Chen Xiao: I keep feeling countless eyes watching me

Chen Xiao couldn't quite understand Asuna's reaction.

After all, they had possessed self-awareness ever since they were made, and could see what happened in the bedroom through the display cabinet's glass.

By all rights, they should have already seen everything, whether they were supposed to or not.

He refused to believe these figurine girls would voluntarily avert their eyes or close them when he sat at his airfield-his computer-ready for takeoff, with his equipment swinging around!

(Tragic.)

So why had Asuna fled from Chen Xiao in such a panic?

That required an explanation of the gap between theory and practice.

Some people might have watched countless videos online and mastered the theory, yet when the time came to get hands-on, they were completely lost. They might even become so nervous that they had no idea where to start.

Asuna's situation just now had been much the same.

Like all the other figurine girls, she knew every detail of Chen Xiao's body better than anyone.

But when Asuna actually faced that ferocious beast poised to strike, she couldn't help panicking. Especially after she instinctively measured it against her hand, her brain began spiraling out of control.

The sight of a big umbrella immediately brought thighs to mind, then naked bodies, then pounding rice cakes, then sowing seeds, then illegitimate children...

Only in this particular realm could the human imagination leap ahead so dramatically.

Lu Xun: ?

Was that what I said?!

Splaaash...

"Man! Why am I falling into depravity faster and faster?"

Chen Xiao had hurried into the bathroom to shower. He hung his head helplessly, bracing one hand against the wall.

As he let his body cool down, he couldn't help lamenting.

He was now like the heroine of an erotic RPG, deliberately steered by the player into providing fan service, steadily accumulating corruption points until she crossed one line after another.

Until she fell all the way to Lv. Max!

Click~!

"As long as my mind isn't getting twisted, it's fine. Holding it in all the time can cause serious problems too."

With that thought, Chen Xiao took his hand off the wall and turned off the shower.

Clear droplets ran down the contours of his lean, muscular body, pattering onto the shower floor with faint, crisp sounds.

But just as he stepped one foot out of the shower, he felt an inexplicable chill behind him and instinctively glanced back.

Naturally, he found nothing.

???: -!

"Was it really just my imagination?"

Since it happened every time he showered, Chen Xiao had almost grown accustomed to the feeling. Had the sensation of eyes boring into his back not been so intense this time, he wouldn't even have turned around to check again.

"Surely they aren't so unsatisfied with looking at me normally that they have to peek while I'm showering too?"

Chen Xiao couldn't help laughing at the possibility.

Although all the figurines at home naturally had maxed-out affection for him, not every one of them was as "direct" as Shokuhou Misaki. Surely some powerful figurine with an upright personality would step in to stop something as improper as peeping.

"I must've been exposed to too much temptation lately. It's making me paranoid... Whew! It's getting a little cold. I'd better get dressed."

Only after Chen Xiao had dressed and left the bathroom did a spatial rift slowly open in the shower wall, resembling a gap filled with eyes.

The deep, heavy breathing of numerous creatures could faintly be heard from within.

And that evening...

Mahiru Shiina took over cooking from the person who was supposed to do it.

The way she looked at Chen Xiao had also become rather strange.

Not only did her gaze keep roaming over his body, but she occasionally made a quiet slurping sound during dinner. It was hard to tell whether the food was simply that delicious, or whether she had something even tastier in mind.

Chen Xiao didn't dare voice his confusion.

He could only lower his head and eat, pretending he knew nothing. As long as he ignored it, he wouldn't trigger any story events, and he could keep his corruption points under control.

Surely they wouldn't do something like drug me...

Probably?

Meanwhile, just as the figurines' efforts to "conquer" Chen Xiao reached a new stage, Mr. K, far away on the Shenzhou border, couldn't sleep at all.

The informant he had secretly planted in Magic City had inexplicably been taken out.

"Mr. K, we still can't reach Three of Spades."

The subordinate who knocked and entered looked anxious. He had already made several consecutive encrypted calls, but no one had answered.

"Stop calling."

K waved a hand, his brow furrowed.

Then he took two plane tickets to Magic City out of his pocket and tossed them into the ashtray on the table.

"Cancel the mission. Return the second payment to the company, along with compensation."

Even someone as easygoing as K felt a pang at losing the substantial sum of "cash" on his phone before he'd even had time to enjoy it.

"Mr. K..."

"Ace of Diamonds has already found out why Three of Spades went missing. The Gao family of Guangdong Province teamed up with the Anomalous Incident Management Bureau's Countermeasures Team in Magic City to crack down on members of various organizations hiding throughout the city. Our people were among them..."

That included the missing Three of Spades.

The unlucky bastard Qing Xuanzi had slapped to the ground before he could even drink his Minute Maid Pulpy Orange.

"The Gao family of Guangdong Province? Those nouveau riche businessmen! All they ever think about is money. Why would they do something like this?"

The subordinate looked baffled.

"Ha! Because they were being used."

K scoffed.

Then his tone grew grave and wary.

"And as soon as they'd served their purpose, the other side disposed of them... Whew! They acted so fast! What a vicious move!"

The Gao family members and the Countermeasures Team had located the pawns hiding in Magic City with uncanny precision, as though someone had been guiding them.

Even a Diviner, whose abilities were practically like having an all-seeing eye, would struggle with that.

Unless they had perfected the art of divination, it would be difficult to divine unknown targets hidden in a city out of thin air.

Yet Huang Qingque had genuinely possessed no intelligence at all. She had simply led her people around, barging into places at random, and found them!

Who would believe there hadn't been something fishy going on?!

Then, shortly after the Gao family finished the job, a mysterious master hacker called [Funeral Parlor] suddenly appeared online.

The name sounded like an organization.

And, by sheer "coincidence," when the Gao family launched their cyberattack, that hacker happened to be inside their opponent's server.

The result was the destruction of the wealthy Gao family of Guangdong Province.

And all of it had started because the Gao family's neglected third young master had offended someone at a Comic Exhibition!

What frightened K most inexplicably was this.

"You're involved here too? Chen Xiao."

Chen Xiao had also attended the event. He had been backstage at the time, accompanied by four young, beautiful girls in a band, and was a classmate of Ding Jiafang, the one who had clashed with Gao Chen.

Given Gao Chen's personality, he would inevitably have taken revenge on Chen Xiao and those girls as well.

Yet before he could do anything at all, he had ended up in that state.

K couldn't help growing suspicious.

But none of the suspicious details in the entire affair could be linked to Chen Xiao!

On the surface, he was clearly just an ordinary person who had neither awakened a superpower nor entered his family's supernatural circles.

How could he escape certain death again and again?