Playing the Foolish Beauty in a Deadly Game - Chapter 66

The smooth-talking deceiver seemed to have lost all his linguistic abilities, hanging his head in helplessness. Nelson, dressed in a Western vest coat amidst the ancient Taoist temple with its Chinese style, was so incongruous. It was as if he himself was separated from Yatagarasu, Dao Zhang, and Lin Qiao by an invisible chasm.

“Alright, you better get lost,” Yatagarasu warned, his eyes wary. “You’re too cunning; who knows what other tricks you have up your sleeve.”

This time, however, Dao Zhang spoke up for Nelson: “He did help us just now. Maybe he really has something important to say.”

Yatagarasu wrapped Lin Qiao in his arms protectively: “Are you in cahoots with the liar?”

Dao Zhang shook his head and flicked his duster: “Alright, you guys figure it out. I’m going to put up some talismans around here.”

With that, he hummed a tune and busied himself around the area, though his ears were still eavesdropping.

Silence spread between Lin Qiao and Nelson. Sometimes, no matter how many times you rehearsed what to say upon meeting again, when the moment came, the words just wouldn’t come out. At this moment, Nelson, despite having so much to say, could only stare blankly at Lin Qiao. His eyes reddened, and then he found it absurdly funny: “Lin Qiao, you’ve seen me in the last scenario. Maybe you’ve forgotten.”

Nelson wiped the corners of his eyes and shrugged nonchalantly: “Actually, I’ve forgotten too. This damn game makes players forget a lot of things.”

“I always play as different people. Except for the name Nelson, I’m different in every scenario.”

“Unfortunately, no one even remembers that name. They call me the Fraudster.”

Lin Qiao noticed that Nelson wasn’t as relaxed as he seemed. His grip on the cane was so tight that the gemstone at the top of the cane showed cracks.

Nelson took off his hat and made an elegant gesture, inviting Lin Qiao to sit on the temple’s chair and thoughtfully took out a handkerchief to wipe it like a gentleman.

With his back to Lin Qiao, Nelson’s voice was low and helpless: “Who would fall in love with another player in a game? Isn’t that a doomed tragedy?”

But I did.

“Haha, this game is full of deceit. No one would give their heart away.”

But I truly would.

After wiping himself clean, Nelson didn’t turn around, and the unspoken words remained unsaid. No one would believe him anyway.

His shoulders trembled slightly, whether from laughter or tears: “Someone told me that BE stands for Bad Ending, but to me, it means Best Ending.”

“Because some people don’t have an ending at all, so the worst ending is also the best ending. What do you think?”

After calming down, Nelson turned his head, not daring to look into Lin Qiao’s eyes: “I didn’t recognize you. I didn’t recognize you in ‘Airplane Escape,’ and I still don’t recognize you this time.”

“I know my strange attitude must confuse you. All I can say for now… is that I’ve been looking for you.”

Lin Qiao was indeed bewildered, while Yatagarasu grew more impatient the more he listened: “You’ve used this trick on Lin Qiao before.”

“Drop the love scammer act and cut out the lovey-dovey stuff.”

“Everyone here is deceitful. No one would believe a gamer saying they like someone. You said it yourself.”

“But Lin Qiao believed you once. You saw the outcome. Do you really want to try again?”

Nelson also remembered what he had done and said, repeating his words from that time: “A person full of lies, no one believes their truths. Today’s outcome… I deserve it.”

How ironic. A self-fulfilling prophecy. Who would have thought that the Fraudster, who deceived and schemed in the game, who said everything was for profit and never fell in love, was truly a love-struck fool.

The light in Nelson’s eyes gradually faded. He didn’t dare to show his desolation, didn’t dare to cry, didn’t dare to be sad, didn’t dare to have any emotional reaction.

He didn’t even know what expression he should wear to make the person in front of him believe him. This was the first time he sincerely wanted someone to believe him, not using the tricks of a liar but using his true self to gain their trust.

But without the calculation of winning someone’s trust, Nelson suddenly found himself gone.

He knew how a pure-hearted high school student should act to soften Lin Qiao’s heart, how a scheming villain should react to get Lin Qiao’s cooperation.

He put on various personas for himself and clearly understood how these personas could earn Lin Qiao’s trust.

But he had no idea who he was, how “Nelson” himself should act to get Lin Qiao to take a second glance.

He couldn’t find himself anymore. He had lost himself, bewildered amidst various personas.

Nelson’s heart was in turmoil. He really wanted to tell Lin Qiao that he had been looking for him for so long and waiting for so long.

But…

Nelson’s entire body relaxed. He didn’t know how to say it. Lin Qiao remembered nothing. The fragments of their past only spun in Nelson’s own mind, and even Nelson himself couldn’t piece together the whole story.

“I don’t know how many times you’ve experienced scenarios, maybe in the past or maybe in the future, you’ll meet me, my younger self.”

“You’ll become my mom. I don’t remember what happened, but there are always scattered fragments in my mind.”

“It’s strange. You’re a boy, yet I call you mom.”

“In my memory, I can’t see your face, I don’t know your name, but I also know I came to the horror game because I was looking for you.”

“There are too few memories of you. The only thing I remember is the terrifying shadow by your side.”

“The urge to find you has become my instinct, just like all players want to survive. Finding you is something that doesn’t require thinking, like eating, drinking, and breathing, it’s innate.”

In the end, he still said it out loud. After all, he was reluctant to let go.

Yatagarasu and Dao Zhang just found it laughable. These meaningless and illogical words seemed like they were made up on the spot, with no way to verify them, how could they believe?

Even the person involved, Lin Qiao, felt embarrassed for Nelson. Just as Lin Qiao had said when he uncovered the truth in the school, he would never believe Nelson again. Who knew if this wasn’t another trap.

“Are you saying that I might be your… male mom?”

“Maybe you’ve mistaken someone else for me. I don’t know how you came to this conclusion, but I won’t change my attitude towards you because of this.”

“I think you know the reason. Although you look very sad, this won’t make me believe your words.”

Nelson nodded with a bitter smile: “I understand. I don’t expect anything…”

Yatagarasu sneered, clearly unwilling to believe Nelson’s sweet talk.

Lin Qiao, on the other hand, was eerily silent. He remembered what had happened in the first scenario, “Airplane Escape.”

At that time, Nelson had disguised himself as a blonde boy in his teens. Except for Lin Qiao who felt something was off, the other players didn’t recognize Nelson’s identity.

Until they entered the research institute at the end, several NPCs tried to use the maternal bond between the blonde mother and son to make the mother NPC agree to stay and open the door for “her son” Nelson, which essentially meant sending her to her death.

Many players at the time accepted this choice by default, but Nelson took the initiative to reveal his identity and wanted to save “his mother.”

Nelson’s decision at that time wouldn’t have brought him any benefits, yet he still did it, as if the word “mom” was Nelson’s untouchable soft spot.

Nelson forgot the “mom” he was looking for but showed the last bit of tenderness to all motherly characters.

Lin Qiao was certain that Nelson couldn’t set up a scheme across scenarios, but Nelson was really hard to believe.

Lin Qiao was a “smuggler,” different from other players. He wouldn’t forget the scenarios he had experienced, so he thought Nelson might have mistaken him for someone else.

Seemingly noticing Lin Qiao’s dilemma, Nelson took the initiative to say: “You don’t have to force yourself to believe me.”

Lin Qiao nodded and quietly persuaded: “Well, you might really have mistaken someone. There are more than just me with shadow-like props. I’m sure I’ve never seen you before.”

“Players won’t remember what happened in the scenarios, but they can know the names of the scenarios they’ve experienced and how many times they’ve been through them.”

“I, I’ve only experienced two scenarios. One is the current ‘Meow Meow Church and Woof Woof Church,’ and the other is the ‘Airplane Escape’ you mentioned.”

The content of these two scenarios was too far from Nelson’s memories for Yatagarasu to mock: “Dumb, did you hear that? Your trick doesn’t work.”

“If players had experienced more scenarios, your deceitful words might actually fool a few.”

“But you didn’t expect that Lin Qiao is a newcomer, having only experienced two scenarios, right?”

The eavesdropping Dao Zhang was stunned, looking at Lin Qiao in disbelief: “Newcomer?”

“You’ve only experienced one scenario and already obtained a non-level prop and a personal skill. That’s just too impressive.”

Lin Qiao nodded a little embarrassedly but shifted his gaze to Nelson.

Nelson was dazed for a moment, his expression seeming both relieved and sorrowful.

But soon he laughed suddenly: “Haha, maybe I really did get it wrong. It’s pretty funny, isn’t it?”

“It seems you’ve all become familiar with my fraudulent techniques and won’t be deceived by my lies anymore.”

“Don’t drive me away; you can’t drive me away. If we fight, it will only benefit the evil spirits and other players.”

Nelson no longer looked at Lin Qiao, but he couldn’t help glancing at him, tugging at his clothes and slowly taking them off.

Lin Qiao spoke from behind Yatagarasu: “Wait.”

“Can you finish telling the story about you and your mom?”

Lin Qiao explained a little embarrassedly: “I won’t believe you. I’m just curious. There’s nothing to do now anyway, so I’ll just treat it as a story.”

“Nelson, is there a reason you’re dressed like this to meet the person you’re looking for?”

Yatagarasu didn’t want Lin Qiao to listen, especially fearing that Lin Qiao would be deceived again.

But Lin Qiao did this because he thought of a possibility. Players in horror games come from different worlds, and the time in the scenario world is not fixed.

Maybe what Nelson said was true. If he really was the “male mom” Nelson was looking for, it could only mean that he would meet Nelson’s childhood in some scenario in the future.

With this reasoning, Nelson was quite pitiful. Only one person remembered their shared memories.

Lin Qiao spoke as if to comfort himself: “Even if I’m not the person you’re looking for, I still want to hear it.”

“If the story is a lie, you must have fabricated it for a long time, and it must be very interesting. If it’s not a lie… I hope you find the person you’re looking for soon.”

Yatagarasu was shocked by Lin Qiao’s choice, but Dao Zhang flicked his duster and thought Lin Qiao was still too gentle.