I have a life simulator.

[The White Room]

Kitagawa Ryo wasn't sure if he could draw this unranked special talent again in the next three simulations, which meant that his contact with Yuki might only be this once.

Although Kitagawa Ryo was unsure what would happen after this talent materialized, he wasn't too worried because the simulator always corrected the basic logic when it affected reality.

In fact, Kitagawa Ryo realized this from the very beginning.

Of the fourth generation of students in the White Room, only Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was a successful product.

This means that in the real-life white room, Snow is a child who has already been eliminated.

Kitagawa Ryo was well aware of the situation of the children who were eliminated from the White Room; almost all of them suffered from serious psychological problems and were unable to integrate into society.

So every time Yuki smiled at him, Kitagawa Ryo would think of this.

It was like a tragedy whose ending was predetermined.

Tragedy on stage is certainly wonderful, but in reality it seems absurd and no one wants to accept it.

"I've loved life simulator games since I was a very young age."

“Even when telling bedtime stories to my sister, I use simulator themes.”

"Because both of our lives were a complete mess, we longed for a different, better life."

"However, there is no longer any need for simulation."

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, this is the eighth simulation."

"That's enough, because my life now is what I longed for back then."

"Actually, it should be a long time ago, but it's the thing I remember most clearly."

“Our basement is three levels underground. The first level is a parking lot, then another level down, and then another level down, like going to the center of the earth.”

"The room was very small. The living room, bedroom, and kitchen were all in one place. There was only enough room for a bed. At first, two people slept there, but later only one person slept there. It was very damp. Sometimes moss would grow on the walls. When it rained, you could wring water out of the blankets and pillows. It couldn't get any sun. You could only hear the fireworks. Every day, you didn't know when it would get light."

"Actually, the reason I don't want to give up on anyone is because I see my own reflection in them. I have experienced the burdens, troubles, and struggles of each of them."

Kitagawa Ryo held Hotaru in his arms, curling up like a child. After a long silence, he suddenly spoke:

"Right, Hotaru?"

Firefly is firefly.

Just like how, at the very beginning of the simulation, no matter what name was randomly assigned, he would be named Liang.

Kitagawa Ryo looked into Hotaru's eyes and remembered the first simulation he had started, in which nothing actually happened.

[Day 1: The date is July 9th. Early July in Tokyo is the height of summer. You stand at a street intersection, following the directions on your phone's map navigation to the property's location. Everything here is new and exciting. During summer vacation, you see many couples dating on the streets. Advertisements are playing on the large screens installed on the exterior walls of the surrounding buildings. The white cat on your shoulder pats your cheek with its paw, indicating that the light is green and you can cross.]

[Day Two: Your white cat woke you up. After washing up, you realized you hadn't named this feline overlord yet. After a brief moment of thought, you named her 'Ying' after her fluorite-like, sparkling eyes. After breakfast, you gave Ying a bath. The cat was so soft and comfortable to touch; you enjoyed the pleasure of petting her, adding another layer of happiness to your day.]

Day 3: You're obsessed with petting the cat.

Day 4: You're obsessed with petting the cat.

"Meow."

Hotaru touched Kitagawa Ryo's face with her paw, then circled around and gently licked his eyelids with her tongue.

In that instant, Kitagawa Ryo seemed to hear a voice.

It turned out to be the case.

All the confusion, entanglement, and troubles vanished in an instant.

[A mystery prize will be awarded upon completion of all chapters.]

That was a gift that had been prepared long ago.

(All simulations have ended)

Chapter 122: The Truth and Boiling Emotions

Intense, passionate feelings are not proof of love; they only indicate how lonely and bored those men and women were beforehand.

So what exactly is the proof of love?

In my short life, the answer I've come to is companionship.

Since the end of love is becoming husband and wife, and the end of marriage is long-term companionship, and love will gradually turn into a deeper family affection over the years, then if we think about it the other way around, my brother and I should have reached the end from the very beginning.

We've both said things like we'd be with each other forever, but the word "forever" is perhaps the biggest lie in itself. If we were to count the most told lies in the world, "I love you" would probably be number one, and "I love you too" would probably be number two. All vows related to forever would follow in that order; they're just impossible, illusory dreams.

So in the end, I abandoned this vow, and I abandoned my brother... and left.

But perhaps because there really are gods in the world, I, who should have died, did not leave this world.

Driven by that past obsession, I became a simulator, or rather, I became the embodiment of the concept of a simulator.

For a long time after that, I saw my brother become enthusiastic about all sorts of life simulator games, immersing himself in the stories, just like the ones he used to tell me before bed, games that progressed rapidly in years, where you could complete a second life in just a few minutes by constantly clicking the screen.

After clearing one level, you quickly start another.

Golden talents in games are generally hard to obtain, and refreshing often requires waiting for a 30-second or 1-minute ad. But my brother would wait every time, and then watch the virtual, randomly named character with a bunch of golden talents achieve a good ending with a tap of his finger and live a happy life.

My brother never named the characters after himself, because that was not what he desired.

Good physical health and a happy family life.

No simulator would design such a talent; those dazzling talents are usually given more prestigious titles like "Strong Enough to Lift a Cauldron" or "From a Wealthy Family."

How can I make my brother happy?

After thinking about it for a long time, I came up with a solution: to design an absolutely perfect life for my brother.

I found a fragment of another parallel world that is similar to our world, and then designed and presented it in the form of a life simulator game.

Then, I found girls like Honami Ichinose, Megumi Karuizawa, Suzune Horikita, and Arisu Sakayanagi—girls whose personalities were similar to my brother's in some way.

From then on, I became a reader, a cat.

I will read stories about my brother's encounters and romances with various girls.

I hope that those girls can help my brother find happiness again.

After completing all four chapters, I will send my brother into that world, manifesting the talents he gained in the simulation and preserving the memories of those girls. This is the best life I have designed for my brother.

But to my surprise, the time travel that was supposed to be a "mystery prize" was forced to be used ahead of schedule.

The older brother, disoriented by the stark contrast between simulation and reality, was killed by a speeding truck on the highway.

So I had to use this reward ahead of time, allowing my brother to arrive in this world early after only completing two simulations.

Although there were some minor errors, I also discovered an unexpected surprise.

As the simulation progressed, I gained some power to correct this world.

Although it only works on girls, I still designed this power into a new [mystery prize].

To this day, I still sincerely hope that he can find his own happiness.

Even today, I still look through those old simulations and take out some precious keepsakes from them:

A small wooden stick engraved with "One more," a dimly lit photo of two people under a streetlamp, a tattered paper net used for catching goldfish, and a USB drive filled with medical plans related to the pathology of congenital heart disease.

Whenever I see these things, I feel like I can empathize with them, as if I'm in love with that person.

No matter how many times, no matter how many times.

If possible, the girl in the story should be named Ying (萤).

Okay, I was just kidding about that.

What we need to do now is something more important.

Because this was his wish.

-------------------------------------

Sakayanagi Arisu felt like she had a very long dream.

In the end of the dream, she spent an entire day cleaning a large room from ceiling to floor, until it was spotless and the floor was as smooth as water.

This is the wedding room a few days from now.

A thought suddenly popped into Sakayanagi Arisu's mind, like a notification sound in a game.

She drew back the curtains, and the afterglow of the setting sun streamed in through the window, shimmering and melting into fragments of gold at her feet, spilling between her own and the shimmering shadows of the furniture.

"Arisu."

Kitagawa Ryo walked in from outside, and Sakayanagi Arisu gave him a sweet smile upon seeing him:

"Liang, is something the matter?"

What could be more important than their wedding in a few days?

"I found the owner of that USB drive from back then, the author of that treatment plan."

Kitagawa Ryo spoke calmly, and his words made Sakayanagi Arisu's eyes widen in surprise:

"Really? Who was it? How did they find it?"

Of course she knew what the USB drive Kitagawa Ryo was talking about was. In fact, she had taken Kitagawa Ryo to that tree just a month ago, and the Sakayanagi family had been searching for him for more than ten years.

The person who changed Arisu Sakayanagi's life like a fairy tale, and restored her health.

Sakayanagi Arisu guessed that the other person must be an old man with a long white beard and a kind face.

When the Sakayanagi family found the USB drive, they immediately consulted with renowned cardiologists in the country. In their view, the person who could come up with such an imaginative yet effective treatment plan must have at least twenty years of experience as an attending physician and must be a genius.

But Kitagawa Ryo's next words made Sakayanagi Arisu frown.

"it is me."

"I wrote that treatment plan myself."

"Is Liang joking? This isn't funny. Although we haven't found it yet, I'm still very grateful..."

Kitagawa Ryo suddenly interrupted Sakayanagi Arisu, quickly and fluently recounting the treatment plan that had not yet been fully disclosed due to the inability to find the author, and even added additional annotations and explanations.

During those ten years, Sakayanagi Arisu never saw Kitagawa Ryo study medicine, let alone know anything about congenital heart disease.

But now, Kitagawa Ryo, standing in front of her, was like a doctor who was most precise and knowledgeable about congenital heart disease, explaining all the pathological characteristics and countermeasures of her condition in a simple and insightful way.

"How can it be……"

Sakayanagi Arisu still looked incredulous:

“Ryo should have been only seven years old back then, and she should have been in a white room… Impossible, nothing like that happened.”

“Hasn’t Arisu always thought this was a fairytale-like development? Let’s understand it in the way of a fairytale.”

Kitagawa Ryo closed his eyes and then quickly opened them again. He smiled gently and said:

"In Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter was deprived of his time by the Queen, so his time is forever frozen at three in the afternoon, and he can only hold tea parties in a recurring cycle."

"Perhaps Alice also entered another wonderland and met me there."

“I was also deprived there, no, I voluntarily deprived myself of an entire part of my life, perhaps more than just time. But of course I don’t have the habit of holding tea parties, nor do I have the mind to give you a riddle like ‘Why is a crow like a writing desk?’ I just keep thinking, thinking about a question.”

"The way to keep Alice (Arisu) healthy."

The dream ended abruptly there.

Sakayanagi Arisu released the pillow she was holding and opened her eyes. She dreamed of her other two lives, like parallel worlds. But unlike her other dreams, everything in the dream was still clear after she woke up, and the emotions in the dream were still surging in her heart, as if it had really happened.

She put on her shoes, supporting herself on the edge of the bed, but instead of getting up immediately, she sat on the edge of the bed and closed her eyes to savor everything from her dream.

She seemed to see herself running on the beach.

Unable to suppress a wry smile, Sakayanagi Arisu reached out as usual to pick up the cane from the bedside table, intending to go see Kitagawa Ryo and ask him some questions.

But his palm struck empty air.

The bedside table was empty except for my phone.

Thinking that perhaps he had accidentally knocked his cane to the ground during the night, Sakayanagi Arisu also glanced around at the floor under the bed and on the other side of the bedside table.

But the cane was nowhere to be found, as if she didn't exist at all.

Just as Sakayanagi Arisu was feeling a bit confused, the cell phone on the bedside table suddenly rang.

It was a call from the student council.