My Avatar is Becoming the Ultimate BOSS

Unless it's necessary for an information exchange, Gu Qiye usually wouldn't reply to messages from Black Cocoon, not even one. In fact, just glancing at the messages from Black Cocoon makes one lose the desire to reply, so he instinctively ignored them every time.

At this rare moment of leisure, Gu Qiye lay silently on the bed, looking through the messages sent by his younger brother with a complicated expression.

[Black Cocoon: Look quickly, Mr. Blue Arc, your Diaper Demon has been caught on camera by a passerby.]

[Black Cocoon: This is a famous supernatural event blogger. He heard about the Train Demon rumor, so he specifically went to the abandoned train station and happened to encounter the girl train knight and your sister. He even captured your sister's face and was scared off by your sister using the Refrigerator Demon.]

[Black Cocoon: (Video link—"Urban Legend Investigator: Ghost Train and Refrigerator Demon at the Abandoned Train Station?!").]

[Black Cocoon: Don't forget to forward this video to your sister... Well, you can also send it to your brother.]

Seeing this, Gu Qiye chuckled softly but didn't open the link.

"Brother, where did you put my clothes?" Su Zimai suddenly asked.

"They're in the same suitcase, just look further down," Gu Qiye responded casually.

"Why did you put my clothes with second brother's?"

Su Zimai complained softly, quickly pulling out a set of clean underwear and clothes from the bottom of the suitcase. She placed them on the bed, then looked down at the plaid shirt that Gu Wenyu once wore, picked it up, and hugged it tightly.

Gu Qiye huddled on the bed, leaning against the headboard, sitting in silence.

He lowered his eyes and continued to scroll the screen, looking at the ignored messages on the text interface.

[Black Cocoon: Look, Mr. Blue Arc, someone uploaded a fan art of you and our Swallowing Silver baby on Twitter. It's really well-drawn... Well, after the death of Blue Arc big event, Swallowing Silver now looks like a gloomy young widow—a truly silent, tear-jerking story.]

[Black Cocoon: Damn, can't you be less indifferent? Would it kill you to reply to my messages?]

Every time Black Cocoon tried to chat with him, it was like a warm face pressed against a cold one. He had to scroll quite a while on the screen to find one or two brief replies from Gu Qiye.

But back then, Gu Qiye didn't know this person was Gu Wenyu, or else how could he have used such an attitude?

He thought, what a silly brother, why wouldn't you tell me that you're Black Cocoon?

Gu Qiye was deeply absorbed, his expression lost, and his gaze growing more vacant. Suddenly, a "ding" from his phone interrupted his thoughts.

He raised an eyebrow, slowly coming back to his senses, realizing he had forgotten to turn off notifications.

"Did that little white-haired guy send you a message?"

"Her name is You Ruirui, and... if she could send me a message, Rainbow Wings would've found me already."

Gu Qiye said slowly, then switched to another interface for a quick glance, still not knowing which app the notification sound came from.

After searching for some time without success, he casually switched back to the chat interface with "Black Cocoon."

At this moment, Gu Qiye's pupils slightly contracted as a red dot suddenly appeared at the bottom of the chat interface before him.

He was momentarily stunned.

A moment later, he reached out with a trembling finger, slowly scrolling down, passing by the August chat records with Black Cocoon, each timestamp moving past his eyes—from August 1st, to August 15th, until finally, a new timestamp appeared on the screen:

—August 22nd, 10:05.

This line, reflected in the pupils lit by the screen, right now showing the current timestamp, seemed extremely strange appearing on this communication interface.

If you must say how abrupt it was, it was like a maniac suddenly dancing a water dress dance at someone else's funeral.

After a moment, he swallowed, his Adam's apple moving up and down, as he slowly scrolled further down.

Then, a new message appeared at the top of the phone screen.

This was a message he had never seen before.

"What exactly is this..." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Gu Qiye's lips moved slightly, silently whispering, as his eyes slowly widened.

[Black Cocoon: (smile) (frozen) (bored)]

There were three different emojis in the message; the first was the classic yellow brainy smiling face, the second was a frozen polar bear, and the third was that polar bear drawing circles boredly on the ice floe.

"Wenyu?"

Looking at this message, Gu Qiye couldn't help but be stunned for a while, his pupils shrinking to the extreme.

He shook his head, thinking, "Besides Wenyu... who else in the world knows about this private channel? That hacker friend my dad knew, he helped us set up this private communication channel. But he has no reason to contact me through this channel."

"Could it be a hacker from the White Crow Travel Brigade? No, even they couldn't possibly find out about this secret communication path..." Thinking this, Gu Qiye raised his head and looked at Su Zimai.

At this moment, Su Zimai was staring blankly at the checkered shirt Gu Wenyu used to wear.

Suddenly, Su Zimai became aware of Gu Qiye's gaze, and she looked up to meet his eyes. Gu Qiye's face was pale, and he was staring at her in shock.

"What's wrong, brother... you don't look so well, have you got a fever?" Su Zimai raised an eyebrow.

Gu Qiye was stunned for a while, then opened his mouth, wanting to speak but stopping, "Xiaomai..."

"What's up, big brother?" Su Zimai said, "Why are you acting all paranoid all of a sudden?"

Gu Qiye was silent for a moment, muttering to himself, "Forget it, it's nothing... it might just be a scheduled message, Wenyu loved doing these things, hasn't this happened often..."

"Second brother... what happened to him?" Su Zimai asked dazedly, her voice subconsciously raising a pitch, gripping the checkered shirt in her hand tightly.

Gu Qiye looked down at his phone again, "It's nothing, Xiaomai, go take a shower, then we'll go out for breakfast." With that, he quickly got up from the bed, and under Su Zimai's gaze, he left the room without looking back.

As he walked towards the yard, he quickly typed in the input box, sending a message.

[Gu Qiye: Who... are you?]

[Black Cocoon: (swing) (question mark) (little black cat crying)]

[Notice: You have been blocked by the other party, you can no longer send messages to them.]

Gu Qiye stared blankly at the red exclamation mark that popped up on the screen, unconsciously tightening his grip on the phone. After a while, he slowly raised his head, looking at the rocking horse's continuous spray of water, with ripples spreading across the pool's surface.

.....

.....

On the night of August 22nd, inside the bar beneath the Old Wu Antiques Shop, in booth number 5.

Xia Pingzhou placed his hands in front of his abdomen, eyes closed and soundly asleep. Suddenly, he heard someone knocking on the door, the not-so-loud sound piercing through the illusion and into his ear.

He slowly opened his eyes, seemingly with a stiff neck, his shoulders aching, unable to turn his neck much.

After a moment, Xia Pingzhou sighed slightly, turned his head to look at the door, and the light from the bar seeped in through the gap at the bottom of the door, stretching out a clear black shadow.

"Come out and talk." At this time, Yanmo Lin's cold voice came from outside the booth.

Xia Pingzhou hesitated for a while, groaning as he got up from the sofa. He looked at the bed in the booth and saw a girl dressed in russet kimono lying there, quietly sleeping. Her breathing was even and gentle, her chest slightly rising and falling.

Ayase Origami said she was used to sleeping with him on the attic in Tokyo, so he could only stay in the same booth with her, sleeping on the sofa, letting her sleep on the bed.

At this moment, the sound of Ryukawa Chiba and Anluns, and Tong Zizhu playing card games could be heard from the next booth. Only these two new members would be willing to play the fools. Other members of the brigade would avoid Anluns when it came to gambling.

"Coming."

Xia Pingzhou yawned, lifted the blanket from his legs, and slowly got up from the sofa.

He put on his sneakers, walked out of the room, turned his head, and saw a girl in a school uniform hugging a scabbard, leaning against the wall. Yanmo Lin lowered her eyes, her expression indifferent.

At that moment, the lights inside the bar suddenly dimmed. Then a swift flash of sword light swept through the darkness. When he came to his senses, the tachi was already at Xia Pingzhou's neck.

Xia Pingzhou lowered his eyes to look at the blade, all sleepiness gone.

"What are you doing?"

He was silent for a moment, then turned his head to gaze into Yanmo Lin's eyes, dark as the deep night.

Yanmo Lin also slowly turned her head, and the two of them locked eyes in the darkness.