Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 824 Similarity

Yu Shijiu already guessed what Thumbelina was going to say without her having to say it.

Yu Shijiu thought Thumbelina's imagination was even more impressive than Xu Han's, but upon closer inspection, it seemed quite plausible—after all, the two corrupted male players did indeed jump onto his lotus flower last night.

"Were you also turned into a toad—?"

Thumbelina retreated in terror, completely absorbed in her own thoughts.

"Do not be afraid."

Just as Thumbelina was about to fall off the edge of the lotus flower, Yu Shijiu rolled up his sleeves, revealing his bony, fleshless arms.

"Look, there's nothing on my arm."

Yu Shijiu said.

"..."

Thumbelina, who had been retreating, paused. The fear on her face froze. She stared at Yu Shijiu's arm, which hadn't developed any bumps, for several moments before slowly starting to move back.

"Really do not have……"

The thumb that had been moved back blinked slowly, and with Yu Shijiu's non-resisting compliance, it almost pressed its eyes against his arm.

"No bumps..."

Thumbelina breathed a sigh of relief, her emotions finally calming down completely. She looked at Yu Shijiu's arm carefully several more times, then paused.

“Your arm,” Thumbelina looked at the dense, light pinkish-white scars on Yu Shijiu’s arm with some doubt, “how come there are so many scars?”

"He must have been beaten up."

Yu Shijiu said nonchalantly, "I forgot when I was hit. It might have been from a knife or scissors. I don't remember exactly."

Thumbelina: "..."

Her hand, which had been resting on Yu Shijiu's arm, suddenly froze, and she said with some difficulty:

"Who, who made that?"

“You don’t know him?” Yu Shijiu smiled and pulled his arm back, slowly rolling down his sleeves inch by inch. “Anyway, he’s a really annoying person.”

Thumbelina remained silent for a very long time.

It was only when Yu Shijiu began to find it a little strange that Thumbelina finally spoke slowly.

"You're so pitiful..."

Yu Shijiu's heart stirred.

So pitiful?

What do you mean?

What she meant by saying that was...

"We are all so pitiful."

Thumbelina curled up and hugged her legs again. She lowered her head and rested it on her knees, her gentle black eyes gazing quietly at Yu Shijiu, and repeated herself.

"We are all so pitiful."

"..."

This inexplicable remark left Yu Shijiu stunned for several seconds, before she blinked blankly.

"Us? Are we both pathetic?"

"Ah."

Thumbelina nodded, tilting her head to the side, her cheeks pressed in by her knees, and her voice was a little hoarse.

“I will get hit by my mother,” Thumbelina said. “You will get hit by some people too.”

"We are all so pitiful."

Yu Shijiu: "..."

After a few seconds of silence, Yu Shijiu nodded: "You're right, we're all pitiful, so we all saw them turn into toads."

Thumbelina's eyelids twitched, and she said softly, "Yes, why did we have to see such a horrific scene..."

Yu Shijiu's mind raced as he thoughtfully replied, "Could it be a warning?"

"..." Thumbelina blinked, and suddenly seemed less afraid. She smiled, nodded, and then shook her head: "Is it because we're all so pitiful?"

Yu Shijiu: "..."

He felt that the conversation was going to fall apart, and why did Thumbelina keep using the word "pitiful" in every sentence she said?

Yu Shijiu now feels quite pitiful, but at least he has confirmed what he saw last night—the group from the Eye of All Things is really unlucky. The story has only just begun, and three people have already been "eliminated."

To put it bluntly, his luck was even worse than his.

"Could it be because we're the main characters?"

Yu Shijiu joked (although he believed Thumbelina was the main character), "So you're letting us see scenes that no one else has seen?"

"..." Thumbelina smiled silently, a hint of a smile finally appearing in her eyes: "That's wonderful."

Yu Shijiu stared at her smiling face, then suddenly froze for a few seconds.

He finally realized what had been bothering him all along.

Thumbelina is the protagonist of a fairy tale. Her life is described in just a few thousand words. Although the ending can be considered somewhat happy, Yu Shijiu only felt sorry for her after listening to the whole story.

They are truly pitiful.

A life that is completely pre-programmed and manipulated invisibly.

Putting that aside for now, the question now is, if Thumbelina is just a fairy tale character, why does her smile seem so familiar to him?

It's like not long ago... I saw someone give me that smile.

Some of them were feigning composure, while others wore kind smiles.

A delicate, pale face suddenly appeared in Yu Shijiu's mind.

Uncontrollably, Yu Shijiu turned his head to look at Fang Youhua in the corner of the pond.

Fang Youhua was talking to Yang Hua and others with her head down. Her thin profile was somewhat dark and unclear in the sunlight filtering through the gaps.

In that instant, Yu Shijiu felt as if his own heartbeat was about to burst out of his throat.

...There are flowers on the ground.

Thumbelina, a fairy tale character without any real-life counterpart, surprisingly bears some resemblance to Fang Youhua.

why?

Why does she look like Fang Youhua?

Yu Shijiu thought of one of the rules of the guild competition.

The game instance of the guild competition will randomly select a participating player's memory and modify it to create a new, twisted, and bizarre game instance.

He didn't believe that this inexplicable similarity was useless.

Could it be that... this guild tournament dungeon actually extracted some of Fang Youhua's memories?

Yu Shijiu's breathing quickened. He suppressed the urge to turn his head and look at Fang Youhua again, and quickly recalled the scattered memories about Fang Youhua in his mind.

It seems... Fang Youhua herself is unaware of this.

She was unaware that the guild battle instance she was in had extracted her memories.

Yu Shijiu turned to look at Thumbelina beside him. This time, he carefully looked Thumbelina up and down, and finally smiled at the puzzled Thumbelina.

"You look so pretty when you smile."

Yu Shijiu seemed to see the scene of drawing lots in the live broadcast square again. Fang Youhua, who also got a green ball, gave him a friendly smile, just like Thumbelina from before.

Thumbelina was taken aback by his praise and blushed with embarrassment.

"...Why are you suddenly saying something like that?"

Thumbelina was both surprised and delighted.

In her opinion, Yu Shijiu had clearly said that he didn't like her, so why was he saying such ambiguous things now?

Did I speak?

Yu Shijiu hesitated for a moment: "But I really think you look beautiful when you smile."

Thumbelina: "..."

The blush on Thumbelina's face vanished instantly.

She finally realized, belatedly, that Yu Shijiu's thought process seemed to be quite different from her own.

Thumbelina felt that the other person was showing her affection, while Yu Shijiu felt that he was just talking to her, nothing more.

She's been indulging in wild fantasies all along.

For the first time, Thumbelina lowered her eyelids expressionlessly and said calmly:

"I feel so too."

“Right?” Yu Shijiu, completely unaware that Thumbelina was angry, leaned closer to her and tugged at the hem of Thumbelina’s clothes, seemingly implying something, “Look, what does she look like?”

That "she" refers to Fang Youhua.

Thumbelina's mind was in turmoil. She felt that she had been deluding herself a lot lately, especially in front of Yu Shijiu—this was not like her at all.

It's all Yu Shijiu's fault for always giving her ambiguous feelings—thinking of this, Thumbelina looked up unhappily in the direction Yu Shijiu was pointing.

"she?"

Thumbelina's gaze, peering through the gaps in the lotus petals, landed on Fang Youhua's face. She slowly furrowed her brow and said:

"She's very gentle. Does she look a little older than me? Do you think she's prettier than me?"

Yu Shijiu completely failed to notice the strange tone in Thumbelina's voice when she said this, and nodded in response:

"Right, she seems to have a very gentle personality, exactly like her appearance suggests..."

Thumbelina noticed that Yu Shijiu had started talking incessantly around the woman not far away, and annoyance involuntarily crept onto her face.

Why keep talking about that woman?

Thumb Auntie bit her lower lip impatiently. Her bright red lips were bitten hard, and specks of scarlet blood seeped out from between her lips, which she quickly licked back into her mouth.

As the sweet, metallic taste of blood grew stronger on her taste buds, Thumbelina looked up at the woman not far away.

That woman looked really gentle. Whether it was her long, smooth hair tied behind her head or her pale, thin face with delicate features, she gave off a very gentle and docile feeling.

She's a woman who just looks very docile.

But for some reason, Thumbelina found herself incredibly annoyed after just a few glances at her.

No, it's not just annoying, it's also a bit... I hate her.

Hate her?

Do you dislike that seemingly gentle and submissive woman?

Do I... hate her?

why?

As Thumbelina licked the blood from between her lips back into her mouth, she heard Yu Shijiu's voice again.

"She is really a very gentle person."

Yu Shijiu glanced at Fang Youhua, who was talking with her head down not far away, and whispered:

"Don't you think? Both her voice and appearance look somewhat like—"

"impossible!"

Thumbelina suddenly raised her voice, staring at Yu Shijiu and said coldly:

"How could I possibly look like her? She's so ugly, so unattractive, even her personality must be an act! Can't you see how fake and fake her gentleness is?!"

Yu Shijiu swallowed back the words that had just welled up in his throat.

He frowned as he looked at Thumbelina, whose face had suddenly contorted again, somewhat puzzled as to why her emotions, which had just stabilized, would suddenly explode again.

Did I just say something that provoked the other person?

He just casually remarked that Thumbelina looked a little like Fang Youhua—

and many more.

Yu Shijiu's eyes lit up.

Yes.

If the Thumbelina game instance is indeed adapted from Fang Youhua's memories, then Thumbelina, as the protagonist, should naturally also carry some of Fang Youhua's characteristics.

Whether it's appearance... or personality.

Yu Shijiu's heart began to race. He suppressed his excitement, put on a puzzled and sad expression, and stared at Thumbelina, asking her in a low voice.

"what happened to you?"

Yu Shijiu said, "Thumbelina, you look a little strange?"

"I didn't say you look a lot like her. I just said that you two sometimes look a little alike, but only in your smiles. Your appearances aren't actually that similar, are they?"

Yu Shijiu tried his best to make his expression look confused and hurt, and finally said:

"You seem angry? Why? Do you dislike her?"

"..."

Yu Shijiu's ambiguous words made Thumbelina freeze in place.

She stared blankly at Yu Shijiu in front of her, her face contorted into a bizarre and unnatural expression that seemed almost unreal.

From Yu Shijiu's perspective, Thumbelina was "stupid".

The muscles in his face and his facial expressions were completely frozen.

Thumbelina's fingers began to spasm and tremble. She stared blankly at Yu Shijiu, then slowly moved her stiff neck and head, turning her head to look at Fang Youhua not far away, her neck bones cracking and snapping all day.

"...Thumbelina?"

Yu Shijiu's expression hardened, and he quickly reached out to support Thumbelina's head, fearing that it might fall off if he wasn't careful.

He hadn't forgotten that the seemingly normal Thumbelina in front of him was actually a monster.

It's even a monster that was forcibly altered after being invaded by Dawn Games.

The monster, which is currently the central figure in the operation of the entire game instance, is now looking up at him blankly, staring at him in a daze, and slowly speaking.

"I...I don't know."

When Yu Shijiu heard Thumbelina's voice, she looked genuinely confused, so much so that Yu Shijiu herself felt something was amiss.

Thumbelina's neck and head, which were being supported, began to crack and pop again. She twisted her neck and stared blankly at Fang Youhua not far away.

"I hate her so much, I really hate her..."

"But why? Why do I hate her? Why?"

Thumbelina's eyes became blank and empty. She slowly turned her head, and her once gentle and beautiful pupils were now gray and white.

She asked Yu Shijiu another question.

"why?"

Thumbelina asked, "Why do I hate her?"

"Can you tell me?"

Yu Shijiu: "..."

Yu Shijiu's mind went blank, and he didn't know how to respond to Thumbelina's question.

He can't exactly say it's because Fang Youhua is Thumbelina's creator in some way, can he?

This sounds like Yu Shijiu has gone mad.

He himself doesn't believe his own words, so how can he expect Thumbelina to believe them?