Ex-Girlfriend – Chapter 42.2
by Little PandaVolume 3: Song of the Wanderer
Great Demon King 01
The Game of the Brave
At the moment Xin Lan left, memories flooded into Qu Zhi’an’s mind.
So when she heard the news from the palace, she wasn’t too sad, but rather eager to return. She quickly transferred some items and hastily logged out.
After exiting, she opened the electronic display screen and recorded some things before closing the document.
Then she opened the mission interface and searched for Xin Lan’s name, seeing her mission score was indeed excellent.
After completing these tasks, she lay on the sofa with a vacant expression.
She was System A05, serving as the chief commander for this “Ex-Girlfriend Series” mission. She was responsible for coordination, monitoring, and other tasks, observing the feasibility of the series missions and the host’s execution ability. She could randomly enter a world – systems not following hosts into mission worlds weren’t allowed to retain memories and could only play NPC roles, though they weren’t required to follow the original plot.
In the first world, after the task executor left, she realized this was just a mission, but before she could process anything further, she was ejected.
After being ejected, she had a particularly deep impression of one host, so she found that host’s information and followed her into the second mission world.
She was still just as interesting, possessing a frank and attractive quality about her.
You could see her straightforwardness, yet couldn’t quite understand her; she was true to her conscience but not some rigid goody-two-shoes.
She’s truly captivating, thought Commander System A05.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t made plans to eat hotpot.
Just then, the communication system rang, and she saw B01’s big face.
“Wan Yan [a name meaning ‘evening mist/smoke’], want to come out for hotpot?”
Who wants to eat hotpot with such an unromantic system, the Commander thought proudly, then went out to eat hotpot anyway.
“Why haven’t I seen you these past few days? Were you on vacation?”
“I took on a series of missions, went to the mission worlds.”
“What’s wrong? Did something happen? You seem lost in thought – don’t tell me you fell in love?”
System B05, nicknamed Chengzi [meaning ‘Orange’], asked curiously.
She was just joking, not really thinking Wan Yan was troubled because of falling in love in the mission world. After all, although systems were similar to humans, some of their structures were different. The probability of a system falling in love with someone from the mission world was almost zero – it was more plausible for them to fall in love with other systems or task executors.
“That’s not it.”
Wan Yan explained everything to Chengzi, who fell into deep thought.
“You haven’t fallen for that host, have you?”
“To be precise, I have favorable feelings towards her. I think she’s adorable.”
“Then go for it! Get to know her. It would be even better if you already know each other from the mission world – you can build on that connection.”
“But wouldn’t that mean I couldn’t be with her in mission worlds anymore?”
Wan Yan was deeply conflicted.
“Why?”
Chengzi was very surprised – how did she reach that conclusion?
“Given her personality, she probably wouldn’t like knowing a system she’s acquainted with is acting as an NPC in the mission world…”
“Why? Most hosts don’t mind that, do they?”
“I can’t explain it, just intuition.”
A girl with such strong sense of self and personal heroism probably wouldn’t like having a system she knows acting as an NPC in the mission world without memories of their previous acquaintance. Not only would they have to get to know each other again each time, but it also seems pointless.
Wan Yan couldn’t quite explain the feeling, but sensed that if she revealed her identity to Xin Lan [meaning โsuffering/hardship mountain mistโ], she’d only receive a lukewarm response and they’d remain mere ordinary friends.
“I see,” Chengzi pondered while pinching her chin. “But you can’t just never get to know her, can you? That way you’ll forever remain just a pedestrian A [meaning: an insignificant extra].”
That hit the mark, wounding her heart.
“Why not transfer to become her system?”
“Then wouldn’t I only be able to communicate with her verbally in the system space?”
Wan Yan thought this idea was even worse – what’s the point if she couldn’t touch or smell the little tiger!
“Why not arrange chance encounters with her when she’s not on missions? You could work both angles that way.”
Chengzi snapped her fingers, very satisfied with her new suggestion.
“Let’s do that then.”
“Following her into mission worlds is good too, because you never know when that host might end up with someone else.”
Wan Yan wanted to argue that was impossible, but didn’t feel entirely confident. What if it happened? That ‘what if’ was exactly what she feared.
“Only a system would know if a host wants to get involved with someone else. If you don’t follow along, any budding romance could be nipped in the bud. You must keep following. Did you see that anonymous post on the forum? The one where a system talked about their host cheating on their partner multiple times?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
Wan Yan nodded, remembering how suffocating that situation had seemed.
“Take it as a warning. Task executors aren’t AI – they can engage in intimate behavior without love. Don’t let your reserved nature keep you from confessing until the one you like runs off with someone else.”
Chengzi, having known Wan Yan for many years, knew this system could appear gentle, wifely, mature, innocent, or cold, but was essentially just reserved.
“She won’t run off with anyone.”
Wan Yan glanced at Chengzi, curling her lips into a smile.
Because that person hadn’t awakened to love yet.
It seemed like a cycle: to make Xin Lan awaken to love, she needed to get close to her, but her mission world self acted on instinct without memories. Her real self with memories could get close but couldn’t reveal her identity. If she revealed her identity, she might not be able to enter mission worlds, and without being in mission worlds, they couldn’t be together – so how could love awaken?
The best idea would be to make her fall in love in the real world, then entering mission worlds would follow naturally.
Chengzi watched her mysterious confidence while silently dipping a slice of lamb [in the hotpot].
Wan Yan ate hotpot while still wrestling with her concerns.
She wasn’t actually confident at all. She did have some feelings and attraction towards Xin Lan, but it hadn’t reached an intense level. Although she talked about wanting Xin Lan to awaken to love, she was still hesitating about whether to approach her [meaning: to initiate contact with a stranger].
In the AI world, love also involved precise calculations.
Once the final result was determined, they would always follow the basic laws of love.
But humans, or rather those non-human hosts with emotions, weren’t like that. They could change their hearts and grow tired of things, but AIs wouldn’t.
Systems could be excellent mission partners with hosts, but when it came to feelings…
While eating hotpot, Wan Yan calculated in her mind 108 [a number traditionally associated with completeness] possible ways to approach the little tiger and their probability of success, finishing her meal deep in thought.
Xin Lan, unaware that a system was thinking about her, had enjoyed a comfortable sleep, and opened her door to find Ling Jiu’s smiling face.
“Host, you’re awake!”
“Mm.”
“Look at what I’ve selected.”
Ling Jiu displayed their shopping cart – the result of last night’s careful comparison shopping, just waiting for Xin Lan to pay.
Xin Lan generously paid the bill, and Ling Jiu happily handed her a cola.
Xin Lan took it and went out to find food.
Xin Lan never fully understood what kind of marvelous world she was living in.
But she had long given up investigating deeply, content knowing it was simply extraordinary.
She took a hovering train out, sitting by the window, and saw people riding flying swords zip past, followed shortly by an angel with six pure white wings.
Everyone treated these sights as perfectly normal, some even debating whether sword-riders or winged flyers were faster.
Xin Lan didn’t care about any of this, since she couldn’t ride swords nor did she have wings.
After finishing her meal, she went to a cafรฉ.
The cafรฉ played soothing music, and a beautiful young man with cat ears and tail [nekomimi, common in anime/manga culture] brought her order. The young man’s face was slightly flushed, his eyes conveying certain suggestions, but Xin Lan completely ignored this, offering only a cool word of thanks.
The young man wasn’t discouraged by the rejection, turning away as if nothing had happened.
Xin Lan didn’t rush to touch her coffee and desserts, instead browsing interesting news online.
Most were various experiences or tips shared by pavilion hosts [gรฉzhว, indicating a special status], along with some daily life posts.
Xin Lan lifted her head again to take a sip of coffee, and noticed a woman sitting at the table in front of her, facing her direction.
She had a nice appearance, but what drew attention were her ice-blue eyes, beautiful like the finest jewels.
Xin Lan’s gaze met that person’s, then she looked away.
Wan Yan, who had been hesitating in place, thought of n possible ways the approach could fail when Xin Lan turned her gaze away.
After resting for another two days, Xin Lan once again stood before the mission door.
“Mission world selected! One, two, three, let’s go!”
Ling Jiu pushed up her glasses and snapped her fingers.
Xin Lan felt some bumping and swaying beneath her, and opened her eyes to find herself in a vehicle.
It was a van, with dusk approaching outside. The interior lights weren’t on, making it somewhat dark.
Perhaps due to the uneven road, the vehicle was rocking and bumping considerably.
Xin Lan sat in the passenger seat and glanced at the driver beside her, then leaned back in her chair to browse through the original host’s memories.
Upon viewing these memories, Xin Lan laughed.
A laugh of exasperation.
The original host was also named Xin Lan, and could be described with several words: lovestruck, timid, fragile, and prone to crying.
These words were all antonyms of Xin Lan’s actual characteristics.
After seeing what had happened to the original host, she could only feel angry at their lack of fight and pity for their misfortune.
This was probably the most tragic original host she had encountered since taking on this series of missions, surpassing the misfortune of the previous two.
The original host was a girl from an ordinary family, an ordinary person living an ordinary life. The only extraordinary things about her were her attractive face and her worthless boyfriend.
Her boyfriend claimed to be a fuerdai [fรน รจr dร i, meaning second-generation rich], and indeed spent lavishly while pursuing the original host. They seemed very happy together, but this was just a facade.
In reality, after getting together, the boyfriend never took responsibility for their expenses. Whether it was their shared rental apartment or daily living expenses, the original host paid for everything herself.
Every time the original host wanted to bring up sharing expenses with her boyfriend, his look would frighten her into silence. On the rare occasions she gathered the courage to speak up, he would say that being so wealthy, he couldn’t be bothered with such small amounts of money – yet the money never came.
By then, the original host realized her boyfriend was likely a fake fuerdai, but said nothing and continued silently bearing the burden.
The original host had gotten together with her boyfriend right after graduating university, and afterward worked desperately to support them both. However, her salary was meager, and after paying rent and daily expenses each month, there was hardly anything left.
After supporting her boyfriend for nearly two years, they broke up.
Of course, he was the one who initiated the breakup, not her – otherwise, how could she be the protagonist of an ex-girlfriend series mission?
When her ex-boyfriend left, he took all her savings from those two years.
The original host just cried but took no action.
Because she was timid and didn’t dare ask her ex-boyfriend for the money back.
Xin Lan thought while viewing these memories that this girl was far too timid.
However, events proved that being cautious wasn’t wrong, as this ex-boyfriend seemed rather unstable.
Though the original host didn’t go looking for trouble, trouble found her.
If it had just been two years of being cheated of money and love, Xin Lan wouldn’t have called this original host more tragic than the previous two.
The ex-boyfriend came to find her this morning, proposing a final farewell trip at his expense. The original host, still having feelings for him, grabbed her bag and got into this vehicle.
All the tragedy began with this farewell trip.
This wasn’t actually a simple trip, but rather a game orchestrated and planned by the ex-boyfriend.
In the original host’s memories, she never reached their stated destination, but instead ended up at a villa.
The villa was strange, filled with many horrifying things that defied comprehension.
The original host survived until the end thanks to her ex-boyfriend’s protection.
Of course, that was just what the original host thought was the end.
She died from blood loss, with her ex-boyfriend as the murderer.
It wasn’t from being stabbed in a vital spot, but rather from being tied up and watching as her ex-boyfriend cut pieces of flesh from her body to cook.
Piece by piece, almost like lingchi [lรญngchรญ, an ancient form of execution by slow slicing], until she hazily slipped into darkness, and the memories abruptly ended.
Cheated of her heart, money, and life – truly a tragedy with a capital T.
Xin Lan closed her eyes, concealing the excitement in them.
This scumbag should be able to take quite a beating.
LP: Re-translated on January 05, 2025
Author keeps coming up with the trashiest of guys lol.
Awww cmon why didn’t YanYan approach her ? …. welp gonna have to wait even more …
Seems like weird world again, let’s see where it goes.
I was already hating the ex-boyfriend, but that escalated really quickly at the end.
Wan Wan, what is this.. thats it?๐ญ๐ญ๐ญ
Wan Wan, what is this.. thats it?😭😭😭