This Humble One, Reincarnation Stream Player

Wait, could he be a player?

Mai glanced sideways with a guarded look, but the man was staring straight ahead, radiating an air of upright integrity with no sign of trying to take advantage of the situation.

A strange guy; it was impossible to tell if he was doing this on purpose or by accident.

The young girl wrinkled her nose, a queenly aura radiating from her.

It's one thing in the game, but in reality, I won't let him lead me by the nose.

Here it comes—her competitive spirit was already kicking in.

Yuki had long since noticed her peeking and chuckled inwardly. Just as Mai suspected, this had been planned well in advance.

Before heading out, he had specifically checked the calendar; tonight was a local festival in Kanagawa, and the temple fair street would be bustling. He had judged that Mai Sakurajima wouldn't have the heart to pay attention to such things.

Moving from teammates to friends was just the first step. He loved making progress in silence—that was true for games, and it was true for romance.

"Senior, there's an accessory shop over there. Want to go take a look?"

"Didn't you say you were broke?"

"You could pick out a gift for me, Senior. Isn't it meaningful, considering this is our first time meeting in reality?"

"Shameless..." Mai thought about it and decided that since Yuki had gone to such lengths to keep her alive, buying him a little something as a thank-you was only fair.

"I suppose I can, but pick something normal."

"Haste makes waste, I know, I know."

"You're spouting nonsense again!"

The girl raised her fist, and Yuki quickly dodged. In a place filled with couples, this was perfectly normal and only drew a few good-natured glances.

Hm?

Just as she reached the shop entrance, Mai Sakurajima paused slightly and instinctively turned her head. Much like when Li Dan had been exposed, she was highly sensitive to people's gazes.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just felt like someone was looking at me strangely. Oh, there they are."

Yuki followed her gaze; a figure was walking across the small alley.

It was a fair-skinned youth wearing a pale yellow yukata, his face covered by a fox mask common at temple fairs. He walked with hurried steps toward the depths of the alley.

Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be strange, but at the mouth of this alley, it felt like a lone wolf appearing in a sea of couples.

The person seemed sensitive to being watched as well. Just as Yuki looked over, the stranger turned his head, then quickly averted his eyes.

"Senior, how about this pair of rings? Let's buy them for each other."

"Do you take me for a fool? I said pick something normal!"

The masked man only saw a sweet couple and nearly had his eyes blinded. He gave a bitter smile and kept his head down as he hurried away.

"What's wrong with you?" Mai Sakurajima felt like something was off, but after looking around, she couldn't find anything amiss.

"Nothing. Well, I've chosen. This should be fine, right?" Yuki picked up a pitch-black object—it was a Tengu mask, complete with a long nose on its red face and gray-white hair.

"Are you sure? If you wear that thing later, remember to stay away from me."

"As long as it's something you bought for me, Senior, I'll love it."

What a strange guy.

Mai Sakurajima didn't even know how many times she had said that today. Seeing that she couldn't sway Yuki, she paid for it and tucked it into a bag.

"Let's go. After dinner, I'll find you a hotel to stay at."

"Can't I go to your place, Senior?"

"Don't even think about it!"

It was already nine in the evening, and it was too late to catch the train. Mai resigned herself to her fate and led Yuki out of the alley.

The temple fair street was even livelier, the crowd thick as woven fabric. A small pickup truck delivering goods was stuck, unable to move forward or backward, while the sounds of horns, laughter, and chatter filled the air.

So lively.

Her purple eyes widened slightly. In her memories, she had only attended a temple fair as a child; ever since she became famous, she was the center of attention wherever she went, so she couldn't be bothered to join the crowds.

And walking alongside a young man was an experience like no other.

Carried forward by the crowd, she suddenly felt the flavor of the Reincarnation Game fading away. It was as if the Bloodthirsty Red Moon had never existed, and Yuki was just a friend she had happened to meet.

The two of them each grabbed a plate of takoyaki and ate as they walked, occasionally stopping to play ring toss or goldfish scooping. Gradually, Mai Sakurajima ended up with so many things in her hands that she had to find a bench to sit down.

"Did you come here to restock a shop?" Mai stared blankly at the pile of plush toys on the ground.

They had agreed to have dinner, but they had spent most of the time playing mini-games. They hadn't eaten much, but they had scavenged a mountain of prizes.

"Since it was your money, Senior, I had to make it worth it." Yuki stretched, still feeling like he hadn't had enough, and grumbled, "I knew these vendors were all in on it. They started packing up as soon as they saw me coming."

If they didn't pack up, would they let you clean them out?

Mai pursed her lips, suppressing a laugh, then leaned against the chair and looked up at the sky.

The full moon hung high, its cold, clear light blending with the warmth of human life, giving her a sense of peace and joy. She didn't even want to look away—unlike under the Bloodthirsty Red Moon, where every glance upward made her tremble.

The young girl gazed at the moon, while Yuki watched her. Seeing this pure white narcissus bathed in a layer of pale moonlight, her calm face illuminated by the streetlights, he looked down further to see her long, slender legs crossed, her toes inside her sandals fair and crystalline.

It was enough to whet one's appetite—oh no, rather, it was enough to make one lose themselves in the moment.

Yuki had the urge to capture this scene, but feeling his photography skills were completely inadequate, he simply tilted his head back to look at the moon as well.

"I think there's a purpose to the Reincarnation Game letting us return to reality."

"Hmm, to soothe our spirits so we don't get driven insane?"

"It's more than that. That hint, 'Please do not walk alone,' always has an underlying meaning, though for now, I can only analyze the first two layers."

Yuki didn't reveal his findings, and Mai Sakurajima didn't press him; this guy was always so mysterious that it was hard for a normal person to keep up with his train of thought.

She glanced at the thinning crowd on the street. It was nearly eleven o'clock, and the shopkeepers were beginning to pack up. Yet, bathed in this moonlight, she felt too lazy to move a single finger.

Ah—

She let out a yawn, feeling a bit sleepy, and patted her rounded thigh. "Alright, I've arranged a place for you to stay. I need to go home and sleep."

"Senior, were you happy today?"

Mai turned her head and saw Yuki putting his phone away.

At some point, she had grown accustomed to that awkward title of 'Senior.' She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated for a long time, and then turned her head back.

"Mm, I suppose I was relatively happy."

What does 'relatively' mean? How disingenuous. Your tsundere trait is clearly very weak.

Yuki smiled silently and stood up, dusting off his pants. "That's good. But it's not time for bed yet tonight. Don't give me that guarded look; I know that building a relationship requires taking things step by step."

It sounded strange, but before Mai Sakurajima could ask, her purple pupils reflected an orange-red flame, located deep in the alleyway they had just walked through.

Huh, why is there a fire?

Yuki picked up another phone and held it to his ear without speaking. A familiar female voice came through.

"As you expected, someone followed the signal here."

On the roof of an apartment building a kilometer away, golden hair fluttered in the night breeze. Hayasaka Ai held the phone in one hand and binoculars in the other.

She could clearly see the open flames in the alley, as well as a figure wearing a Fox Mask, dodging and weaving as fireballs grazed their body.

She glanced at the high-magnification camera beside her; the screen showed nothing but a blurry shadow, and the ignited building looked more like it had spontaneously combusted.

"Just as I tested, players are distorted when they trigger game attributes. I just don't know if the human eye can see it."

"They should be able to see it, but since they can't leave behind any evidence, it just becomes another bizarre urban legend." Yuki saw the passersby on the street pointing and whispering, and after confirming something, he sighed.

The Reincarnation Game must have appeared in the last year or two, because only in these two years had he become slack, having run in vain too many times to bother investigating every fire or accident anymore.

"Who is the enemy?"

Hayasaka Ai didn't answer immediately. She tracked the figure, watching him enter another alley, where he came face-to-face with a hooded figure.

This shadow looks familiar?

Her pupils constricted slightly, and then she watched as the two people about to meet vanished into thin air, as if by spatial teleportation. She took a soft breath.

"It's a player."

Chapter 7: Of Course I'm Going to Your Place (Revised)

Twenty-four hours ago, a rainy night.

In an alleyway reeking of vomit, several delinquents with dyed blonde hair and pierced ears lay groaning on the ground.

Their faces were swollen like steamed buns; some had their clothes or pants stripped off, while others bore cuts of varying sizes, the blood flowing out and mingling with the rainwater.

In the center of this group, Yuki, wearing medical rubber gloves and a hood to conceal his face, stood silently in the rain, methodically wiping his scalpel.

"As expected, players are punished for harming ordinary people."

Yuki had slept soundly during the day and immediately entered work mode at night. He first wandered around a nearby police station, then headed to the bar district next to Izu University.

There was no shortage of punks hitting on female college students here, creating scenarios one would only see in manga. He had just encountered one such case and acted decisively.

After gaining this extraordinary experience, Yuki had no intention of becoming a hero of justice; his goal was merely to verify certain things.

"Do good deeds also incur punishment, and does the game provide feedback based on the impact and severity of the player's actions?"

He had tried to steal a gun from the police station earlier but gave up immediately after receiving a warning. This confirmed why Li Dan's storage space was filled only with food and medicine; even in the Divine Province, with his strength, robbing some weaponry wouldn't be difficult.

Of course, Li Dan had the Death Knell Revolver, so there was no need to take that risk. Even if he did rob them, it wouldn't be a huge issue, provided he didn't go too far.

On these punks, Yuki had experimented with assault, attempted sexual assault, and intentional injury, harvesting a great deal of information.

"As long as it isn't a deep-seated grudge requiring revenge after gaining power, there's really no need for players to act recklessly."

Yuki pulled back his sleeve to reveal knife marks on his forearm. This was the warning, but the intensity could only be described as mediocre—nothing as terrifying as being 'erased.'

"This must be the extension of the rule forbidding the disclosure of the Reincarnation Game. No wonder I've been in the dark even though I've been slacking off for the past two years."

In a place like America, where hundreds die from shootings every day, a few players killing people while taking the punishment wasn't even worth mentioning.

"But the problem is, if they wanted to keep it secret, they could just disable all supernatural powers or erase anyone who dares to leak information. Why go through all this trouble?"

Yuki put away his knife, pondering for a long time, and came up with a few hypotheses:

First, the Reincarnation Game is providing players with hope; for instance, Li Dan and Thomas feel as though they have evolved into a new breed of humanity, falling into the category of "I may not need to use it, but I cannot be without it."

Having tasted the power of being superior to others, they no longer harbor much resistance toward the Reincarnation Game; their ambitions have even been ignited, leading them to focus more intently on clearing the game.

Secondly, veteran players should be considered quite precious, so erasing them at every turn is truly a waste; as for where the value of a player's existence lies, Yuki does not yet understand.

Finally, since a portion of one's abilities can be brought back to reality, creating a chasm between players and ordinary people, it is inevitable that interaction will occur among players—and what does interaction produce?

The sound of sirens approached from afar, and after confirming he had left no clues behind, Yuki left the alley, taking out his phone as he walked.

"Hayasaka, no matter what you intend to do, don't act rashly for now. This game is more complex than we imagined; it is going to create a new order."

There was a silence of several seconds on the other end of the line before a dry voice replied.

"Information related to the Reincarnation Game is supposed to be invisible."

"It is invisible to ordinary people, and even their memories and perceptions are distorted; for example, the blonde punk I just let go knows nothing. After the Reincarnation Game punished me, it implanted a perfectly seamless set of memories into him."

"But this kind of correction can be detected by players; this is what is known as a 'sense of anomaly'."

Yuki walked faster and faster, watching police cars whiz past him; despite how suspicious he looked, they turned a blind eye to him.

"But don't forget, there are more than just the three of us in the world. If my expectations are correct, there will be people who have been in contact with the game for at least a year longer than us, and that is enough time for them to accomplish many things."

Anyone could be a player, they simply haven't been exposed yet, which is why Hayasaka Ai's line of thinking is dangerous.

This silence lasted even longer.

"What do you suggest we do?"

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated; conjectures need to be verified with evidence." Yuki pulled up his hood, closed his eyes to enjoy the cold rain, and lightly snapped his fingers.

"Let's start by formulating a fishing plan."

Just as he had expected, a new order belonging to the players had already begun to take shape.