As he was puzzling over it, the entire wall-sized screen in front lit up, and strange humming sounds echoed from the surround sound system on both sides. Wen Nan looked up and saw... Sun Wukong poking Ultraman fiercely with the Jingu Bang. "Sorry, I cast the wrong video, accidentally shared Qiqi’s video. Just a moment," said Yu Shujun, quickly adjusting her system and re-projecting. Wen Nan squinted at the frozen image on the screen— Ever since they entered the house, Qiqi rushed into an adjacent game room, nestled there, and never came out. Was she watching this kind of stuff all along? What kind of bizarre hobbies are these? "Wait a minute," Wen Nan turned to look at the person next to him, "Didn’t you say you didn’t know Sun Wukong?" Yu Shujun, still operating her system and replying absentmindedly, said, "I know now." Did she search about it specifically after Wen Nan mentioned it? Just as he was thinking, the giant screen in front switched to an edited video of some anchor with the surname Deng. The video intended for Qiqi was a special edition of Sun Wukong hitting Ultraman, so why did it become a fishing video for Wen Nan? Though he likes fishkeeping, the one he wants to fish isn’t the real kind. This kind of video didn’t pique Wen Nan’s interest at all. After thirty minutes, Yu Shujun sat by the window, watching Wen Nan intensely focus on the large screen in front of him, absorbed to the point where his eyes didn’t move, and her initial nervousness finally eased. Satisfied, she turned her head and quietly looked out the window. Halfway through watching, Wen Nan retrieved a crunchy ice cream from the robot’s icebox and took a big bite, the chill pierced through to his brain, bringing him back to his senses, and he turned his head to search for Yu Shujun. It was only then he saw Yu Shujun sitting alone on the window sill, with one leg bent, a hand resting on her knee, quietly gazing out into the night, lost in thought. The food and drinks in this room, the massage chair, the giant screen, they were all prepared for Wen Nan. Wen Nan suddenly realized that Yu Shujun had no interest in these things herself. She had gone to so much trouble, just wanting Wen Nan to enjoy his brief stay in her home, right? Yu Shujun sat by the window, staring into the endless night, not knowing how long she had been watching, and suddenly a figure appeared before her. Turning back, she saw Wen Nan hopping onto the window sill opposite her, sitting face to face with her. "Not watching anymore?" Yu Shujun glanced at the large screen, "Don’t you like it?" Wen Nan shook his head, took a bite of the ice cream in his hand, and asked, "What do you usually like to eat? Drink?" Having gone through so many instances, Wen Nan realized that Yu Shujun was trying to understand Wen Nan’s likes and integrate into his world, yet Wen Nan knew very little about Yu Shujun. But at this moment, Yu Shujun shook her head, "I have no big interest in food or drink." Is there really someone who doesn’t enjoy eating or drinking? Wouldn’t that make life less fun? Thinking of this, Wen Nan turned his head, glancing around the room, suddenly realizing that despite the new furnishings, the overall layout felt very familiar. He couldn’t help but recall... the test space from before, where Yu Shujun was during the Divine Staff Sheath trial. Frowning slightly, Wen Nan asked the question that had been lingering at the back of his mind for a long time: "Who was the faceless woman that made you scared in that test space?" Yu Shujun withdrew her gaze from the window and looked at Wen Nan. Though initially surprised by his sudden mention of this, she quickly shook her head, "I don’t remember." Even though the answer was unexpected, Wen Nan could tell Yu Shujun wasn’t lying. Moreover, since the woman had no face, it was evident Yu Shujun’s memory of her was very blurry. Was it some relative who deeply traumatized Yu Shujun during her childhood? But since Yu Shujun had almost forgotten, Wen Nan had no reason to make her revisit unpleasant memories, so after a moment’s pause, Wen Nan asked instead: "Who was the woman who got killed?" Yu Shujun was rendered speechless, staring at Wen Nan. Wen Nan could see that the two young women’s corpses and that faceless woman represented different sources of deep-seated fear for Yu Shujun, blended together in that test space. Just like how in Wei Zhe’s Number 2 test space, a giant puppet walked into a college bathroom stall. The giant puppet represented President Carl Milak, symbolizing the fear and angst Wei Zhe developed towards him within the game and after joining the Ghost Control Master Alliance. But Wei Zhe was wearing a male high school uniform and was being forcibly dunked into the toilet. This scene clearly wasn’t an interaction between him and President Carl; it was a memory of school bullying he experienced in reality. The Divine Staff Sheath fused Wei Zhe’s most terrifying real-life memories with the parts he feared most in the game, creating such a test space. By analogy, the faceless woman and that room were pieces of Yu Shujun’s once-forgotten, real-life fears, while the corpses abruptly appearing in that room represented a deeply frightening memory Yu Shujun encountered in the game. "Were the first and second incidents involving two different women at different times and places?" Wen Nan remembered that in that test space, in a moment of panic, Yu Shujun mentioned that the fear surrounding the two female corpses was impossible to convert. The fear associated with the faceless woman and the dark room could be transformed, but the fear related to those two women’s corpses couldn’t be converted. Why? "Does the fear related to them come from regret and helplessness? An unchangeable fact?" Wen Nan speculated, "Did you watch them die yet felt powerless, and was it that helpless feeling you feared?" A faint smile with a hint of resignation appeared in Yu Shujun’s eyes, "Can’t hide anything from you, owner?" Wen Nan seriously replied, "Because I care, I focus intently." The smile in Yu Shujun’s eyes faded, her originally curved eyes now wider, "Care... about me?" Wen Nan gazed into her eyes, nodded confidently, "Yes." In Yu Shujun’s memory, no one had ever spoken the word "care" to her. Yu Shujun lowered her eyelashes, "For someone like me... full of thorns, I’m not worth anyone’s concern..." "I care," Wen Nan said without hesitation, "In this game world, you are the person I care about the most." Yu Shujun stared at Wen Nan, speechless for a long time. After an indeterminate amount of time, the mountain wind blew in from the window, tossing the fringe across Yu Shujun’s forehead in front of her eyes, shattering the faint gleam of tears in her eyes. Wen Nan was momentarily stunned seeing the teary gleam hidden beneath her fringe. Did he say something wrong? Instinctively wanting to lift his hand to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes, Wen Nan realized he was still holding an ice cream stick, and with ten sticky fingers, the action seemed inappropriate, so he restrained himself. Yu Shujun lowered her gaze, following Wen Nan’s hand lifting and falling, and finally slowly spoke: "Yu Shouba, Yu Shoushier." Wen Nan immediately grasped the meaning of the seemingly disconnected words, "The names of those two deceased girls?" What is their relationship with Yu Shouling? "Both of them were Guardians of the Divine Staff Fragments," Yu Shujun explained, resolving Wen Nan’s confusion. "The Divine Staff Fragments have Guardians too?" Yu Shujun nodded, "Each Fragment has its own dedicated Guardian." Getting Fragments and bringing girls, is there such a good thing? "But when I received my replica Fragment, why wasn’t a girl sent to me?"
