C71 — I will protect you

The general manager died suddenly and someone immediately reported to the police. The scene was chaotic; Mu Sichen and He Fei sat aside quietly, waiting for the police.

 

Although he had experienced life and death in another world, it was his first time seeing it in reality.

 

Mu Sichen put his hand into the backpack, and the small octopus’s cool and smooth tentacles wrapped around and hooked onto his finger, rubbing it twice every now and then, helping his emotions gradually calm down.

 

The general manager wasn’t killed by them; from the time he was contaminated by the butterflies, in order to build the “pillar” and hurt others, his death bell had already sounded.

 

However, the general manager was also a victim.

 

Having experienced contamination, Mu Sichen understood that it wasn’t something that could be resisted by willpower alone. Pollution could change a person from the inside out, no matter whether the person was once good or evil; the soul would be eroded, which would ultimately lead to extinction.

 

This was a tragedy caused by the pollution from the otherworldly infiltration, and Mu Sichen and He Fei had only terminated the spread of the tragedy ahead of time to minimize the damage.

 

Mu Sichen patted He Fei and whispered, “Look at these people who are still alive; we’ve done our best.”

 

“Yeah.” Even as carefree as He Fei was, he still let out a long sigh. “Do you think they will still remember the dreams they had, especially that Miss Su?”

 

Big Sister Su remembered, but didn’t remember.

 

She was close to the general manager, and she was the first person the law enforcement officers asked after they arrived.

 

She vaguely remembered that she had an extremely confusing relationship with the general manager and that for a while they were extremely close, as if they were working together on something and dreaming the same dream.

 

Both Su and the general manager were unmarried, and after questioning her, the law enforcement officers found that Su was in a state of mental confusion, repeating phrases such as “working together,” “involving more employees,” and “building an ideal home together,and other words.

 

After forensic examination, the cause of death of the general manager was fatigue from many consecutive days of sleeplessness, which was a natural death.

 

These clues looked like Big Sister Su and the general manager wanted to get married, and the two of them worked hard to make money for the sake of marriage and also dragged a lot of employees to work on the project together, which ultimately led to the sudden death of the general manager from exhaustion.

 

What a saddening tragedy.

 

Before the law enforcement officers could close the case, Big Sister Su died that night.

 

Her cause of death was also strange.

 

But since the general manager died of natural causes, the law enforcement officers let the crowd go back after the usual inquiry.

 

Sister Su lived alone, and that night she was very sleepy but she didn’t dare to go to bed no matter what, as if she was afraid of something.

 

In order to ward off sleepiness, she turned out all the coffee in her home, brewed a full 5 L of espresso, and drank it all at once.

 

Such a large dose of coffee caused her heart rate to go too fast, and she hugged her pillow, sat on her bed and looked out the window, and left with her eyes open.

 

Concerned friends came to visit her the next day, they knocked on the door for a long time, but no one answered; they were very worried about her, so they called the police.

 

When the law enforcement officers broke down the door, they saw Su looking into the distance with her eyes wide open.

 

Other employees were more or less unwell; some had milder symptoms and recovered after a period of rest; others inexplicably suffered from mental illnesses and didn’t walk out even after a long time of recuperation.

 

The enemies this time were indeed very easy to deal with compared to those encountered in the other world, but the consequences were extremely heartbreaking.

 

The most frightening thing was that, except for those who knew the truth about the otherworldly world, everyone else treated this incident as a sudden, unexpected event; it was heartbreaking but they were unable to raise alarm.

 

Like a grain of dust, it blended into the air as soon as the winds of age blew and was nowhere to be found.

 

Only those who were blinded by the dust knew how much they were hurting at the time.

 

On that day, as Mu Sichen and He Fei were only two temporary workers and had just arrived at the company within a few days, they had no relationship with the general manager and didn’t even speak to the other. The law enforcement officers let them go back after a routine inquiry.

 

The general manager passed away, the company was temporarily on holiday, the employees went back to rest, and He Fei’s internship also fizzled out.

 

The two returned to the dormitory. He Fei constantly received phone calls from his parents, repeatedly stressing that he was fine. His parents were worried about him and asked him to go home. He Fei also finally realized that his luck was a radar for game players like Mu Sichen, but for ordinary people it could ruin their lives, so he refused to go home, saying that he’d look for another job near the school and asked his parents to calm down.

 

While He Fei was on the phone with his parents, Mu Sichen lay distractedly on his bed, flipping through his mobile phone.

 

The little octopus leaned on his shoulder and stretched out its tentacles to click on the chat software.

 

Mu Sichen finally remembered the incident of the little octopus poking his phone during the chaos.

 

Although the little octopus was capricious, loved to cry, liked sweets and spicy food, and always warned him to coax it, it never messed up in business, much less messed with his belongings.

 

Mu Sichen believed that when the Little Octopus poked his mobile phone and specifically pointed it out to him, there was something going on.

 

He tapped on the chat software, and the tip of the little octopus’s tentacle pointed in the dialogue box between him and Zhuo Huaichu.

 

Mu Sichen clicked in to take a look; good lord, what a bizarre chat record it was!

 

Mu Sichen’s time in the dream was about an hour, and the little octopus had actually chatted with Zhuo Huaichu during this time.

 

Mu Sichen scrolled up; the last message he sent before he fell asleep was “I’m just a temporary worker; I’ll take my salary and leave; don’t worry about it.”. Then, around the time he fell asleep, Zhuo Huaichu sent a message, but it now showed that it had been withdrawn.

 

The next conversation was between the little octopus and Zhuo Huaichu. The little octopus kept sending messages such as “Who are you?” “What are you?” and “Who?” while Zhuo Huaichu’s chat records were all “withdrawn message.”.

 

Until the last message, Zhuo Huaichu sent, “Mu Sichen is very cute; I like him very much.” The little octopus was quickly swiping its tentacles on the screen when Mu Sichen woke up. When he saw the little octopus moving his phone, the octopus deleted the information he had already entered and didn’t reply.

 

Zhuo Huaichu also didn’t withdraw the last message.

 

In the past, Mu Sichen would have suspected that Zhuo Huaichu was confessing to him and would have felt embarrassed and troubled.

 

It had nothing to do with men and women; Mu Sichen didn’t like to get into this kind of emotional entanglement; he was very cold, and it was difficult for him to like anyone.

 

Suddenly losing someone important often led people to fall into two extremes: one would constantly seek love to fill the void in their hearts; one would be afraid of tasting the pain of loss again, and from then on, close the door of their heart, unwilling to be close to anyone, and not wanting important people to appear around them again.

 

Mu Sichen was the latter.

 

If anyone showed a liking for him, Mu Sichen’s first reaction was to avoid it, to be indifferent, and to try to make the other person know that it was difficult so they’d retreat.

 

He knew that he wasn’t right, but right or wrong was a way of life, as long as it didn’t affect the society and the people around him, it was Mu Sichen’s choice.

 

Zhuo Huaichu’s words were troublesome, but the little octopus and the other party talked so much, so it wasn’t a confession.

 

In fact, Zhuo Huaichu withdrew all other messages in favor of leaving only this one; it seemed that this was the least important sentence.

 

“Does he have a problem?” Mu Sichen asked the octopus doll.

 

The little octopus waved its tentacles and “slapped” Mu Sichen’s forehead, this time with great force and even causing a little pain.

 

“What’s wrong?” Mu Sichen said as he covered his head.

 

The little octopus saw that he was still being stubborn and slapped the back of his head again.

 

“Am I contaminated by something?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

The small octopus simply “swoosh swoosh swoosh” climbed to the top of Mu Sichen’s head, interlaced six tentacles, and slapped Mu Sichen’s head; its temperature was getting cooler and cooler, so cool that Mu Sichen felt a pinprick of pain on the top of his head.

 

“What is this for? This is domestic violence, ah!” He Fei hung up the phone with his parents, and when he looked up, he saw the little octopus slapping Mu Sichen.

 

When Mu Sichen saw He Fei below him, he suddenly remembered an unremarkable sentence.

 

When they went to He Fei’s company this morning, He Fei had said, “Our unit has recently been hiring temporary workers all day long to do a little bit of work; today the printer is broken and needs to be fixed, tomorrow the computer has no network and needs to be fixed ……”

 

“That’s the phrase! Don’t hit me; I figured it out.” Mu Sichen reached out and yanked the small octopus down, pinching all six of its tentacles together and stuffing them into his arms to hold them securely tight, not allowing the small octopus to slap him again.

 

“He Fei, who was the person you guys found to repair the network earlier?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

He Fei thought for a moment, “They were hired from outside, right? It was the personnel manager who found the person.”

 

“Hired from outside? What’s the person’s name, and what does he look like?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

He Fei: “I don’t know what his name is; I only remember that he is short and chubby and has a little bit of hair loss, and he looks to be in his thirties and almost forty.”

 

Thirty or forty years old, with hair loss… No, Zhuo Huaichu was a very young person, only two or three years older than Mu Sichen.

 

“Didn’t your office building specifically hire a network repairman called Zhuo Huaichu? The HR manager didn’t contact him and hired someone directly from outside?” Mu Sichen asked.

 

“Are you kidding?” He Fei said, “No wonder the Octopus Saint wants to hit you. I want to hit you. Our company’s office building is rented to several companies, each with a different network. Some companies even have their own internal and external networks, but of course they hire workers by themselves. Each company has a fixed partner, so how could the office building hire a network repairman? Capitalists are not that kind.”

 

He Fei’s words were like an enlightenment, waking up Mu Sichen.

 

It was such a simple truth, yet he hadn’t even thought of it all this time and even messaged Zhuo Huaichu, asking him to help observe He Fei’s situation.

 

“Who is that Zhuo Huaichu you mentioned? What does he look like? Where did you meet him?” He Fei asked.

 

“I got to know him from a part-time job; he’s three or four years older than us, long ……” Mu Sichen said and got stuck here.

 

He didn’t remember.

 

He only knew he had a “working friend,” “very young,” “should be very handsome,” and “they have a good relationship”, that was his impression of Zhuo Huaichu. As for what he looked like, how tall he was, and where he met him, Mu Sichen couldn’t remember any of it.

 

“What’s going on here?” Mu Sichen let go of the little octopus and met those clear and watery eyes and couldn’t help but ask, “Have I been contaminated by someone again?”

 

The round eyes of the little octopus instantly turned into 45 degrees; its whole face looked like an angry Yan character, and one tentacle bent, pointing at his head.

 

Mu Sichen inexplicably understood its meaning.

 

“With you around, I still suspect that I’m contaminated; it’s a kind of distrust of you. You’re angry?” Mu Sichen tried to translate the little octopus’s gestures.

 

The little octopus nodded its head vigorously; it had no neck, only its head and tentacles, so the posture of nodding was a struggle for it; fortunately, its body was flexible; otherwise, it might not have been able to make this movement.

 

Mu Sichen muttered in a small voice, “…… But when I was polluted by the moon, you didn’t find it either.”

 

Just as the words fell, the angry expression of the little octopus suddenly returned to its original state. Its eyes were as round as a compass, and the circle of its mouth curved up. Its originally moist, big eyes lost their highlight, and it put on a standard smile emoji, but it looked very stiff, as if hiding something through its smile.

 

Mu Sichen immediately understood; it found out then.

 

No, he should say it was He behind the small octopus that found out.

 

Soon after Mu Sichen met Shen Jiyue, Yao Wangping had carved the pillar on his chest, and after that, Mu Sichen had brought Qin Zu’s totem into contact with Shen Jiyue countless times and even briefly became a follower of Big Eye with the help of Shen Jiyue’s power.

 

When he tried to accept the power of the big eye, a sharp pain came from the totem in front of his chest. Qin Zu could detect someone’s intention; how could he not find Shen Jiyue in his body?

 

Why didn’t Qin Zu remind him at that time?

 

The answer to this was too simple. Mu Sichen slightly pondered and guessed.

 

Because it wasn’t important, it was easier for Mu Sichen to find the “pillar” with Shen Jiyue’s hint.

 

For Qin Zu, who possessed absolute rationality and could weigh the pros and cons at any time, the most convenient approach at that time was to allow Shen Jiyue to pollute Mu Sichen and then kill Mu Sichen after the two of them continuously destroyed two “pillars.”.

 

If Mu Sichen died, Shen Jiyue wouldn’t be able to appear in the processing plant. At that time, Qin Zu could easily descend through Yao Wangping and devour Big Eye without any effort.

 

And at that time, killing Mu Sichen was a very easy thing.

 

At that time, Mu Sichen had dealt with the Heavy Pupil dependent and Feather Eyed dependent one after another, and not only was he seriously injured, he was also defenseless against Yao Wangping and Qin Zu.

 

And the little octopus was powerful; it healed Yao Wangping’s injuries, left a tentacle on Mu Sichen’s left arm, and it was able to control Yao Wangping’s tentacle that was transformed into a mechanical arm.

 

Compared to trusting Mu Sichen, waiting for him to discover Shen Jiyue’s contamination, and then trying to find a way to purify the contamination, killing him was the most convenient and time-saving method.

 

In fact, if he had done it earlier, after Mu Sichen had just seized the “pillar,” Shen Jiyue wouldn’t have even had a chance to descend, let alone use the power of descent to seize the library.

 

This was the creature who was about to be promoted to Maitreya, with the largest town located at the pinnacle of divine-level monsters, an absolutely rational and ruthless existence.

 

Even Shen Jiyue, when he attempted to descend into the Tongzhi Town through Mu Sichen, hadn’t anticipated that there was an existence that had thought farther ahead than he had.

 

But the little octopus didn’t make a move.

 

It took the form of a pillar under Yao Wangping and used that power to call out Qin Zu.

 

This directly caused things to become more troublesome, leading to Shen Jiyue’s descent, and Qin Zu only got half of Big Eyes’ power, while the other half was taken away by Shen Jiyue.

 

But Mu Sichen’s life was saved.

 

He didn’t even know that he had hovered between life and death.

 

No wonder after the battle at the processing plant, the system’s evaluation of Qin Zu changed from “absolutely rational” to “relatively rational,” and Mu Sichen even laughed a little bit at this name at that time.

 

Unexpectedly, behind the system’s simple trolling, there was actually such a thrilling truth hidden.

 

Mu Sichen looked at the small octopus that was pretending to be a good boy, and for a moment, he didn’t know whether he should be afraid or angry.

 

He put his hand on the round head of the little octopus and felt the tremor under his palm; the little octopus was trembling; the amplitude was extremely small, he didn’t even notice until he touched it.

 

Mu Sichen picked up the small octopus. He thought that the little octopus was His awakened self and that the trembling of the little octopus was His fear. He imagined Him shaking back and forth like the little octopus and suddenly couldn’t get angry.

 

At that time, Qin Zu was probably a supercomputer with precise arithmetic; using Mu Sichen and giving up Mu Sichen was just a link in the operation of the computer.

 

If there was a day when giving up Qin Zu’s life would be beneficial to more people, then Qin Zu would also give up himself without hesitation.

 

It wasn’t even an evil thought; everything was just a cold and ruthless calculation based on the pros and cons to make the most favorable choice.

 

But it was ruined by the bug that was the little octopus.

 

“I am angry and scared; I didn’t realize that I had been so close to death,” Mu Sichen said to the little octopus, “but when I think of what your town has always done and what Qin Zu has done to Himself, I can’t be angry anymore; I just feel a little powerless and frustrated.”

 

He didn’t know if the little octopus understood Mu Sichen’s words, just that as soon as Mu Sichen spoke of frustration, it raised its tentacles and gently rubbed against Mu Sichen’s cheeks.

 

Even at this time, the tentacles were still trembling.

 

Mu Sichen pressed his forehead against the small octopus’s cool round head, relying on this coolness to keep his composure and dispel his frustration.

 

“The first time I used Qin Zu’s power to obtain a self sticker, I had the ominous feeling of having borrowed a bad online loan, not knowing when the guillotine hanging over my head would fall.” Mu Sichen laughed, and his expression became somewhat relaxed. “What I didn’t expect was that the original debtor had taken the guillotine back a long time ago.”

 

The little octopus stopped trembling and pressed its tentacles to Mu Sichen’s brow.

 

“I will protect you.”

 

A voice that was a mixture of juvenile and majestic tones came into Mu Sichen’s mind.

 

It was as if Qin Zu and the little octopus had made a promise to Mu Sichen at the same time.

 

“I don’t seem to be qualified to say such words right now, but the light of a glowing candle can at least illuminate a little bit of the area; I will do my best to protect you.” Mu Sichen said softly.

 

His voice traveled through the body of the little octopus, spanning time and space, reaching a world that was both distant and infinitely close.

 

A faint sigh came from the cold palace in Xiangping Town.

 

That sigh was both like a release after being appeased by someone and like a sigh of relief.

 

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