Chapter 39

Hiro patted the back of the woman who had just saved him repeatedly because she was driving her motorbike farther away from where Hiro lived.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” He started shouting so that she could hear him since the sound of the motorbike exhaust was too loud.

“I’m buying us time. Let’s wait until they leave your area before returning to your place.” The woman answered without reducing the speed of her bike.

It was a bad idea to go back home now, what if the three of them were still there and found out where Hiro lived? What if they actually killed Yuujin and now want to kill him too?

“Good grief!” Hiro just realized that.

What if they were the ones who killed Yuujin? Other than that, Hiro could not find any reason why those men were following him.

Hiro rarely socialized, so it was unlikely that there were people who felt uncomfortable with his presence. He was even rarely noticed by anyone around him.

“Hey, kid. Hold on! ”

“What?!” Hiro couldn’t hear the woman’s voice.

But the woman suddenly accelerated the speed of her motorbike.

BRUMMM!

Hiro reflexively wrapped his arms around the woman’s slender waist as the front tire of the motorcycle lifted upwards for a few seconds.

“Aargghhhh! What are you doing?!”

“Hahahahaha. You’re so cute!”

Hiro only hoped that he could come back alive after being bullied by a motorcycle rider, someone he didn’t even know yet.

After wandering aimlessly for half an hour, the woman finally drove Hiro back to his apartment.

And what made Hiro feel strange was that the woman didn’t ask for his address at first.

“Thank you for helping me,” said Hiro suspiciously.

However, the woman drove her motorbike away without showing her identity to him or even saying anything.

All Hiro remembered was that there was a tattoo resembling a chain on the woman’s left wrist, which he had seen earlier on his free ride.

“Haahhhh… such a tiring day.”

Hiro lay down on the bed for a few seconds before finally checking the contents of the box he had brought with him earlier.

According to the information he received from the female receptionist, there was a letter in the box.

It was from the police saying that the contents of the box were some of Yuujin’s belongings. And for now, it all belongs to Hiro, because his brother, Yuujin, had passed away.

After the investigation was complete, the goods were sent to the deceased’s relatives who were still alive. However, because the police didn’t know Hiro’s new address after being kicked out of his old apartment, they just sent it to his old apartment address.

The contents inside the box weren’t anything suspicious. They were all normal to Hiro’s eyes.

There were Yuujin’s belongings such as a handkerchief, three of Yuujin’s favorite film cameras, Yuujin’s android bracelet, Yuujin’s identity card as an E-nfinity member, and lastly two memory cubes.

Hiro was immediately interested in examining the first memory cube and seeing what photos were so important to Yuujin that they were stored in that inexpensive object.

Beep!

A screen appeared showing multiple screen images at once. Not pictures of humans, but pictures of test scores per subject with near-perfect grades, on top of which the name of the owner of that grade was written.

‘Yamaguchi Hiro’

Hiro could feel his chest a bit ache after seeing it.

Just why Yuujin kept his brother’s test scores as if they were very important to his life?

Hiro again scrolled down the image layer stored in the cube.

And he also found photos of body parts.

Hands clenched into fists.

A foot covered with dirt.

A clump of black hair from a haircut activity, scattered on the floor.

And the last was the pose of pointing the middle finger at the camera.

Since Yuujin was very busy and rarely contacted Hiro because he was working on a big project, Hiro often sent these absurd photos to his brother to vent his frustration and loneliness.

And Yuujin had stored those photos inside an expensive object like a memory cube. It was as if the absurd photos were precious things to Yuujin.

“Was he just obsessed with me?”

Hiro could feel his body instantly turning cold and shivering, he was unable to see the photos in the cube any further and decided to move to the second cube.

Strange, in the second memory cube, there were only three photos stored.

The first photo was a photo of the E-nfinity logo which looked like a number 8 in a sleeping position.

The second photo was another obscure photo taken by Yuujin, a room that was similar to a hospital room, but its contents were not beds for patients but dozens of sleeping capsules that Hiro had never seen before.

And the third photo was a photo of the E-nfinity members, there were ten people including Yuujin who sat in the middle as the leader. He wore a paper crown that said ‘FOR LIFE’.

Hiro found it strange with the second cube because normally the memory cube was filled with images from digital cameras. However, the three photos in the memory cube were photos from a film camera that had been converted into digital form so that they could be stored in the object.

Since when did Yuujin save photos from his films to digital form?

Hiro again stuffed Yuujin’s relics into the box and then lay back on the bed while staring at the ceiling of his room.

His mind wandered.

Hiro started to think that Yuujin’s death was becoming more and more strange.

Besides, who were the people chasing him just now? What did they want?

But before he couldn’t predict any answer, his android bracelet ring.

Ding!

[You have a new message from Anonymous]

Hiro took a deep breath when he saw the name reappear on his android bracelet. Reluctantly, he opened the message from Anonymous.

[Anonymous: want to see something interesting? Download the link I sent you and see what I find]

“You think I’d be fooled by that cheap trick?” Hiro let out a long lazy breath,

A few seconds later, Anonymous sent him a new message containing a download link.

Hiro stared at the name of linked file [1000]

The name made him suspect it was a scam. Hiro just stared at it nonchalantly, he wasn’t interested in downloading the file.

But—

One second later, the android bracelet seemed to move by itself.

[Downloading in progress]

“What?!” Hiro immediately got up from his bed and pressed the [Cancel] button listed below the download progress.

But it didn’t work, as if his android bracelet had been controlled by someone else now.

“Hey!”

[Download completed]

[Scanning for viruses before auto open the file]

“You are so pushy, huh.”

Because the file finally passed the inspection of three antiviruses installed by Hiro in his android bracelet, he finally became curious about the contents of the file.

Ding!

[[1000] is ready]

[Opening the file in progress]

Hiro waited with bated breath.

And not long after, the file finally opened successfully.

The file resembled a pdf format that had been laid out with a large text at the top which immediately caught Hiro’s attention.

Last Shelter Online?

The identity of 1000 players registered in Closed Beta Test.