My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 186 Origami Ayase x Kong Youling x Ji Minghuan (Seeking monthly votes)
Inside the underground bar "Eden" in London.

[Loading progress of the game scene "Jurassic World": 85%/100%]

At this moment, the five children of the Salvation Team are sitting on the Flying Nimbus, silently watching the progress bar on the prompt box, waiting for Mario's "game scene" to finish loading.

This process takes a considerable amount of time, and the progress bar moves extremely slowly.

It seems that because it's set in Ke Qirui's movie world, loading game scenes is particularly difficult.

Ji Minghuan quietly shifted her gaze, observing her surroundings out of the corner of her eye, before pulling Kong Youling into her arms.

She looked up from beneath her snow-white bangs, gazing at him with a puzzled expression.

Ji Minghuan didn't speak, but simply shielded her view with his shoulder. He didn't want Kong Youling to see the gruesome bloodstains left by the traffic lights on the bar's floor and walls.

On the ceiling riddled with holes, gradient-colored light bulbs flickered on and off, and the faces of the five children also changed from light to shadow, their expressions shifting unpredictably under the illumination of the dome.

Especially Sun Changkong.

She sat cross-legged, her arms wrapped around the golden cudgel, her fiery red brows furrowed, and her shoulders trembling slightly, looking as if she was about to lose patience.

Only Mario remained calm and composed, staring blankly at the handheld console interface.

Not long after, just as Sun Changkong was about to start shouting, a huge game notification popped up.

She paused for a moment, closed her mouth, and looked up curiously.

[Loading complete. You can enter the game scene – "Jurassic World" – through the pixel gate.]

The next moment, the game prompt box that was floating in mid-air slowly became blurry and then disappeared completely.

Instead, a pixelated cartoon gate appeared in front of the five people.

Ji Minghuan raised his head, stared at the pixelated gate in front of him, and remained silent.

Cold sweat soaked his forehead. He thought to himself, "Damn it... if I can't find a way to escape, won't the Ghost Train crew and my second unit both die in Mario's game?"

Sun Changkong raised his fiery red eyebrows, opened his mouth wide, and revealed his surprised little tiger teeth.

Then he suddenly turned his head and bumped Mario's shoulder, "I didn't know you had this trick up your sleeve, Cat Mario!"

"Wow, that's amazing." Philio's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Will we be able to find the traffic lights once we're inside?"

“Yes,” Mario said expressionlessly, “but it’s dangerous inside…how so?”

As he spoke, he glanced at Ji Minghuan and Kong Youling out of the corner of his eye.

Sun Changkong understood his meaning, so he turned to the two of them and said, "Xiao Ling, Ji Minghuan, you two stay here."

Kong Youling nodded.

“That’s possible…” Ji Minghuan paused, “but wouldn’t it be better if one of you stayed here to protect us?”

"No, there are so many of them, we can't lose in terms of momentum!" Sun Changkong shook his head. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, it only takes a few seconds to deal with these bastards, and we'll be right back."

“Yes, we’ll go and bring the traffic lights back. It won’t be long,” Filio said. “Ji Minghuan, you guys hide in the bar and wait for us. Anyway, the enemies are all in the game.”

"Alright, good luck to you guys," Ji Minghuan said. He knew in his heart that he couldn't persuade Sun Changkong at all.

He was trying to buy some time, but what was the point? As long as the Ghost Train crew remained trapped in Mario's game, they would ultimately have to find a way out on their own.

Kong Youling wrote in her notebook and held it up to show them: "Come back safely."

"Of course, little Ling, don't be afraid." Sun Changkong smiled confidently at her.

Ji Minghuan remained silent.

He slowly took Kong Youling's hand, and the two of them descended from the Somersault Cloud together.

Sun Changkong waved to them, then rode his somersault cloud, passing through the pixel gate with Filio and Mario. The gate disappeared.

The bar was deathly silent, save for the snapping sound of sparks flying from a light bulb.

Only at this moment did Kong Youling have time to properly look around.

When her gaze fell upon the bloodstains flowing across the floor, she suddenly froze, her red pupils contracting slightly.

Unlike her, the other four were children who had seen blood, so they naturally didn't react much to this. Especially Ji Minghuan, who had witnessed far too much in the past month; the scenes at the auction were much bloodier than this.

The white-haired girl stood there for a long time, then suddenly picked up a pencil with trembling hands and wrote in her notebook, "Will they be safe?"

Ji Minghuan glanced at the words on the notebook and said absentmindedly, "Yes."

He sighed, thinking: those who get caught and brought to the Salvation Society are all monsters, you should worry about my second unit.

As the two were talking, two figures suddenly entered through the bar entrance.

Their speed is too fast to be seen with the naked eye.

Ji Minghuan paused for a moment, then subconsciously pulled Kong Youling into his arms before turning his head to look at her.

With his dynamic vision, he could only barely catch their afterimages, and couldn't even make out their features clearly. When he came to his senses, a crescent-shaped, blood-red scythe was already at his neck. But for some reason, when Ji Minghuan saw the scythe, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He slowly turned his head, looking in the direction of the sickle's edge.

Of the two uninvited guests, one was wearing an ochre-red kimono, and the other was wearing a black and white Japanese school uniform.

It was Origami Ayase and Jack the Ripper.

The two must have received a notification from the hacker and rushed over to help Xia Pingzhou. Unfortunately, they were too late.

The girl in the kimono wasn't paying attention to him at that moment.

She looked around silently and slowly, her gaze lingering for a second on the mottled bloodstains on the wall, and finally, she only saw a familiar cell phone on the floor.

A piece of paper hidden in the sleeve of her kimono flew over and brought her her phone.

Origami Ayase opened Xia Pingzhou's phone, and a series of messages popped up.

[Hacker: Hey, I was just playing a game.]

[Hacker: Hang in there, newbie! I'll get the young lady and the Ripper to rescue you right away.]

[Hacker: Seriously, what kind of unlucky curse do you have? Even going out for a drink results in this mess. Okay, even though I'm the one who sent you there.]

[Hacker: Just please, please don't die, or how am I supposed to explain this to the young lady?]

The girl in the kimono looked up from her phone, then suddenly turned around, her dark eyes fixed on Ji Minghuan.

"Where...is he?" she asked softly.

"I don't know who you're talking about." Ji Minghuan said, pulling Kong Youling into her arms while staring blankly back at Ayase Origami.

"Where is Xia Pingzhou?" she continued, her voice as cold as ice.

“We have nothing to do with this; we were just dragged into it,” Ji Minghuan said.

"Don't you know?" Jack the Ripper said expressionlessly. "Take your guts out, and you'll know."

Seeing the scythe held against Ji Minghuan's neck, Kong Youling's eyes widened, and her pale body trembled uncontrollably.

"It's okay, nothing will happen..." Ji Minghuan whispered, raising her hand to press Kong Youling's head onto her shoulder. "Close your eyes, it will be fine soon."

Kong Youling did not close her eyes, but looked at his cold profile with slightly trembling eyelids.

He lowered his head, gave Kong Youling a slight smile, and then looked away from her face.

"Not going to confess?" the Ripper said. "Don't think I'll show mercy just because you're a child."

"Xia Pingzhou..." the girl in the kimono pressed, "Where is he?"

Her pale face was expressionless, and the sleeves of her kimono were rolled up high, from which sheets of paper fluttered out, gradually forming thousands of butterflies.

The paper butterflies fluttered their wings and drifted towards Ji Minghuan like falling leaves.

Ji Minghuan held Kong Youling tightly in his arms, raised his eyes from under his dark bangs, and his young face was cold, like a fierce young wolf.

Across the thousands of paper butterflies, Origami Ayase and he met eyes.

Suddenly, she froze on the spot.

For some reason, she felt that the boy's eyes were familiar, inexplicably familiar.

"Why……"

The girl in the kimono slowly raised her eyelids, her empty eyes wide open, and murmured silently.

She suddenly remembered that Xia Pingzhou had said he was looking for a white-haired girl, so she looked at Kong Youling in Ji Minghuan's arms again and remained silent for a long time.

A moment later, Ji Minghuan looked at Ayase Origami with an icy expression and slowly said, "I don't know the 'Xia Pingzhou' you mentioned. Let us go."

At this very moment, in a corner unnoticed by anyone, a huge, black pupa is hanging upside down from the ceiling of the underground bar.

The black pupa was wrapped in transparent restraints, which is why no one could see its figure.

"What's going on?" Black Chrysalis squinted, peering through the restraints at the two members of the troupe and Kong Youling. "What are those idiots from the Salvation Society doing? Why aren't they taking us back?"

Kong Youling stared blankly at Ji Minghuan's profile for a long time before suddenly breaking free from his embrace.

She trembled and stretched out her arms with all her might, her thin body shielding Ji Minghuan.

She raised her eyes, her red eyes watching the paper butterflies fluttering towards her.

Ji Minghuan was stunned for a moment, then his pupils contracted slightly. With the Ripper's scythe still against his neck, he couldn't move, only kneeling on the ground calling out her name:
"Kong Youling!"

The girl in the kimono remained motionless, her gaze fixed on Ji Minghuan's face, frozen in place like a kite with a broken string, not reacting for a long time.

　Asking for a monthly ticket.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)