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Chapter 602 - 599: "Time will tell you, I love you.

Chapter 602: Chapter 599: "Time will tell you, I love you.

[Replica Activation · Day Six]

[Core Area · Constantine University · 10 a.m.]

...

"City-State news, bringing you the latest updates."

"Today’s Danger Zone turbulence index, level 8. (287, 818) Coordinates have fallen into abnormal turbulence. Observers discovered five days ago, a robed individual with a blonde female bionic person was seen in the area, suspected to be part of the armed resistance forces, recommending scavengers and travelers to detour around the area ..."

"Yesterday at 23:29, an ancient relic was successfully excavated. Experts discovered a discarded small R03 model handgun. It is assumed that the relic dates back to the Dawn War several decades ago, yet the model of the handgun is contemporary. Experts suggest that this could be a modern replica of a historical handgun, barely legible on the handgun are the words [... if you can remember ... me], which experts speculate might be a memento from the residents of the Dawn War period ..."

Under the sun-drenched shade of a tree, a school-uniformed girl holding a tangerine soda gazed at the youths brimming with youthful vigor on the court. The pillar next to her broadcasted the news.

Her black hair cascaded down, her demeanor as resplendent as a blooming lily. The young students playing couldn’t help but steal glances at her face.

If the live stream’s chatroom were watching, they’d undoubtedly play a round of "Youth, cicada calls, summer days, tangerine soda."

The atmosphere here reminded one of a verdant era filled with sunshine and sweat. The coldness of the Mechanical City seemed erased here.

This is Constantine University in the Core Area, the top university in the City of Measurement where talents converge. It encompasses high-end fields such as mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry, applied physics, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and statistical science.

The students who came here were one in ten thousand. Only if the Dawn System adjudged their personality as noble, emotionally stable, and proactive, could they enter this university.

This lofty ivory tower has continuously fed elites into high-income regions for the past decade. Some students even received higher evaluations from the Dawn System and became researchers and assistants to the city lords of Central City—a highest honor for the residents of the city-states.

Unfortunately, Central City had been locked down for a long time, and this route to getting closer to the city lord had been blocked. Otherwise, this university would probably have been overwhelmed by resourceful players.

"... she’s so beautiful. Is she a transfer student?"

"Not sure what persona she has, our school is full of elites from the City of Measurement, she must not be of an inferior personality. I think I’ll pursue her ..."

"Her aura is so unique, is she from the humanities department? So cute ..."

The basketball players had never seen such a beautiful girl. She had an innate charm about her.

The end was imminent, and people primarily focused on science and practical learning. Literature and poetry, fine arts and music from a century ago—considered "glamorous but impractical" in the digital cities—had been thrown into the trash heap of history, making people gradually become as numb as machines.

Fortunately, the previous Councilman of the Core Area noticed this in time—he realized that humanity could not lose its sense of culture. He raised an alarm, and people began to desperately retrieve the artistic spirit of the last century.

Constantine University paid extreme attention to this, establishing an auditorium that provided elective classes for all students every week. Every student had to choose at least one subject among literature, fine arts, and music.

However, artists who had been persecuted for decades under the notion of "useless humanities" were now very hard to find. The humanities department struggled to hire teachers and often faced situations where one teacher had to teach hundreds of students.

"I heard that there’s a new music teacher in the humanities department, could it be her?" the youths speculated.

"Music instrument? What is that?"

"A music instrument is... something very popular before the Century Catastrophe, I’ve seen it in museums. Touch it, and it makes all sorts of sounds. Its music isn’t synthesized by AI, but composed by humans themselves."

"Humans, humans can compose music? Can that even sound good? I’ve been listening to AI-composed music since I was born ..."

"I don’t know, I sort of want to choose music as my subject ..."

Suddenly, a spiky-haired youth locked eyes with the girl. His face flushed with embarrassment, and he even forgot to pass the basketball.

"Does she like me ..." the spiky-haired youth pondered this superfluous question.

Suddenly, the girl took a step forward. With her head lowered, her lips lightly painted with makeup subtly parted as she whispered—

"...a bunch of idiots."

Yamada Machiichi considered himself not a person prone to cursing others.

But don’t think he didn’t know what unhealthy thoughts this group of people harbored.

Unfortunately, he was above them.

He had managed, with great difficulty, to find a key NPC in The Fringe, and he had leveraged his high Charm and favorable props to negotiate terms, earning the right to come to this university through the other party’s recommendation.

The selection for Caius Tower was imminent, and he could not enter as a resident of The Fringe. He needed to gather some companions of high Persona at the very least.

The university students who had not yet stepped into society were the best targets to win over.

As for the girls’ school uniform? None of the students had recognized his true gender.

"Gulp."

"Thank you for your contribution; protect the environment, reduce the pollution value of the city-state, cultivate good Personas, starting with you and me."

Yamada Machiichi tossed his finished orange soda into the smart bin, which flashed him a simulacrum of a smile.

He looked up and saw, not far off at the mechanical engineering building, students were gathered, manually crafting small drones with their hands.

Cheering, the drone swiftly took shape in their hands, carrying a boxed meal from a high building to a low one, the ports for underslung mini-bombs faintly visible beneath it.

Easily produced in the hands of these students for such trivial purposes as delivering food, yet in The Fringe, it would become a high-end weapon for countless impoverish to fight and bleed for.

—These were the world’s greatest elites gathered here, harmless as students.

They had not yet clearly recognized the tremendous potential for devastation their unchecked technology could unleash. Nor did they truly appreciate how precious the knowledge they learned was seen in the eyes of others.

Such disparities in the world struck Yamada Machiichi deeply— the monopoly of knowledge, the city-state’s four-tier division made the gulf between people wider than between humans and dogs.

Looking at the students’ happy, flushed faces, he could only see countless blood-stained, sallow, and emaciated faces.

This Ivory Tower had nurtured a generation of elites disconnected from the suffering of the world, knowing only contentment and happiness. He felt somewhat suffocated.

"—I heard that the vacant music club in the humanities department got a music teacher, and nearly half the students went to attend the class."

"A music teacher? I must see that too, no wonder the school feels so empty today..."

Footsteps came from nearby.

In the city-state, almost no one played musical instruments, as they had been banned and destroyed during a past evaluation by Dawn.

Yamada Machiichi moved forward with the crowd, the air filled with the scent of sycamores, a mild, dense, ancient aroma that enveloped him like a yellowed old photograph triggering his memories, making him reminisce about his youth.

He missed home.

This city-state was so similar to the old Zhai XIng. It made him feel as if he were in a dream, unwilling to see the health and mana bars in his vision, unwilling to wake up.

With his eyes closed, he walked forward, the crowd pushing him. As he approached the auditorium, he heard music.

Thousands of students sat mightily in the circular auditorium. They were looking at the center of the auditorium, at the forbidden black and white instrument he had seen only in the database—and at the person in a wheelchair, deeply immersed in playing the music.

The sound was pure and rich, like raindrops hitting the ground, its rhythm more diverse and freer than any Artificial Intelligence generated music, almost as if one could hear the inherently human emotions overflowing in it.

The youth in a white robe sat quietly in the center of everyone’s view, the auditorium lights casting onto his shoulders, making him seem filled with brilliant white starlight.

The black cat on his shoulder was lazily swaying its fire-tipped tail in rhythm with the music.

This was probably why so many students came—it was an SS-level Charm. Unless he deliberately toned it down, wherever he went it created a sensation.

"Damn." Yamada Machiichi couldn’t help but curse.

...This black cat was too obvious, wasn’t it? As if afraid the players wouldn’t know who it was.

But now, with Wang Han’s Human Skin Mask on his face, Su Ming’an had assumed the disguise of Lewis, and NPCs couldn’t recognize him as Acto.

Yamada Machiichi noted the subtle differences in the music—it was less technically perfect than the "Destiny" he had heard at the human self-rescue conference, yet Debussy’s "Moonlight" sounded greener and more moving.

He couldn’t pinpoint the specifics, but he felt the piece was well played.

"He actually came here to teach music, though he’s supposed to be a psychology professor," a female voice said beside him.

This was a girl in a school uniform, her jade-colored eyes exceptionally striking.

"However, if it weren’t for him, we probably wouldn’t hear such touching music, given that psychology dogs don’t study." The girl glanced sideways at him, "Right?"

"Why is it you?" Yamada Machiichi immediately recognized the girl who had been chased by the Mechanical Army in The Fringe.

She was Ann, Little Mei’s foster sister, with an unclear background—but clearly, she was a timid mute girl by day, only able to speak at night.

"I didn’t expect you, a poor man from The Fringe, to make it here." Dong An’an glanced at him, "Did you pull some strings? Use your greater beauty compared to girls? Ah, right, my ’pulling strings,’ isn’t meant in the conventional sense."

...What a sharp tongue.

Yamada Machiichi was so irritated he was itching to bite something. He wished this person would just stay mute.

Dong An’an turned and left.

She seemed to just come for a look.

At that moment, the music ended, and the extraordinarily charming teacher began talking about the history and methods of playing the piano, distributing music scores to the students.

Since the production methods were lost, it was impossible to have one piano per person, and the students attended this class more out of curiosity about the instrument.

...Of course, the teacher’s charm was inevitably a factor.

Word spread from one to ten, ten to a hundred, and almost all the girls came to see him, packing the auditorium like a can of sardines.

As Yamada Machiichi listened to Su Ming’an’s lecture, he suddenly felt a bit dizzy.

...So dizzy.

Why was his head so dizzy...

He dazedly absorbed the lecture coming from the stage, his thoughts growing increasingly numb...

He aimlessly memorized each word from the stage as if they were sacred sounds.

"The piano fingerings consist of..."

"The practice process..."

Two hours later, the class ended.

As the teacher smiled and waved at the students before turning to leave,

Yamada Machiichi and the rest of the students were still immersed in a mentally rigid state.

They sat blankly in their seats, as if they had lost their souls. It took a long time for them to return to normal.

"Damn, I was mesmerized. That teacher is amazing."

"Does he have a personal watch? He’s so young, yet plays instruments so well, I want to friend him..."

Most of them failed to notice anything amiss, only Yamada Machiichi sensed this soulless change.

Meanwhile, Su Ming’an, who had harvested a full 800 points of Emotional Value, had already turned and left.

In this large lecture hall with thousands of people, the Missionary Halo had an extremely frightening effect of contagion, causing people’s eyes to visibly glaze over, as if moving with his voice.

Easily, he harvested 800 points of Emotional Value.

Last night, after threatening the Dawn System, he didn’t know if he truly had the password, but Dawn yielded. So he began exploring the building and requested to be a university professor by day, testing the Missionary Halo.

The building was dusty and long abandoned, with many rooms collapsed and some spaces remodelled, but he felt the structure was eerily familiar.

—Like a "déjà vu".

It’s like the hippocampus effect. In the real environment, humans suddenly feel that they have "experienced a scene in some place" before, eliciting a "familiar" sensation.

Around the building, he found several torn banners, inscribed with words like, "Kill the Governor of Ta Wei—Yasa Acto," "Everyone wants him dead!"

Looking at the handwriting, these banners were quite old.

...And there was a bronze pocket watch buried in the ruins.

When he picked it up, he inexplicably received a system prompt.

[You have met the Key Figure · "Lv Shu"]

...

[Obtained the First Dawn Code.]

[Syllable: "Mo Yi".]

...

Although there was no one around, and Lv Shu was far in The Fringe roasting sweet potatoes, it still prompted that he had encountered Lv Shu.

He was confused to gain a Dawn Code without any effort.

The pocket watch was attached to a golden chain, the patterns worn and only a small line of engraving left.

[Time will tell you, don’t be afraid of the dark, I love you.]

...

Staring at the pocket watch, he suddenly felt an intense sadness.

As if something extremely sad and irreparable had happened.

...

[Countdown: 4 days 12 hours]