Ms. Gojo thought she was dating an ordinary person's boyfriend.

On a weekend afternoon, the warm sunlight streamed through the car window, making people feel a little lazy.

The dark blue SUV came to a smooth stop at the street corner, and Sumi Kichikawa and Satoru Gojo got out of the car one after the other.

Fujii Makoto was leaning against the glass door smoking when he spotted the two people walking hand in hand.

His gaze first swept over Sumire Kikawa, then over the clean new car, and finally landed on the white-haired young man who was pushing his sunglasses out of the car.

"Oh, Gojo-kun's here too." Mr. Fujii said with a smile, a cigarette dangling from his lips, as he turned to look at Sumi Kichikawa.

"That's strange. Didn't people say before that cars weren't environmentally friendly and unnecessary? Why are you suddenly buying one?"

As Kikawa Sumi walked up the steps, she casually put the car keys into her pocket: "I bought this for commuting, to make things more convenient."

Makoto Fujii joked: "For transportation, of course~"

Gojo Satoru walked around from the passenger side, and with a few long strides, he reached Sumi Kichikawa's side.

He draped his arm over Sumiki Kichikawa's shoulder and pressed down slightly, transferring most of his body weight to her.

"Mr. Fujii, please stop asking. What if my personal driver gets angry?" Gojo Satoru said, seemingly serious, but with a hint of smugness in his tone.

He leaned close, his warm breath brushing against Sumi Kichikawa's ear as he spoke.

Kikawa Sumi glanced at him sideways and gently nudged his waist with her elbow: "Stand still, you'll easily fall like that."

"No." Gojo Satoru pressed even closer, his tone matter-of-fact. "Standing is tiring."

Kikawa Sumi had no choice but to reach out and gently put her arm around his lower back.

Fujii, watching the two of them interact so obliviously, waved his hand with a hint of annoyance: "Alright, stop lingering at my door. The machine's in the back room, the cartridge's already inserted. Go check it out yourself."

The light inside was much dimmer than outside, and there was a musty smell of dust in the air.

In the corner sat an old arcade machine with a slightly worn casing. It looked very vintage, yet it still gleamed brightly.

The worn-out cartridge was already inserted into the external cartridge slot.

When they saw the game icon that popped up on the screen, their gazes both sharpened slightly.

Stargate Companion: Remastered

The game title was familiar, but the interface was an unfamiliar dark red pixelated design, exuding an inexplicable sense of antiquity and strangeness. The edges of the screen even had a faint halo of light.

Gojo Satoru's gaze lingered on the external card slot for two seconds, his eyes narrowing slightly behind his sunglasses.

He keenly sensed that something was off about the energy around the machine. Although there were no fluctuations in magical power, it still made people feel uneasy.

"Sumi." Gojo Satoru reached out and grabbed Sumi's wrist as she was about to walk over.

"This machine looks like it's about to fall apart. Should I try it out by myself first?"

As he spoke, he subtly moved to block in front of Sumi Kichikawa.

Sumire Kikkawa was also somewhat wary.

If it were just an old game cartridge, it wouldn't be a big deal, but the fact that the game on this cartridge was the same game on the console that he had previously found strange was rather odd.

Therefore, he did not want Gojo Satoru to take any risks.

"This is a two-player co-op mode." Sumire Kichikawa gently twisted her wrist, then grasped Satoru Gojo's hand in the back of her hand, squeezing his knuckles to signal him to relax. "Without one person, the game can't start."

Gojo Satoru looked down at their clasped hands, then looked up at him.

Sumi Kichikawa's expression was calm, even with a gentle smile.

Gojo Satoru sighed inwardly, cursing himself for being a bit neurotic. Kosuke was just an ordinary person; behaving too abnormally would only scare him.

"Alright," Gojou Satoru conceded, pulling out a chair and sitting down. He then pulled Sumi Kikawa to the seat next to him as well. "Sumi, you'd better hold on tight to me later. If the machine leaks electricity again, Satoru-chan will protect you, okay?"

The seats on this machine were even narrower than those on a two-player arcade machine. When two people sat side by side, the fabric rubbed tightly together.

After Gojo Satoru sat down, his outer thighs were pressed tightly against the side of Kikkawa Sumi's legs.

People can be taken away from the danger zone at any time.

Kikawa Sumi felt the continuous heat coming from his back and sides, and his heart beat a little faster, but he did not pull away. He simply raised his hand and pressed the start button.

Games start.

This version is much more difficult than the ones they played before.

Without a tutorial, the game starts with a dense array of monsters and various mechanisms that require simultaneous operation.

The first synchronization rate settlement appeared quickly.

Synchronization rate: 45%

The black-haired swordsman on the screen blocked an attack for the mage, and his health bar dropped significantly.

"Wu, you cast the spell too early." Sumire Kichikawa stared at the screen, her fingers flying across the keys.

"The monster's movement speed has increased." Gojo Satoru tapped the control lever, his body pressed even closer together in his focus. "If Kosuke's sword were a little faster, I wouldn't need to anticipate it."

"Is the PE teacher on vacation today, taking a break from his reaction time?"

"Goading won't work on me," Gojo Satoru chuckled softly, his voice brushing against Sumi Kikawa's eardrums. "But you can look forward to it."

Gojo Satoru's fingertip slid down the console, and the game character moved nimbly with his movements.

As the second challenge began, the tacit understanding between the two started to emerge.

In this narrow space where only the sound of each other's breathing could be heard, the sound of keys being pressed blended together.

The numbers at the top of the screen began to climb.

60.

80.

95.

When the final, massive stargate appeared, a dazzling array of reverse operation commands popped up on the screen.

Their hands moved almost like afterimages on the control panel, their fingertips brushing against each other's hands several times as they crossed.

"The last time," Sumi Kichikawa said softly.

"Leave it to me." Gojo Satoru's fingertips fell heavily.

Synchronization rate: 100%

The moment those golden numbers appeared, the screen suddenly exploded with a burst of fine static.

A slight, damp breeze swept past the screen and disappeared in an instant.

Sumi Kichikawa's fingers, which were tapping the keys, stopped.

Gojo Satoru's smile vanished in that instant, and his azure eyes behind his sunglasses turned slightly cold.

But in order not to worry the other, they both quickly adjusted their expressions in the next second.

"Sizzle—"

The screen went completely black, and a faint smell of burning emanated from the back of the machine.

"It seems Mr. Fujii's machine is completely broken down." Sumire Kichikawa withdrew her hand, breaking the silence first.

Gojo Satoru glanced at the black screen, then at Sumi Kikawa beside him who looked perfectly normal. He slowly relaxed his back, which had been tense for a moment, and leaned back in his chair, a nonchalant smile playing on his lips.

"Yes," he turned his head, "the power of 100% synchronization is too great; the old relic can't handle it."

The two exchanged a glance, neither delving into the strange feeling of weightlessness they had experienced just a second earlier, and tacitly glossed over the little incident.

After saying goodbye to Fujii Makoto, the two got back into the car.

"Sumiko, where to next?" Gojo Satoru nestled in the cat-shaped cushion in the passenger seat, lazily fiddling with the pendant.

"Let's go eat first, then I'll take you out for a walk to clear your head." Kikawa Sumi started the car, and the dark blue SUV smoothly merged into the street.

At first, everything was normal.

The Tokyo street scene receded smoothly past the car window at dusk, while soothing music flowed through the carriage, mixed with a very faint strawberry scent.

But as the car drove through two blocks, Sumi Kichikawa keenly sensed something was amiss.

The signal on the car navigation screen flickered twice before disappearing.

The previously congested traffic disappeared at some point, the wide asphalt road gradually narrowed, and the road surface changed from smooth asphalt to a slightly bumpy dirt road.

Sumi Kichikawa's fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel.

He glanced out the window without making a sound.

The towering modern buildings are fading away, and the neon lights along the roadside are being replaced by lush, ancient trees.

The moment the car passed through the shade of the trees, the previously dim sky suddenly brightened, and the sun was hanging in the sky again.

The lingering smell of exhaust fumes typical of big cities completely disappeared, replaced by an extremely fresh, natural aroma mixed with the scents of earth and vegetation.

Is this... a spatial transformation?

Kikawa Sumire was somewhat confused.

Why did the jump suddenly occur?

The system had clearly fallen into a deep sleep, and should have completely lost its ability to transport people to jump space.

Could it be... that cassette tape from earlier?

Could it be that because his synchronization rate with Gojo Satoru reached 100%, the remaining system energy was fully activated, forcibly pulling them through the world jump?

Sumi Kichikawa's heart was beating a little fast.

If that's the case, where are they now?

He drove smoothly while observing the scenery outside.

Rolling green hills, ancient shrines hidden among the trees, and a cool, clean spiritual energy in the air that almost solidifies into a tangible form.

The texture of this spiritual energy, and the rural atmosphere that feels so secluded from the world...

He roughly determined which world this was.

But what followed was an even bigger problem—how was he going to explain it to Gojo Satoru?

If you suddenly saw Tokyo outside the window turn into a rural forest, wouldn't anyone feel extremely panicked?

Kikawa Sumi quickly calculated in her mind how to comfort him, while secretly glancing at the passenger seat out of the corner of her eye.

Meanwhile, in the passenger seat, Gojo Satoru's mind was also in turmoil.

Before the sky had even changed color, the information transmitted back by Six Eyes had already made him almost doubt his own perception.

The thick, omnipresent negative energy in the air was evaporating at an incredible speed. In its place was a clear, pure natural energy, and many tiny spirits of various shapes were even floating among the trees.

It was neither an illusion nor an ordinary barrier.

This is an alternate dimension completely stripped of the rules of magic.

His first reaction was that they had been tricked.

But the next second he found that Sumi Kichikawa's expression was calm, as if she was completely unaware of the changes in the world.

Could it be that Xiaocheng's unique immune ability is still working, allowing him to remain completely unaffected?

Or perhaps, in fact, Sumi Kichikawa had already encountered problems the moment she entered this space.

Thinking of this possibility, Gojo Satoru's hands, which were resting on his knees, twitched almost imperceptibly, and his muscles tensed up involuntarily, preparing to respond to an enemy attack at any moment.

He decided to test the waters.

"Xiao Cheng."

Gojo Satoru said in his usual relaxed tone, "Is this the place you planned to take me to clear my head? The scenery along this road is really nice. Which suburb of Tokyo is this?"

Upon hearing this, Sumire Kikawa, who was nervously preparing her words, was slightly taken aback.

He turned his head and looked at Gojo Satoru.

The white-haired youth leaned back in the comfortable cushion, relaxed, with a natural smile on his lips, as he enthusiastically observed the scenery outside the window.

There was no fear, no doubt, and not even any questioning of the instantly changing scenery.

Sumire Kikkawa suddenly realized something.

How could he forget that world consciousness can be cognitively modified?

In general, to protect the minds of ordinary people from collapsing during the leap, the world consciousness will automatically correct their cognition, allowing them to explain the anomalies they see with the most reasonable logic.

Perhaps in Satoru's eyes, they were just driving to a suburb that was relatively far from Tokyo.

Seeing Gojo Satoru's unguarded smiling face, Kikkawa Sumi breathed a sigh of relief.

Since the world's consciousness has covered it up, he can continue to act according to this setting. As long as it is not exposed, Wu will not be afraid.

"Hmm." Sumire Kichikawa withdrew her gaze, parked the car steadily beside a wide open grassy area, turned off the engine, and turned to look at him.

"This is indeed a suburb I know, quite far from Tokyo." Sumi Kikawa softened her tone, a perfectly measured gentleness in her eyes. "I...have been here before."

The carriage fell into a deathly silence.

Gojo Satoru's hand, which was propped up against the window, froze.

His eyes, hidden behind his sunglasses, slowly widened, and the relaxed smile on his lips froze on his face.

Wait a moment.

What did he just hear?

Xiao Cheng said he'd been here before?

Have you been to this...an alternate dimension where even spell power doesn't exist and it's filled with unknown alien energy?