Breaking Through

"So, what are your thoughts after watching it?"

The Eighth Herrscher placed his hands on his chin, staring with interest at Su, whose face was so gloomy it seemed to drip water.

"Now you can believe me, I wasn't forcing them, right?"

"... No, this might just be something you made up to deceive me."

"Is that so?" The Eighth Herrscher gave him a meaningful, chilling smile. "You are the human one. You should know better than anyone whether these things are true or not."

"..."

Yes, Su knew very well that what the Eighth Herrscher said was true.

No matter how many reasons are given, even if this incident was not caused by the Eighth Herrscher, but by a machine that can actually trap people in dreams, Su would never doubt that those people genuinely wanted to stay in the dream.

Seeing Su's silence, the Eighth Herrscher snapped her fingers and gave an amusing smile.

"In that case, let's try a different approach to resolve this."

"What?"

"Lin and I are playing a game right now, and you and I want to play a game too. If you can get through my game, I'll let all those people go back, how about it?"

"No, there's no guarantee what you're saying!"

"Yes, Herrscher do have no credibility among humans..." Her eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth widened. "But you have no choice. You can start a consciousness battle with me right now, and transfer my position in reality to the Moths of Flame in reality. In return, I will erase the consciousness of all those people during this time."

"..."

The Eighth Herrscher should actually be thankful that the few people observing her world of consciousness are not rationalists like May and Mobius. They would not sacrifice the lives of a small number of people to save the lives of the majority, nor would they abandon so many people in order to defeat her.

Therefore, Sue's answer was simple and did not surprise her.

"Su... Su..."

"Hmm..."

Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Su was shaken awake. He opened his eyes, still half-conscious, and saw the face of his deskmate.

"You're finally awake! School's over. You slept so soundly today. You're usually the most active in class, why were you sleeping?" His deskmate, carrying his backpack, raised his eyebrows. "Let's go, I've finished cleaning, it's just the two of us left."

Su sat up in a daze, wiped the saliva from the corner of her mouth, and sat there blankly in the twilight streaming in through the window.

He fell asleep today? That's strange... He remembers... he was actually in class...

"Aren't you leaving yet?"

"...oh."

Su tidied her desk, stuffed her drool-soaked notes into her bag, and walked out of the classroom toward her home.

I feel like... something is missing.

Su walked along the road bathed in the fiery red glow of the setting sun. The laughter of the people passing by did not interest him. After thinking for a while, he took out his phone to see if anyone had sent him a message.

... There really is.

"Su, I got tickets to Eden's concert, and they're even first class seats! Let's skip class and go to the concert together, you, Lin, and I!"

This is a message from his friend Kevin.

Sue's eyes widened in disbelief as she murmured, "Eden's concert? And first-class seats at that? How did Kevin manage to get them?"

He was immediately excited, knowing that he and Kevin were both loyal fans of Eden, but Kevin's mention of "Lin" caught his attention.

Lin... I remember Kevin mentioned him, another good friend he made at the Chienyu Academy. It's thanks to his personality that he was able to make friends so quickly.

Su quickly replied, "Okay, when?"

Kevin replied within seconds of sending the message, and you could imagine he was jumping for joy on the other end. "Fly over this weekend, and we'll meet at Lin's house. He's an amazing cook, you have to try it."

"No problem."

Sue was looking forward to this weekend.

The two were some distance apart. Sue took a flight that took an hour and a half. As soon as she got off the plane and arrived at the exit, Kevin, who was waiting at the door, ambushed her and gave her a big hug.

"Hahaha! Su! Long time no see!"

"It has indeed been a long time."

Sue wasn't bothered by the hug. He naturally hugged Kevin for a few seconds, then noticed a person with his hands in his pockets, wearing a hooded mask, silently staring at them.

"Oh! Let me introduce you!" Kevin released him and casually pulled the hooded man around the neck. "This is Lin! Not only is he a genius who goes out to play games with me all day and still gets second place in the whole school, but he's also a top-level chef who knows the cuisines of eighteen countries!"

"... I feel like you're trying to drag me down to your level. And what is a master chef? Do you think this is a comic book?" Lin pushed away his overly enthusiastic hand and nodded to Su. "I'm Lin, so let's just say I'm his friend."

"Hello, I'm Su, nice to meet you," Su replied politely with a friendly smile.

"Let me tell you, Lin Su is a genius! Not only has he always been number one in his class since elementary school, but he also aspires to be a doctor who saves people from suffering..."

"Hey, wait a minute, rescuing people from fire and water is such an exaggeration. That's something firefighters or officials should do," Su immediately retorted. "Besides, you said we're both geniuses, don't you feel ashamed?"

"Huh? Why should I feel shy? My best friends are all geniuses, don't I feel incredibly proud?"

Kevin's innocent face left Su Lian speechless. He lowered his head helplessly, but soon smiled gently again.

But this is the real Kevin.

... This is the real... Kevin.

Sue's heart skipped a beat. He stared at Kevin's cheerful smiling face, which caught the attention of Kevin and Lin.

"What's wrong?"

"...nothing."

Su hurriedly lowered his head, utterly confused as to why he had seemed to...

It's probably just my imagination; I haven't seen him in a long time.

"Let's go! Let's go to Lin's house for drinks! We're not leaving until we're drunk tonight!"

"... Aren't we still minors?" "Why is it my home?"

"Don't worry about it! As long as no one knows, it's fine! Besides, Lin, didn't we agree last time that I'd come to your house for dinner next time?"

"... Which 'last time'? You've had a lot of 'last times'."

The three boys made a ruckus until midnight, and despite Su's strong condemnation, they didn't drink alcohol but instead drank juice.

After that, they played board games, truth or dare, and video games, making a complete mess of Lin's neat and tidy house.

Su drifted off to sleep, thinking that this kind of life wasn't bad.

Chapter 126 Breakthrough

"This is really exciting!"

Kevin stomped his feet excitedly while queuing to enter, but everyone around him was just as excited, so no one paid any attention.

"Haha, you're exaggerating." Su was much quieter than Kevin, but he was also looking forward to what was to come. After all, for most people, especially boys of their age, Eden was probably a Marilyn Monroe-level heartthrob... Of course, the main attraction was Eden's singing voice; her appearance only served to highlight her charm and talent.

Seeing Kevin so happy, Sue couldn't help but become more interested herself.

"Speaking of which... where's Lin?"

Su noticed something: why were only the two of them there? Where was Lin?

In this vast sea of people, the two of them were similar to others, yet also seemed... completely different.

"He..."

Kevin wanted to say something, but the crowd in front of him moved, giving him no chance to speak. Su could only follow Kevin into the venue, completely bewildered.

The grand and imposing stage and the dense yet not crowded audience seating, unlike typical concerts, are filled with Eden's personal classical style, in other words, "Artistic design."

Despite the magnificent and grand scene, Su Ru felt a lump in her throat and couldn't speak.

He felt it was a bit of a pity.

So Su casually smiled at Kevin and said, "Since Lin isn't coming, then it must be that girl you've been pursuing who's here, right? Where is she?"

"Huh? Mei? She didn't come?" Kevin looked at Su like she was an idiot. "And who else told you Lin wasn't coming?"

"...ah?"

Su looked at Kevin in confusion, then gestured with his hands as he asked, "But wasn't Lin supposed to be not coming?"

"... So who exactly told you Lin wasn't coming?" Kevin took out his phone and checked the time. "He came with us, but he went to the bathroom just now. But he's really slow; it's almost time to start and he still hasn't come back. Did he fall into the pit?"

"Only you would fall into this trap."

At this moment, a slightly indifferent voice responded to Kevin's abnormal guess. They looked closely and found that the figure who had been hiding himself completely was now sitting in his seat with a relaxed demeanor.

"When did you come in?!" Kevin exclaimed in surprise.

Lin casually waved the tickets in his hand. "We have VIP seats, with a private channel. I was wondering why you guys were so slow, but it turns out you went to the regular channel with other people."

"Aren't you going to tell us?"

"Didn't I just say that?"

"..."

Su rubbed his eyes. He felt that something was wrong. A sense of unease had been lingering in his mind since earlier.

Incorrect? Correct?

Why would he assume that Lin wouldn't come? It's only natural that Lin would come, especially since they were traveling together as a group of three; there's no reason for him to think Lin wouldn't come.

"Is something the matter?" Lin's voice pulled him out of his thoughts. Su only realized he was covered in a cold sweat the moment he saw Lin.

"I... I'm fine."

The song was beautiful, Eden was breathtakingly beautiful, but Sue was in no mood to pay attention to any of that; he felt he must be sick.

He didn't study psychology, after all, he would most likely become a surgeon in the future, rather than sitting in a private room earning thousands of dollars a minute to provide psychological counseling.

However, he believed that his heart palpitations were not caused by a surgical condition.

"You glanced at me out of the corner of your eye seventeen times in one minute."

Just as Su was repeatedly scrutinizing Zhuolin's profile, which was covered by the hood, he suddenly spoke to Su in a very soft voice that Kevin couldn't hear.

Su was startled. He had no idea that he had spied on Lin so many times in such a short period of time, and that Lin had noticed every single time, even though Su had been very discreet and Lin was focused on listening to music.

"Aside from the possibility that you're gay, the only explanation is that you're suspicious of me. Based on your conversation with Kevin just now, you're wondering why I came to the concert. Can you tell me why you think I wouldn't come?"

This person... has such keen insight.

But Su didn't know why she was suspicious of Lin Qi.

Where does this unfounded suspicion come from?

"Don't you know..." Lin wasn't too surprised by his answer, still gazing at the grand figures on the stage. "You don't need to worry about it."

Su was more curious about whether Lin cared or not than whether she herself cared. He seemed indifferent to it, as if he had experienced the same thing many times before.

Su listened to the song for a while, but he still couldn't calm down. He quietly clenched his fist.

"I... feel lost about the future for some reason."

"..."

"I don't understand why, after seeing you, I felt lost, as if I couldn't see the direction."

"...so?"

"So what?"

"So what do you want to do in the future? A person's expectations for the future are probably what they want to do in the future."

"Lin, what do you want to do in the future?"

Lin probably didn't expect to be asked a question in return. He pondered for a while before quietly answering, "I want to be a teacher in the future."

"Teacher?"

"The only teacher in a school with only female students."