327: 7.17 The Bug's Real Purpose

7.17 The Bug's Real Purpose

"Brother!" Cheryl burst out from the crowd and dashed toward Lu Yizhou like a missile, swiftly latching onto his right leg. Her lips were trembling and eyes filled with unshed tears. "Brother, I have been searching for you! Where have you been?" Then when she caught a good sight of Lu Yizhou's upper body that seemed as if it had been mauled by a fierce beast, she let out a terrified cry. "Brother! What happened to you?!"2

Kaede and the guards who knew exactly where the marks came from simultaneously turned to their Boss who had the gall to put on a completely laid-back expression. This… This beast!

Lu Yizhou cleared his throat awkwardly. He had completely forgotten about his state of undress as well as the remnant of the marks Moshe had put all over his body just a few moments ago. He accepted the drenched shirt from Moshe, casually draped it over his shoulder, then crouched down to Cheryl's eye level. "It's okay, silly." He flicked her forehead gently. "I had just bumped into something, that's all."

Cheryl gave him a look that was honestly too judgemental for a nine years old child, but Lu Yizhou's thick face had been tempered through years, it could even rival the Great Wall. He had been through many peculiar situations — mainly due to 666 — and maintaining a perfectly wooden face came as easily as breathing. Despite her doubt, Cheryl had no choice but to begrudgingly accept the reason. "It looks horrifying." She tentatively reached out to poke one particular red welt across his bicep that looked slightly swollen. "Does it hurt?"

Lu Yizhou blinked slowly and then he tilted his head to glance at Moshe, finding that the latter's gaze had been on him since God-knows-when. Caught red-handed, Moshe didn't display even the slightest bit of shame, openly sweeping his gaze all over Lu Yizhou's body in satisfaction instead. He raised his brow, lips ticked upward in a subtle smirk, as if challenging, "What can you say?"

"No," Lu Yizhou said slowly, making sure to emphasize each word for good measure. "I like it hurt."

A few choked gasps and fake coughs sounded around them and when Moshe swept them a look, they hastily turned their noses up to the sky, whistling at how beautiful the night was. Moshe turned to him with a sharp smile that hid daggers, honestly not expecting him to be such a bold person. In response, Lu Yizhou merely raised one brow, as if saying, "There, are you satisfied now?"

"How can you say something like that?!" Cheryl slapped him on the shoulder, effectively breaking him and Moshe's silent war.

Lu Yizhou swiftly changed his tune. "My bad. I was wrong." 

Subsequently, the minor problem was quickly solved. Because Moshe's mood was fantastic, no head ended up flying. Moshe's men, who had been trained in all kinds of martial arts and proficient in wielding at least five different weapons, held a mop and rag cloth in each hand and worked until daylight to clean the mansion to its original state.

Cheryl had never gone through such a scare before — Aiden had really protected her well — thus she insistently clung to Lu Yizhou like an octopus and let out a piercing, heartrending wail every time someone tried to peel her off him. 

Moshe could only retreat furiously. His plan to spend the rest of the night 'playing' with Lu Yizhou was thwarted just like that. 

Lu Yizhou lay on Cheryl's pink queen size bed and absentmindedly counted her deep breathing. [I haven't heard your answer before. How come the bug in this world come in the form of a person? And that appearance of his…] 

The night sky was clear but Lu Yizhou couldn't help but feel as if a storm was brewing somewhere in the world. He felt uneasy knowing that he had let the bug go. Five hours. Regius had been gone for five hours. Who knew what he could have done during all this time?

[666: Actually, this is not strange at all, Host. The bug will always adjust itself depending on the level of the simulation. Previously, we were in A level world and Izher was a God, thus the bug took the form of the curse marks on Izher's body so that it could trap his soul inside the simulator forever. But now, the world we are in is only D-level. Taking the form of a human is already enough. He might have subconsciously taken your appearance to get close to Moshe easier.]

Lu Yizhou couldn't help but snort at that. Moshe didn't even have any memory yet somehow, his subconsciousness tended to favor Regius more. Regius was but a replica and now that Lu Yizhou was here, there was no way he would allow his lover to be led around by nose any longer.

[666: As for his role… 666 has actually been looking into that. There's no concrete information about the bug 666 can find in the main server but judging from these two experiences, 666 has two hypotheses.]

[Speak.]

[666: *clears throat* First, the bug may exist to trap the villain inside the simulator. That means you, the only one who can save the villain, will be its main target. If this is the case, we can sufficiently say that the bug's target is the villain.]

Lu Yizhou fell silent. Previously the bug had latched onto Izher when he wasn't even included in the original plot as the villain. If they went by 666's hypothesis, why didn't the bug target Jillian instead? The one who was related to Lu Yizhou's mission was only Jillian. Was it because Izher was a more dangerous factor and hence it had decided to get rid of him first?

No, that's not right. If Lu Yizhou was the bug who shouldn't be discovered and could only sneakily plot something, he would target the weaker link first. Before Lu Yizhou arrived in the sixth world, Jillian was only a human. The bug could have done something to Jillian — maybe took over his subconsciousness and make him do its bidding — it would be much easier than to latch onto Izher who, even when he had gone into slumber, was still a very powerful God.

Saying that the bug targeted the villain didn't seem right. Cyrus had only said the bug had something to do with Z. He had warned Lu Yizhou first and foremost, saying — "There's something wrong, very very wrong with this… this whole system. At first, it was created with goodwill in mind, to help unfortunate people to get a second chance in life. But lately, we found out that there's… a threat, a bug. It has forced people to remain here forever, unable to wake up ever again." 

Right, that's what Cyrus had told him. He didn't warn Lu Yizhou of the danger around Z. Judging from his reaction back then, he hadn't expected that the bug would be with Izher either. If the bug was forcing people to remain in the simulator forever, then…

[666: Here comes 666's second hypothesis, Host. The bug exists to trap you, the transmigrators, inside the simulator. If this is indeed its purpose, then it will do whatever it takes to make you fail the mission. As long as you fail, you will be forced to replay the simulator again and again from the very beginning. Then, you will not be able to leave and your body in the real world will gradually become weaker and weaker. You will die, and your subconsciousness will be trapped in the simulator. Forever.]

A light breeze caressed the back of Lu Yizhou's neck, sending bouts of shiver down his spine. He twisted his head back to see that the window had been firmly closed. The curtain didn't even twitch. [How will it be able to do that?]

[666: There's only one way 666 can think of, Host. The bug, Regius, is here to force the plot back to how it's supposed to be.]

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