Starting with the Herrschers, I Cut Down All

Aponia: Praying.jpg

Kevin was looking at the chat in the upper-right corner of the screen and was about to reply when he caught sight of the supervisor out of the corner of his eye. He instantly switched back to the code interface.

"Ahem. I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"

The supervisor cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention.

Kevin: ...

Seeing that his subordinates didn't seem very lively, the supervisor coughed twice and knocked on the wall beside him.

"The good news is that a major company has come to us seeking cooperation. If we finish this deal, everyone's salary this year will definitely double."

"As for the bad news... the proposal came from Bronya, Reson Studio's chief producer. She's famously picky in the industry, so the plan will probably need to be revised several times."

Bronya?

Kevin blurted out, "That useless duck who gets eliminated in the top eight every year and occasionally makes it to the top sixteen?"

Oh, and by the way, that was Elysia's assessment in the group chat. But Elysia had said it was something An Yu used to mock her with, so Kevin remembered it too. It had a nice ring to it.

Supervisor: ...

The supervisor looked at Kevin with a complicated expression. He hadn't expected this kid's tongue to be so sharp.

Kevin immediately put on a straight face and said nothing, lowering his head to continue working.

"Get ready, everyone. If we can handle this job beautifully, our company will rise with the tide too. We won't be short on partners after this."

After the supervisor left, Kevin suddenly thought of something and hurriedly looked up Bronya's team members.

Sure enough, An Yu's name was prominently listed.

Switching back to the group chat, everyone still seemed unable to come up with a solution. Things had even become more chaotic after Mobius and Vill-V joined in.

Kevin: "It looks like I'll be working with Reson Studios next. Maybe I'll get a chance to meet An Yu and help persuade him for you."

Elysia: "Wah... Kevin, you're still so dependable."

Aponia: "The sibling relationship had a problem because of bad friends, yet the sister still chooses to trust those bad friends and let them interfere in family affairs instead of explaining things herself?"

Aponia: Praying.jpg

Sakura: Praying.jpg

The two women, both long employed and not particularly eccentric, prayed at the same time.

Elysia: ...

P.S. I had a blast in the Elysian Realm. After Ai Hoshino's Great Wilderness Imprisoning Heavenly Finger came out, no one could survive.

It reminded me of the Elysian Realm ruled by the Herrscher of Human.

The Abyss was fun too. 927, never expected that.

This Is the Sister's Failure or the Brother's Failure?!

What Aponia said made sense, though Elysia didn't understand why, in Aponia's words, she was the one being looked after.

She rolled over and got out of bed. Her body was still a little weak, and she didn't have slippers on. The icy floor felt awful beneath her feet. She should've gone back to sleep in her bed last night.

She stormed into the living room, though she hesitated along the way. Should she be gentler, tougher, or just throw herself at him and act cute? Those were all her specialties anyway.

But...

"What are you doing?"

"Playing a game."

An Yu looked up, unable to understand what kind of fit Elysia was throwing this time.

What else was there to do at home besides play games? Housework? Come on, don't make him such a sucker.

"...Sob, sob. Xiao Yu, is playing games how you sulk by yourself?"

Elysia sniffled and hurried over, only to find that An Yu was playing one of those stress-relief mini-games. There wasn't even any competitiveness to it.

An Yu lowered his gaze again. "I booked an appointment with a therapist this afternoon. There are about three hours left. We'll go after lunch, so don't think about running off."

His tone was calm, as if nothing had happened.

"Xiao Yu?"

Elysia tucked her legs together and sat obediently beside him. If she wanted to mend their sibling relationship, she would probably have to reverse their roles for the next few days... Though she didn't dislike being the younger sister.

"Is something wrong?"

An Yu continued slicing fruit on the screen. Of course, this wasn't the official version. It was a cracked, pure stress-relief mini-game without a bunch of miscellaneous nonsense.

He had cracked it himself. This thing really could be relaxing sometimes. He didn't use it for profit, and out of principle, he hadn't even shared it with his friends.

"I'm sorry... I should've told you about this in advance."

"There was no need."

He didn't even look up. There was no point in saying belated apologies after something had already happened. They were useless.

"Can't you at least look at me?"

Elysia suddenly felt wronged. Now she looked like the immature child, even though the two of them had relied on her streaming income to pay their tuition back then.

"...What you should do now is go back to your room, put on some slippers, then chat with your friends or continue that weird job of yours. Kill some time until after one in the afternoon, and I'll take you to the hospital to get your head checked."

An Yu's tone was exceptionally calm.

That only made Elysia sadder. One group chat had somehow turned things into a sibling relationship on the verge of severing ties.

Boys really were heartless. He wasn't giving her any room to smooth things over.

Elysia stood up indignantly. "Don't you have anything you've kept from me?"

Why did one group chat make it seem as though she had committed some terrible crime? She had been perfectly happy during college.

And apologizing was supposed to involve two people. Xiao Yu wasn't cooperating at all, was he?

An Yu raised his eyes and laughed softly. "Then I guess there is. It's fine. What happened before is already in the past, sis. Don't overthink it."

Waaah!

Elysia's emotions instantly collapsed. She suspected An Yu was deceiving her, but they knew each other inside out. They truly knew how to break through each other's defenses most easily.

"I was wrong, Xiao Yu~"

She carefully tugged on An Yu's sleeve. Xiao Yu must've been furious enough to start stabbing at her sore spots.

"I said there was no need!" An Yu's voice finally rose.

"Who you make friends with is your business. I have my own friends too. It's fine if you call them family, because that's just your personality. I've always known that."

It was only because everything had gone too smoothly since his rebirth that he had developed the dreamlike illusion that everything in his life was flawless.

Now, he was merely returning to reality. But there was nothing bad about that. People were supposed to have boundaries between them. Most of the time, those who didn't understand moderation were the ones nobody liked.

Elysia sniffled softly and touched her heartless little brother's cheek.

"Then will you still give me your fried egg when we eat noodles in the future?"

An Yu: ...

"And when we eat spicy crayfish, will you still peel the shells for me?"

An Yu: ...

"And when we eat watermelon, can I still take a bite of your sweetest piece?"

An Yu was starting to lose it. Those things had never mattered before, so why did hearing them now make him feel so put upon?

"Elysia, go torment your future boyfriend, okay? What kind of little brother is meant to be bullied like this?!"

Thinking about it carefully, maybe the reason his life had been so dreamlike yet he had never dated was because Elysia had ruined him so badly that he held some unrealistic fantasies about romance.

An Yu clutched his head. He suspected Elysia was deliberately poking at his sore spot now.

"But that's how we've always been since we were little."

"I...!"

Heh. Hehehe!

An Yu suddenly covered his face and laughed. "Damn it, Elysia. If we keep arguing, I'm going to feel like killing you."

Sigh, cutting down hordes in games was still better. He remembered the second stage of that little game. He hadn't tried it yet.

But he definitely couldn't go play games in the current situation.

"Then explain it."

"What the hell is that Loving Family thing? I'm not angry. Take your time and tell me."

After chuckling to himself for a while, An Yu leaned back against the sofa, finally relieved.

"They were my college roommates."

An Yu deliberately found fault. "Thirteen people? Did you replace a batch every year?"

That tone clearly meant he was still angry...

"I rented a place off campus."

Elysia explained.

An Yu: ...

"Why didn't you live in the dorms during college?"

"Because of work, it wasn't very convenient to stay in a dorm. And there happened to be a huge villa. It was cheap, but it had lots of tenants."

An Yu fell silent for a long while. There were too many problems, to the point that he didn't know where to start picking at them.

"Elysia! Who gave you the nerve to rent a place like that?"

"Eden was there too, and everyone was really nice. That year, heavy snow blocked the roads, and even our New Year's Eve dinner was interesting."

At the thought of it, Elysia smiled unconsciously, dimples gradually appearing on her fair cheeks.

Everyone had been kind. All thirteen of them had been kind. Even Kalpas, who was the most stubborn with his words, cared deeply for others. Back then, Elysia had thought everyone in the world was like that.

Though after graduating from college, she realized she had been thinking too much.

"And then you became a family."

An Yu folded his arms. He truly wasn't angry anymore, since the reaction that should've happened had already been calculated.

Elysia: ...

After going in circles, the problem seemed to have returned to the beginning. She wiped away tears that were practically gone and stood on the sofa, looking down at him.

"Then why didn't you look through my phone before?! Why didn't you care about my social life?! Why is your possessiveness so low?!"

"Obviously, I never hid anything from you before. Why didn't you ask me about it?"

"And besides, I'm the older sister, right? I know everything about you, but you don't even know who my friends are. Search your conscience: is this the sister's failure or the brother's failure?!"

Elysia Couldn't Tell

An Yu didn't argue with Elysia. That would be too stupid. Normally, when everyone was happy, such boring and stupid things could still improve their relationship. Bickering was a way to grow closer, after all. But he wasn't happy right now.

At exactly one in the afternoon, An Yu walked downstairs with his head lowered, preparing to call a ride.

"Why not ride the motorcycle?"

Elysia moved closer, expectation sparkling in her eyes.

It would be so much faster, and the cramped space could help mend their sibling relationship. With them pressed so closely together, even a hard mouth would be useless.

An Yu glanced at Elysia. "Because someone will move around and scream, and I... have already ended up in the hospital once because of it."

Elysia grumbled unhappily. She was dissatisfied, but she didn't know how to refute him.

She snatched An Yu's phone, opened his chat history, and found that he had pinned only her. He didn't have a single special contact.

"Why am I not a special contact?"

She immediately questioned him.

"You were this morning."