I have a life simulator.

To be honest, apart from knowing that the man who was arranged to rest in the chairman's office was indeed a very important figure whom the acting chairman, Yuecheng Changcheng, respected and dared not neglect, Nan Yunya really didn't know anything else about him. Even if she tried her best to recall who she had seen on TV or in newspapers, she couldn't find anyone who matched the appearance of the middle-aged man in front of her.

"Kamo River".

Atsuomi Ayanokouji casually gave the name of an assistant. The surname Ayanokouji is not very common in Japan, and since he was currently at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, it would be easy for people to associate him with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji.

"Oh—Mr. Kamogawa."

Nan Yunya quickly memorized the surname. Although he was much taller than Ayanokouji Atsuomi, who was sitting there, he walked timidly to the desk with an upward gaze, as if he were looking up at some kind of god or Buddha statue. The man behind the desk, after introducing himself, still looked at his face expressionlessly, his gaze vacant and calm.

Behind him, two other men, disguised as guests but actually acting as bodyguards, stepped forward in unison, their menacing gazes fixed on Nan Yunya as she approached, observing her every move.

"Actually, there's nothing special about it. I just noticed that you came here right after you enrolled in the school, Mr. Kamogawa. Right now, it's the annual cultural festival of our Tokyo Advanced Educational High School. If it's possible, I would be very happy to be your guide at this year's cultural festival."

Nan Yunya was visibly nervous at first, but his mental fortitude was indeed quite strong. He quickly found his rhythm as he spoke. Just as he was about to introduce the grand performance that Class 2-A had prepared, he saw Ayanokouji Atsuomi wave his hand, forcing Nan Yunya to swallow the words that were on his throat again.

When Nan Yun tried to speak again, the other party waved his hand, seemingly indicating that he was to see her out. Then he turned his head back and looked at an open window next to him. He stopped moving and made no sound, leaving Nan Yun Ya to stand there awkwardly, slowly getting cold, then freezing, and finally turning into a standing ice sculpture.

He tried to struggle again, but then there was a knock on the door behind him. Nan Yun heard the other person say "Come in," and then simply replaced the previous gesture with words:

"You can go out."

"If anything happens, please feel free to call me."

Even Nan Yunya himself wasn't quite sure what he was feeling when he said those words, because at that moment he felt a deep sense of estrangement, as if his soul had flown into the air, floating there watching the body that was still there open and close its mouth so ethereally, bow, and then turn and leave.

The man who entered was a stranger, who looked to be about his age. Before leaving the room and gently closing the door behind him, Nan Yun heard the man call him 'Ishigami'.

Nan Yunya stepped back a few paces and continued to wait by the office.

He comforted himself that this is just how the world is, and it is only natural for someone who has no power to be treated so coldly, since anyone with a little power will use that power to the fullest extent.

Just like himself.

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"So, Xue, are you planning to sit here and rest for a while, or go watch the performance? It seems there's a symphony performance in about ten minutes."

After entering the gymnasium, Kitagawa Ryo felt much more at ease. After all, it was unlikely that any non-second-year students besides him could get in, which greatly reduced the possibility of some awkward encounters.

"I need to sit for a while."

Despite appearing quite exhausted, Yuki lay lazily on Kitagawa Ryo's back. Although it was mid-November, late autumn, and both of them were dressed in thick clothes, their chins and necks were still exposed. So she found a spot to rub against those areas, just like a clingy cat.

Incidentally, since cats are not allowed in indoor venues like this, Kitagawa Ryo had to leave Hotaru outside before entering the haunted house. It's unclear whether Hotaru has gone back to the cat cafe or is now wandering outside alone.

As the saying goes, just as many girlfriends he has, there are just as many potential cat owners outside of his relationship. So, it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with that.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo, or rather, dragged Yuki, to a nearby empty seat, he suddenly received a greeting from behind: Tsubaki Sakurako, kneeling on a chair in the opposite direction, with her arms draped over the back of the chair and a lollipop dangling from her mouth.

"You two, did you have a good date?"

She had initially thought that her sudden outburst would startle the two of them, and she had even imagined her sister suddenly leaping off Kitagawa Ryo's body and stammering out why she was there. However, Yuki herself showed no intention of moving an inch, and simply replied lazily:

"Oh, it's Sakura. Are you happy? How about you?"

"So-so - so far, we haven't spent much of the points from the five thousand people."

Tsubaki Sakura moved her legs forward, bringing her upper body closer to Kitagawa Ryo and Yuki. As if she felt it was a little inconvenient to talk with the lollipop in her mouth, she took the candy out and started licking it little by little with the tip of her tongue.

"After all, Sakura always seems so unmotivated. I can't imagine you actually playing ring toss and shooting targets at those stalls outside."

Despite the sudden appearance of Tsubaki Sakura, Yuki remained quite calm. After all, if you only count the six months since her 'rebirth', she had spent much more time with Tsubaki Sakura than with Kitagawa Ryo. As biological sisters who were close in age, their relationship was naturally very close.

"The main reason is that the tickets here are so cheap that they're practically free. A visit to the haunted house only costs 100 points, and watching a theatrical performance or a symphony concert is the same price. Although it looks like there are a lot of people coming, I always feel that the final revenue will be quite meager."

"By the way, I see you just came out of the haunted house. Was it fun inside?"

"I don't remember much. I just closed my eyes and let Ryo lead me for the second half."

Perhaps it was because she got up too early in the morning, or perhaps it was because of the ups and downs in her mood, Xue yawned wearily.

Kitagawa Ryo had no intention of getting involved in the sisters' conversation for the time being. After all, he wasn't that close to Tsubaki Sakura. Their connection was limited to the fact that she was his girlfriend's sister. He hadn't spent much time with Yuki, so he had only met her sister a few times.

If he really had to say, he was more interested in Tsubaki Sakura's choice of allegiance after enrolling in school next year.

As it turns out, there's nothing wrong with their family's genes. Judging from the information Kitagawa Ryo himself gathered, Tsubaki Sakura's talent is actually no less than her older sister's, who is also a top performer even among the fourth generation of the increasingly difficult White Room. However, just as Yuki said, she always seems unmotivated. She always appears quite lazy, and apart from being particularly curious about his and Yuki's past, it seems that nothing else can arouse her interest.

Of course, Kitagawa Ryoya never expected that the other party would simply join his camp simply because of his relationship with Yuki. After all, for a first-year student, joining either side is tantamount to being labeled as an enemy, which means that from the moment they enroll, they have an opposing group out of nowhere.

Everyone has their own ambitions. If Tsubaki Sakura herself didn't want to get involved in the conflict between him and Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Kitagawa Ryo naturally wouldn't make the decision on his own.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo was pondering when he could find some time today to have a brief chat with Tsubaki Sakura about this matter, Yuki's voice pulled him back to reality.

"Hmm... I've rested enough. Let's go, it's getting chilly."

"it is good."

Kitagawa Ryo nodded and stood up from his seat, his hand naturally being taken.

Xue still remembers the definition of love that was instilled in her in the white room: a purely physical desire to get close and a psychological desire to depend on each other.

But if she were to define it herself now, she would only feel that so-called love is more like starting from a chance encounter in each other's fate at a certain moment, and then trying to make it eternal.

So this time, Xue didn't forcefully interlock her fingers; she simply held his hand normally, gently hooking his little finger with a strength that was neither boastful nor fearful.

Once this one spot is secured, that's enough for her to face this ever-changing world.

Side Story: The Chaser of Two Rabbits

Note before reading: This chapter is a supplementary chapter to Arisu Sakayanagi's second simulation, which is the last simulation in this book. For the best experience, please read all the chapters of that simulation.

Similar to the previous side stories such as "Taming and Being Tamed" (related to Rinne) and "After He Dropped Out" (related to Megumi), this chapter serves to supplement some previously unmentioned details from a simulation that took place on that timeline, to help readers better understand the characters' inner journeys and actions in the current reality.

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What made her feel distant was not the length of time, but two or three irreversible things.

One rose is rapidly becoming another.

You are the cloud, the sea, oblivion, and every version of yourself that you have ever lost.

—Excerpt from "Clouds, Part One" by Jorge Luis Borge (Argentina)

Without a doubt, Yuki dislikes Sakayanagi Arisu.

Even as she grew older, she began to realize more and more that if the Sakayanagi family hadn't taken Kitagawa Ryo out of the white room, Ryo, who had been injected with large amounts of addictive drugs, would most likely not be alive today. But whenever she felt even a little bit of gratitude towards that girl because of this, it was always overshadowed by another emotion that was inexplicable and even Yuki herself found unbelievable.

Since Ayanokouji Atsuomi's suicide, the White Room was taken over by the Naoe faction and successfully transformed into a legitimate educational institution on par with Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, in line with the rising public opinion. After being whitewashed once again in a literal sense, Yuki was finally able to leave.

She was hospitalized for a period of time due to psychological problems. This was not a problem unique to her; most of the children who came out of the White Room showed related symptoms. Of course, all these 'trivial' problems were blamed on the deceased former head of the White Room, Atsuomi Ayanokouji.

It was during Xue's hospitalization that an idea that still sends chills down her spine lingered in her mind for a long time.

That was a conversation she overheard between her father and Kitagawa Ryo in the hospital room:

"Only when she's with you can she be considered a normal child."

“She can only calm down when she hears about you, and we’ve asked her about it.”

"My daughter, Xue, has fallen in love with you."

"Whether it's so-called brainwashing or not, feelings of love won't go wrong."

"so--"

"Could you please arrange a marriage between my daughter and me?"

Looking back now, it may have been just a father's last struggle, a desperate plea tinged with obvious despair, but what he himself didn't realize was that these words also gave his daughter some vague and unrealistic fantasies.

However, perhaps sensing the strong will of the previous Karuizawa classmate who was good at playing the victim and trying to use the other person's guilt to keep them by her side, Yuki ultimately did not adopt a similar approach to try to achieve any goal. In fact, half of her mental illness had already been heading towards the White Room Project's executor, the replicator of the rhesus monkey experiment, Suzuki Kabushige, and was almost cured after throwing those angry punches.

After recovering well from her illness in the hospital, Xue was not taken home, which was both her own wish and the will of the people in the white room.

The White Room, which had successfully transformed, needed another spokesperson besides Kitagawa Ryo. In fact, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was a better candidate, but because his identity as the biological son of Ayanokouji Atsuomi was too sensitive, she, the second-place candidate in the fourth generation, was ultimately chosen.

(Note: When I was writing the White Room storyline, the original volume 0 had not yet been released, so I removed Shiro, who was the second fourth-generation student in the original story, and Yuki replaced him.)

So for a long time after that, Xue continued to receive education from the White Room. Aside from the strict and inhumane rules and some deeper inhumane aspects, the White Room, as a simple educational institution, undoubtedly had its own strengths. She continued to read, attend classes, and exercise, occasionally serving as a role model for top students in front of the public, living alone in the house her parents had prepared for her.

Compared to the white, standard dormitory room she shared with Kitagawa Ryo, this house was undoubtedly much more spacious. In fact, every room could fit her and Kitagawa Ryo's bunk beds or a simple double bed.

But the house might not actually be as big as Xue perceived it to be; what makes it seem large are shadows, symmetry, mirrors, the long years, her unfamiliarity, and the simplest form of solitude.

Kitagawa Ryo started spending more and more time with Sakayanagi Arisu, probably because their relationship wasn't like hers with Ryo, where their closest moment was limited to her father's pleading words. Instead, there was a genuine agreement spanning two generations and a marriage contract left over from more than a decade of time.

Ironically, it was this very engagement, which still bothers Yuki to this day, that was the starting point for Kitagawa Ryo's rescue and his escape from the White Room by the Sakayanagi family.

Even so, Xue still refused to accept this fact.

Just as she had learned to smile effortlessly in a white room, she had now learned to be jealous with equal ease.

Tianze Yixia agreed with her opinion.

As children who both came from the White Room, they quickly became acquainted after leaving the White Room thanks to Kitagawa Ryo's shared interests and her role as a middleman. Moreover, their current situations were quite similar, as they were both temporarily living away from home.

However, unlike her situation, Amazawa Ichika's situation was simply because the current Amazawa family would never accept her existence as a test-tube baby. At first, President Amazawa himself had the audacity to try to take advantage of the strange relationship between his adopted daughter and Kitagawa Ryo, but he quickly realized that things were not going as planned and gave up the idea.

In her attitude towards Sakayanagi Arisu, she and Yuki were in complete agreement.

At least that's how Xue sees it.

For these children of the White Rooms, Sakayanagi Arisu, who walked with her father down that long corridor that day, peering curiously at the rooms on either side through the one-way glass and enthusiastically discussing the living, moving creatures inside, seemed like some kind of alien being.

On that day, Amasawa Ichika had played a game of chess with Sakayanagi Arisu, and to this day she can still clearly remember how intense the emotions surging in her chest were.

Back then, she didn't know the true name of this feeling, nor could she describe it in words. If Tianze Yixia were to summarize it now, she would probably use a line she saw on TV after leaving the white room:

'Why should someone like you, who doesn't have to protect anything, be the one to achieve final victory?'

For Sakayanagi Arisu, that day's game was simply a victory. It was a powerful counterattack by her, who always believed she had inherited her parents' excellent genes and was an absolute genius, against the false genius created by the White Room. However, what she did not know was that the defeat almost destroyed Amasawa Ichika's entire mentality.

Because at that time, she was in a state of fighting for Kitagawa Ryo in the simplest and most direct way. This was the scene that the White Room wanted to see at the time. Just like the name of that undisclosed plan, they were trying to 'cut the mother's umbilical cord'.

It's no exaggeration to say that after losing that match against Sakayanagi Arisu, Amasawa Ichika felt for the first time that she had personally killed Kitagawa Ryo.

In fact, things seemed to be spiraling out of control and heading straight into the worst possible state.

Because on the day she lost, Kitagawa Ryo was also taken out of the white room by the Sakayanagi family.

For the children in the white rooms, for these white rooms that are their entire world and their experimental subjects, leaving the white rooms is tantamount to death.

Kitagawa Ryo had some surveillance footage shown to him, half in a threatening manner, by Ayanokouji Atsuomi when he returned to the White Room. It was Yuki's reaction after he was taken away from the White Room.

You can feel the sadness gradually intensifying, even across the screen and through the passage of time.

"I'm not a bad kid! I didn't do anything wrong! I will try my best to complete the tasks and goals, so please don't punish anyone!"

“If you’re going to punish someone, punish me! Punish me! If it’s my fault, I apologize! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

"What...what did I do...?"

"It's all because of... that they disappeared."

"Because of my fault... Liang disappeared... It's all my fault."

"It was I who killed Liang."

After that, Ayanokoji Atsuomi actually said something else:

"The same goes for the other person."

This so-called other person is actually Tianze Yixia.

Then, Ayanokoji Atsuomi presented the terms of the deal to Kitagawa Ryo:

“I know why you went back to the white room, and I know why you deliberately brought up those two names, so one of them has to stay here from beginning to end.”

Faced with this choice between two options, Kitagawa Ryo chose snow.

So, Amazusa Ichika was left there until some time later when it was confirmed that Kitagawa Ryo was alive and well. Then came another long wait, until Ayanokoji Atsuomi committed suicide, and she finally met him face to face.

The ending, where the one who chases two rabbits catches neither, hides another rabbit—one that wasn't chased but silently pursued Kitagawa Ryo, yet could never catch up.

Therefore, Amazusa Ichika was never the younger sister figure that Yuki thought she was, nor was she on the same side as her, representing the Shiraya faction to attack Sakayanagi Arisu, a reliable ally of the Toyu faction.

Tianze Yixia and Xue are indeed children who have deeply etched their childhood experiences in the white room into the deepest part of their minds, but in reality—

One of them only remembers the daytime, and the other only remembers the nighttime.

They only remember the time they spent with him, forgetting everything else.

In this respect, they are both enemies who stole each other's memories.

Amazawa Ichika, who was enjoying the time she spent with Kitagawa Ryo during the day, never wanted to think about the interaction between him and Yuki after class when he returned to the dormitory. Yuki, who couldn't sleep at night and kept her eyes wide open talking to Kitagawa Ryo about the meaning of their names, never wanted to think about how she would lose this unique tenderness when the sun rose again.

However, Tianze Yixia obviously wouldn't tell Xue all of this; she simply stood at a distance, observing this three-person movie from a perspective that was neither too close nor too far.

Several years later, she finally realized the crux of the problem: Kitagawa Ryo had not actually made another choice.