“You should get your hair cut after this. It’s already longer than a girl’s.” White Cherry mocked with a wry smile.

“You don’t have to do this. I’m fine.” Blue Maple was indifferent.

He knew that White Cherry wanted to change the topic so that Blue Maple wouldn’t be emotionally affected. Since she knew about his quest, she could tell that Blue Maple would have been reminded of what happened if she continued broaching the topic.

He would recall whatever he didn’t want to recall.

“Mm.”

White Cherry smiled. It was an indication of her relief.

The Divine Guild players were sensible too. They didn’t bother both of them and only watched from afar. They also cleaned up the battlefield. This was technically a fight between guilds. However, since guilds weren’t official yet, the aggressor would be red-named. After they died, there were naturally drops.

The Common Guild was the aggressor. Both guilds were red-named, but the Divine Guild players dropped less items as they weren’t the aggressors.

White Cherry smiled back at the players that were busy cleaning up the mess. Her warm smile caused many of the male players to heave a sigh of relief. They were all afraid that she’d complained to Blue Maple that they’d been harassing her.

It was normal to be misunderstood too. After this incident, most players would assume White Cherry to be a little petty. However, they didn’t know what truly happened.

“Aren’t you going to return?” Blue Maple asked.

He wanted to leave on his own again…

White Cherry didn’t answer him. She only smiled as she looked at a cherry blossom tree that was still burning to one side of the bridge. There was a hint of pity in her smile.

“What a pity. I wanted to invite you to admire cherry blossoms. But now we can’t. I didn’t expect this to happen and cause you so much trouble.”

In her voice, there was regret, apology and pity.

“Doesn’t matter.” Blue Maple’s reply revealed his indifference.

“Does it really not matter?”

White Cherry sounded a little sad, but it was a rhetorical question. Blue Maple didn’t respond either.

“Hey, Maple. Aren’t you curious why I know about your quests? Although they were reported, it must still be weird for someone like me to know about them.”

White Cherry asked all of a sudden.

“That’s a little weird.” Blue Maple was slightly puzzled.

He did have his own doubts earlier, but he found it normal to have people who took notice of all these. Although it was rare, it wasn’t completely impossible.

Furthermore, White Cherry was a kind soul. It wasn’t ridiculous to assume that she would be interested in quests that involved massacres.

“In fact, I’m not just aware of yours. I do know about the quests that other assassins and mercenaries have taken up. I also know about some things that happened on Earth. I know them in detail.”

“But…”

As she spoke, she turned a little gloomy.

Blue Maple furrowed his brow. He felt that she might know about some unhappy events.

The spring breeze slightly ruffled White Cherry’s dark hair. A few pieces of cherry blossoms drifted over and floated across White Cherry’s melancholic face.

“But these memories didn’t include me.”

She gave off a melancholic smile and sounded a little hurt as she said…

“What?!”

Blue Maple was astonished. He was a little taken aback by her words.

“Yes, you are right. I don’t have any memories of myself in the real world. It’s as if all those information was inputted into my brain. However, I’m not an NPC. I’m a real player. It’s weird, isn’t it?”

Blue Maple was moved by her expression.

She was a person who woke up in the game without knowing who she was. It was difficult to imagine how lonely and fearful she had to be back then. It was as if she had forgotten everything and appeared in a strange, different world…

She had to be scared and lonely…and pitiful.

……

“How’s that possible?” Blue Maple was astonished.

“But it’s the truth.” She was still smiling, but one could still how sorrowful she felt.

Don’t tell me her memories have been blocked? Then…

Blue Maple quickly thought to himself. He wondered if it was a glitch in the game.

“Wait a minute.”

Then, he initiated his fire and engulfed both of them in it. The Divine Guild players got a little suspicious, but they weren’t in a position to probe. They could only continue cleaning up the battlefield.

The scenery started to change.

Password：J73HKD79GHKH82397NSPLZMW……

Suddenly, Blue Maple read out a long line of alphanumeric characters.

Ding!

Password verified. Voice recognition verified. Pupil recognition verified. Fingerprint identification verified. Virtual engine activated. System hacking activated…

Suddenly, all sorts of symbols started to appear around Blue Maple. The surrounding space even started to distort. The bridge disappeared and both of them seemed to be standing in pitch-black, void space. There were only glowing symbols that were spinning all around them.

Their clothes also disappeared, leaving behind two light figures.

White Cherry was utterly confused and she was speechless…

Blue Maple ignored her and continued to hack the system.

Virtual engine disguise program activated…

Virtual engine original disguise removed. Void Abyss Program activated…

Void Abyss Program has successfully hacked the system. Please advise. An announcement sounded.

In a matter of seconds, the hack was complete. Blue Maple had clearly hacked the system before, otherwise it would have proceed so smoothly. However, he did so in the past to hide himself. But now, he did it for White Cherry.

“Connect to the system database.” Blue Maple gave off a command.

Connecting…

Hacking is complete. You’ve successfully hacked the system. Please advise.

“Player White Cherry. Japan. Search.” Blue Maple gave off another command.

Searching

Ding!

White Cherry: Player, Priest, Level 59. Able to use all Priest’s Skills. Rank of her items: A. Rank of her abilities: A…

Skip. Jump to her physical condition. Pull out information on any abnormalities. Blue Maple furrowed his brow and skipped all the useless information.

White Cherry: Normal physical conditions. Normal body functions. No diseases. Rank of her physical condition: SSS.

“Hmm?” Blue Maple was puzzled.

“Am I really alright?” White Cherry was also a little tensed and unsure.

An icy-cold announcement echoed. Game registration date: 25th December 2220. Nourishment pod…nourishment pod…

Something strange happened. It was as if the announcement had stalled and was stuttering.

“What’s going on?”

Blue Maple found things to be strange. White Cherry also became unsettled.

Game pod: Unknown

“What?!” Blue Maple was astonished.

The program that he created using his hacking skills had not had a glitch so far. If there was a problem with his program, he would have died several times!

After this, the program recalibrated, and a new search was initiated.

“Initiate new search. Expand the range…”

Spaceship: Unknown

“Initiate new search. Expand the range…”

Fleet: Unknown

……

Country…

Unknown!

It was a dead end…

Both of them went silent.

She was from Japan, but the results returned everything as unknown. If Blue Maple’s program was working, there was only one conclusion to be gained – White Cherry ceased to exist!

However, that wasn’t possible. If they could check that she was a player, she couldn’t be an NPC. If she was supposed to activate some kind of important quest or was an NPC that added to the gameplay, it would have been revealed in the results.

Blue Maple’s hacking skills were certainly viable against this gaming system. Two years ago, he was the target of countless killers and assassins. Yet he still managed to survive and hid his identity.

If that was the case, a game that was hastily created by an alliance of countries couldn’t be un-hackable to him.

White Cherry chose to give up when she saw Blue Maple in deep thought.

“Maple, don’t worry too much about it. I’m a human and a player. I’m not just a line of simulated code. That’s enough for me.”

Although she had given up, she was still very certain of Blue Maple’s hacking skills. After all, she believed that the hacking program that he’d developed couldn’t have failed against the system.

“I know.” Blue Maple broke out from his train of thought.

After this, he did something.

“Redefine search target. Player Silent Observer. Location of the nourishment pod she registered from.”

Redefining…

Target’s information is highly confidential. Hacking in progress…

Both of them were silent as they waited for the results.

After several tens of seconds…

Ding!

Hacking successful. Player Silent Observer’s game registration date: 25th December 2220. Nourishment pod: Clan Chunyu’s private fleet, 001 first-class nourishment pod.

It seems to be fine. Then…Blue Maple thought to himself.

“Redefining search target. Player Mystery. Location of the nourishment pod she registered from.” He gave off another command.

Redefining…redefining…redefining…

The same problem occurred. The search was stuck. The announcement stuttered as before, but Blue Maple expected it.

Player Mystery’s game registration date: 1st January 2221. Nourishment pod: Unknown

How? White Cherry was the one who was astonished now.

“How is it 1st January 2221. Didn’t all players register on 25th December 2220?”

Although she had lost her memories, she knew the details of the game. All fleets set sail on Christmas. It was also then that the game began and all the players registered at the same time.

“I see…” Blue Maple muttered to himself.

He remembered that 1st January was New Year’s Day. He recalled what he was doing, although he didn’t really care about the day or participated in any significant event.

However, it was the day that he sparred with Crippled Feather and completed his second class advancement.

After his advancement, he was sent to Azeriya through a teleportation formation. It was then that…

He first saw…Mystery!

“Maple, do you mean that this person called Mystery is the same as me? She has no real-life memories?” White Cherry suddenly asked.

Blue Maple knew why she would ask such a question. If he knew that Mystery had lost her memories, he wouldn’t have been surprised that White Cherry had lost her memories.

“No, both of you are opposites.” Blue Maple said.

“What do you mean?” White Cherry was even more puzzled.

“She does have memories of her real life. But…she doesn’t know what happened on Earth.” Blue Maple said.

“This…”