Can Still Simulate Management?

Must be a wild monster, right?

Watching the Health Bar on the distant hillside at the edge of his vision disappear, Gu Mo couldn't be sure for a moment. Because of the Idiot System, the world in his eyes was completely different from others'. In his eyes, it was truly a case of all beings being equal—

Whether it was a person or an object, there was an ID character displayed above it, followed by a red Health Bar or a yellow Durability Bar.

So far, there were no exceptions. No matter what person or thing it was, as long as he saw it... No, even if he himself didn't realize he saw it, the System would still helpfully mark the target that his gaze happened to inadvertently catch.

However, even so, he could only see the Health Bar immediately, thereby confirming where there were people or other things, but he had no way of immediately distinguishing whether the Health Bar corresponded to an enemy or something else.

This was because before showing hostility and truly being judged as in a hostile state, the Health Bars of any person or monster were the same. Only after definitively transitioning to a hostile state, would a red skull mark appear in front of the Health Bar of the entity judged as an "enemy", indicating that it was a hostile unit.

So he wasn't sure what was over there. Maybe it was just someone passing by, but it was still dark. Besides someone like him, who had a guilty conscience and had kidnapped someone else's daughter, thus fleeing early overnight, who else would risk traveling by night?

Ordinary people didn't need to run around everywhere. If they were merchants, there was no need to risk traveling overnight... Although there was no evidence that Yokai and bandits only came out at night, no matter how you looked at it, night was always much more dangerous than day.

His thoughts turning, Gu Mo shook his head and didn't dwell on it too much.

Anyway, there was no need to be afraid of grinding wild monsters. He had the most capable partner, and all he had to do was coast. He glanced back at the black-haired girl sitting quietly in the carriage. He gave her a smile, and when she seemed to sense it and looked over, he raised a thumb as a gesture.

"?"

Hidechiyo tilted her head slightly, a small question mark seemingly appearing above her head. She didn't quite understand what this person meant, why he suddenly turned back to smile at her and then gave a thumbs-up... Was he indicating something?

However, the other party clearly had no intention of explaining and turned his head away, walking directly to the riverbank and squatting down, beginning to stare at his reflection in the water. It seemed he had fallen into that state of zoning out again.

As expected, he wasn't washing his hands. Washing his hands was just a cover-up...

Hidechiyo pursed her thin cherry lips. She was sensitive and had actually noticed long ago that Gu Mo's hand-washing didn't seem like hand-washing. Many times, he was just lost in thought while staring at the reflection in the water for a while. Washing hands was probably just a facade, and the real purpose was to perform some secret art using the water surface.

Of course, while she was sensitive, her curiosity wasn't strong. Even after noticing, she didn't have much intention of investigating further. Firstly, because she couldn't speak, and coupled with living alone for many years, she had developed such a calm temperament that she didn't feel the need to chase after every question to get a clear answer.

Secondly, this world, this era, was originally a world view where mysticism was prevalent and extraordinary powers truly existed. Demons danced wildly, a hundred demons roamed at night, and various spirits, monsters, and strange creatures emerged endlessly. Legends of powerful warriors slaying demons, eminent Buddhist monks subduing Yokai, and the Eight Million Gods, Onmyōdō, and Ninjutsu were widely circulated...

None of this was due to the ignorance of ancient people or feudal superstitions based on rumors. It was a true aspect of the world that genuinely existed. All sorts of incredible things were not baseless but had their factual basis.

Even Hidechiyo herself was a Half-Yokai, possessing Yokai Bloodline more powerful than any Yokai. So naturally, she wouldn't find it surprising that "her companion had mastered some secret art"... Anyway, this person was already mysterious, she thought.

Opening the System panel that only he could see with practiced ease, Gu Mo didn't spend too much time on the option pages that didn't require operation, but directly opened the "Information" page located at the bottom.

It contained the functions of "Friend List", "Blacklist", and "Mailbox". The first two were temporarily not useful, and he didn't know if they would be in the future. He tried sending a friend request to Hidechiyo, but there was no change or response, and the girl's name didn't appear in the list; it was still empty.

The Blacklist had some use. You could manually add an ID to search and then block the corresponding target... And then, then you couldn't send messages to the other party. This was the effect he had currently discovered...

Well, that's right. Gu Mo found that the function of sending messages could actually be used. The effect was similar to sound transmission via secret means, and because of the Idiot System's encryption, this was probably at the level of quantum communication. There was absolutely no need to worry about the risk of eavesdropping or leakage, unless the person involved revealed it themselves.

So precisely because of this, he didn't know what the Blacklist function was for. If he didn't want to contact someone, he could just not contact them. Was there a need to go through the extra trouble of adding them to the Blacklist?

Maybe it was another classic idiotic design of the Idiot System, or maybe he hadn't yet figured out its true function. Anyway, he wouldn't bother with it for now.

Gu Mo opened the mailbox. This was the real focus—

All System prompt information and historical records were here, including those prompts that he had missed, not heard clearly, or not heard at all before for various reasons. They were all stored here as read or unread messages, in the form of historical records.

The message retention limit was three hundred. Messages exceeding this number would be deleted in chronological order, starting with the earliest messages.

Fortunately, the time was still short, so the accumulated records Gu Mo had retained were far from reaching this number; all of them were preserved... It was also because of this that he saw the mandatory offline prompt that made his blood pressure soar and made him incredibly angry.

Anti-addiction mechanism...

He took a deep breath, allowing the pressure in his skull to slightly ease. He found the latest prompt, and then clicked on the link embedded in the message itself, jumping to the "Real-Name Authentication" page... And then a familiar scene appeared.

What kind of Idiot System was this? Did something go wrong when it selected him and adapted to the humanistic rules of the world he was in, or was it really connected to the public security system in reality?

With a tight face, Gu Mo, in that rustic input field, suppressed a certain urge to complain and painstakingly entered his real name, ID number, and other information, then clicked submit. He was fast, not only because he didn't want to look at this page for another moment, but also because of the hand speed he had developed over the past few days.

After all, he had already submitted it several times...

Sure enough, looking at the spinning pattern that suddenly appeared in front of him, and the line "Network connection unresponsive" below, Gu Mo sighed as expected and silently closed the page.

It's like this again. I wonder if it's because I'm in a Dungeon, or should I try going back to the real world as soon as possible?

He thought with some frustration, casually cupping some clear water and washing his face. The cool, refreshing sensation helped him feel more alert, somewhat dispelling his fatigue. Standing up, he looked around but found nothing, so he returned directly to the carriage.

The two carriages set off again. Tokichiro led the way in the front, and his carriage was also loaded with most of the luggage.

Gu Mo drove the carriage behind, holding the reins with some enthusiasm and occasionally cracking the horsewhip, making a distinct sound in the air. Although he was a little rusty, the old horse knew the way. Following the one in front was all that was needed; there would be no problems.

Adjusting his mood, he quickly dispelled the frustration in his heart and instead focused his attention on this novel experience. After all, it was something he had never experienced before.

The black-haired girl in the back was already sitting upright, very quietly looking at the scenery around her. The dim light of the sky didn't seem to affect her mood.

"Don't you feel a sense of relief, Axiu?" Gu Mo said casually while driving the carriage, "You don't have to see that annoying old man anymore, it must be a lot easier, right?"

Hidechiyo turned her gaze back, glanced at his back, and didn't say anything.

However, Gu Mo didn't look back, seeming to understand her meaning, and laughed heartily, "Actually, the old man is really quite good... Of course, I mean he's good to you. He speaks softly and gently, as if afraid of scaring you, he just cares too much, so he's a bit overzealous."

Overzealous... The black-haired girl was stunned for a moment. After a little thought, she understood what the word meant and immediately felt it was a very apt description.

She knew that the old man was truly good to her, but he was too good, without considering that she needed a period of adjustment—the strong maternal love was so intense that this kinship and doting also became exceptionally heavy. In just two days, she not only failed to gradually accept everything, but instead felt suffocated.

Subjectively, she knew the other party was her father...

Objectively, she had only known the other party for less than two days, had no impression of him before, and the relationship was really unfamiliar...

So this was why it felt awkward.

The person in front was still driving the cart, rambling on, "So, a short separation to let him cool down isn't necessarily a bad thing. But you'll have to learn to accept it eventually. After all, he's your father, and your only remaining relative in this world..."

"Oh, wait, not your only relative. You were born a twin, so you have a younger sister." He added, having thought of something, and muttered to himself that there was also an uncle, Ōtakemaru, who was his mother Suzuka's older brother.

But thinking about it carefully, the real Ōtakemaru was killed a long time ago by Axiu, who traveled back in time. The one causing chaos in the world was just Kashin Koji, formed from Ōtakemaru's Aragami and evil thoughts, so he probably didn't count either.

Hidechiyo's beautiful eyes widened. She was a little shocked. She had a younger sister?

"Yeah, didn't the old man tell you these past two days? Maybe he doesn't want to bring up that sad topic for now." Gu Mo nodded, watching the road ahead, and said to the girl behind him, "It's that Saito Yoshitatsu. She's your sister... Uh, maybe your older sister? Anyway, you look exactly alike, so you'll definitely see her soon."

Saito Yoshitatsu...

Her sister...

The black-haired girl opened her mouth, her eyes suddenly a little blank. Not only did she have an extra father, but now she suddenly learned she had a twin sister. This was a very shocking thing for her.

After the initial confusion, she calmed down and thought carefully about what this person said, finding it quite reasonable. She should learn to accept all of this. After all, she only had these two close people in this world... Wait, wasn't this guy also...

The black-haired girl looked up at the back of the person in front.

It seemed there was a sign of this before. This person seemed to know and understand her without any reason. In Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village, he tried to impersonate a client to get close to her, and when she was unconscious, he pretended to be very familiar with her to the real client, Tokichiro...

When she expressed confusion about this, he deliberately played dumb, taking advantage of her inability to speak and having no intention of explaining at all.

If it were anyone else, they would definitely suspect the other party had ulterior motives and was ill-intentioned, and would at least keep their distance... But Hidechiyo didn't do that, nor did she actively expose it. She didn't know if it was because of her keen sixth sense or an ability brought by her unknown Yokai Bloodline, but she was always able to sense others' malice—

So she knew that Gu Mo probably did have some selfish intentions, but it couldn't be called ill-intentioned...

Moreover, she had never had such a strange experience. Someone she didn't know was inexplicably familiar and understanding towards her, and there was a strange sense of closeness that made her feel comfortable interacting with him. Coupled with her personality, which was more go-with-the-flow, she continued to team up in this strange situation without caring and traveled with him until now.

But thinking about it carefully, wasn't this inherently a very strange thing?

Why was he so familiar with her, so inexplicably close, and knew her affairs as if it were only natural, even knowing things she didn't know so clearly? The black-haired girl furrowed her brows and began to think seriously.

Several more days passed like this.

Finally, in the evening of this day, the group of three, after traveling day and night, finally arrived at Sagiyama Castle. Gu Mo had gone from being excited about riding in the carriage to being particularly impatient, and his body felt like it was going to fall apart from the bumps... Traveling long distances in this era was truly a torment.

He had only been in the Dungeon for a little over a week now, but it seemed two-thirds of the time had been wasted on boring travel.

Did it have to be so realistic... Wouldn't it be better to have a large map that he could click on the corresponding chapter place names, load directly, skip the process, and enter the corresponding scene?

The only thing to be happy about was that the journey wasn't entirely a waste of time. He leveled up by fighting monsters along the way. His current total Level was LV5... But leveling up did seem to be getting harder.

"Where should we go first? We have the old man's handwritten appointment letter. Being the acting lord of the castle should be fine..." After passing through the city gate and entering the city, Gu Mo looked around, unsure of where to go first.

"Let me handle it, let me handle it, Brother Gu Mo. Just leave such minor matters to me..." While Hidechiyo was also a little confused and bewildered, Tokichiro volunteered.

"Then I'll leave it to..."

Gu Mo nodded, waiting for these words, but before he could finish speaking, a harsh static sound came from his ears.

Blurred and fragmented, the recognizable snippets were as follows: "Detecting player Fu... condition... %￥#@&... static... $#%&@... Homestead Gameplay unlocked. You can... static... inspect and manage your current Homestead..."

He was stunned for a moment. Wait, what kind of stitched-together System was this?

Did this mean he could experience a simulation management game?