My Avatar is Becoming the Ultimate BOSS-Chapter 51 - 042 Secret

"So... what’s the situation now? Since both my dad and brother are coming to Tokyo, won’t they just run into our troupe robbing the auction and then meddle?"

Watching Gu Qiye’s back as he left, Ji Minghuan scratched his forehead, deep in thought.

He thought, "I’m really worried that my second character will be insta-killed by my big brother. He won’t compensate me with Split Points to build a new character."

He sighed, dismissing the thought, "Better to focus on the Welfare Institute issue for now; finding clues to the lab is still crucial."

Casually closing the door, he stepped into the rooftop of the second floor, walked to the railing, and looked at the distant Welfare Institute. Ji Minghuan leaned on the railing, staring dazedly at the library under the sun.

The morning breeze, carrying the heat, blew by, and he recalled the past.

At the age of four, after being abandoned by his parents, Ji Minghuan was sent to this Welfare Institute. Over the years, he had become intimately familiar with every building and even every corner within the institute, especially the library in his line of sight.

He loved spending time in this library since he was little, reading everything from astronomy and geography to cultural history, from Nietzsche and Camus-like philosophical theories, and even a lot of psychology and religious books. Of course, most of these were filler books. He didn’t expect this filler library to have high-quality books; he just read whatever was available.

If you want to talk about how much Ji Minghuan liked this library, you have to mention one thing.

The rules of this Welfare Institute were quite unique. The institute would arrange one or two specific teachers to give lessons to the children. They would distinguish each child’s intelligence level through tests, and those who performed exceptionally well would be granted the right to attend school;

Children who were deemed intellectually subpar would remain in the institute and receive only basic education that stayed at the level of intelligence tests.

Perhaps due to his constant immersion in the library, Ji Minghuan stood out among the children, scoring full marks in all subjects, far exceeding the standard for being sent to school, yet he resisted and refused to attend school outside the institute.

The teachers and the principal in the institute tried many times to persuade him, but he refused to comply and even resorted to self-harm in his rebellion.

After several acts of resistance, the principal snorted coldly, suggesting he might as well stay there as a good-for-nothing for life. Ji Minghuan merely tilted his head then, continuing to read his miscellaneous books, not taking the words to heart.

Only Kong Youling knew why Ji Minghuan refused to go to school: because he loved this library very much.

Whether lonely or sad, he liked to soak in this quiet library, sitting alone in a corner with mountains of books behind him, which gave him more peace than anything else.

While other kids played on the lawn, he leaned against the bookshelf reading books;

When other kids took noon naps in the dormitory, he leaned against the bookshelf reading books alone.

Later, a computer room was added to the library, and Ji Minghuan’s affection for the place elevated to another level. Every day, he was either immersed in video games or books. He couldn’t be bothered to attend the institute’s classes because they were just for show, existing to maintain the principal’s prestigious image.

Kong Youling often came to accompany him.

The sunset slanted west, and the twilight glow fell through the skylight into the library. The two children sat down by the last row of bookshelves, she drawing beside him while he kept his head down, reading. Sometimes, they could go a very, very long time without speaking. As the sun was sinking towards the horizon, the library remained silent; it felt as if they were sharing the entire world from within the illustrations and books.

But coincidentally, it’s also in this beloved library where Ji Minghuan found the most unfamiliar corner in the entire orphanage:

——The ever-locked basement.

The iron door leading to the basement was secured with several layers of locks. Once, Ji Minghuan walked down the steps and tried pushing the door in the dark. The principal, who was overseeing the cleaning staff inside the library, immediately changed his expression, hastened down, harshly scolded him, and punished him with three days of confinement in the attic above the library.

Later, discussing this matter, the principal claimed it was a wartime shelter built to provide refuge and had not been opened for a long time; he didn’t know how dirty it was inside. Therefore, they weren’t allowed in there to prevent contracting some respiratory disease.

Ji Minghuan raised an eyebrow suddenly and thought, "Is there a possibility... that behind the iron door is the lab? And my original body was never transferred but confined beneath the Welfare Institute from the start."

At that moment, strange things happened in the distant sky. He quickly looked up to see a gigantic red exclamation mark standing in the sky.

"Event Card?"

Following the direction of that exclamation mark, Ji Minghuan moved his gaze downward and saw the library of the Welfare Institute in the city. It seemed like a special "game event" was waiting for him to explore there.

Ji Minghuan was already curious about what might be hidden behind the iron door, let alone now it’s marked with an "Event Card" icon.

"With things as they are... there’s no reason not to go. Let’s see what’s hidden in that basement first."

With this thought, Ji Minghuan left the rooftop, quickly returned to his room, and used the restraint belt to pull the tailcoat from the bottom of the closet, then put on a mask, pressing a button on the side of his ear to secure the mask and activate the voice changer.

The restraint belt spread across his body like a tide, gradually enveloping him completely.

When Ji Minghuan used "Restraint Belt Color Change" to be invisible, he had to cover his eyes as well. Otherwise, there would just be a pair of eerie eyes floating in the air, looking like a ninja in nightwear, unable to achieve true perfect invisibility.

Since "Restraint Sensing" could completely replace his eyes’ vision, even being considered an enhancement, covering his eyes wouldn’t cause any issues.

So, although other people couldn’t see him while traveling, Ji Minghuan essentially appeared in a "mummy" form, unusually eerie.

Using the restraint belt, he opened the floor-to-ceiling window and leapt from the baseplate of the air conditioner, his figure blending into the bright sunlight, traversing between skyscrapers like the shadow of the sun.

In no time, Ji Minghuan leaped over half the city and climbed over the Welfare Institute’s fence.

He stood silently on the fence, facing a scene still of old, low buildings. Vines climbed the yellowed old walls, spreading to the antique library.

In the morning, the library was locked, and no children would come here.

Ji Minghuan diverted the gravity to the restraint belt, dragging it like a black rain, leaping to the library’s attic eaves. He steadied himself, approached the attic skylight, and silently descended.

The old floorboards creaked. He turned his head, paused for a moment, and saw a girl sleeping in the loft, presumably punished by the principal for some mischief, just like he was in the past.

Hearing the noise, the girl opened her eyes, glanced around but saw nothing, only piles of miscellaneous books, then closed her eyes again, turned over, and fell back to sleep.

Ji Minghuan glanced at her, casually used the restraint belt to cover her with a quilt, then turned towards the attic’s exit.

Just then, a notification panel popped up before his eyes.

[China Li Jing City’s Event Card No. ① has been triggered - Explore the Welfare Institute library’s "basement."]