The man gripped the steering wheel with one hand and maneuvered the gear shift with the other, pressing down hard on the accelerator pedal.
The sedan suddenly accelerated and sped out of the damaged school gate.
On the way, a school security guard infected with Red Eye blocked the way, but the man ruthlessly pushed him aside without caring whether the guard was injured or killed. This style, combined with the previous handgun, made me involuntarily consider the possibility of him being involved in the underworld, and Aoba next to me seemed to have the same thought, with a slightly stiff expression on his face.
The car crashed onto a road.
"Yukio, are they your friends?" the man asked casually as he drove the car.
"Yes, Aoba is my friend." Yukio poked his head out from the passenger seat and looked at me in the backseat, "But this young man, are you Aoba's boyfriend?"
"Eh? Aoba's face suddenly turned red.
"Isn't that so? Yukio is quite perceptive," but haven't you two been holding hands since just now?
Previously, to prevent Aoba from getting lost with me in the chaotic hallway, I had specifically grabbed her hand, and I haven't let go until now. This is not because I want to take advantage of her, it's just that I genuinely forgot to let go; and she also seems to have forgotten this in her nervousness, even gripping more tightly than me. Although I welcome the idea of a beautiful girl holding my hand, the current situation does make me appear rather frivolous.
I voluntarily released Aoba's hand.
"I am Aoba's distant relative." I answered Yukio in this way.
"Dear distant relative, I remember you previously said your name was Ninghai? It's unexpected that Aoba has a distant relative in China."
Yukio still accepted this claim, although this was the case.
I looked out the car window.
The highway at this moment is also in chaos, with damaged vehicles colliding with each other and wandering Red Eye people everywhere. The sedan we are riding in is traveling at a speed above the speed limit, skillfully avoiding the abandoned vehicles while also ruthlessly knocking aside the patients blocking the road. In just a short while, we have already put a considerable distance between ourselves and the school.
"Is it really okay to hit them like this?" Aoba asked anxiously.
I can see that she is very worried about the patients being hit by the car, but from the standpoint of the rescued, she has little say in the matter. "Red Eye is incurable," the man in the driver's seat explained briefly.
Yukio had already asked a question before Aoba had a chance to follow up.
"Didn't they say the American medical team employed by the municipal government is developing a effective drug? " she asked, "I saw in the news that they said the research and development progress has already achieved a major breakthrough, and the successful development of the effective drug is just around the corner."
I have also seen this news.
Compared to the local medical team's inability to handle Red Eye, the American medical team made steady progress, as reported in the news.
"That is nothing but false propaganda." The man sneered contemptuously, "They first spread the incompetence of the local medical team, and then promote the strength of the American medical team, in order to convince the public. Because simply reporting good news cannot reduce the panic of the citizens, so the municipal government has come up with failure information, making the citizens feel that this is a real report; and then use it as a prelude to subsequent propaganda, and fully utilize the public's pro-foreign mentality, making the citizens mistakenly believe that Red Eye can really cure."
Yukio fell silent, and then asked, "But how did you, Dad, know about this?"
"I have my own channels," the man replied briefly.
"That is to say, all those people out there now..."Aoba looked out at the scenery rushing past the car window with a complex expression.
"No, they will never be able to recover their original state." The man said the cruel reality very calmly.
"That's not necessarily the case, is it?" Yukio said dissatisfiedly, "Technology has been constantly progressing, and one day..."
The man did not respond.
A few minutes later, the car arrived at the front gate of a villa.
The villa is surrounded by houses, this area is a residential area, and there are few people walking on the road at the moment, only three patients wandering. They noticed the car and approached us, trying to attack us.
The man got out of the car, drew his gun, and shot through the leg of one of the patients, causing a spray of blood.
The other two patients came to a position very close to the car.
I got off the car, lifted my leg, and kicked a patient's head. Under the effect of telekinesis, this high kick directly knocked the patient unconscious.
"Well done, kid." The man standing on the other side of the car gave an approving look, "But next time, don't raise your leg so high, it's easy to get knocked down."
In the martial arts circle, there is a rule that it is difficult to kick above the knee, and even I, an outsider, am aware of this. This is because the legs are the key to movement and the foundation of balance. A person in a high-kick stance is difficult to move and easy to have their balanced stance broken. However, this common sense does not apply to me. I can use mental power to take care of my movement and balance, so I can boldly use various postures to kick people.
At this time, two of the three approaching patients have been incapacitated by us.
The man was about to deal with the last patient with a gun, but he saw that Yukio had also gotten out of the car at some point, holding an iron bat, and rushed towards the patient.
"Wait, Yukio!"the man shouted frantically.
The patient grabbed an iron rod, saw Yukio rushing towards them, and immediately swung it hard towards their head.
Yukio nimbly evaded the attack, swiftly moving behind the patient; then she swung the iron plate and struck the patient's occiput with great force. The patient stiffened and fell helplessly.
"Hehe, I did it." Yukio boasted and showed us a V sign.
The man let out a deep sigh.
"Next time, don't be so reckless, it's too dangerous." He furrowed his brow, "And the way you're doing it makes it hard for me to aim, what if the bullet hits you?"
"It doesn't matter." Yukio seemed particularly confident, "I've also practiced kendo a lot, and I can easily take down this kind of minor character."
"Danger is danger, don't let it happen again." The man was unyielding.
Aoba also got off the car and helped persuade: "I also think it's best not to approach them too easily......"
"Yes, leave the fighting to us."I said.
"Ninghai, you shouldn't take any risks either." Aoba looked at me anxiously.
Does this guy forget that I have superpowers?
"That's right. Fighting is for adults, you children don't need to take risks." The man agreed with Aoba's words.
"You all......" Yukio mumbled, "I understand."
I don't think she really took those words to heart.
"Hurry up and go inside, otherwise there might be another battle soon." The man turned around and bent down to get into the car, "I'll go park the car first. Yukio, you take them inside."
"Yes--" Yukio drawled.
Next, the man drove the car to the nearby garage; while Yukio took out the keys and opened the iron gate in front.
We entered the house after passing through the small courtyard in front of the villa.
"Here, slippers." Yukio took out two pairs of brand-new, unopened slippers from the shoe cabinet in the entryway, "We rarely have guests at our home, so the slippers prepared for guests have never been used, but now we finally have the opportunity to use them."
"Thank you."Aoba said politely.
Yukio laughed a little and also put on his own slippers.
"I'll go make tea for you, you all just wait in the living room for a moment." She left first.
After changing into slippers, we arrived at a spacious and bright living room.
"Wow, it's so big....." Aoba looked around.
I sat down on the sofa, picked up the remote control, and turned on the large screen TV in front of me.
Rustle rustle rustle......
The television was displaying only static.
I've switched through several channels, and they're all like this - nothing is playing.
Continuing to play it would only produce an annoying sound. I had no choice but to turn off the TV.
"There's nothing at all." Aoba gently sat down next to me.
"Let's see if the network is still connected later." I took out my black phone, "I don't know what the situation with the third person is."
"The third person? Ah, it's Alphonse Elric, isn't it." Aoba also remembered this person, "He has never come to school, I wonder if he has encountered some problems."
Aoba once said that if we compare our experiences to a game, then going to school is a task. If we don't complete the task, will we be punished? I don't know, but looking at it now, even if we complete the task, we won't get any rewards.
"Perhaps he has come to the school, but just hasn't contacted us."
"Why don't you contact us......" Aoba was very puzzled.
"Who knows."
In fact, I have a vision for this, which is... what if a third person is also like me, and immediately encountered a Red Eye person after coming into this world, and was killed by them, then it would be understandable for them not to contact us.
How can the dead contact the living?
Judging from Aoba's appearance, it seems that she did not encounter patients right from the start.
Just in case, I asked Aoba, and she denied it.
"If I had encountered the patient from the very beginning, perhaps I would not have been able to go to school." Aoba showed an unconfident expression, "Even now, I have always been protected and have not been able to provide any help."
"Hmph, what a waste."
Aoba's expression became even more dejected upon hearing me say this purposefully.
"But..." I changed the subject, "the game perspective you mentioned earlier was very helpful to me. If you hadn't said that, I wouldn't have thought of this section. Thank you."
"Eh? " Aoba was surprised, "No, I was just saying something casually......And to compare reality to a game or something, that's really too much..."
"We were already in an absurd predicament, so what's wrong with looking at the current situation from an absurd perspective?" I gently refuted her lack of self-confidence, "The idea you proposed has value, and I'm willing to believe in it."
While encouraging Aoba with my words, I also did some introspection about my own state of mind. What exactly was I thinking? The reason I encouraged Aoba was not because I truly believed in her with all my heart. Even if Aoba is an attractive woman with a personality that suggests she wouldn't do anything bad, she is still a stranger to me, someone I've only known for less than a day. My motivation for encouraging her was 70% genuinely believing in her ideas, and 30% trying to gain her trust while she was feeling down. The phrase "impure motives" was prepared for this kind of behavior of mine.
Aoba's expression brightened slightly.
"Thank you," she said softly, and smiled at me.
I felt that her gratitude to me was sincere. Although this was a scene I had hoped to witness, it nonetheless brought me a touch of guilt.
"Come to think of it......" I shifted the topic, "Why did you initially think of using a game to explain the current situation?"
Aoba blinked her purple eyes.
"Because... I'm a member of a game company."
"A game company?" I suddenly remembered that Aoba is a more senior member of society than me.
I didn't realize I had once again treated her as a younger girl than myself.
"Hmm, Ninghai, are you interested in games?" Aoba asked me.
I guess it's rather interesting. Although it's not the kind that I'm especially interested in, I'll still pay a little attention to it.
"Have you heard of Eagle Jump?" Aoba asked again.
Eagle Jump? What is that, an eagle's leap? No, since the name contains "Jump", it might be related to manga...
I thought about it for a moment and replied, "I've never heard of it."
Aoba seems to have been struck by a blow.
"I... I've never heard of it," she found an explanation for herself, "Oh, Ninghai, you're Chinese, right? Then it's normal that you haven't heard of it. Mmm, it's very normal."
"What is Eagle Jump?" I asked tentatively.
"It's the name of the game company I just joined. Aoba perked up, "I'm responsible for character design work, but I just started, so I can only do things like villagers."
"I see."
Eagle Jump, it doesn't seem to be a well-known game company.
Although I'm only "somewhat interested" in games, if it's a famous game company, even if I can't introduce them all in detail, at least I'll have some impression when I hear the name; but the name Eagle Jump, I don't have even a grain of impression.
"Is making games very difficult?"
"It's been tough... but everyone has taken very good care of me. As long as I'm with everyone, even if the workload is heavy, I'm more than willing." Aoba seemed very motivated.
How would one describe her state? I recall having heard a word that describes this, yes, I believe it is called soci...
Yukio came over carrying a tray, interrupting my thoughts.
"Aoba, are you playing a game? She placed the tray on the coffee table in front of the sofa. "You've never told me what game you're playing before."
It seems she heard the end of our conversation.
Aoba suddenly became flustered, not knowing how to respond. Her real identity is a character designer for a game company, but in this world, her identity is only that of a high school girl, which are conflicting identities.
"This, this... what I did was..." She had a conflicted expression on her face, the contradictory emotions of not wanting to lie but also not being able to tell the truth were written all over her face. "Huh?" Yukio was perplexed by Aoba's reaction.
Only I can resolve this situation.
"I replied for Aoba."
The two people simultaneously expressed the expression "Wow, what is this thing?"
"I haven't heard of it before."Yukio said.
It's better not to have heard.
"Ah, that's right, I almost forgot the main thing." Yukio said to us, "It's almost lunchtime, let me make lunch for you. What would you like to eat?"
There are still many ingredients in the refrigerator, I will cook for you.
"Let me help."I stood up from the sofa.
"No need, no need." Yukio waved his hand, "How can we let the guest cook? I'll do it myself."
Although she occasionally seems to have a coarse temperament, she is particular about this kind of place.
"No problem. Although the food I make is very difficult to eat, I'm particularly confident when it comes to cutting vegetables." I said.
"I don't even know how to criticize that statement." Yukio was at a loss for words.
"Speaking of which......" Aoba looked around, "Yukio, your dad must have gone to park the car, right?"
"Yes, that's right," Yukio nodded.
"But why hasn't he come back yet?" Aoba looked a bit worried.
Yukio paused for a moment, then said, "You're right, it doesn't take that long to park, could it be......"
What happened? Did something unexpected occur?
We looked at each other in silence.
