The Dream of the Cyber Ghost
The night was deep, and the bright moon had just risen.
The activity room of the Drama club at Jiangcheng Media University.
Lin Yu looked at the message Shen Bingmiao sent on his phone. "I'll be waiting for you in the club activity room at 10 PM." He then gently opened the door to the club activity room.
The activity room was as messy as ever, with various performance Item piled in cardboard boxes, and four desks pushed together covered with open scripts full of annotations and unfinished Coffee.
In the very center of the table stood a plastic stool, resembling a throne.
This throne naturally belongs to Shen Bingmiao, the president of the "Drama club".
At this moment, Shen Bingmiao, wearing bright green athletic shorts and a sky-blue crew neck shirt, stood up with her bangs held together by Card Key.
She sat cross-legged on that throne-like bench, Village Head through Arthur Miller's classic play, Death of a Salesman.
Hearing the door open, Shen Bingmiao turned the book upside down on her lap, looked at Lin Yu, and smiled.
"Welcome back, my dear 'Ace,' is there anything you want to ask me?"
Lin Yu pulled up a chair and sat down, looking up at the president.
"It was less of an inquiry and more of a thank you—thank you for your phone, it was a great help to me."
Shen Bingmiao rested her chin on her hand. "You're welcome. I don't need it anyway, so I might as well give it to you as a favor."
"Then how can you be so sure I'll definitely need it?"
Lin Yu countered with a question.
Shen Bingmiao's expression remained unchanged. "You're a newcomer... Newcomers aren't picky about Item, having some is definitely better than not having any."
Lin Yu laughed again, "That's a reasonable explanation—but, Senior Sister, I already told you this last time."
Your acting skills aren't good enough.
He spoke calmly, his gaze fixed on Shen Bingmiao's face.
Even with his head raised and the other person looking down at him, Lin Yu still appeared to be looking at Shen Bingmiao at eye level.
"Senior Sister, I don't have many friends, and you're practically the only one I can call a friend, so I hope you're not lying to me."
Despite Lin Yu's sudden pressure, Shen Bingmiao remained calm.
She picked up a book, scratched her cheek with the corner, and said with a laugh, "Oh dear, why are you suddenly making the atmosphere so serious... Do you think I'm hiding something from you?"
"But what am I hiding from you...? Am I hiding things from you that I know about what you're hiding from me? That's a really convoluted way to put it!"
Lin Yu wasn't swayed by Shen Bingmiao's question.
"So you do know about my affairs," he said without changing his expression. "I just didn't want to involve you, but if you tell me you don't want me to hide anything from you, I will be honest with you."
Shen Bingmiao looked at Lin Yu and stood up from the stool. "My dear junior, your acting skills are not bad, but what you said really doesn't have much credibility."
Will you really tell me everything?
"The S-Rank rating of the 'Psychology Society,' the 'Unique Profession,' the 'Tier Advancement' of three [Instance], the Doppelganger of 'May May'... What do you need to be honest with me about?"
"Or is it something I don't even know? Tell me, Lin Yu!"
Shen Bingmiao asked in a loud voice, as if reciting lines from a play.
She was aggressive and her words were sharp and incisive.
Lin Yu, standing below, watched the excited Shen Bingmiao and breathed a sigh of relief.
He knew Shen Bingmiao too well—this attitude of hers still suggested a playful mindset.
Moreover... although the questions asked by the other party were all secrets he had hidden, they were also the "first level of secrets" that he had already defined—secrets at this level could be exposed without harm, and could even be deliberately exposed if necessary.
Just like what he did to "Twenty" and Li Hua.
Shen Bingmiao didn't delve into any of the deeper secrets.
But...
"Look, you're still hiding it. You clearly know more than that."
Lin Yu also stood on his chair.
He just revealed part of his secret today, and Shen Bingmiao then revealed those parts.
The timing of the other party's confession and the [Item] given, even if there was no malice, did not seem to suggest the ignorance they appeared to be.
"Don't treat me like an idiot, Senior Sister —you've been hiding a lot from me."
"Why could an ordinary 'Tier 3' Player arrange for me to meet with a 'Grandmaster'?"
"That [Item] you don't need is definitely not something you can just give away casually!"
His gaze fell on the script in the other person's hand.
"We haven't spoken the truth for even ten minutes in this room!"
Lin Yu uttered a line from the seventh scene of the play.
Shen Bingmiao paused, looked at Lin Yu in the chair, and sighed.
"Okay, let's be honest with each other... just like I said before."
Shouldn't we be each other's most trusted friends?
Lin Yu crossed his arms and said, "Then you can start. What's your Player codename, and what position do you hold in which organization?"
Shen Bingmiao sighed, "To be honest, I really don't want to tell you this... but since you asked, I'll be frank."
"My code name is 'Carl Jung,' and I am the 'interim President's of the 'Psychology Society.'"
Hearing the words uttered by Shen Bingmiao, Lin Yu felt a chill run down his spine.
"I'm sorry, now that you know my true identity..."
Shen Bingmiao reached out, and in her hand appeared the black muzzle of a gun.
Lin Yu turned around, intending to jump off the chair and run away, but in that instant, he discovered that the door to the club activity room had disappeared—replaced by green gibberish.
Damn it!
Lin Yu immediately made a judgment, turned around and drew the [One-Hit-Kill Pistol] and the [Fear Torch], while preparing to use [Shady Corner] to dodge the attack.
But...
It was too late.
"Bang!"
Shen Bingmiao pulled the trigger.
Just as Lin Yu's heart nearly skipped a beat, he felt a cold touch on his forearm.
The water had soaked his clothes on his left shoulder and his forearm.
Shen Bingmiao burst into laughter. "Hahaha, my dear ace, now you won't say my acting is bad, will you!"
"You fooled me—how could I possibly be from the 'Psychology Society'?"
As she spoke, Lin Yu rubbed his temples.
"If you use this method to deceive people, of course I'll be fooled."
"So... which organization do you belong to?"
He asked this, and Shen Bingmiao replied with a smile.
Do you really want to know? Even if you might not like the answer.
Lin Yu looked at Shen Bingmiao's smile, which seemed no different from usual, but he still felt something was off...
A feeling of sadness.
But Lin Yu finally nodded.
"I want to know, even if the answer isn't what I want."
Shen Bingmiao maintained her smile.
"Then you're asking the wrong question, dear Ace. I am indeed not a member of any 'organization,' I'm not lying to you about that. I don't belong to any group."
"But I lied to you elsewhere... I'm not a 'Tier 3' Player."
"I am neither a 'Tier 3' nor Player."
She jumped off the chair, landed lightly on the table, and, stepping between the script and the Coffee, wobbled to the edge of the table.
Then, Shen Bingmiao extended her hand to Lin Yu.
"I don't belong to any one place... not just any organization, but the world."
Shen Bingmiao leaned forward, and Lin Yu instinctively reached out to take her outstretched hand.
However, the moment their fingertips touched, Shen Bingmiao's hand became translucent.
"My dearest ace, I am the prefix of the gift I give you; I am a wanderer in this world..."
As she spoke softly, her entire being flickered, emitting a pale blue light.
Lin Yu and she revealed the answer at the same time.
This was a truly beautiful and dreamlike scene, like the androids in Blade Runner 2049 standing in front of the Projection.
"--Cyber Ghost."