"You're committing a crime here..."
Even for Yama, her words carried a hint of contempt.
"..." It wasn't hard to understand. At this time, Yama and Kevin were in their first year of high school, while Hua was a few years younger than Lin. This meant she was currently just a middle school student. Combined with Lin identified status as a stalker, saying he was committing a crime didn't seem far off...
But Lin didn't care about that. When he saw Hua, he already had some realization. Hua shouldn't be in Nagazora City at this point in time; she was in Canghai City during high school and should have been in Shenzhou during middle school. Yet she appeared here and was friends with Yama.
So this was also Yama wish... This was her world.
However, after twenty-four hours passed, this world would change again. Lin was in no hurry to do anything; he was more interested in what was happening with Yama.
"You've got that wrong." Lin calmly let go of the joystick and smoothed his sleeves. His tone and expression were both peaceful in the eyes of Yama and Hua. "She was the one who challenged me. Why has this turned into an accusation against me?"
"But why are you here?"
"Is there a sign saying I can't enter?"
"You..." Yama couldn't find a problem. Even if this guy really followed her all the way, he hadn't done anything out of line. But they both knew very well that meeting in this arcade was no coincidence; they just couldn't find a logical flaw in his story.
"I had a friendly match with this friend. She wasn't as skilled as me and was cut down. We exchanged techniques in a good atmosphere, yet you're framing me over a small matter. I feel I need to demand compensation for the damage to my reputation."
Lin had rarely argued with others during his student days. Even in the first few years after joining Fire Moth, he wasn't good at debating, especially with Elysia, who could leave him speechless in a few sentences. But now, after years of being influenced by Elysia and his time in the sanatorium, Lin eloquence had improved by leaps and bounds.
...One had to admit that Elysia cultivation of him in this regard was effective. He just didn't know if she would be even more delighted to tease him after finding out.
And currently, Yama was completely just a student. Even if she stared at Lin with the sharpest of gazes, she couldn't think of a rebuttal. Usually, others wouldn't dare make eye contact with her; any argument or obstacle could be resolved with just one look. But this person looked back at her as if nothing were wrong, and just as she had felt before, there was an unusual feeling about him.
"What compensation?"
Lin glanced at Kevin, who was still fighting the AI, completely oblivious to what was happening here. He made some space. "Let's play a round."
Yama sat down without a word, while Hua looked at the two with concern. Not knowing the background, she felt this incident seemed to have been caused by her. Yama wanted to end it quickly. She had beaten almost all the players in the vicinity, and no one could match her reaction speed, so winning should be easy.
After inserting the coins, they selected their characters. On the battle order screen, she was surprised to find that their characters and order were identical. This guy... he was doing it on purpose, wasn't he?
Lin was completely indifferent, staring at the screen, while Yama didn't take him to heart. Two minutes later, when the game ended, she stared blankly at the defeat screen, her brain unable to process it for a moment. The entire process was very short. Both of them had extremely aggressive styles, but the opponent seemed to know her habits, anticipating her moves and winning easily.
And Hua couldn't believe it either. She felt no one should be able to beat Yama...
Lin sat silently in place. To him, whether this round was won or lost didn't matter, but to Yama... They weren't just two people of opposite genders; the Yama Lin knew and saw...
"Another round."
As soon as she finished speaking, two game coins were already in the machine. Yama face was tense as she selected the same character lineup as before. Lin didn't say a word and silently started the game.
"K.O.!"
This time ended even faster than the last. Yama lost before even taking out Lin first character. Her expression darkened considerably, and she inserted coins without a word. She had actually seen through Lin various operating habits, but she just couldn't win.
Lin knew this was because she was too aggressive, allowing him to always find an opening. After all... there were still differences in personality between men and women.
Thinking back to her abrupt remark at the dinner table about her figure when she grew up, combined with what she said later—"It's better to be more honest when seeing someone you'll never see again"—and her subsequent actions, she had the kind of small willfulness typical of the women he knew. Even the Lin of a parallel world couldn't escape the common traits of women?
Lin made use of this. He knew Yama didn't have a competitive streak simply because her skills in this area were already unrivaled. But now she had lost, and to a "stalker" no less; she definitely wouldn't accept defeat. This feeling was a bit like playing with people's hearts... it was quite interesting.
By the time an hour had passed, Kevin was tired of beating the AI and came over to watch. Yama hadn't won a single game against Lin, at most managing to get him down to his last character. And Yama had run out of game coins.
The crowd of onlookers behind them grew. Yama, this beautiful girl who was unrivaled in the area, was quite famous nearby. Today, she was being beaten so badly she couldn't even raise her head.
"It's alright. Losing to me is nothing to be ashamed of." Lin, who hadn't needed to insert a single coin the entire time, consoled her in his characteristic calm voice. "You're just a noob."
With that, he got up and left, not even caring about Yama stunned expression.
...
Deep breath.
Lin sat on the edge of the rooftop. Returning here after so many years, he didn't feel much nostalgia. He was just looking for a quiet, undisturbed place to organize his thoughts. He hadn't played the game for so long just to kill time until the twenty-four hours were up; it was also to test Yama as a person.
Yama reflexes were almost identical to his own, which was within his expectations. After all, they were the same person from different worlds; they were the same in general terms. But Lin was certain she didn't know about the existence of Fire Moth.
Lin memories from his student days were a mess; he couldn't remember much. But he had vague impressions of Fire Moth and the Chairman, so even during his most cheerful period, there was always a sense of urgency he didn't know the source of. He didn't feel that in Yama; she was just an ordinary, cold-type high school girl.
In other words, in Yama world, she believed Fire Moth was an entity that shouldn't exist.
Finally, Lin confirmed one more thing.
The Monkey's Paw was gone. Neither on himself nor on Yama had he found any trace of the Monkey's Paw that could grant wishes.