From the police station, Xiao Xun reached out to touch the noticeable scratch on the car.
Although he knew Mu Jiahe wouldn't care about it, he felt guilty for scratching the car he borrowed.
Furthermore, knowing it was such an expensive car made him feel even more distressed.
Chu Ningxiang, on the other hand, seemed unfazed. After bidding farewell to her classmate, she took out her phone and showed Xiao Xun the movie ticket purchase record, "Let's go! Let's eat first, then you can accompany me to watch the movie!"
After they got into the car, Xiao Xun's phone rang. It was Zhang Ming.
Xiao Xun glanced at Chu Ningxiang, "Wait for me in the car for a moment, I need to take a call." He said, opened the car door, and walked to the back of the car.
"Hello? Are you sober..."
Zhang Ming's tone was cold, "I have some bad news for you, prepare yourself."
Xiao Xun frowned, "What happened?"
"Wu Yutong is gone."
Xiao Xun didn't react immediately to the name, "Who is Wu Yutong?"
"It's Black Shark, but that name might not be real either, it could be modified data, because the photo doesn't look like a typical identification photo."
Xiao Xun looked around, "Isn't he in a wheelchair? Even if he's not, how could he possibly slip away under your noses?"
Zhang Ming scoffed, "Who told you that someone in a wheelchair must have leg problems? I suspect it was his disguise, perhaps he was just too lazy to walk. Most hackers have some kind of mental issues. It's our fault too, we were negligent after locking him up. This person truly is a top hacker; fingerprint locks, iris recognition, none of them stopped him. He just walked out of the detention center, and even managed to disable the entire security system. It's a complete disgrace."
"Okay, I understand. As long as he's still in this world, he'll leave some trace. I'll find a way to locate him, don't worry." He then glanced at the car, "I have something else going on here, so I'll hang up now."
Back in the car, Chu Ningxiang noticed Xiao Xun seemed a bit unhappy. After learning about his identity, she guessed it was work-related, "Is something bothering you?"
"No! Let's go eat!" he said while fastening his seatbelt, "By the way, which cinema are your movie tickets for? Let's eat near there!"
Hearing that nothing was wrong, Chu Ningxiang happily gave him the address.
After a meal of barbecue, Xiao Xun checked his phone. There was still some time before the movie started.
"There's an arcade next door, let's go pass the time there!"
At Chu Ningxiang's suggestion, they went to the arcade, which was quite busy.
At the entrance, there were two large dance machines. Two girls were dancing on the machines, following the prompts and rhythm, while their boyfriends watched them nearby, holding drinks and jackets, chatting and laughing.
Xiao Xun bought fifty tokens, each costing two yuan.
Looking at the dazzling array of game machines, Chu Ningxiang asked Xiao Xun, who was following him with a paper cup, "What should we play?"
Xiao Xun smiled, "I haven't played these games much, you play!"
"It's no fun playing alone... Come on."
Chu Ningxiang naturally took Xiao Xun's hand and led him to a simulation racing game machine called "Crazy Motorcycle."
It was a realistic racing game where two people shared one screen.
One motorcycle cost three tokens. After starting, Chu Ningxiang sped ahead, clearly an experienced player.
Xiao Xun, on the other hand, kept falling or crashing into walls.
Chu Ningxiang broke her own record, while Xiao Xun didn't even finish half the course.
She got off the simulated motorcycle and jumped up excitedly, "Yes! I finally beat you once!"
Xiao Xun looked at the curious glances from people around him with a smile, "As long as you're happy."
They played almost every type of game machine and were left with only three tokens.
"Which one do you want to play next?"
Chu Ningxiang glanced at the three tokens in Xiao Xun's paper cup, "With three tokens, there's not much else to play. Can you win me a doll?"
Xiao Xun walked to the claw machine. Each attempt cost two tokens.
"Which one do you want?"
Chu Ningxiang looked at the cute dolls all around and knew that two tokens wouldn't be enough to grab one. "Whatever, if you can grab one, I'll give you a small reward."
Xiao Xun poured the tokens from the paper cup into his hand. He checked each claw machine, except for the ones currently in use.
Then he stopped in front of a very large claw machine. It also cost two tokens per attempt, but the success rate was extremely low.
The dolls inside seemed like they hadn't been caught since they were placed there. The dolls were exquisite, like the 'lucky cats' in the store. The token slot looked like a 'donation box' in a temple.
Xiao Xun inserted the tokens and waited a few seconds before controlling the claw to cut. Unsurprisingly, he didn't catch anything.
Chu Ningxiang didn't have much hope either; it was a matter of probability, not skill.
Seeing that Xiao Xun only had one token left, and it was getting late, "Alright, the movie is about to start, let's go!"
"Wait for me a moment."
With that, he took the last token and went to the coin pusher game machine. The glass cover on it read: No hitting, violators will be fined.
Xiao Xun circled the game machine. In a few places, the coin towers were on the edge of a cliff; a gentle push would send them tumbling down.
He raised his hand and wedged the token into the coin slot, mentally counting the seconds.
Chu Ningxiang watched from behind, not disturbing him.
He inserted the token and waited below. The coin landed at the back of the coin pile, pushing it forward. A row of game tokens fell, and after a secondary push, they made a crisp "clanging" sound, and only two fell, meaning he earned one game token.
Xiao Xun returned to the previous claw machine with two game tokens. He followed the same procedure: wait a few seconds, then try to cut.
To his surprise, he succeeded this time. Chu Ningxiang jumped up with joy, immediately attracting a crowd.
"How much did this guy spend to get it?"
"Wow! The manager of this arcade got caught!"
Many people took out their phones to capture the moment the store employee opened the glass cabinet with a key and posted the amusing anecdote online.
Holding the doll, which was almost as tall as himself, Chu Ningxiang couldn't be happier. This sense of attention-grabbing achievement felt even better than winning a competition.
Competitions relied on skill, but this relied on luck.
Xiao Xun looked at Chu Ningxiang's happy face and asked, "What about my small reward?"
Chu Ningxiang's face suddenly blushed, "You still remember! I'll give it to you later."
The doll was so conspicuous wherever they went that they had to put it in the car before going to watch the movie.
The movie they watched was an epic fantasy film, the story of a golden ring.
Xiao Xun wondered why Chu Ningxiang chose such a movie for their first date. Perhaps it was because of the runtime. Among the movies playing at the same time, with the same ticket price, others were under two hours, while this one was over three hours long, and it would be time for dinner after it ended.
Watching the scenes inside, Xiao Xun was reminded of his time in the Holy Roman Empire in his previous life. The scenes there seemed to only exist in novels.
He thought to himself: Is the person who wrote this story, like Mu Jiahe, a transmigrator from another world? If so, this movie shouldn't be called a fantasy film, but a documentary.