My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 161 Dolls and Dolls, A Trip to London (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
At 1:30 a.m. on July 24, Xia Pingzhou swiped his room card and pushed open the door to his room.

Xia Pingzhou scratched his nose and looked up; sure enough, Ayase Origami was awake.

He took his room key with him when he left, and the power was off inside. She couldn't turn on the light, so she leaned against the windowsill and quietly flipped through a collection of haiku in the moonlight.

"Now that you're awake, would you like to go to the tavern for a drink?" Xia Pingzhou asked. "The others are here too."

"I don't want to go." Ayase Origami didn't even turn her head.

"The bloodline is waiting for us downstairs."

"I don't want to go anymore."

"Okay, then I won't go."

After saying that, Xia Pingzhou silently lowered his head and sent a text message to the Bloodline on his mobile phone.

[Xia Pingzhou: I'm going to sleep. Don't wait for me. Over.]

[Bloodline: (middle finger)]

Xia Pingzhou turned off his phone, casually put the access card into the power outlet, and then pulled up a chair by the window to sit down.

"What are you going to do?" After a moment of silence, Ayase Origami asked.

"Fight the demon."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" the girl in the kimono asked.

Her tone carried a cold, questioning quality, as if the owner had seen their cat being silently fed by an annoying neighbor.

“You don’t like staying up late,” Xia Pingzhou explained.

"I wasn't asleep."

"why?"

"I thought you were dead."

"Your joke-telling skills have improved."

"Thank you."

As she spoke, Origami Ayase pulled a photograph from her haiku collection, lowered her eyes, and gazed at it quietly in the moonlight.

Xia Pingzhou glanced at the photo in her hand, then asked:
When was this photo taken?

The photo shows the courtyard of a mansion, with a wooden walkway standing by the pond. An old man in a butler's uniform and a girl in a kimono are standing by the walkway.

Two rows of breathtaking cherry trees grew in the courtyard, and the cherry blossoms fell from the branches as if to engulf the whole world.

The old man wore a faint smile; the girl's doll-like white face was expressionless, with a double cherry blossom hanging at the corner of her mouth.

“Four years ago,” the girl in the kimono said, “we hadn’t left our families yet.”

How old were you when this photo was taken?

"Twelve years old."

"So how old are you now?"

"sixteen."

“You were so short when you were little.” Xia Pingzhou said expressionlessly, “Not as tall as me.” He looked at the photo.

He was telling the truth. During the days that Ji Minghuan was detained at the Salvation Society base, every now and then a group of experimenters wearing white coats would come to measure his various physical data.

His most recent height measurement was 1.62 meters, while Origami Ayase in the photo looks to be only about 1.55 meters tall.

He had won, he thought.

Origami Ayase remained silent for a moment, then glanced at him indifferently: "Little cat, you've rebelled."

"This is a fact."

“Let me see pictures of you when you were little, and we’ll see who’s taller,” Origami Ayase said.

"childish."

Xia Pingzhou turned the tables and accused the culprit.

The gaze that Ayase Origami cast at her gradually turned cold.

"Okay, actually I didn't keep any photos from the past," Xia Pingzhou said frankly.

Even before joining the Phantom Troupe, he destroyed all evidence of his past in order to leave no trace.

"why?"

"No reason why." After a pause, Xia Pingzhou suddenly said, "Actually, I think you and I are a bit alike."

"Where?"

Xia Pingzhou lowered his eyes, looking at the girl in the photo who was as white as a doll, and said in a low voice, "It's that feeling of standing there... trying to detach yourself from your body, to make yourself feel uninvolved."

He paused for a moment, "I can't quite describe it clearly, but basically, I try my best not to have any relationships with the people around me... I don't want to feel anything, so I close myself off, that's about it."

Ji Minghuan remained silent.

In order to achieve his goals more efficiently, he did try to ignore the influence of his bodily memory as much as possible, so as not to develop feelings for the people around him.

Whenever he was with them, he would constantly remind himself that these were all false relationships. When he no longer needed them and destroyed the machine, these relationships would disappear as if they had never existed.

Therefore, the best approach is to detach yourself from them and not develop feelings for them.

Everything he does should serve the purpose of "escaping the Salvation."

The same goes for Origami Ayase in the photo; she also seems to be trying to detach herself in some way.

Although Ji Minghuan didn't know why.

Thinking of this, he manipulated Xia Pingzhou to raise his head and quietly look at Ayase Origami's profile.

She didn't seem to want to answer.

Xia Pingzhou had just turned his gaze away when Ayase Origami suddenly spoke.

She said, “When I was little, my dad would get angry at me for no reason, so every time he got angry at me, I would imagine myself as someone else… a bystander.”

"why?"

"That way you won't get hurt."

"Later... you got used to it."

"Correct."

Xia Pingzhou was silent for a moment: "When we're talking, do you also habitually imagine yourself as someone else, watching our conversation?"

After saying that, Ji Minghuan suddenly found it a little funny, thinking to himself, "Isn't this just like me?"

The difference is that he is a genuine player, and he is also using a genuine high-dimensional perspective to observe the conversation between Xia Pingzhou and Ayase Origami.

But can he really treat everyone around him as NPCs...? Actually, he himself isn't sure.

"I don't know." Origami Ayase thought for a moment. "Why don't you know?"

"I don't know, that's all."

Xia Pingzhou said calmly, "After listening to you talk about so many things, I'm thinking, no wonder you give me the feeling of being a dull-witted puppet."

Origami Ayase retorted, "You said I'm a lot like you. That kitten is a puppet too."

She seemed to be trying to make her words sound more playful, but her tone was still somewhat stiff.

"I really am a puppet, the kind you use and then throw away," Xia Pingzhou thought.

"I am not a puppet."

"Then what are you?"

“Cat puppet,” he said.

Origami Ayase paused for a moment, then raised her haiku collection to cover her mouth, shifting her gaze away from Xia Pingzhu's face as if she was suppressing a laugh.

She slowly turned her head and looked out the window, where the moonlight illuminated the enchanting scenery of Venice.

“You give me a feeling…” After a moment, she suddenly broke the silence.

"What does it feel like?"

"There is a child living inside my body."

What's going on? Have I been seen through?
Ji Minghuan was slightly taken aback. After a long while, he manipulated Xia Pingzhou to look up and said expressionlessly, "I think you can be more direct and just say I'm naive."

Origami Ayase shook her head: "It's different."

"What's the difference?"

“I can’t explain it,” she said. “It’s just different.”

“I understand,” Xia Pingzhou said. “You’re only taking care of me because you think I’m like a child?”

"possible."

The girl in the kimono remained noncommittal, closing the photograph inside the book.

They were both silent for a while, the only sound in the air being the rustling of pages turning as Origami Ayase read.

"How about we go to London?" Xia Pingzhou suddenly suggested.

"why?"

"Let's clear our heads, take a walk, it's pretty boring staying in the same city all the time anyway," Xia Pingzhou said, turning to look at Ayase Origami, "What do you think?"

“I said, wherever you go, I will go.”

"It's too boring with just the two of us. Why don't we bring the others along?"

"for example?"

"Bloodline".

"not going."

"Then let's call the Ripper."

"can."

"Oh, then it's decided," Xia Pingzhou said. "Aren't you going to continue sleeping?"

"Kitten sleeps first."

"Row."

Xia Pingzhou responded, feeling as if Ayase Origami was afraid he would run away while he was sleeping.

He lay down on the bed, opened the character panel, and checked his loot for the night.

[Currently holding one-time use Demon pieces: 3 Flame Demons, 2 Blue Electric Mouse Demons, 1 Garbage Mountain Demon, and 1 Magician Demon.]

"Oh right, that task should be completed."

Thinking this, Xia Pingzhou brought up the main quest panel.

[Main Quest 3 Completed: Find "Your Former Teammate," the Mad Exorcist—and Clues to "Red Light".]

[Received rewards for Main Quest 3: 1 Split Point, 1 Skill Point, 1 Attribute Point]

Xia Pingzhou quickly allocated the attribute points he had.

[Your second unit, "Chess Player," has had its "Speed" attribute changed: B+ to B++ (Your "Chess Type's" speed will also increase accordingly)]

As for skill points, currently all skills on the three branches require at least 2 skill points to unlock, and having only 1 is useless, so there's no need to worry about it for now.

Xia Pingzhou then turned his attention to the main quest that had been refreshed.

[Main Quest 3 has been updated: Stop the "Salvation Society" members from taking away the "Red Light".]

He took a deep breath and stared quietly at the words on the panel.

He had actually considered bringing White Wolf along on this trip to London. But the objective of this operation was to steal Red Light, not to fight the Salvation Society.

Upon seeing his son, Philio, White Wolf would likely lose control of his emotions and rush into battle without authorization.

In this way, the situation will completely turn into the scenario that Ji Minghuan least wants to see.

At this point, he didn't believe these people had even a one percent chance of winning against the Salvationists.

Moreover, if the Salvation Society knew that Philo's father had appeared at such a coincidental and sudden time, they would definitely suspect that there was a mole within the Salvation Society.

Ji Minghuan will definitely be the first person suspected.

Similarly, Black Chrysalis shares the same stance as White Greedy Wolf.

When the mentor first connected the black pupa's superpower with Ji Minghuan's childhood photos, he suspected the relationship between the black pupa and Ji Minghuan. Therefore, he might also have thought that the black pupa was a puppet created by Ji Minghuan using his superpower.

It's even possible that the Salvation Society's operation was planned around this very assumption.

Therefore, the black pupa must never be discovered by the Salvation Society.

However, the Black Chrysalis was the most mobile and best suited for reconnaissance in his possession, so it was not very realistic not to bring the Black Chrysalis along.

Therefore, during this London operation, Ji Minghuan was extremely cautious in every step, ensuring that the Black Chrysalis was not exposed to the Salvation Society's sight.

Otherwise, all his efforts so far may be in vain.

Recalling Kong Youling's face, Ji Minghuan's expression darkened slightly. He stared at the ceiling, lost in thought, his face expressionless.

"No matter what happens, you must remain calm... Especially in times like these, you must not act impulsively, otherwise you will fall into their trap."

With that thought, he guided Xia Pingzhou to slowly close his eyelids. Amidst the rustling of the girl turning the pages of the book, he soon fell into a deep sleep.

　Asking for a monthly ticket!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)