Gloomy CEO X Holographic Male God (8): Who is causing my heart to beat so fast?

The sky began to drizzle lightly, and the overly realistic physical reaction made Si Qi instinctively look up at the sky above.

He habitually walked towards Chu Feng’s direction, getting closer and closer. Chu Feng’s heart raced, repeatedly warned by the system, but his mind buzzed and he couldn’t pay attention to anything.

——How did 47 notice him? And why was he suddenly getting closer now? Did he also have a crush on him at first sight…? 

Si Qi blinked in confusion and said to him, “An umbrella?”

Chu Feng was taken aback, realizing only now that raindrops were falling. He quickly pulled up the system and selected an umbrella, placing it between the two of them.

This set of actions was as smooth as flowing water, as if he had done it countless times before.

Si Qi also very naturally stood under the umbrella with him, but within the one-meter radius of the umbrella’s canopy, that close distance brought a warmth that Chu Feng hadn’t felt in years, making him shiver all over.

The reason for this shiver, whether it was his germophobia or something else, he didn’t know, but he couldn’t help but want to confirm.

Si Qi carefully observed him and said with a smile, “You seem a bit nervous?”

Chu Feng paused for a moment, avoiding the somewhat sensitive topic, and offered a more reasonable explanation: “I think many people would react this way when they see you.”

Si Qi, relentless, continued to smile and ask, “Is it because of this?”

Because of Si Qi’s sudden action, many streamers rushed over. Chu Feng saw the crowd and instinctively showed a resistant body language. Si Qi then remembered what Xiu Xiu said, “The Lord God has a severe cleanliness obsession,” so he left Chu Feng’s side, braving the rain and stepping out of the umbrella’s cover, indirectly blocking that group of people.

Xuanzi curiously looked at Chu Feng under the umbrella: “What is this NPC doing?”

There were only so many people participating in the closed beta, and they had always been acting together, so he naturally assumed that this person was not a fellow player. 

And the virtual characters in the game were made so realistic that Xuanzi and the others didn’t recognize that this was actually a real person.

Si Qi: “He didn’t do anything, I was just inviting him to team up with me.”

Seeing the C-rank mercenary badge on Chu Feng’s chest, just like Si Qi’s, Xuanzi and the others nodded in understanding.

Hearing this from a distance, Chu Feng’s expression was somewhat complicated.

So Si Qi treated him as a passing NPC… no wonder…

He had been too optimistic about the situation.

But thanks to this misunderstanding, he got the chance to talk to Si Qi.

Chu Feng was lost in thought when suddenly he furrowed his brows.

Wait, didn’t Si Qi recognize the difference between NPCs and real people at a glance before?

So did he see through it or not…

Chu Feng fell into a dilemma.

Chu Feng was the “target” chosen by Si Qi, and since Chu Feng was just an NPC, no one would specifically seek out Chu Feng for a conversation, which saved Chu Feng a lot of trouble.

He watched as Si Qi shook off the invitations from those around him and came back to him once again, quickly handing a towel to the rain-soaked young man.

This was something he would never have done in his lifetime.

Si Qi took the towel and wiped the water droplets off his face and hair, saying to Chu Feng, “Let’s team up. I want to be with you.”

Chu Feng’s heart skipped a beat. He knew the other person didn’t mean it that way, but he couldn’t help but indulge in a moment of fantasy, nodding and saying, “No problem.”

Si Qi smiled and submitted a team application with Chu Feng: “Let’s go.”

Chu Feng unknowingly fell into Si Qi’s rhythm: “Where to?”

Si Qi: “A date.”

Chu Feng’s eyes slightly widened, once again frantically pondering whether Si Qi had figured out that he was a real person, and whether his words carried any deeper meaning.

Si Qi curled his lips: “Let’s drive, my driving skills are really good.”

Chu Feng lowered his head, his ears slightly warm: “…………”

The audience in the live stream burst into laughter, everyone thinking Si Qi was seriously talking about driving, making jokes out of Si Qi’s words. Only Xiu Xiu knew that Si Qi was deliberately teasing the Lord God by pretending not to understand. Habitually, Xiu Xiu recorded this segment of “the affectionate moments between the master and the Lord God” and saved it in the well-stocked collection folder as a keepsake.

Chu Feng: “Everyone else is busy exploring the main storyline, aren’t you going to do the mission?”

Si Qi: “It’s okay, the audience must be very interested in seeing the situation in this city. We’ll leave the main exploration tasks to them.”

He rented a super cool-looking heavy motorcycle with the currency given by the system, justifying, “This is cheaper than renting a car.”

Then he stretched his long legs and stepped into the driver’s seat, leaving a space just wide enough for one person behind, waiting for Chu Feng to come over on his own.

Chu Feng felt his scalp tingling.

His body resisted physical contact with strangers, but his heart had already flown to Si Qi. Unable to help but clench his fists, his body trembled as he moved closer to Si Qi, lifted his leg, and sat in the back seat.

Si Qi said cheerfully, “Hold on tight—”

With a loud roar, the electronic motor emitted a deep and powerful humming sound. A bright blue light flashed by, instantly breaking through the pitch-black road and flying towards the distant horizon.

Chu Feng, caught off guard by the sudden acceleration, instinctively reached out to grab something to steady himself. The adrenaline surged rapidly due to the sensation of weightlessness after the acceleration, igniting an indescribable emotion that was neither excitement nor fear.

The cold night air hit him in the face, and the fine rain pelted his body, but he felt hot all over, his fingertips trembling.

Si Qi was right in front of him; he could embrace him from behind with just a stretch of his arms.

The young man’s cheerful laughter reached his ears, making him involuntarily leap with joy.

He went to great lengths to create such a realistic holographic world, all to allow his own self, unable to step into reality, to feel the outside world.

Wind, rain, snow, dust… all the things he couldn’t tolerate, he tried to make them as real as possible. This was his rebellion against himself, the world he wanted to touch.

But even after spending so many years creating a second world with his own hands like a god, he never felt joy, because he knew all of it was fake. In this world, besides him, there was no one to share happiness with.

Until this moment.

Under the guidance of the young man, he admired the city’s scenery, the vast city night view like a sea of stars, the street lights winding away like a galaxy. The scenery, which should have been all too familiar, became so vivid and full of life just because there was another person by his side.

The viewers watching the live broadcast were captivated by the scenery brought by Si Qi. They had never seen such a real and imaginative future sci-fi world. They were thoroughly enchanted by the game, eagerly anticipating that Shifeng Company would soon release the new game.

Si Qi leaned against the door of a shop illuminated by flickering neon lights, his smiling eyes fixed on his lover beside him. He hadn’t seen the other person for almost a month, and now, after a long separation, he felt very happy.

“In ten minutes, I have to leave (log off). Let’s go to one last place.”

Chu Feng woke up from a beautiful dream. He suddenly remembered that all of this was just virtual. The young man had never truly appeared before him, and even a change in thought might mean they would never interact again.

Thinking of this possibility, Chu Feng felt a wave of dizziness, as if the ground beneath his feet had lost its support, and his body kept falling down, into an endless abyss.

He didn’t want to lose this person. If he had never interacted with him, he might have easily made the choice to leave. But once he had come into contact with the young man, he could no longer bear to lose him.

He sat in the car in a daze, letting Si Qi take him to the final destination.

The wind tousled his hair, which should have been unbearable for him, but instead of using his hands to brush away the strands in front of his eyes, he couldn’t help but reach out, wrapping his arms tightly around the young man’s strong and resilient waist from behind.

He once thought he would quickly pull away from such contact, unable to bear it, but the reality was that he not only didn’t pull away because of the warmth of the human body, but instead leaned in closer, resting his face on the young man’s shoulder, his strong arms wrapping around the young man’s body, feeling that warm body heat, as if he were a lost traveler in the desert, seeking salvation.

Thump, thump, that was the sound of his heart racing wildly.

The lights on the road beside him kept flowing backward, the hazy light making his vision feel like a distorted dream. Chu Feng finally realized that his excited and tense nerves were not due to his illness, but because of the person in front of him.

He couldn’t bear to miss these last few minutes, even though the young man probably didn’t care about him at all and didn’t know that he was experiencing such precious moments in his life.

They parked at the mountaintop far from the city, overlooking the world ahead that sparkled like a dazzling gem. The surroundings were quiet and empty, as if only the two of them existed in the universe.

No one spoke. Si Qi leaned against the motorcycle, quietly feeling the atmosphere of the moment.

After a long while, he said to Chu Feng beside him, “See you tomorrow.”

In an instant, Chu Feng’s pitch-black eyes, which seemed capable of devouring everything, were dotted with starlight, illuminated by the myriad lights ahead.

For the first time, Chu Feng revealed a genuine smile and said to Si Qi with longing, “See you tomorrow.”

At exactly ten o’clock, everyone participating in the internal test live broadcast was invited out of the game world.

Looking at the suddenly disappearing figure, Chu Feng’s heart, which should have felt empty, was instead filled to the brim.

……

Si Qi opened his eyes from the holographic pod, the chip on his temple slowly detaching and returning to its original position.

Xiu Xiu informed him that the group of streamers, including Zhou Qi, who had been bought off by the Chu family, were secretly recording the situation inside the holographic pod, trying to steal some secrets.

Si Qi sneered: [These worthless people.]

The invited guests watching the live broadcast at the venue erupted into enthusiastic cheers, continuously applauding the internal testers who emerged from the holographic pods.

Many stars, who were only invited to experience the game once, couldn’t wait to ask the host if they could play the game a few more times, as they simply couldn’t forget that sense of realism.

Even though the main content of the event had ended, the atmosphere in the venue showed no signs of cooling down. This live broadcast, which had been incredibly lively from the very beginning, maintained its high energy until the very last second.

That night, the entire trending list was dominated by Chu Feng Company’s holographic game. Si Qi became the best ambassador for promotion. His story-filled deeds, captivating appearance and voice, the dreamlike scenery he led the audience to appreciate, and the thrilling test videos that made people’s blood race and left them craving for more, all fully captured people’s attention.

No one else could generate as much buzz as him and the holographic game. For a time, whether in the real world or online, everyone was talking about the same thing.

Si Qi, as the star anchor of Shifeng Company, was invited to stay and continue participating in the subsequent live broadcasts. Xuanzi and the others were also invited and, without exception, agreed.

At this point in time, whether it was the fervent fans from the outside paying a high price to buy a holographic chamber, or competing companies trying to steal holographic technology through the chamber, the company currently could not send the holographic chambers to the streamers’ homes for them to use freely. Therefore, everyone, including Si Qi, was uniformly invited by Shifeng to stay at a hotel. When they needed to play games, they would go to the nearby Shifeng company to log in and play.

Si Qi stood not far from the Shifeng Company building, quietly gazing at the top floor above. That was the office floor of the President of Shifeng Group, and also the place where Chu Feng, who disliked going out, resided year-round.

The holographic chamber was usually placed on the fortieth floor, which meant that he and Chu Feng were separated by only seven floors every day, less than thirty meters apart.

Continuing the original owner’s habit of spending a lot of time training whenever he came into contact with a new game, Si Qi now spent almost all his time in the game pod every day, except for eating and sleeping. This had made it convenient for him to interact with Chu Feng, whether in the real world or the virtual world.

Just as he took out his key card and was about to enter the Shifeng Building, a smiling man in a suit suddenly called out to him, “Mr. Si, please wait.”

Si Qi stopped in his tracks, and Xiu Xiu immediately pulled up the other person’s information, saying to Si Qi: [Master! He is an employee under the Lord God’s uncle, and has been trying to win over those streamers! He uses huge amounts of money to tempt the streamers, making them steal confidential information! He has already reached agreements with quite a few people!!]

Si Qi smiled and said, “Hello, may I ask who you are?”

Suit man: “I am the General Secretary of Huanyu Enterprise. The Director of Huanyu Enterprise is Mr. Chu Feng’s uncle… Here is my business card.”

Si Qi took the business card, glanced at it, and politely asked, “I see. May I ask what you need?”

The suit man looked around and smiled, “Let’s find a cafe to sit down and chat slowly.”

The two found a cafe far from the bustling city, where they wouldn’t be encountered by the staff there. The man in the suit said to Si Qi, “Actually, we’ve heard about you for a long time and have always wanted to meet you. Unfortunately, we could never find your contact information until now, and we are finally fortunate enough to meet you.”

Compared to the scheming and cunning streamers like Zhou Qi, this group obviously thought it would be quicker to directly ask Brother 47 to steal the information. But in the original timeline, the Chu family’s relatives couldn’t find 47’s whereabouts, so they had to settle for Zhou Qi and his team.

Si Qi raised an eyebrow: “I left my number at the company. Since your boss is a relative of the president, is this little matter really that hard to handle?”

The man in the suit sighed and smiled helplessly, “Well, Mr. Chu has a rather rebellious personality. He left the family and lived on his own when he was very young, so he isn’t very close to the people in the family.”

Si Qi replied bluntly, “So contacting me is like pushing me into a fire pit?”

The man in the suit choked, thinking to himself, who chats like this? Normally, you should either gloss over the topic with some vague responses or delve deeper into gossip, right?

This 47 had always been rated as gentle and refined online. How come when he actually met him, he was so irritable? It was really true that seeing is believing.

The man in the suit explained, “You misunderstood. Although Mr. Chu has always disliked his family, he is still the eldest son with inheritance rights. My boss has always cared about him, fearing that at such a young age, he might ruin the family business and go astray. The success of Shifeng today is inseparable from my boss’s discreet help.”

Xiu Xiu complained: [It’s definitely  secret sabotage! Without your interference, Lord God would have at least doubled his empire by now!]

Si Qi: “So, what does your issue with my boss have to do with me? I’m just a streamer and I’ve never even met our boss.”

The man in the suit said, “Don’t underestimate yourself. Aren’t you the most famous and important employee at Shifeng right now? You’re even involved with the holographic technology that everyone in the world wants to know about…”

Si Qi: “So, you’re interested in this holographic technology?”

Suit Man: “The Chu family is interested in it. As you know, Mr. Chu has a rebellious personality, doesn’t like to interact with people, keeps everything to himself, and refuses to communicate with the elders of the family. He always thinks he can manage Shifeng well on his own. But in reality, without the Chu family’s secret assistance, how could Shifeng have reached where it is today under the management of a young person? Now Mr. Chu has come up with this holographic technology, and God knows how many people want to steal it! We originally wanted to help Mr. Chu safeguard this technology, but Mr. Chu is more wary of us than of outsiders. We really have no choice… You see, the Chu family’s things will still belong to Mr. Chu in the future, right? We won’t treat Mr. Chu poorly if no one else does!”

Si Qi nodded: “So, what do you want me to do?”

Seeing Si Qi being so straightforward, the Suit Man quickly said, “We hope you can use your position to help us obtain the holographic technology and hand it over to us for processing. Don’t worry, this isn’t pro bono work. If you provide us with useful information, our company will definitely not be stingy with the reward. Each piece of information starts at a minimum of six figures, with no upper limit!”

Si Qi smiled faintly, “It seems like you’re not saying this for the first time, are you? Have you approached anyone else besides me?”

The man in the suit, calm and smiling, said, “Of course, many people are cooperating with us. You are not fighting alone. If you need help, I believe they would be more than willing to assist you, after all, you are doing a good deed.”

Si Qi asked, “For example, who are they?”

The man in the suit replied smartly, “You will naturally know when the time comes.”

Si Qi nodded, “Quite cautious.”

He pushed away the coffee the waiter brought over, resting his elbow on the table and leaning back in his chair. This subtle body language gave the suited man across from him a bad feeling, but Si Qi’s next words were straightforward: “Pleasure doing business, jot down my bank account number.”

The suited man was pleasantly surprised and quickly replied, “Of course, pleasure doing business!”

He noted down Si Qi’s bank card number and then watched as Si Qi got up and left. Recalling the look Si Qi had just given him, he always felt that something was off, but he couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was.

Si Qi returned to the company, took the elevator to the 40th floor, repeated the steps of swiping his card, voice wave scanning, and pupil scanning, passed through multiple password gates, and sat down in the game pod.

Before long, Chu Feng, who was even more punctual than an NPC, followed closely behind and entered the game, his eyes silently watching Si Qi as if they could speak.

Whenever Si Qi saw him, his mood instantly brightened. A charming smile spreads across his handsome face, and his pitch-black eyes gaze at Chu Feng, making one feel as if they are basking in the warmth of spring, as if he was being cherished by the other person.

“Let’s go, we’re going to train.”

Watching Si Qi naturally take his hand and lead him forward, Chu Feng quietly followed behind Si Qi, the unspoken emotions piling up more and more.

Recently, it might be the longest time Chu Feng had spent with someone in the past twenty years, and also the time he had had the most physical contact with others.

He obediently walked hand in hand with Si Qi, and after getting into the car, he hugged Si Qi from behind. Over these days, he had already gotten used to this way of interacting, and so had Si Qi.

Today was a windy day, just right for outdoor sniper training.

Si Qi knew that Chu Feng didn’t like close contact with others and would definitely excel at the task of “not letting anyone get close.” So, when assigning roles within the team, he gave the long-range sniper mission to him.

In the game, long-range sniping tested not only vision but also a calm heart.

The game directly measured the player’s heart rate; the slower the heartbeat, the calmer the player, the higher the accuracy of the sniper rifle, and the clearer the vision.

On the contrary, if the player’s heart rate was too fast and they were too nervous, the scope would be a mess, and nothing would be visible.

Usually, when watching Chu Feng shoot indoors alone, he hit the target every time, with precision and efficiency, remaining incredibly calm and composed.

Si Qi was thinking of scheduling outdoor shooting training as well, lying prone on the desolate plain, holding a telescope in hand, acting as Chu Feng’s observer, reporting wind speed and distance to him.

Chu Feng was just a few dozen centimeters away from Si Qi, holding a heavy anti-material sniper rifle in front of him.

The two were communicating through earpieces.

As the target appeared, Si Qi calculated the distance and wind speed, and said into the earpiece, “Eleven o’clock ahead, distance 1047 meters, southeast wind speed 28.”

A clearly audible voice floated to Chu Feng’s ear, as if Si Qi was whispering to him, even the sound of his breathing was distinctly heard.

Chu Feng’s entire back tensed up, and he instantly couldn’t take it anymore.

So, Si Qi quietly waited for two seconds, but there was no response from Chu Feng.

Feeling a bit strange, holding the telescope but unable to tilt his head to see what was happening with Chu Feng, he reported the enemy’s position again as they ran swiftly. This time, he added, “1127?”

He never considered how powerful his voice would be at such close range to someone else’s ears. Chu Feng felt his bones go weak, the slightly questioning tone making him feel disoriented. Chu Feng instinctively pulled the trigger.

A huge rumbling sound erupted in front of the two, momentarily deafening them.

Si Qi caught a strong smell of iron and gunpowder carried by the gentle breeze. Through the telescope, it was clear that the bullet had missed its target by a long shot, with a difference of a hundred thousand miles between them.

Si Qi, puzzled, turned his head to look at his lover, who was not performing as expected.

At a glance, he noticed that Chu Feng’s breathing was slightly rapid, his eyes flickering uncertainly, and his reaction was quite strange.

Unable to resist, he elbowed his way over to the ground, touched Chu Feng’s body, and asked with concern, “What’s wrong with you?”

Chu Feng’s heart was pounding like a drum as he looked at the foggy, indistinct scope ahead, his eyelashes trembling slightly.

“I’m, I’m fine.”

The right side of his body, leaning against Si Qi, was so tense it felt numb. Regarding Si Qi’s unconscious intimate gesture, Chu Feng was truly at a loss and couldn’t help but scream internally—

Too close!!