The Trial Game of Life

T/N: So, we’re finally here. One of my favourite chapters of the entire novel. I feel so… sentimental now.

The movie theaters in Yong Ye City weren’t very good. After all, there weren’t many people who would have a mind to leisurely watch movies in a place like this. However, there were many kinds of movies here, including those of 20 years ago and new ones that had just been recently released.

There were also two types of theaters. One was a large theater that was showing new films, and the other was a VIP room that could be rented for private use.

Jin Cheng chose a romance film released after Tang Cuo died that starred two young actors he didn’t know. He asked Tang Cuo, but Tang Cuo didn’t know them either.

Speaking of this, not only did Tang Cuo not know most of the movie stars, but he also had never even entered a movie theater before. When he was mingling with people on the streets as part of his job, he heard that this career could quickly bring in money. He did think about making some money with his face, but then he found out that the scouting agent was tricking the girls who wanted to rise to stardom. Tang Cuo exposed him and immediately left.

There were thousands of paths to turn in life. Tang Cuo had no idea how he had been taking them such that eventually, his path crossed with Jin Cheng’s.

They were people from two different worlds. One was a proud child from a superior background, and the other was a wild child struggling at the bottom of society. The moment Tang Cuo passed the assessment and entered Jin Cheng’s team was when Tang Cuo felt that they were the closest to each other.

He wasn’t called Tang Cuo (唐措) back then. The ‘Cuo’ of his name originally was ‘错’, which actually meant ‘mistake’,  because his biological mother felt that his birth was a mistake. The head of the orphanage felt that this wasn’t a good name and insisted on changing it for him, but Tang Cuo wasn’t so sure about the details either. His real surname also wasn’t Tang.

Tang Cuo had been smart since his early years. He could remember everything at the age of four, but he lied that he had forgotten and gave himself a random surname. The head of the orphanage wanted to help him find his mother, but Tang Cuo actually always knew where she lived.

After being abandoned, Tang Cuo also abandoned the other person, because since childhood, he had been that kind of warrior.

When this warrior was alive, he never actually thought about being together with Jin Cheng. Their relationship was simple and unambiguous, not too close yet not too distant, having no past yet also no future.

Tang Cuo kept all his feelings hidden in his heart and didn’t intend to ever voice them out. However, one of them died earlier than the other, and the obstacles that they might face in the world of the living didn’t exist in Yong Ye City.

But when did Jin Cheng start falling for him?

He used to say that he liked Marilyn Monroe, then later he loved Scarlett Johansson. In short, Tang Cuo was never in the picture.

During the movie, Tang Cuo spent half the time looking at Jin Cheng. The thin barrier between the two of them hadn’t yet been broken, so he naturally wouldn’t want to ask directly. The thought lingered in his mind throughout the entire time, and after thinking left and right, he could only feel that ― the movie’s lead was nowhere as good-looking as Jin Cheng.

Whether it was the male lead or the female lead, neither of them was comparable to him.

And the plot was very idiotic. Every second was challenging Tang Cuo’s endurance limit.

“Isn’t good?” Jin Cheng turned around and asked him in a low voice.

“Which one?” Tang Cuo asked back.

Jin Cheng blinked a few times, and under the dim light of the theater, he felt that Tang Cuo’s question made his heart tremble a little. At this moment, the movie happened to jump to a sweet scene where the male lead and female lead had reconciled after their misunderstanding. The two were hugging tightly, their foreheads were pressed against each other’s and the corners of their mouths were tugging up into some eerily wicked smiles.

The camera began to rotate 360 degrees in slow motion. As the wind blew the female lead’s hair, the camera zoomed in close and her eyes beamed brightly under the light effect.

“Do you love me?”

“I do.” 

When the male lead’s answer came, the girl from a young couple sitting in front of them rested her head on the boy’s shoulder, and the two clasped their hands, their movement all quiet yet noticeable.

There were only four people in the theater.

Tang Cuo looked up at Jin Cheng, and Jin Cheng also looked back at him. There was no follow-up on the topic of “isn’t it good”, but the ambiguous tension was boiling. All the words they both hadn’t said now became the evidence of their feelings.

Any teenager might feel shy, but Tang Cuo had never been like that. He just felt a little heated and a tiny bit nervous.

And all the cells in his body were shaking.

Were they playing a game where whoever looked away first would lose?

Tang Cuo didn’t quite understand.

Jin Cheng, on the other hand, was playing this game gleefully. He simply put one elbow on the armrest of the seat and moved his body closer and closer: “If I ask you whether I look good, how would you answer?”

Is something the matter with you?

If you want to confess, hurry up. I don’t want to see the peacock showing off his tail again.

Tang Cuo remained expressionless and shifted his gaze a little away, at which point Jin Cheng spread out his palm. Puzzled, Tang Cuo looked down to see a chocolate candy filled with alcohol in his palm.

“If you think the movie is too bad, just eat something sweet. Next time I’ll rent a disc and we can watch at home.”

Tang Cuo took the chocolate: “I don’t particularly want to watch it.”

Jin Cheng smiled and leaned back to his own seat: “Then just be my company. I like watching movies and taking photos, and occasionally I’ll take on painting or playing musical instruments. I actually wanted to go abroad to study arts, but my brother had an accident and was discharged from the army, so I had to take over.” 

It was the first time that Tang Cuo heard him talk about his family. Of course, it wasn’t like he was oblivious about everything, but he had only been hearing it from other people.

“Your brother?” He asked.

“Yes. He hurt his arm, but it doesn’t affect his everyday life. Apart from being too strict, he’s a great man. He’s more meticulous than me and understands the workings of this world even better. I won’t need to worry about my parents if he’s there. The year that I died, he finally got a girlfriend. If it goes well, he should already have children now.”

Tang Cuo: “Uhm.”

Jin Cheng: “What’s the meaning of that ‘uhm’?”

Tang Cuo: “Good meaning.”

Jin Cheng: “For a while, my mother was keen on me going on blind dates.”

Faced with the sudden change in topic, Tang Cuo was slightly stunned.

Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows: “I know you all were gossiping that I was dating someone. She’s the daughter of my mother’s friend. I tried so hard to find time to go home and totally didn’t expect her to send me to a blind date. That lady and I only met once. I told her I would rather spend the time training you.”

At this point, Tang Cuo finally understood what Jin Cheng was doing. All the information that should be given had been given and all the misunderstandings that should be explained had been explained, but did they need to be so formal?

This was Yong Ye City. Without the laws and restrictions of human society, the only thing that would bother them every day was the problem of life and death. Everything else seemed unimportant.

For the past two days, Tang Cuo had been thinking that if Jin Cheng confessed to him, he would willingly accept it. Just like that. He didn’t need anything else, just the most primitive and purest love.

A soulmate, or a place to call home, was something he had never desired. Be it before or after he died.

“I’m serious about this.” Jin Cheng said.

Tang Cuo was silent. At the end of the movie, the male lead and female lead reunited at the place where they met for the first time. There was no dialogue and they just looked at each other. Under a mesmerising slow motion, the music began to flow.

The young couple in front was still immersed in the movie, completely unaware of what was happening behind.

Tang Cuo’s heart was beating a little too fast. He turned the other way, feeling as though his mind was malfunctioning for a moment. At this time, he was convinced that people might indeed do things that lowered their intelligence when they were in love. Even that movie’s plot wasn’t so idiotic.

“I ―” When the words he was determined to say came to his lips, Tang Cuo paused. He struggled to calm down and planned to make a final decision, but another melody suddenly came up.

The blending of the two melodies had everyone’s expression change at once.

It was the [Song of God, Lambs and Crow].

As Jin Cheng’s eyebrows furrowed, all the ambiguous tension and charms of the moment vanished without a trace. The couple in front stood up in shock. The girl nervously grabbed her boyfriend’s arm: “Didn’t it come once yesterday? Why did it come again today?” 

The boy was also surprised: “Don’t worry about it. Maybe it’s something else.” 

But the girl was still very scared and squeezed closer to her boyfriend. The boy had no choice but to continue to comfort her: “You see, wasn’t everything okay after yesterday? We can watch movies now, which means that things are going for the better. Don’t be scared, no matter what happens, you still have me.”

Both Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo knew that they didn’t have another movement in their hands. If the singing was circulating in the air, it could only mean that something had gotten out of their control.

Indeed, five minutes later, the familiar system announcement brought on the worst news.

“Ding!”

“The 5th Movement has been detected, the holder is civil-servant player D11119.”

“The laws are within permissible authority. They are accepted and will take effect immediately.”

“An announcement will be made to the entire city.”

“Command: Forced mission’s time limit will change from one month to one week.”

“Command: From now on, among all the dungeon rewards, [Black Dragon Scale], [The Pale Heart], [Drake’s Gem] and [Spark of Forgiveness] will come into possession of civil-servant player D11119.”

“The laws will take effect immediately.”

The announcement was made three times in a row. After the first time, the girl in front slumped to the ground crying. Her boyfriend hurried over to help her, but before he could even comfort her, the girl turned into a flash of white light and disappeared from the theater.

“Nannan!” The boy panicked, his whole body shivering like an ant crawling over a sizzling pan. He immediately thought of something and rushed outside.

The girl must have triggered a forced mission.

“Civil-servant player D11119, Black Hat.” Jin Cheng’s voice sounded slightly coarse.

People like Jin Cheng and Lin Yandong knew about Black Hat holding onto the 5th Movement, but since he was already a civil servant, he only needed to wait until the end of his karma-serving period to reincarnate. Now it turned out that he had waited till after Jin Cheng used the 6th Movement to catch everyone off guard. 

Tang Cuo thought of something and asked: “Don’t you sometimes work with him? Haven’t there been any signs until now?”

Jin Cheng: “Black Hat is different from K. He doesn’t interact with others often and rarely shows up. This person has an odd temper. I’ve done a few transactions with him but haven’t dug up much of his background. If anyone can understand him, it can only be K and the lady boss of the izakaya. Lin Yandong may also know something.”

K was the boss of the Ruby Bar.

The current situation was very bad. Most ordinary players wouldn’t continuously enter the dungeons, so anywhere around here, there would definitely be people who hadn’t done any mission for more than a week. The 5th Movement had barely emerged but a large number of players must have triggered a forced mission.

Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo quickly walked out of the theater to see the streets much emptier than before. Everyone was freaking out with overwhelming anxiety on their faces, and the atmosphere that had just eased out yesterday became suffocating once more.

But at this moment, the melody that should have stopped resumed again, abruptly striking the players like a lightning bolt.

“Ding!”

“The 12th Movement has been detected, the holder is civil-servant player D11119.”

“The law is within permissible authority. It is accepted and will take effect immediately.”

“An announcement will be made to the entire city.”

“What’s going on? How come there’s another one?!”

“Oh my god ―”

“Stop, I beg you, please stop!”

“Don’t read it out!”

“……”

The begging and the noise couldn’t stop the system from ruthlessly making its announcement.

“Command: From now on, the Black Hat Miscellaneous Store will open up the Infinite Market of Dreams. All players are welcome to visit.”

The translator has something to say:

So, you all thought that you would finally get the confession and some lovey-dovey moments of our two idiots?

Well… (￣▽￣)