs curled up.

I've been fiddling with it for half an hour, but it doesn't seem to be working.

According to other players, when the growth requirements are met, you can feel a very slight feedback.

She felt suffocated, and her limbs seemed to want to spread out into a U-shape uncontrollably.

She's used to sleeping like this, and with the special bra, it doesn't feel stuffy; it's quite comfortable.

No, speaking of feedback, there actually is some.

Uesugi sat up, hesitated, placed his hands beside his head, meowed, and turned on his cat ears.

Poof! A pair of fluffy black cat ears popped out playfully from her hair.

"It seems so, meow." She mused, her gaze shifting to the cat poster on the wall.

Uesugi imitated the cat's movements above.

She supported herself with her hands, adjusted her center of gravity, and crawled on the bed.

"It works, meow!"

Uesugi's eyes widened. He had never thought of this before. So-called elegance was actually achieved by imitating cats.

If a family has too many kind people, the cat with the ears will really walk around the house on all fours.

She's completely used to walking on two legs now.

So, it's true that she unintentionally imitated a cat sleeping last time, which may have gotten her some feedback, but she didn't pay much attention to it at the time.

Since it's useful, let's use it to the fullest!

Uesugi lay face down on the bed, resting his chin on his hands, and his consciousness entered the player lobby, leaving his physical body in this position to sleep.

I don't know if this counts as cheating.

Try it first. If it works, then it's either a bug or a mechanism issue, not cheating.

Although the game system is being updated, the game lobby is still always accessible. In the center of the empty round table, a huge countdown number is ticking, showing the remaining time before the new version arrives.

Uesugi Hitomi lay listlessly on the round table in the player lobby, her chin resting on the tabletop, her fingers unconsciously drawing circles.

During the system update, the store was closed and its functions were limited. The entire lobby was empty, and there wasn't even anyone to chat with.

She went online purely to test whether that elegant cat sleep method was effective, and incidentally...

I wonder how things are going with asking Nobita for help.

Just as he was thinking this, black mist surged around Nobita's seat, and the figure of a knight materialized.

"I saw someone online and thought it must be you." Nobi originally wanted to send a private message, but decided it would be clearer to just go online and say it directly.

"My parents didn't ask too many questions, did they?" Uesugi immediately sat up straight and asked nervously.

This is what Uesugi asked Nobi to do: to help convey some messages to her parents.

Actually, a few days after the disaster, Nobita helped her contact her parents to let them know she was safe, but that was done by phone from Osaka.

Nobita then suggested posing as a real friend and personally visiting her home to reassure her parents.

Uesugi hesitated, which meant that her true identity was almost completely transparent to Nobita.

Finally, considering that he was unlikely to become enemies with Nobi in the future, and that revealing his phone number would essentially expose his address if he wanted to, he could also do so.

Only then did he agree.

Otherwise, based on her understanding of her parents, it would be very difficult for them to be persuaded by a phone call from a stranger; they would definitely come to Tokyo to find her.

Given the current chaos in Tokyo, their arrival would actually pose a greater risk.

So Uesugi asked Nobi to calm her parents down over the phone first, and then he would go to their home to reassure them.

"I did as you said, disguising myself as your college classmate, a woman."

“Your aunt and uncle are both doing well. They were mainly worried about you and asked why you couldn’t call them in person. I answered them with the excuse you prepared beforehand. Also, I left them a satellite phone. Satellite communication in Tokyo should be restored soon. Find an opportunity to call them. Only when they hear your voice in person can they truly feel at ease.”

After hearing Nobita's words, Uesugi breathed a long sigh of relief, finally putting his mind at ease.

She noticed that Nobita had indeed become much more composed.

Life really can change a person.

Nobi's brow furrowed as he sensed that the [Lightness] card he had obtained from Uesugi had activated, transforming into [Lightness+].

This shows that in Uesugi's mind, he was more trustworthy.

Not easy.

He knew the limits of offering help; offering assistance at the wrong time could arouse suspicion. Therefore, he could hardly help other players.

Moreover, not everyone can generate cards. He has helped many people, many of whom are indeed very grateful to him and even willing to do his best for him, but no cards have appeared.

On the one hand, it should be about selecting the right people; on the other hand, in addition to helping each other, mutual understanding is also very important.

"It's good that things are settled." Nobi nodded to Uesugi. "Take care in Tokyo as well. I'm logging off now. I'll be back in Tokyo as soon as possible."

He didn't linger in the hall. After confirming that Uesugi had nothing else to do, his figure vanished into black mist.

Nobi Tomoyoshi's consciousness returned to reality. He opened his eyes and found himself in a single room at a cheap motel.

The weather outside the window was fairly clear. He quickly got up, packed his simple luggage, put on a mask and hat, checked out of the hotel, and left his temporary lodging.

Pushing open the creaking wooden door of the hotel, the atmosphere of the small town and the slightly hot air rushed in.

He was about to take a step when his gaze suddenly froze, fixed on the alleyway across the street.

That familiar face was completely unexpected for Nobita.

"Asano-senpai?" Nobita's voice was filled with astonishment. He hadn't expected to run into Asano Hiroshi here, and he couldn't understand how the other had found him. He thought he had been discreet enough.

Asano Hiroshi seemed to be just passing by. He casually walked through the deserted street and walked up to Nobita with normal steps, keeping a just right distance.

"I came from Kumamoto City," Asano explained briefly.

Nobi opened his mouth, this was even more outrageous, the other party had followed him all the way, and he hadn't noticed at all!

This only shows that Asano Hiroshi had no hostility whatsoever, only goodwill, and that his tracking skills were quite good; if he hadn't shown himself, the other person would have discovered him much later.

"Now, can you answer one question for me?" Asano looked calmly at Nobita through his glasses, his voice not deliberately lowered. "Game."

Is it still ongoing?

Player Lobby.

When Nobita meets Asano Hiroshi, Muramasa Takii appears.

She came up simply to check if there were any changes in the game lobby, as was her routine, like a daily task.

Just then, Uesugi was feeling really bored and wanted to find someone to chat with.

"On the official side, just maintaining order, mobilizing resources, and restoring power are enough to keep them busy." Taki still had time to chat for a bit. After thinking for a moment, she talked about the situation in recent days, "The Extraordinary Countermeasures Department also has a lot of work, but it's not really related to me. It mainly involves research on the game and asking us about the details of the game."

"However, I'm not sure if there will be any new restrictions after the game update. If they can help us with the game content, brainstorming would be a great help, but the only ones who might benefit are us players who have joined the official team."

"Yui? I don't know her. Perhaps Shima knows more about her. All I know is that she has completely sided with Youmu and the Japanese government."

"After Hayato recovered, he basically spent all his free time training his combat skills. He was very enthusiastic, competitive, and improved quite quickly."

There was one thing she didn't mention: Nobi gave her the blood bead and asked her to help deliver it to Hayato.

Then Takii suddenly had a brilliant idea: since Hayato can turn a motorcycle into a blazing war machine, could she add blood beads to it to add special effects?

She casually mentioned it to Hayato, and Hayato was very interested, or rather, he was interested in anything that could improve his strength.

It's clear that he completely viewed his coma on Mount Fuji as a disgrace to his life.

Even some of the training facilities were painted with images of Mount Fuji, which he used as a hypothetical enemy.

However, she can only craft melee weapons and armor at present, and she has never crafted any extraordinary items before, so this fusion is rather difficult for her. She can only say that she can utilize a certain ability of the Blood Bead, which is to suck blood.

The Blazing Chariot can then further accelerate by burning the blood it absorbs.

It has become a Bloodstained Chariot.

Chapter 263: Version 20

"I know a suitable place. If you don't mind, let's talk there."

This is a remote town or city under the jurisdiction of Kumamoto Prefecture.

Although the streets were nearly deserted, Nobita was still a little uneasy.

Asano nodded: "Okay."

On the way, Nobi Tomoyo remained vigilant, his eyes constantly scanning the surrounding alleys, avoiding intersections with surveillance cameras, walking cautiously as if he were ready to transform into a knight at any moment.

Asano understood Nobi's thoughts and pushed up his glasses: "Nobody knows you're here. Tokyo is too busy to take care of itself right now. From the Prime Minister to the rank-and-file police officers, everyone is in a mess, busy dealing with higher priority matters. The person responsible for monitoring me has already been transferred away."

His words still carried a certainty, as if he had witnessed it firsthand and was simply stating the facts.

Nobita's shoulders relaxed slightly, but the wariness in his eyes did not completely disappear.