Ark Simulator: Don't I Have No Physical Form?

"He really knows how to preach."

Su Rui directly displayed Little Venice and several of his spies within her scan view, then marked out a route.

"My suggestion is to punch him and make him behave, but you can avoid him too."

No, I'll go see Mr. Venice with him.

"Going for the heart? I like it."

Su Rui's delighted voice rang through Ren Dong's mind. "Are you going to humiliate him in front of Old Venice? That's fantastic!"

... If she did that, there really would be no chance of peaceful coexistence, right? For now, they merely had a bit of conflict.

At the very least, she still needed missions to improve Su Rui's materialization progress.

Ren Dong didn't want to make things too tense. Giving Little Venice a warning would be enough.

Volume One: Entrusted With Important Duties

Following the scan view Su Rui had provided, Ren Dong only made a slight detour and immediately thwarted Little Venice's plan to intercept her.

Instead, thanks to the footsteps Ren Dong had deliberately let them hear, they were led along like dogs all the way to Old Venice's study.

"Mr. Venice? Are you inside?"

Ren Dong lightly knocked on the door, then looked toward Little Venice, who had just noticed her and was approaching.

"Ingrid? You're back? Come in and tell me about it."

Mr. Venice's voice came from inside the study. Little Venice had only just reached Ren Dong before Mr. Venice spotted him as well and called him into the study.

"You're here too? Then come in as well. Let's hear how Ingrid completed this mission."

"...Yes, Father."

Little Venice glared at Ren Dong, wanting to lash out, but before Mr. Venice, he only dared to glare and say nothing more.

"That guy's way too arrogant, isn't he? I think even if you punched him right now, Old Venice wouldn't say anything."

Su Rui grumbled in Ren Dong's mind, making no attempt to hide his hostility toward Little Venice.

I can't do that.

Ren Dong simply replied to Su Rui's willful suggestion. Whenever Little Venice came up, Su Rui couldn't help coming up with some plan to target him. Ren Dong was already getting used to it.

They entered the study together. Mr. Venice sat in his chair, looking at the composed Ren Dong and the gloomy Little Venice beside her, then gave a faint laugh.

"All right, Ingrid. Tell me, how did this mission go?"

Ren Dong nodded and stepped forward.

"I infiltrated Midal's estate. Then, while he was spending time with his pet birds at noon, I warned him. If he's smart enough, he should restrain himself for quite a while. And his attitude toward the Venice Family should become friendlier as well."

As soon as Ren Dong finished, Mr. Venice nodded approvingly. Before he could say anything, Little Venice couldn't help speaking up.

"Just threatening him a little? You should've gotten rid of him. Use his blood to demonstrate the Venice Family's prestige, so the other families won't dare entertain thoughts of offending us."

Su Rui had nothing to say to someone who loved picking faults, but on this matter, he somewhat agreed with Little Venice.

"To be honest, I think that guy should be killed too. Better yet, kill more of them. I mean, it'd be best not to leave a single one alive."

Which side are you even on?

Ren Dong rolled her eyes inwardly, though she calmly refuted Little Venice on the surface.

"I believe keeping Midal alive is more beneficial to the Venice Family than killing him. If we kill him, Midal's Lineage will merely replace its head, and they may even target the Venice Family more viciously because of this. But if he stays alive and realizes his life could be in danger at any moment, his attitude toward us will improve considerably."

Old Venice smiled and looked at Little Venice. "What do you think?"

"..." Unable to think of anything to refute her with, he merely lowered his head and looked away.

Seeing his own son's poor performance, Old Venice didn't criticize him too harshly. He simply looked at Ren Dong and said,

"You did very well this time, Ingrid. You're quite capable, and you considered everything thoroughly... Perhaps you could take on more responsibility for the Lineage?"

"Of course. That's exactly what I want."

Ren Dong answered Old Venice before Su Rui could speak, sounding enthusiastic.

"Good. You can select several assistants to aid you in your future work. The Lineage may entrust more matters to you from now on."

Old Venice nodded, then glanced over Ren Dong and Little Venice beside her.

"All right, you may leave now. Ingrid, you've just completed a mission. Get some proper rest."

"Thank you, Head of the Household."

Ren Dong nodded, then turned and left the study.

Little Venice glanced at his father and followed Ren Dong out.

Once they left the study and went their separate ways, Little Venice didn't forget to throw out a threat.

"Don't think you've won this time. I'll find a chance to win one back later."

With that, Little Venice didn't give Ren Dong a chance to respond and turned around to leave.

"...Is he some little kid who lost an argument? All he can do is make threats. If that doesn't work, he could just fight you. Then you could find an opportunity to accidentally kill him."

You're not much more mature than Little Venice. Ren Dong thought helplessly, though she smiled and soothed Su Rui aloud.

All right, let's go back and rest. I can arrange some entertainment for you, like watching a Syracuse stage play?

"Not really interested. Do you usually play games? I'd rather watch other people play games, or watch them with you."

...I'll look for something when we get back.

Ren Dong nodded. Then, while walking back to her room, she finally asked Su Rui what she hadn't had a chance to ask earlier.

Do you have any advice about me building my own force?

"You're asking me?" Su Rui's voice sounded as though he had some reservations, but then he gave his answer.

"My advice is to find a few female assistants."

Why? Ren Dong froze. Could women somehow help with certain abilities Su Rui had?

"Because I'm not interested in male characters."

The simple, straightforward answer left Ren Dong silent. After a moment, she continued.

This is reality, not a game... But I do have several candidates for assistants, and they happen to all be women.

"See? My advice wasn't bad after all."

Su Rui's voice rang out in her mind again, and Ren Dong followed up with another question.

I mean, do you have any advice for developing my own force? What measures should I take?

"I really don't know that. I'll go find you a guide."

No need. I was just asking. These things aren't difficult for someone who grew up in the Lineage.

Ren Dong promptly stopped Su Rui from going offline again to think about the issue, then continued asking,

You really don't have any ideas at all?

"What ideas could I have? Lineage affairs, in the end, no matter how many assistants you have, you still need to personally lead them and handle things, right?"

Su Rui sounded as though he were looking at something while speaking to her, his tone pausing from time to time.

"With me around, you don't need assistants at all. My definition of them is laborers who do the chores."

Volume One: A Little Secret

Ren Dong paused, then the corners of her lips curled into a smile.

That's quite a merciless assessment.

"It's the truth. With me helping you, no matter what you're dealing with, you can handle it alone. Syracuse's rules are still pretty simple. In the end, anything can be solved with power or blades. There's no need for so many people to work together."

Most of the time, cooperation is the most efficient way to achieve one's goals.

For some reason, Ren Dong instead began lecturing Su Rui. But Su Rui didn't care, merely responding absentmindedly, "Mm-hmm, you're right."

Ren Dong was somewhat dissatisfied with Su Rui's perfunctory response. She also had some opinions about Su Rui explicitly stating his preference for the gender of her assistants before leaving.

After returning to her room, Ren Dong took off her coat and hung it on the rack. Then she sat on the sofa, feeling the warmth in the room. She immediately felt so comfortable that she became a little drowsy.

Come to think of it, Su Rui, you're my system alone, right?

"Yeah. What else would I be?"

Then why do you look at other women?

"Because my taste is perfectly normal. If I don't appreciate women, should I appreciate men? I'm a guy."

...That does make sense.

Ren Dong couldn't help glancing at Su Rui's silhouette within the system materialization progress display—a nine-tailed fox youth who looked adorable just from his figure alone.

At the thought of Su Rui actually appreciating men, even commenting on those men inside her head, Ren Dong couldn't help shivering.

Forget it. It was good that he liked women. He had merely looked at a few other women, anyway. In the end, he would still be mine.

With that thought in mind, Ren Dong curled up on the sofa, watched the blazing flames in the fireplace, and took out her phone to casually pass the time.

Considering Su Rui could see the images around her, Ren Dong was especially cautious while browsing her phone, afraid of exposing things she was temporarily too embarrassed to let Su Rui see—such as her hobbies or her taste in lingerie.

But after looking at her phone for quite some time, even occasionally scrolling past the lingerie shops she often visited, Ren Dong didn't hear Su Rui's voice beside her ear. That was when she realized something was wrong.

Ren Dong, who had been lazily curled up on the sofa, abruptly sat upright and called out in her mind, Su Rui? Are you there?

She paused for a moment. Without thinking, without looking at her phone, she simply waited. The silence in her mind lasted several seconds before Su Rui finally responded.

"I'm here, I'm here. What is it?"

What were you doing just now? Why didn't I hear your voice?

And why had the system materialization progress bar increased by another one percent? It had now reached four percent. It didn't seem to have increased because she completed a mission.

Ren Dong looked at Su Rui's image, which had become slightly clearer but was still only a shadow, considering the details. Then she shook her head. There was still too little information. She needed to observe for a while longer before she could be certain.

And Su Rui's answer came after Ren Dong finished thinking about his materialization progress.

"I saw you were resting, so I was resting too."

You need rest too? Aren't you a system? Ren Dong froze, only for Su Rui to retort irritably.

"Listen to yourself. Is that even something a person would say? Systems are people too. If you need rest, then of course I do too. Besides, after reading the operating manual just now, I discovered a new function. I can directly connect to Terra's network and browse all its contents."

Including encrypted content?

Su Rui's words immediately caught Ren Dong's attention. She temporarily put aside the matter of Su Rui spacing out. If it was truly as Su Rui said, this was practically an unbeatable ability.

"Yeah." Su Rui's voice put Ren Dong's raised heart at ease, and she smiled in genuine relief.

I didn't expect you could do something like that too.

Although the families of Syracuse generally didn't need to use the network, the terrifying nature of this ability was obvious from its literal meaning alone.

Then she heard Su Rui add,

"Most hidden files are as conspicuous to me as if they were laid out on a table. But encrypted files require some time to analyze."

If a file needs to be analyzed, about how long would it take?

"I don't know. I'll find one and try it."

As Su Rui spoke, he fell silent again. About a minute later, his voice appeared in Ren Dong's mind once more.

"Done. Decryption took around ten seconds."

So finding the file had taken over forty seconds, right?

Ren Dong nodded, then looked at the file Su Rui had marked in her vision. It was a development plan for Syracuse.

It described Syracuse's development plans for the coming decades, even including the construction of new mobile cities. The file was signed:

Mrs. Sicilian?!

"What's wrong? Who is Mrs. Sicilian?"

Ren Dong's startled cry made Su Rui ask her in a flustered tone, like a student caught daydreaming by the teacher.