The Rise of Otaku

Chapter 298: Chapter 298 “Phantom Mind”

Translator: Doggotranslation

The stories of the ACG world were adopted based on the mental journeys of the hosts in the real world. It would not directly be expressed, but there would be various innuendoes. However, Jing Ning’s mentality was really confusing. Obviously, it was a love seedling, but it was turned into a sci-fi horror story, and now it could not even “resonate” with his crush to produce the plot. It really made Zhou Yu, who was new to his storyline, very confused.

Not only was it hard to tell what girls were thinking, but it was also hard to tell what boys were thinking too.

He couldn’t directly ask Jing Ning. After all, he hasn’t told anyone about his secret crush. So suddenly asking him why didn’t he get any progress with his crush would be considered very rude. In desperation, he could only try to find clues by asking around. And the first person he found was the screenwriter Hao Jing, who usually talked the most.

After finding him, he went straight to the point, and asked directly, “I heard that Jing Ning has had some problems recently. You are his good friend, do you know anything?”

Boss Zhou Yu suddenly inspected Qin Zhuan studio, and also deliberately found an empty room to ask the staff to come in to have a talk one by one. It made Hao Jing think that something big was going to happen. For example, the boss was dissatisfied with the quality of “Zhenbian Bedtime Stories” and was preparing for firing many people. Just when he was scared, he heard such a question. So he didn’t know how to react for a while.

“Wait, what? Hmmm, Ning Zi indeed has a problem recently, but it is only a small matter, he has no problem doing his job.”

Hao Jing naturally wanted to put in a good word for his good friend, but Zhou Yu’s focus was not that, so he insisted that he made things clear. Helplessly, Hao Jing could only say that Jing Ning had a crush on a girl in the dubbing group, but it didn’t seem to go well because the characters of the two people were really different.

If he was just heartbroken, how could it become a horror movie? Zhou Yu felt that there was something deeper that needed to be explored. Otherwise, if this story could not be completed, it would mean all the effort he had spent on this flower seedling would be in vain.

“Sigh, Ning Zi likes Xiao Liu, everyone all knows about this. Otherwise, he would’ve found excuses to approach her from time to time.”

Speaking of this, Yu Yu blushed a little bit, because, in fact, all these excuses were made by him, the purpose was to make the loving seedling grow faster. Therefore, at least, a part of that was not correct, but it was indeed true that he liked that girl.

Then Hao Jing continued, “later, although they did not formally start a relationship, they often went out with Xiao Liu and her other girl friends. Ning Zi is a timid man, but Xiao Liu likes something more exciting and extreme, such as haunted houses and roller coasters. As a result, every time when Ning Zi came back, he had to lie down for a day. ”

It turned out that there was finally some connection to the plot. It could only be said that God wanted to make fun of him, making a timid guy fall in love with a scream queen? Luckily, this timid guy was still able to hold on, otherwise, the story Zhou Yu got would be similar to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

“Last time they went to the heartbeat valley, Ning Zi completely collapsed after returning, and it seemed that he had completely given up chasing her. In fact, this is a good thing. The two of them really have very different personalities. They are not suitable for each other.”

Zhou Yu was not interested in what would happen to those two in the future. He was more concerned about how to finish the story. After all, not every love story would have the same endings, so no one would be able to tell exactly what would happen to them, let alone Zhou Yu, this newbie.

After getting the clue, Zhou Yu left Qin Zhuan studio and arrived at the heartbeat valley.

In the Fantasy City, Heartbeat Valley had some of the more extreme amusement rides. Jing Ning’s love story ended here, so the second half of his story should be able to continue from here.

Sure enough, as soon as he entered the heartbeat valley, the little black book held in little Niannian’s hands had reactions, and the farther he moved forward, the stronger the reactions were as if it was guiding them.

After arriving at a place, Xiao Niannian suddenly shouted, “father, we are here!”

Zhou Yu lowered his head and looked at the book in little Niannian’s hand. The book was already open, and a quill pen, the size of a toothpick, was floating in midair, writing the story smoothly on the book. But after writing for a while, the quill pen stopped, but it did not disappear. It made Zhou Yu very confused.

This was like a puzzle game with no hints, but it was also very interesting. But since the quill pen hasn’t disappeared, it meant that the ‘ink’ needed for the story was nearby. He just needed to find it. Continuing to move around, he used the eyes of the ACG world to check the surroundings, paying attention to the information that may be useful.

Finally, near the bungee jumping platform, “a coward’s image fragment” was found. However, Zhou Yu did know if it was Jing Ning’s. After all, there were some timid people screaming and jumping from above every day. Maybe someone else left this fragment. But a coward’s image fragment? It meant that someone’s cowardly image must have been shattered very hard.

Trying to put the fragment on the book, the quill pen accepted the ‘ink’ and started to write again. Zhou Yu then moved around in the area for a while again, and sure enough, he could find some other fragments. It was a pity that the quill pen only accepted one piece of fragments here. After stopping writing, it no longer accepted the fragments from this area. It seemed that it needed other types of fragments.

Continuing to search for other types of fragments in the other amusement rides areas, such as Hell’s gate, Rocket, etc. and after going through dozens of amusement rides, all the necessary fragments were finally found.

After finishing collecting all the fragments, Zhou Yu was sweating very hard, but it was not caused by exhaustion. Instead, he was also scared by how wild this girl was. Playing with so many extreme amusement rides in one go, even a regular person would be exhausted both mentally and physically, let alone Jing Ning, this famous coward.

No wonder this place would become The Heartbroken Land. Probably after a day of the trip here, many people also realized that they would never be able to win the hearts of the girls they liked.

Alas, it seemed like Jing Ning wasn’t alone.

After all the fragments were collected, the quill pen also completed its mission and disappeared into the air. However, when Little Niannian read it again, the story still did not end.

In this story, while the protagonist was restoring his brain function, his memory was also slowly restored. Moreover, the mystery of why he encountered a car accident also gradually became clear, including the hidden scheme. However, the last big chapter of the story was still blank.

What does it mean? Could it be that this story had an open ending, so readers could guess the ending themselves?

Clearly, it was a detective game, but it still did not give him an answer, how would people with OCD accept this kind of ending? It was a pity that although Zhou Yu took the book and checked other places as well, the book still had no reactions. It could only mean that they would not be able to find any clues here anymore.

Helplessly, he could only return to the studio. However, it was there that the ending of the story finally appeared, and it was discovered by an accident.

The poor Jing Ning finally summoned the courage to formally confess to Xiao Liu. He wanted to give it a last try. However, in the face of Jing Ning’s confession, Xiao Liu expressed her feelings and gave him a friendzone card.

“I’m sorry, I always treat you as my friend.”

It was truly sad.