My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 407 The Fallen Penguin Monster, Sun Changkong's Birthday (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
On the F2 level of the Salvation Society, in the environmental simulation space.

A black-haired boy and a white-haired girl, both dressed in hospital gowns, sat on the floor. They turned their heads and looked at each other. They stared into each other's eyes and remained silent for a moment.

Then someone broke the silence.

"The moon?" Kong Youling asked softly.

“Yes, the moon.” Ji Minghuan blinked. “You really haven’t left the base with your mentor before?”

Kong Youling thought for a moment, then silently shook her head, the snow-white hair covering her forehead swaying gently.

Ji Minghuan was silent for a moment: "Back then, I asked you, 'Where might the Salvation Society's base be?' You drew the moon in your sketchbook. Was it really just a lucky guess?"

Kong Youling suddenly stopped talking.

She slightly opened her mouth, hiding her eyes beneath her snow-white bangs. After a moment, she first looked up to meet Ji Minghuan's gaze, then slowly lowered her eyes again.

Ji Minghuan watched her silently. Based on his understanding of Kong Youling, he was certain that she was hiding something.

From another perspective, he also did not believe that the name that Rukawa Chiba read from Zhong Wujiu's memories was fake.

Assuming that Rukawa Chiba was misleading Xia Pingzhou, how could Rukawa Chiba, as an outsider, possibly know that there was a girl named "Kong Youling" hidden in the Salvation Society?

The only possibility is that Kong Youling did indeed appear in Haifan City ten days ago and then hypnotized Zhou Jiuya and Zhong Wujiu.

Unlike Zhuge Hui, Zhou Zhong and his companion were not as astute and suspicious, so it's not surprising that they would lower their guard around a girl. However, for a mental ability user like Kong Youling, once they got close to the other person, they could declare that they had already completed mind control.

After a long silence, Kong Youling shook her head.

“I have a vague recollection of it,” she said.

Do you vaguely remember? The mentor shouldn't be able to invade her mind, so... was Kong Youling controlled by a member of the Salvation Society at that time? Like that kind of ability that directly bypasses the mind and controls another person's body, giving commands to another person's body? No, that possibility is very low.

Thinking of this, Ji Minghuan raised her head and stared at her curiously: "You're not lying to me, are you?"

Kong Youling puffed out her cheeks slightly.

"If you lie to me, then I'll never talk to you again," Ji Minghuan said, lowering his head slightly, his bangs obscuring his eyes.

“…I’m serious.” After a while, he emphasized again.

Kong Youling was stunned for a long, long time. She lowered her head and remained silent for a while.

Ji Minghuan stopped talking and simply picked up the remote control from the ground, looking at the buttons with text written on them.

After a long while, the white-haired girl suddenly took out a notebook and a paintbrush, squatted down on the ground, slowly wrote, and then turned the notebook towards Ji Minghuan.

Ji Minghuan turned around and stared blankly at the words on the notebook.

The notebook read: "My advisor told me..."

"What did you say?" he asked in a deep voice.

Kong Youling continued writing, the pencil scratching softly. "If I just help him with one thing, he can help me regain my hearing."

"Why did you agree to his request?" Ji Minghuan was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "You know he's a bad person, right? What you do for him might harm other people."

“Because… I want to hear your voice.” Kong Youling slowly wrote on the notebook.

Ji Minghuan was taken aback, then shook her head, her voice still carrying a hint of reproach: "There's no need to rush, there will always be opportunities in the future."

"He also told me..."

Kong Youling put down her notebook and suddenly spoke in a low voice, interrupting him.

Ji Minghuan tilted her head back towards the ceiling, closed her eyes, and took a slightly impatient breath.

"What else did the mentor say?" he asked.

“If we help him, we can celebrate your birthday,” Kong Youling said softly. “He took me to that city, picked out a birthday cake for you, and we brought it back.”

Ji Minghuan was taken aback and looked up at Kong Youling's eyes.

He remained silent for a long, long time, then slowly lowered his head. The anger in his eyes gradually faded. Kong Youling lowered her head and didn't speak, her snow-white hair obscuring her eyes.

A moment later, Ji Minghuan gently raised his hand and ruffled her hair.

He said, "From now on, no matter what the reason, you are not allowed to work for those bad people anymore, do you hear me?"

"Ah."

Kong Youling nodded.

Ji Minghuan continued, "It won't matter if I miss one birthday... Although your mentor promised to help you regain your hearing, if you do something bad for him, you'll fall into the evil penguin monster."

He paused for a moment, then said, "I hope you can always stay safe and sound by my side."

After he finished speaking, he raised his eyes and looked at Kong Youling quietly.

In fact, Ji Minghuan couldn't say for sure whether the brainwashing of Lake Hunter by Kong Youling was orchestrated by his mentor or by his restricted-level superpower.

After all, aside from killing the Ripper, Xia Pingzhou's last mission with the "White Raven Brigade" was to "assist the brigade in killing a member of the Lake Hunters".

After being brainwashed, Zhou Jiuya conveniently facilitated the completion of this mission.

Perhaps Zhou Jiuya's brainwashing by the Salvation Society was also orchestrated by his restricted-level superpower, in order to make Lin Xingshi realize the danger of the Salvation Society and to create enmity between them, thereby luring the remaining three members of the Lake Hunter to Iceland.

Looking back, Ji Minghuan realized that all his mecha missions so far had been designed around the single goal of "how to help his main body escape the Salvation Society".

Without exception, his supernatural abilities have always been used to predict and guide the future.

Therefore, the possibility of this idea in his mind at this moment is very, very high.

However, there was one exception, when the prediction of the machine's mission went awry, a huge surprise.

That was the death of Li Qingping.

Because Li Qingping died, the No. 1 unit "Black Chrysalis" lost a main mission. This shows that the restricted-level ability to distort reality is not so powerful as to be omnipotent, but it must have more or less influenced the course of history and even the will of those around it.

"Are you angry?" Kong Youling suddenly asked.

They had known each other for many, many years, but she had never seen Ji Minghuan speak to her in such a tone before. This was the first time that Ji Minghuan had shown such a fierce look in front of her.

"Nonsense, I was worried sick about you. I always thought you were being controlled by your mentor or something, which is why you didn't tell me about it!" As he spoke, he turned and glared at Kong Youling.

Kong Youling paused, picked up her paintbrush but put it down again, and finally just lowered her head.

"I'm so angry with you! We clearly agreed that we wouldn't keep any secrets!" Ji Minghuan said, then suddenly lunged at her, drawing out her words, "You penguin monster, how dare you break the agreement and aid and abet evil! You're finished!"

After saying that, he tackled Kong Youling to the silvery-white floor and tickled her vigorously.

Kong Youling giggled, and it took a while before Ji Minghuan let her go. The two children in hospital gowns lay on the floor, staring blankly at the empty ceiling.

After a while, Ji Minghuan suddenly said, "We're family...isn't that right?"

"Ah."

"Then you're not allowed to hide anything from me anymore." Ji Minghuan sighed. "We corrupted elementary school students are the most insecure. We're very prone to being suspicious, and I hate it when other people lie to me."

Kong Youling nodded silently. "I promise you."

"Forget it, let's put these worries aside for now," Ji Minghuan shrugged. "Let's celebrate our birthdays today. We shouldn't talk about heavy topics on birthdays."

"A birthday?" Kong Youling was taken aback. "Whose birthday?"

"The boss's."

As Ji Minghuan spoke, he slowly straightened up from the floor and sat cross-legged. He looked up at the surveillance camera above him. "Did you hear that? You, the guy called 'mentor,' aren't you going to get us a cake and candles ready?"

Seeing that his mentor remained silent, he continued, "Since you dared to threaten our penguin monster, shouldn't offering a piece or two of cake as an apology be the most basic courtesy?"

He wasn't sure if his advisor would comply.

After all, now that the mentor has the trump card of restricted level 1003, he is fearless. For the mentor, there is no need for him to continue to take care of Ji Minghuan's feelings, so it would not be strange if he refused him.

However, Ji Minghuan didn't take the fake restricted-rated 1003 seriously.

He thought that his mentor had never even seen what a real restricted film looked like, and that labeling 1003 as restricted was just based on his narrow understanding.

But in his memories of restricted level 1001, he had seen what a real restricted level character looked like when they went berserk.

On the way here, Ji Minghuan had been mentally discussing his thoughts on 1003 with 1001 the whole way.

The restricted-level 1001's explanation for this is: "You couldn't create an artificial human with your genes, so you used your brother's low-energy genes to mix them?"

Ji Minghuan nodded at the time: "Yes."

"Then what we'll create will just be a low-powered version, so what's there to worry about?" said Restricted 1001.

Since even 1001 said so, Ji Minghuan naturally didn't take 1003 seriously. However, for safety's sake, the plan to rescue the main body should indeed be done as soon as possible.

Ji Minghuan remained silent, awaiting her mentor's reply.

All around was quiet, with only a silent, silvery-white expanse. Looking at it for too long was somewhat eerie, as if one were about to be swallowed up in this swamp made of metal.

After a while, just when he thought his tutor had started to play dead, he heard a warm voice coming from the broadcasting equipment:

"Okay, I've already had someone prepare the birthday cake."

Upon hearing her mentor's voice, Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow and looked up. "Really? You actually prepared her birthday cake in advance?"

“Yes,” the mentor replied. “You guys had a good time, but… you need to think about how to convince Chang Kong first. I feel that, given her personality, she won’t be willing to celebrate her birthday early.”

"This isn't a big problem. You just need to prepare your things, and I'll take care of persuading her."

"We'll deliver the cake and candles in ten minutes," the tutor said.

"Okay." Ji Minghuan nodded.

When the instructor remained silent, the broadcasting equipment fell silent and stopped emitting sound.

Ji Minghuan was somewhat surprised, thinking to herself that her mentor had a pretty good temper; even though they had already broken off relations, he was still here playing house with them.

It seems this man might actually have a place for these children in his heart, he thought.

"Isn't the eldest sister's birthday September 5th?" Kong Youling tugged at Ji Minghuan's sleeve and asked, puzzled.

"Yes, but that day is a bit too far away."

"Is it far?" Kong Youling murmured.

Although she didn't know the current time, Ji Minghuan's last birthday was in August. Thinking about it, August was almost over, and the eldest sister's birthday would be at the beginning of September.
"It's super, super far away. I can't wait for that day." Ji Minghuan grumbled. "Rules are rigid, but people are flexible. Living means having a flexible way of dealing with things. It's not a big deal to celebrate your birthday early."

Kong Youling nodded as if she understood, but all she knew was that Ji Minghuan was just giving her the runaround again.

As the two were chatting, the metal door of the simulated space suddenly opened. They turned their heads and saw a group of children in hospital gowns.

At this moment, the children in the rescue team still felt awkward when they saw Ji Minghuan. They all remembered what Ji Minghuan had said, "Then you can all just die." Whenever they saw his face, they couldn't help but look away.

They passed by Ji Minghuan as if they hadn't seen him, and walked over to greet Kong Youling, who nodded quietly.

Sun Changkong was the only one who wanted to touch Ji Minghuan's shoulder, but then withdrew his hand.

Ji Minghuan glanced at them quietly, then pressed the remote control in her hand. The surrounding environment changed instantly, transforming into a mountain field, with the setting sun bathing the fields in its light.

As the sun began to set, a gentle breeze blew by, and cattle, sheep, and herders could be seen on the distant mountaintops.

The other children were stunned for a moment, but quickly realized that this was the effect of the environmental simulation space, and the surprise slowly faded from their eyes.

Mario sat down on the golden field, engrossed in his game console, while Filio excitedly ran around on the mountainside, watching the flock of sheep drift across the fields like a white cloud.

Shang Xiaochi raised her eyebrows, picked a small yellow flower, and strolled through the field.

Sun Changkong sat on the somersault cloud, enjoying the evening breeze, staring blankly at the setting sun on the mountaintop.

At this moment, Ji Minghuan suddenly put down the remote control, looked up at her and asked, "Big sister, how about celebrating your birthday early?"

"Why earlier?" Sun Changkong was taken aback for a moment, then turned to meet his gaze.

"Wouldn't it be better to come earlier? Then we wouldn't have to wait," Ji Minghuan asked.

He thought to himself, "The fight starts on September 1st. I don't even know if you'll live to see September 5th. How will I have time to celebrate your birthday then?"
After hearing this, Sun Changkong was stunned for a moment, and then realized that something was wrong.

She originally wanted to fly into a rage and shout, "Chicken Popcorn, what kind of crooked tricks are you trying to pull? A birthday is only meaningful if you celebrate it on your birthday!"
But at this moment, Ji Minghuan said in a serious tone, "Isn't the day I celebrate my birthday different from my actual birthday? Look, my birth date is actually August 15th, but I celebrate my birthday a week early. What's wrong with that?"

Sun Changkong was slightly taken aback.

She lowered her head, frowned slightly, thought for a moment, then blinked and thought to herself, "Yes, if I celebrate my birthday early, won't I be the same as Ji Minghuan?"
So he beamed with joy.

"What are you laughing at?" Ji Minghuan glanced at her.

Sun Changkong frowned again. "I... will remain on the sidelines for now."

"Big sister, don't be so stubborn," Ji Minghuan said, sighing softly. "What if you end up not even being able to celebrate your birthday before it's your death anniversary? That would be terrible."

Mario spat out the boiling water he had just drunk with a "pfft," while Filio wagged his tail and stared blankly at them, seemingly not understanding what the festival day meant.

"What does 'memorial day' mean?" Sun Changkong raised his fiery red eyebrows.

"nothing."

Ji Minghuan coughed twice and silently looked away.

He knew in his heart that as soon as he brought up sensitive topics, the mentor would immediately activate the mental imprints in the minds of the children.

Therefore, conveying any information to Sun Changkong and the others would be extremely difficult, and if it were too subtle, they wouldn't understand.

Kong Youling suddenly made a "cooing" sound. She was clearly more educated than Sun Changkong and understood that Ji Minghuan was being sarcastic.

"Well... alright then." Sun Changkong nodded. "It's my birthday today, but I have one condition."

"As expected of our big sister, why are there conditions for celebrating your birthday?" Mario asked.

"I don't want my birthday to be earlier next year; it has to be on September 5th," Sun Changkong said. "And the popcorn chicken can't be celebrated earlier either."

"It's good, but could you please stop calling me Chicken Popcorn?"

“Chicken popcorn, delicious,” Mario said. “I had a whole bucket of it when I went to see a movie before.”

"That's popcorn."

Ji Minghuan looked at them speechlessly.

"They said it was an early birthday celebration, but we don't even have a cake," Shang Xiaochi said indifferently. "Traitor, you're not putting in any effort at all. I'm punishing you by making you ride the boss's somersault cloud drop tower a hundred times."

"Yup!"

As he spoke, Sun Changkong suddenly became angry, thinking to himself that he had been tricked by this chicken nugget; he had never intended to celebrate her birthday.

"That's easy, I've already asked our advisor to bring us a birthday cake." Ji Minghuan smiled.

"Really?"

After a while, the metal door of the cell slowly opened, and then several test subjects walked in, carrying birthday cakes as they came down from the hillside.

The cream cake was decorated with a small red monkey holding a long staff and wearing a golden headband, with candles stuck in it. The candlelight flickered fiery red in the setting sun.

Ji Minghuan took the cake from them, and they then left in the elevator.

Sun Changkong turned her head from her somersault cloud, staring blankly at the large cake, her little tiger teeth showing in shock. Then she swallowed hard and pointed to herself at Ji Minghuan:

"this is mine?"

"Otherwise, it's still mine?" Ji Minghuan tilted her head and asked back, "I don't mind having my birthday twice a year."

"Happy birthday, boss lady," Mario said, his eyes downcast as he played his game console, without looking up.

"Happy birthday, have a good time." Filio wiped his nose and smiled.

Be happy.

Shang Xiaochi walked over with her hands behind her back, talking as she did so, and then handed Sun Changkong a small flower she had picked from the field.

"Little Chi is the best." Sun Changkong happily accepted the little red flower, hugged Shang Xiaochi tightly, and rubbed his cheek against hers. Shang Xiaochi blushed and dodged away.

Sun Changkong put the little yellow flower in his mouth and took a couple of bites. Then, to Shang Xiaochi's astonishment, she turned to look at Kong Youling, who was staring blankly at the candle.

"Coo coo coo coo," the white-haired girl said seriously.

"No penguin language allowed," the red-haired girl said fiercely.

"Happy birthday."

Kong Youling slightly curved her lips into a smile, her snow-white hair swaying in the evening breeze, dyed golden by the setting sun.

"That's right."

Sun Changkong spoke calmly, then looked last at Ji Minghuan, who was holding the cake, and stared at him silently.

Happy birthday, boss.

Ji Minghuan spoke softly, his face expressionless. The setting sun bathed his face, and a gentle breeze from the mountainside ruffled his hair, revealing his forehead.

Sun Changkong stared at him blankly for a couple of seconds, then nodded and looked away.
"Ah."

"Don't rush to eat, blow out the candles and make a wish first," he said.

"What did you wish for on your birthday?" Sun Changkong asked him.

"My wish is... that everyone can die happily together." After Ji Minghuan finished speaking, she looked up into her eyes. "How about that? Isn't it a good wish? Don't try to imitate me, okay?"

Sun Changkong was taken aback.

The other children around were also stunned. This was the second time they had heard Ji Minghuan say such a thing, except that the last time Ji Minghuan was clearly absent-minded.

Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow and said, "Why are you all so surprised? What I mean is, even if we can't leave the Salvation Society for the rest of our lives, at least we can celebrate our birthdays here every year and get together every few days."

He paused for a moment: "Then, grow old together, and die happily together, what's wrong with that?"

He sighed, "Actually, this is what I wanted to say last time, but I don't know why you were all scared by me."

He counted on his fingers and added, "Look, in those TV series about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there's often a line like 'We don't ask to be born on the same day, month, and year, but we ask to die on the same day, month, and year.'"

At this point, he pursed his lips and looked up at the children in the field.

They were finally convinced by him.

“Traitor… Stop saying scary things,” Shang Xiaochi said coldly. “You’re such a chuunibyou.”

"You have the right to call me a chuunibyou (a person with delusions of grandeur)?" Ji Minghuan chuckled irritably.

Philo wagged his tail happily and said, seemingly out of nowhere, "World peace."

Mario, head down, playing his game console, said expressionlessly, "How scary! No wonder he's a mature adult. He'll throw the collar away and beat us up."

Ji Minghuan looked at the girl sitting on the cloud. She had her head down, and her fiery red hair danced in the sunset. The wind carried the fresh scent of the fields, and the mountains and clouds were all bathed in a wine-red hue.

"And you, have you forgiven me?" he asked.

"Hmm... I'll forgive you for saying those silly things earlier, since you're celebrating my birthday." Sun Changkong said, patting Ji Minghuan's back hard.

After a moment of silence, she hugged him tightly again, lowered her eyes slightly, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Wow, what are you doing?" Ji Minghuan was taken aback and quickly pressed the cake down. "What if the cake gets on your clothes?"

Sun Changkong lowered his eyes and mumbled, "Hmph... I haven't even asked you for a birthday present yet, wouldn't it be nice to give you a hug?"

Ji Minghuan fell silent and stopped trying to break free.

At that moment, Fiorio crawled out of the field like a husky, covered in yellow petals, and stretched out his arms to hug the two of them.

He leaned close to Sun Changkong and Ji Minghuan's heads, his soft wolf ears rubbing against their cheeks.

Shang Xiaochi was stunned, her cheeks flushed slightly as she watched this scene, and she suddenly turned her face away:

"No... shameless."

At this moment, Kong Youling rushed over and hugged her, then tackled Shang Xiaochi to the ground in the field. Shang Xiaochi was momentarily flustered and blushed. The two of them swayed back and forth in the field bathed in the setting sun.

"Boring." Mario snorted and silently played his game console. Just as he lowered his head, he was hit by a flying somersault cloud and sent flying, landing on the flowers in the field.

"What are you doing?" He got up and glared at Sun Changkong from a distance.

"What do you mean, what are you doing?" Sun Changkong said with a smile. "I saw you were all alone and felt sorry for you. I was thinking of using my somersault cloud to hug you."

"I hate you guys." Mario rubbed his red nose, hugged his knees, and sat down with a frown, deciding to give up playing the game console altogether.

But after a while, Filio pounced on him like a wolf cub and knocked him down in the field.

Sun Changkong, clutching his stomach, pointed at Mario and laughed heartily.

Ji Minghuan watched this scene quietly, a gentle breeze caressing his cheeks.

Suddenly, his eyes met those of Sun Changkong. At that moment, the sun had completely sunk below the horizon, plunging the fields into darkness, leaving only the flickering light of candles.

(End of this chapter)