Chapter 1: Investigator 01

In the pitch-black alley, a flickering crimson ember burned intermittently.

Using the traces of this faint fire, one could finally vaguely capture the silhouette of a figure in the dark alley.

It was a tall and straight young man, dressed entirely in black, almost blending into the night. The outline of a firearm could be faintly seen on the side of his trench coat, and a dangerous aura, condensed from a chilling intent to kill, shrouded him as if he were the grim reaper walking through the night.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, he took a step forward, coincidentally stepping on the edge of a puddle.

If one were to rewind the situation a few minutes ago, it would be revealed that it wasn’t a puddle but a pool of blood.

Unconcerned, he walked forward, stepping on the blood without hesitation. Suddenly, he looked up, looking towards the surveillance camera on the side.

Most of his face was hidden under the brim of his hat, and the camera could only capture a clearly defined jawline. The young man seemed to have guessed this, confidently tilting his head back. The camera captured him with a cigarette in his mouth.

His lips curled suddenly, revealing a smile that seemed both playful and mocking. It exuded the interest of a predator, watching from a high vantage point, making the people behind the surveillance involuntarily tense and feel a chill down their spine.

The surveillance abruptly stopped here. Before it turned into a screen full of snowflakes, a chilling muzzle appeared in the frame.

…
The room fell silent for a while in the image studio, and then a series of relieved sighs could be heard. Obviously, the people in the room were sufficiently startled by the last scene.

“Bang—”

The members were still immersed in the shock of the moment when they heard a gunshot from the monitor. When they looked up, they realized that it was the leader of the special task force slamming the table.

The leader, with a noticeable presence just from his physique, was so angry that his entire face turned red. The shiny bald spot in the middle of his forehead reflected light as he angrily exclaimed, “Provocation! This is definitely provocation!!!”

…

In the background noise, while the leader continued his impassioned speech, a young man with fox-like eyes approached Chu Xia. He whispered, “Don’t worry, Lanlan. This kind of high-risk investigation won’t be assigned to newcomers. The leader is just using this to assert his authority over new members.”

Xia Huanglan is the name of the rich lady’s main character. Coincidentally, the last name coincides with Chu Xia’s first name.

The young man who approached Chu Xia was named “Yin Han.” According to the setting, he was the next-door brother of the main character, starting with a goodwill of 60 points and bearing the responsibility of introducing the world background to the player. He belonged to the novice guide category as the official supporting male lead.

Of course, just by looking at the character’s dazzling attribute points when Chu Xia took over, it was evident that the rich lady spared no expense. She wouldn’t settle for a novice guide as her main romantic interest.

As it turned out, the rich lady did indeed have a challenging spirit.

The romantic interest she chose…

Was the man on the surveillance camera just now?

—Who wouldn’t say it’s impressive?

The game was titled “My Heart Beats for You.” Chu Xia had played it several times, collecting the endings as a guide. She was already familiar with the world background. The opening plot of [New Investigator] had been repeated several times, and she could even recite some parts by heart.

Even so, Chu Xia didn’t rush to skip.

After completing this dialogue, there is an attribute point reward of [Intelligence +1, Perception +1].

Although the rich lady’s initial character attributes were blinding, Chu Xia, who had always been thrifty, didn’t let go of a single point or penny.

She didn’t waste time purely on this; instead, she took the opportunity to check the rich lady’s game log, which documented her experiences of being killed eight times by the opponent.

Capper, the black-clad man from the surveillance

In theory, such a dangerous adversary character shouldn’t appear in the initial stages, as it could easily affect the player’s gaming experience. However, this dangerous character was the one the rich lady chose as her target for romance.

Most love games on the market now, after players lock in their romance targets, utilize algorithms to create various encounters during the game, known as the so-called “fate” between the player and the locked character. “My Heart Beats for You” is no exception.

Thus, a killer who appears to only walk in the night suddenly showed up in the player’s early routine tasks without any warning.

In the first round, Capper appeared in a coffee shop.

A heinous crime occurred in the shop, and the main character, as a rookie investigator, arrived at the scene. This was an early daily task to brush up on attributes. After finding clues and identifying the killer, even if the task was completed, the player would receive partial attribute rewards. If the romance target belonged to the [investigator faction], this was also an opportunity to increase daily favorability.

But the rich lady’s chosen romance target was Capper.

It was evident that the rich lady wasn’t familiar with this game, which forum players jokingly called “playing with heartbeats.” Perhaps her previous romance targets followed the routine, so she charged ahead directly.

The rich lady skillfully gathered a wave of information under the guise of a “routine inquiry” and satisfactorily concluded the [First Encounter Event].

The result was that on her way home that evening, she had a gun pressed against her head, and a deep, smiling voice echoed from behind: “Miss Investigator, it seems like you’re quite interested in me?”

The headline news the next day was:

“Alliance’s Rising Investigator Assassinated”

[One kill].

Although the rich lady showed commendable courage in choosing a romance target, she wasn’t a reckless person. In the second round, she learned from the previous lesson and avoided direct contact throughout.

This time, the chance encounter took place in a museum, with the general situation being similar to the previous round.

The rich lady probably still had some psychological shadows from the previous outcome. This time, she deliberately avoided any contact with the character.

However—

“Miss Investigator seems to be avoiding me. Why? Have we met somewhere before?”

[Two kills].

In the following rounds [Three Kills], [Four Kills], and [Five Kills], regardless of how the main character acted, she couldn’t escape this “starting kill” plot.

This is the difficulty of holographic games; players are not professional actors, and mood changes will always be reflected in their expressions. Dealing with a challenging romance target like Capper is simply a nightmare.

The rich lady persistently kept restarting, and finally, in the sixth round, there was some improvement. She didn’t get killed as soon as they met but managed to survive until the next day, and then… she got killed.

Chu Xia: “…”

A bit pitiful.

The sixth round was different from the previous five in that this time, the main character encountered Capper in a non-working casual scenario, wearing everyday clothes.

Realizing something, the rich lady started taking casual missions from the seventh round onward.

Naturally, she encountered Capper in a logical sequence, becoming a passerby who mistakenly entered the scene of a big shot’s mission and got silenced.

“Tsk, troublesome rat.”

Even the title “Miss Investigator” was gone.

The eighth round.

Same casual attire, same accidental intrusion. She didn’t even get a chance to interact with Capper personally this time; she was killed by the aftermath of an explosion on the spot.

“Hmm? Is someone there?”

Even her presence disappeared.

The rich lady finally broke down.

She contacted customer service to complain: [Is this reasonable? Is this reasonable at all?! He’s so arrogant, openly committing crimes in public; shouldn’t the patrol robots catch him?!]

Customer Service: [Dear, we’ve received your feedback and are transferring it to the relevant department. Please wait~]

Customer Service Assistant: [Hello, I’m Xiao Guai, and I’m happy to assist you. I need to read through the chat logs; please wait.]

Customer Service Assistant: [Dear, our game, although set in a completely virtual background, considers the basic developmental status of the mother planet from the early era. At that time, artificial intelligence was in its early stages, with limited scene recognition capabilities. Misjudgments are easy to occur, and their application is quite restricted. We don’t yet have fully automatic law enforcement facilities like patrol robots. Please understand.]

Xia Minglan: […]

Clearly, the customer service did not interpret the rich meaning behind the ellipsis but continued with their explanation: [If you have any ideas about this, you can try to develop a similar product in the game yourself.]

Xia Minglan: [?]

Customer Service Assistant: [Although “Heartbeat” is a romance game in name, it incorporates a powerful physics engine, fully simulating the real environment. Players can freely choose their development path, and we have not set any restrictions on this. Its physics engine is the SS21 series, the core of the base-building game “Deserted Island Construction” launched in the first half of the year, which includes information on xxx known materials in the interstellar region. The AI is also double S-class, with computational power enough to support…blah blah…rest assured, the core of this game is absolutely sufficient to support your development within it.]

Xia Minglan: [??]

Customer Service Assistant: [Dear, do you have any other questions? Xiao Guai is here to answer for you.]

Xia Minglan: [… none]

Xia Minglan: [Thank you so much (smile.jpg)]

Customer Service Assistant: [You’re welcome (smile.jpg)]

Chu Xia couldn’t help but burst out laughing: “Pfft~”