I have a life simulator.

Leaning against the railing in the corridor, Karuizawa Megumi looked out at the plants in the courtyard. The midday wind made her coat, tied around her waist, flutter in the breeze. Her slightly bent posture outlined the perfect curves of her waist and hips. The girl turned her head and gently brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, smiling:

"I'm really looking forward to the special exams this summer."

The girl's smile was like a rosebud about to bloom.

But it's not the rose that blooms and fades only for the Little Prince on the planet, its beauty stemming from its uniqueness.

She grew out of the soil herself, weathered the wind and rain, yet still walked beautifully before you—

Red roses.

-------------------------------------

Karuizawa Megumi thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, perhaps because she remembered visiting it once before. She looked forward to the island, the cruise ship, and even the sports festival that followed.

Kitagawa Ryo understood her thoughts very well, because in a sense they were the same kind of people who wanted to make up for the shortcomings of the past and then look to the future in a better way.

However, this reminded Kitagawa Ryo of his previous experience in the simulation. Back then, he led the students of Class C on a deserted island and had a great time, just like on vacation, for two days. Then, thanks to his prior planning, he achieved the final victory. Even by today's standards, that operation was one of his proudest achievements.

Only Class C won, while the other three classes all lost.

It seems that she angered the already sick Suzune so much that she fainted again.

With a touch of nostalgia, Kitagawa Ryo flipped through the pages of his simulated memories: riding a parasail with Shiina Hiyori on the sea, running to Ichinose Honami's campsite to borrow a hammock, secretly meeting Karuizawa Megumi in the middle of the night to watch the stars together under a tree...

Even many years from now, these pearl-like memories will remain the most unforgettable chapters in Kitagawa Ryo's life.

However, there will always be those who are absent.

Sink your consciousness into your mind.

Kitagawa Ryo found himself back in that chaotic ocean, staring directly at the shimmering page before him.

【Life Restart Simulator】

Each time a life simulation is conducted, five talents will be randomly selected. Talent levels are divided into five tiers: white, green, blue, purple, and gold. After each simulation, players can choose one talent to solidify and retain for the next simulation.

Chapter: Sakayanagi Arisu's Long-cherished Spring Wish

Since ending Horikita Suzune's simulation two years ago, Kitagawa Ryo has not been here for a long time. The solidified talent from the last time has disrupted his life again, and he himself cannot judge what changes the next simulation will bring.

Just in the last few days, Kitagawa Ryo finally received the long-awaited news from here.

[Arisu Sakayanagi's state of mind changed, and her life trajectory shifted.]

[Players are advised to complete Chapter 4 as soon as possible.]

Kitagawa Ryo clearly remembered that the activation of Horikita Suzune's simulation was also triggered by this sentence. At that time, Horikita Suzune had the idea of ​​change in advance because of his appearance, which ultimately led to the reopening of the simulation.

However, thanks to his understanding of Horikita Suzune herself, Kitagawa Ryo cleared the game in just one simulation attempt.

but.

Kitagawa Ryo shifted his gaze to the last remaining chapter of the four main storylines.

Sakayanagi Arisu's long-cherished wish for spring.

Actually, if you think about it carefully, Sakayanagi Arisu is the most mysterious and special of the four main heroines. Even though he had some interaction with her in the two simulations, Kitagawa Ryo could not say that he fully understood her.

Whether it's Honami Ichinose, Megumi Karuizawa, or Suzune Horikita, their personality changes all have a significant turning point, sometimes involving a person, sometimes an event.

However, in both simulations of Kitagawa Ryo's contact with Sakayanagi Arisu, no node belonging to her could be found.

Every time I saw Sakayanagi Arisu, she was already that arrogant and wicked genius.

Kitagawa Ryo never encountered Sakayanagi Arisu's childhood in any of the simulations.

The same is true in reality.

-------------------------------------

"Considering Sakayanagi's health condition, the school does not recommend that you participate in this summer special exam."

Sakayanagi Arisu was staring blankly at an agreement on the table in her room. She was familiar with the terminology. She tapped her pen, and as she had done countless times before, all she had to do was sign her name at the end.

"Considering Ms. Arisu's physical condition, the hospital does not recommend that you participate in any high-intensity outdoor activities, and please have someone accompany you during normal rehabilitation training."

The two characters representing her surname, Sakayanagi, were already written on the paper. The girl then neatly wrote down her given name:

Arisu.

It sounds the same as Alice, who chased the rabbit and fell into the underground world.

The first simulation of this chapter will follow.

[Randomly selecting talents]

Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Heartbeat is the Sound of Life

Seven randomly selected talents gradually appeared before Kitagawa Ryo. Kitagawa Ryo examined them, slowly constructing a rough outline of a plan in his mind, and then focused his gaze on the last talent:

[Consumption (Green): You will be born with a congenital condition at random, but in exchange, your intelligence level will be slightly increased.]

Kitagawa Ryo clicked on an item and chose to use its active effect, which was the reward he received after simulating Horikita Suzune's actions.

[Horikita Suzune's Self: Before each simulation begins, she can actively choose one talent and upgrade its level to gold.]

A few seconds later, the original talent completely changed:

[Heaven's Jealousy (Gold): Your body is extremely weak and you are unlikely to live past thirty, but in exchange, your intelligence level will increase dramatically.]

Just as expected.

Kitagawa Ryo nodded and quickly checked off the remaining talents.

[Talent selection complete]

【Simulation starts】

-------------------------------------

I once read a statement in a book by Sakayanagi Arisu:

The heartbeat is the sound of life.

Every morning, the female doctor, who carefully placed the bell-shaped stethoscope on her chest, seemed to be handling some precious treasure, listening intently to the beating heart with her eyes lowered.

Sakayanagi Arisu had no idea what kind of sound the doctor was hearing. She had inadvertently glanced at her medical record and noticed the words "noise" written on it. This reminded her of the sound of a violin bow snapping and cracking as the strings were being pulled at high speed.

"Today's check-up is over, Ms. Arisu."

Whether it was at her father's request or not, the attending physician, Sakayanagi Arisu, never revealed any flaws on her face. She herself was completely unable to glean any useful information from the other person's expression. Over time, the other person's face, like the snow-white walls, the pale ceiling, and the white coat, lost its distinctive features and began to blur.

If things were as usual, Sakayanagi Arisu would be allowed to do other activities for the rest of the day, such as reading, since she could see the enormous desk and bookshelves in the corner of the ward just by looking up; watching TV, since the remote was in the first drawer of her bedside table; or going for a walk, but only in the corridor of this floor, where she could see the view of the northwest corner of the courtyard from the window at the end of the corridor, and as for the southeast corner, she could see it by opening the window of her ward.

However, today Arisu Sakayanagi received some interesting new information from the doctor.

A new patient moved into the ward next to hers.

And he seemed to be about the same age as her.

However, the doctor explained this only to remind Sakayanagi Arisu that the other person's condition and symptoms were more serious than hers, and that it would be best to avoid encountering her if they met. The doctor paused, then added that it was best to avoid meeting her if they did.

After adding this sentence, she left the ward, closing the door very gently, almost silently.

Sakayanagi Arisu began to feel curious about the patient next door whom she had never met before, because she knew that her father had arranged the best medical care for her, including this amazingly large ward, which was not something an ordinary family could afford.

However, her curiosity lasted for less than ten minutes, because the other person had already knocked on his door first.

Thus, seven-year-old Sakayanagi Arisu met Kitagawa Ryo for the first time.

Like Alice who chased the magical rabbit with the pocket watch into the underground world, she stood up and grasped the doorknob.

It turned the door to another world.

-------------------------------------

Judging from his appearance alone, Kitagawa Ryo seemed like a perfectly healthy boy. He probably met all the criteria that girls his age would like. Sakayanagi Arisu propped her head up and looked at the number tag hanging around his neck. She herself had the same thing hanging around her neck.

"Beichuan—Cool."

"Sakayanagi - Arisu."

Just like Arisu Sakayanagi, Ryo Kitagawa also pronounced her name.

After this exchange, an awkward silence fell between the two children again. Sakayanagi Arisu, wearing white slippers from the hospital room, took a step closer. Worried that her voice was too soft, she asked:

"Hey, what illness do you have?"

Sakayanagi Arisu stared at the other person's chest, or rather, the location of their heart.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

The boy in front of her smiled at her, and the words he used were ones that Sakayanagi Arisu had never heard of before, which was beyond the knowledge of the seven-year-old Sakayanagi Arisu.

Kitagawa Ryo extended his right hand, bending his middle finger into his palm slowly. But what was even more surprising was that the index and ring fingers around him seemed to have no reaction at all, remaining upright as if they were two organs that did not belong to this hand.

Sakayanagi Arisu tried to do the movement, but no matter how hard she tried, her ring finger stubbornly kept bending downwards.

"They're frozen."

Kitagawa Ryo retracted his right hand and proudly showed off his nimble left hand to Sakayanagi Arisu, smiling broadly.

"So now I've learned to eat with my left hand."

"What about you?"

In response to Kitagawa Ryo's question, Sakayanagi Arisu pointed to her chest, making no attempt to hide it:

"Congenital heart disease."

After saying that, Sakayanagi Arisu spoke crisply:

"Can I listen to it?"

"What do you mean?"

"The sound of a heartbeat."

After obtaining permission from Kitagawa Ryo, Sakayanagi Arisu eagerly pressed her ear against Kitagawa Ryo's chest. The summer hospital gown was very thin, and she could feel the warmth of his skin.

So the two children held their breath; now, even a pin dropping would probably make a huge noise.

In this quiet atmosphere, Sakayanagi Arisu heard a slight noise.

The book often uses the onomatopoeic word "thump thump thump" to describe a strong heartbeat, and her medical record mentions "murmur" in the section about the heart. However, for Sakayanagi Arisu now, neither of these descriptions seems quite right.

"Oh……"

Sakayanagi Arisu sighed softly. As expected, she still couldn't find the most suitable word from her not-so-sparse vocabulary. This sound could neither be turned into language nor into words.

It was like a hazy blend of warmth and loneliness.

The outside noise interrupted Sakayanagi Arisu's thoughts, and she realized that she had pinned Kitagawa Ryo against the wall.

"Thank you so much."

As if he had finally accomplished something he had always wanted to do, Kitagawa Ryo inexplicably received a thank you from Sakayanagi Arisu.

Then Sakayanagi Arisu bluntly asked the second question: why did the other person move here?

Neither of them were patients who could stand for long periods, so they tacitly sat down on the sofa in the ward. This was usually where visiting guests sat, and they would not stay for very long, until the tea leaves in their teacups had shrunk to about a third of the way down.

Perhaps because it had been too long since he had spoken to children his own age, Kitagawa Ryo quickly became acquainted with Sakayanagi Arisu. His personality was much more outgoing than Sakayanagi Arisu's, and he was talking about his past and the reasons for moving here.

Just as Sakayanagi Arisu had guessed at the beginning, Kitagawa Ryo, who was moved to this ward for treatment, also came from a very luxurious family, but Kitagawa Ryo only experienced this family's lifestyle for less than a month.

Before Kitagawa Ryo's biological parents found him, he had been living in a fairly ordinary, even impoverished, family.

After using the private bathroom in Sakayanagi Arisu's ward, Kitagawa Ryo returned to his seat.

“When I felt that I couldn’t move my fingers, I stayed in a small hospital where six people shared a room for a while. There were no private bathrooms like this there.”

"The toilet is at the end of the corridor, opposite the on-duty doctor's office, and the trash cans are over there too."

Kitagawa Ryo sniffed. The entire ward didn't have that pungent disinfectant smell; instead, it had a faint, pleasant fragrance of herbs and plants. It felt more like a hotel suite than a hospital ward.

"Actually, the whole corridor smelled terrible, a mixed kind of awful. But neither the patients nor the doctors seemed to care. I even saw a doctor on duty sitting at the door of his office eating instant noodles in the middle of the night. Before I left, I never heard of him having any illnesses, except that he would occasionally get a stiff neck from sleeping on the desk in his office."

Sakayanagi Arisu felt that such words with a scent were inappropriate, but she couldn't deny that she found them very interesting.

Because she had already started laughing.

Kitagawa Ryo was already sprawled out on the sofa, which was spacious enough for a child, and he kicked off his slippers:

"In fact, the process of getting sick is a process of gradually learning to be content."