Chapter 48:

The coffee shop, the finger...

No wonder he's been so persistent; it turns out he's after her, maybe even her life.

According to Naraku, that finger must be valuable.

"No! What dessert shop?" she retorted warily. "I don't know anything about it. I don't understand what you're talking about."

"That's you, isn't it?" He suddenly produced an abstract painting from nowhere. "That's the person I saw in the dessert shop the other day, you."

"..." What the hell is this painting? "This, this doesn't even look like me!"

"Then let me ask you another question. Why did you take that finger? Are you one of Geto's people?"

"..."

She didn't understand what was going on with the words Shrimp Geto and Lard Geto. Swallowing the finger was pure accident.

If it were anything else, Naoko would have returned it without hesitation, but since it seemed like her life was at stake, she didn't dare reveal it.

Besides, what kind of genius would think of hiding something in another customer's parfait?

Isn't that inherently problematic?

"I suddenly remembered that I have something else to do. Sorry, I have to leave first."

After saying that, she hurriedly fled the scene.

It seemed that she did not know the purpose of the finger, had no Nen ability, and was not a sorcerer. She was probably just an ordinary person who was accidentally caught up in this storm.

The genius Ilmi was thoughtful.

It was obvious that she was unwilling to cooperate.

He couldn't kill her... Well, although it was not impossible. But she still had half of the Four Souls Jade on her body, and there was a difficult monster beside her. He couldn't alert the enemy.

- Yes, during this time, he used the power of the Zoldyck family to find out everything about Kawase Naoko.

He even knew how many cacti she had killed.

What a trouble.

Ilmi could only return to the family and continue to threaten his hacker brother.

Mi Ji sat in his ergonomic chair, his round eyes glaring back at his older brother, wary of the needle in his hand. He shouted helplessly, "Didn't I already locate you?"

Finding an ordinary woman in Tokyo was no easy task. He'd spent two days searching the surveillance cameras tirelessly, finally finding several women suspected of being Ilmi's targets.

Then, Ilmi told him she never left the house and needed him to find another way to approach her.

He finally managed to track her down, discovering she'd been playing a ridiculously boring game, but Ilmi had been blacklisted seven or eight times for being such a terrible gamer...

Upon learning this, he laughed for three hours, clutching his belly.

Sure enough, even Ilmi couldn't match him.

He'd just gotten the promised rare game, barely finished it, when Ilmi called him again.

"Something's wrong. Now, you need to help me get to her."

"I don't have time." He hadn't even played the rare game he'd just acquired.

Besides, he had been tired of this kind of game claiming to be a "free and open world" for eight hundred years.

Ilmi's dark and lifeless eyes moved around, and at the same time, he raised his wrist to show the mantra needle in his hand to his poor brother: "This is all for the purpose of defeating the Dyke family. You have no right to refuse.

" "If you don't cooperate, I will cut off your power supply."

"You...you..." Mi Ji knew that he would keep his word, and he gritted his teeth in anger, and the fat on his face was squeezed into a ball.

"You use this game to get close to her. I want to receive your results in a month."

Because he had not received the finger for a long time, the High Commissioner's Office had become suspicious. Ilmi had been hiding everywhere these days, not daring to let them catch him.

"What did you say...get close to her? Me? "

What a joke, how could he play such a boring game with other women...

"Impossible, I can't..."

At this time, Ilmi was walking to the door, and hearing this, he didn't even turn his head, and threw a few prayer needles behind him.

The prayer needles just brushed the side of his face, and pierced the keyboard at his fingertips along a perfect straight line.

He couldn't help but screamed: "This is a limited edition keyboard!"

As soon as the voice fell, a card-shaped hard object flew over and stuck steadily between the six keyboards.

It was a black card.

"I'll give you one month."

Mi Ji's complaints disappeared, and he pinched the card and looked at it again and again.

－·

－Naoko, who had left the otome game, had a lot of fun playing this new open world game, and also made some interesting friends.

They made an appointment to start a team PVP in the arena, and met a new player who was a god.

Although he still had the words "newbie" on his head, he beat his teammates to the ground and wailed when they were dying.

In particular, the modeling was also very handsome.

It was an indescribable, second-year syndrome handsomeness.

Wearing a black veil... very mysterious, and also very handsome.

Originally, Naoko had no intention of making friends, but in one afternoon, they matched five or six times, and each time she undoubtedly beat them to a pulp.

So much so that she was interested in him . This player named [Death_NotIllumi (死神_不是伊尔迷)] created a filter and extended a small tentacles to him to make friends.

Sure enough, after an afternoon, the world channel began to hotly discuss this unknown master who appeared out of nowhere. Some speculated that he was the top-ranked boss in other servers, while others speculated that his true identity was actually a hacker, or the son of the game manufacturer. She had

thought that he would not notice such a small shrimp as her, after all, there must be many people sending him friend requests, but unexpectedly, that evening, she received a message that the application was accepted.

She added him, but he didn't say anything.

Naoko took the initiative to send a message: [Hello~]

Death_NotIllumi, a bit too cheesy and long, for convenience, she called him:

[Illumi].

Unsure whether to express his annoyance at her familiarity or the intrusiveness of her address, he replied with a long string of ellipses, but didn't correct her shout.

[…………]

When they'd first met that afternoon, he'd been just a [Rookie], but not long after, a new prefix had been added to his title: [Number One in Multiplayer].

This was proof that he'd beaten them to a pulp.

...He was simply too handsome.

Besides the title, there was also equipment.

He'd traded in his novice uniform for a dazzling new outfit that was practically blinding.

She proactively sent him several messages, asking him when he'd played the game and how it was so awesome, showering him with compliments. Unfortunately, his replies were either a period or an ellipsis.

Seeing him leave, she quickly asked, "Ilmi, where are you going?"

He finally stopped being so stingy with his words and replied with three words: "Going to a dungeon."

Thinking she'd get a lot of goodies from a dungeon with a gaming expert, she proactively sent him a team-up invitation.

The third time, he finally accepted the invitation at the last second.

Masters, they're pretty easy to conquer, after all.

As she'd expected, during the dungeon, "Ilmi" not only saved her several times but also quietly gave her several rare items.

"These... I don't need them. If you want them, take them all."

This tsundere attitude won her heart. The more she looked at his model head, veiled in black, the more she found it pleasing and attracted to him.

I finally understand why some people fall in love online; it's that sense of mystery they crave.

"Don't always follow me."

Naoko took a few steps back, his words aloof. But the next time he was in danger, he'd flash to her side, protecting her and leaving a charming comment:

"What a newbie."

Even when he was scolding her, he was charming, especially when he'd clear obstacles for her with a cold face.

And no matter how difficult a dungeon, "Ilmi" could help her through it all.

Just a few days later, Naoko felt like she was 1% in love.

She'd sold all the rare items she'd gotten from him, pocketing a small fortune.

"Don't you have a brain?"

Even as he said this, "Ilmi" was still playing the hero's game.

Of course, Naoko kept calling him "Ilmi," "Ilmi," with compliments she'd scoured from dating websites. Unfortunately, he was always lukewarm, only becoming particularly enthusiastic when he invited her to play games.

But he seemed to treat the game like a mere playdate, giving her all the goodies, practically doting on her.

After playing like this for a while, Naoko became a serious internet addict and a regular partner of "Ilmi."

His impressive skills kept him incredibly popular in the server, and with him, Naoko, too. They speculated they were in a relationship—perhaps because they were always together. Some

even secretly referred to her as "the girlfriend of the server's top player." As they

became more familiar with "Ilmi," she couldn't help but share small details about the world, like how the school food was, when she missed her mother, and recent oddities.

She'd only eaten a normal chocolate parfait, but it turned out to contain a strange, hard object. After eating it, her roommate told her she might die from gluttony.

Fortunately, she received a life-saving necklace.

Most of the time, "Ilmi" was lukewarm, showing only a hint of interest when he mentioned this incident.

[What kind of... lump?]

This time, the reply wasn't a period!

She quickly replied: [Sweet potato-shaped? Or maybe... finger-shaped.]

[Finger?] And what about the necklace?]

[It feels like an ordinary gemstone necklace.]

[What's with your roommate?]

[Just an ordinary man.]

Regarding Naraku's private affairs, she briefly brushed them aside, not saying much.

And so, "Ilmi" returned to his indifferent demeanor.

Miki turned around and sent the messages to Ilmi, leaving a gloating comment:

"Your 'mission' was taken by this woman, Ilmi, you're doomed."

The Zoldycks were inherently competitive and selfish, and he was no exception.

Seeing Ilmi suffer such a fate made him even more sympathetic to Naoko.

Although he had initially agreed to play this crappy game to get close to Naoko purely for the black card, as the game progressed, things began to change.

Miki had almost no experience with living women.

Naoko controlled the cute girl character and chattered around him. Although it was troublesome and stupid, she was really sweet.

Just by casually defeating a boss, she could get a series of free praises from her, which made him feel ecstatic.

[…………]

Although he replied like this, he was much more proactive when helping next time.