"Liu Nan?" He Ao picked up her bag and handed it to her. "Have you eaten?"
"N-No, not yet."
Liu Nan answered instinctively.
"Me neither."
He Ao smiled and shrugged. As a student, Liu Nan was bound to panic when faced with something like this, so he had kept chatting to ease her nerves. Still, she seemed fairly brave herself and had not been too frightened.
Just as he finished speaking, hurried footsteps sounded. A small team of police officers rushed into the alley, escorting the two "concerned citizens" who had fled earlier. At a glance, they saw He Ao talking to Liu Nan and the unconscious thug lying on the ground.
"Team Leader Liu." He Ao greeted the middle-aged officer leading the group excitedly. Before the man could speak, he immediately added, "Class C wanted criminal, Zhang Shi'an. Ten thousand yuan."
"Got it, got it." Team Leader Liu waved with a smile and directed the officers behind him to cuff Zhang Shi'an, who was lying on the ground. "I knew you wouldn't be this enthusiastic if there wasn't money involved. Don't do something so dangerous next time."
"Hehe, got it." He Ao put on an innocent-looking smile.
"He Ao?" Liu Nan finally came to her senses. She looked at He Ao, who was chatting with the police officers. "You know me?"
"Mm-hm. You're the class representative from Class One, right? I even helped you pick up a pen this morning. That was an extra service, so I won't charge you separately." He Ao nodded, then took a black notebook from the side pocket of his backpack, flipped to a page in the middle, and handed it to Liu Nan. "Liu Nan, sign your name and leave your number."
Still dazed, Liu Nan accepted the notebook. It was densely filled with all sorts of names and phone numbers. Some were people she knew, while others were strangers. Some names had check marks after them, while others had no marks at all.
After hesitating for a moment, she wrote down her name and phone number.
"He Ao, what is this for?"
She handed the notebook back and asked curiously.
"It's not for anything." He Ao smiled as he took it back. "Look, I saved you once, and neither of us has eaten. It's not too much to ask for you to treat me to a meal, right?"
"That's not too much..." Although Liu Nan found the request a little strange, she still nodded gently. "Should we go eat later?"
"No rush." He Ao counted the names in the notebook. "It's not your turn yet. I'll call you when it is."
"Are all the people in that notebook people you've saved?" Liu Nan realized that He Ao did not seem so hard to get along with after all, and she became a little bolder as she asked.
"Some are. Some aren't."
He Ao closed the notebook and slipped it back into the side pocket of his backpack.
"Then..." Liu Nan did not think treating him to a meal was a big deal. She often treated others to meals, but... "You saved me. Is one meal really enough?"
"Hm?" He Ao frowned and carefully looked Liu Nan up and down. "Are you trying to pull that whole 'offer yourself in marriage' thing? That wouldn't be repaying a favor. That'd be taking revenge!"
Liu Nan: ???
"He Ao." Before Liu Nan could say anything, the police officer leading the team called out to him. "Where is this fugitive from?"
"Coming." He Ao was always enthusiastic when it came to his benefactors. As he walked over, he said, "Fugitive number C121574024. He came over from Liang Province. Human trafficker."
Liang Province was in the northwest of the Central Earth Republic, over a thousand kilometers away from West Capital, where He Ao currently was.
"You've got a great memory, kid." Team Leader Liu patted him on the shoulder, then looked at an officer beside him who was taking notes. "Did you get that down?"
"Got it."
The officer nodded gently. To make it easier for him to write it down, He Ao had pronounced the entire number one digit at a time.
"Liu Nan, you're here!" A short-haired girl called out from behind her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Liu Nan froze for a moment, then turned around blankly. She touched her delicate cheek and asked softly, "Nan Nan, am I ugly?"
By then, He Ao had finished speaking with Team Leader Liu. He glanced at Liu Nan, who now had someone with her, and quietly left.
He was not good at dealing with this kind of social interaction. To him, it wasted time and had no meaning.
He Ao's home was not far away. It was beside the university; after going around the alley ahead, he reached the entrance to his residential complex.
At that moment, a food delivery rider stood pacing at the entrance, occasionally looking into the complex. He had already been waiting for several minutes.
"Thanks."
He Ao stood before the rider and thanked him, taking the cake from his hands. A faint chill traveled through the cardboard box to his fingertips, and then he walked deeper into the complex step by step.
The delivery rider also got on his electric scooter to leave. However, just as he started moving, a figure in a crisp suit stopped him.
"Excuse me, have you just seen this person?"
He climbed the old stairway step by step. At Unit Three, Room 502, He Ao took out his key and opened the door to the empty apartment.
He entered, shut the door, and fastened the security chain.
Today was his birthday.
He Ao placed the cake on the old table and glanced at the quartz watch on his wrist.
Eighteen years ago today, in one more hour, he would come into this world.
Few people remembered the exact moment they were born, but He Ao was an exception, though he did not particularly want to be one.
7:32:56 p.m.—the time of his birth.
He Ao shifted his gaze. Everything in his vision moved with it, but in the lower-right corner of his field of view, there was one image that did not change at all. No matter how he moved his eyes, it remained there.
It was a string of gray, translucent numbers that kept ticking.
A countdown made up of hours, minutes, and seconds. It had started ticking from the very second he was born and had continued until now.
157,799 hours, without stopping for even a moment.
And now, the countdown had reached 01:00:00—the final hour.
For a long time, He Ao had thought it was a countdown to his death, living each day in fear. But by now, he had long grown used to its existence.
He used a small knife to cut the cake into many pieces, then calmly ate the entire cake piece by piece as he watched the numbers continue to tick down.
00:00:01
There would be an outcome, whether survival or death.
Bang, bang, bang--
Urgent knocking suddenly rang out, followed by the sharp sound of the lock turning. Amid a creaking noise, the old security door was slowly pushed open.
00:00:00
At that instant, time reached zero, and He Ao's vision went black.
Did you find life boring?
Did you want to experience a different life in another world?
We had countless random identities for you to experience: tycoons, assassins, hunters, beggars, and more.
Start the game now?
YesNo
A page resembling a computer pop-up ad appeared in his field of vision.
So the thing that had followed me for eighteen years was this game?
How ridiculous. I'm a law-abiding good person—how could I possibly find life boring?
He Ao sneered and chose Yes.
Initializing system... Loading game... Welcome to the Life Simulation Game Loading beginner mission. Randomly matching you with a life character. Match successful. Your character is: Evil God Priest Yezuola
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