What the hell is that

"Oh Xiaoqing, hurry up and tell me!"

"What exactly happened? What kind of big deal could almost scare the boss to death?"

Lin Xiaoyou was so anxious her braids swung wildly as she kept shaking Xiaoqing beside her!

Xiaoqing glared at her, but continued the story anyway.

...

...

That night, they were showing a really popular horror movie.

I forgot the name. Uncle Wang mentioned it at the time, but I didn't remember.

Anyway, it was one of those terrifying, gory slasher films that young people love to watch.

The midnight screening was packed with young people who came purely for the thrill.

Halfway through the movie, right during the scariest part—

Those things actually appeared inside the theater!

A female ghost in white with disheveled hair drifted down the aisle.

Her dress dragged on the floor, her hair covered her face, and she just... floated there.

A burly man holding a chainsaw stood in the corner of the back row.

Uncle Wang said the man must have been two meters tall. "Blood" was dripping from the chainsaw, and he just stood there motionless.

There was also a child with a bloody face crawling back and forth between the seats.

He would crawl for a bit, stop, tilt his head to look at the audience, and then keep crawling.

The young people in the theater were all thrill-seekers, so at the time, they all thought... it was a live performance arranged by the cinema!

Some were even pretty excited, feeling they got their money's worth. An immersive experience was way more thrilling than any 4D movie.

Of course, there were also timid ones.

One girl screamed on the spot, crying and rushing out to the front desk to complain. She demanded to know why the cinema didn't inform them in advance about these stunts, saying it scared her half to death.

Her boyfriend rushed out after her, his face pale and his legs weak, yelling that he wanted to complain and see the manager!

The boss was completely dumbfounded.

He hadn't arranged any performance at all!

But before he could even explain, the movie ended, and the people who hadn't run out started trickling out.

Every single one of them was incredibly excited, patting the boss on the shoulder and saying—

"Boss, you really know how to put on a show!"

"An immersive horror movie experience, awesome, truly awesome!"

"We're coming back next time! Definitely coming back!"

The boss just stood there. As for the expression on his face—Uncle Wang said he still remembers it to this day—he looked like he wanted to laugh, cry, and run away all at the same time.

He just awkwardly laughed and humored them. After everyone had left, he stood in the empty lobby, his shirt soaked through with cold sweat.

Later, the boss decided he had to get to the bottom of this.

He gathered a few brave employees and decided to stay behind that night to investigate.

There's courage in numbers. He figured even if there really was something unholy, with so many men and their strong masculine energy, they shouldn't be afraid!

They waited until past 1 AM. The mall was closed, and the entire third floor was pitch black. It was just the few of them, shining their flashlights, waiting in the office.

They waited until 2 AM, but nothing happened. No sound, no light.

The boss then suggested, "How about we go check out that screening room?"

So, the group went.

The door to the screening room was closed, just like usual.

The boss pushed the door open—it was pitch black inside, and they couldn't see a thing.

He told someone to turn on the lights.

The lights came on.

Inside was just an ordinary screening room. Rows of seats, a blank white screen, and absolutely nothing else.

The men walked in and started looking around.

Under the seats, behind the screen, the projection room window... still nothing.

Everything was as normal as could be.

And then...

The lights went out.

It suddenly went pitch black.

That door...

Bang!

It slammed shut.

No one knows what happened after that, and the security cameras in the screening room happened to be broken.

All they knew was that the next morning, when the mall security guards patrolled the third floor, they found the door to the screening room wide open...

Several people were lying haphazardly on the floor inside.

It was the boss and his employees. They weren't dead, but they had all passed out.

The guards quickly called an ambulance and sent them to the hospital.

But when they woke up, those men...

Had all gone mad.

Some were speaking gibberish, saying things like "They are here" and "They have always been here!"

Some trembled at the sight of people, cowering in the corner and refusing to come out.

And another... just kept giggling foolishly, laughing non-stop until the nurses had to tie him down.

The boss fared a bit better.

He was just in a trance, asking anyone he saw, "Can you see them?" and "Are they right behind me?"

After that, the cinema closed down. It's been closed ever since.

That is everything I know.

...

...

Xiaoqing finished her story.

The milk tea shop fell silent for a few seconds.

Fang Qi narrowed his eyes slightly, pondering in silence.

Beside him, the silver-haired girl wearing a beret still sat quietly.

One small hand rested properly on her lap, while the other remained intertwined with his fingers.

However, the scarlet light in her crimson eyes was swirling rapidly; the data flow was moving much faster than usual!

She was calculating, thinking, and analyzing the words Xiaoqing had just spoken.

"Gasp—"

Lin Xiaoyou suddenly drew in a sharp breath, shrinking closer to Xiaoqing and hugging her arm tightly with both hands!

"Xiaoqing, is it r-r-really that scary...!"

Her voice was even trembling a bit.

"And you still dare to work in this mall? Aren't you afraid?!"

Xiaoqing pursed her lips and said,

"What is there to be afraid of? I... I don't go up to the third floor anyway!"

"Besides..." She also hugged Lin Xiaoyou's arm tightly. "In broad daylight, what could possibly happen!"

Hugging her arm, Lin Xiaoyou timidly glanced toward the door!

"T-then, we're on the first floor right now..."

"We should be fine, right..."

She looked over at Fang Qi again, her almond eyes wide: "S-Senior, you didn't actually see a ghost just now, did you?!"

Fang Qi pressed his lips together.

See a ghost?

He leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers lightly on the table.

He actually wasn't scared by Xiaoqing's story.

Although Xiaoqing told it with quite a bit of atmosphere, but... compared to the terrifying scene in the cinema just now, it fell far short!

His fear threshold had already been raised way too high!

Furthermore, the more he listened, the more he felt... this whole thing wasn't that supernatural at all!

A haunting?

Impossible!

"My Yandere Cyborg Wife" is a sci-fi yandere game!

Where would ghosts come from!

If there really were ghosts, they would probably be slapped away by the rules of this world! They'd be on the wrong movie set!

As he listened to the events in the story, his train of thought became clearer!

The complaints from those young people—saying they always felt like someone was staring at them, but turning around to see nothing.

...Wasn't that exactly how he felt in the cinema just now!

Wasn't it just... certain things around him, secretly watching him!

And that other complaint—

Saying a psycho was sitting next to them, copying their every move.

If he scratched his head, the person next to him scratched their head; if he drank water, the person next to him brought an empty cup to their mouth.

What was that? A prank?

No!

If they were androids... they might have been learning!

Learning natural human movements! Learning human expressions! Learning human reactions!

They hid in the darkness, watching humanity's every move, and then clumsily imitated them...

They were like a group of toddlers just learning to walk, wanting to become more like humans!

Fang Qi's fingers tapped against the table a little faster.

And then, those "characters from horror movies"...

The female ghost in white, the burly man with a chainsaw, the child with a face full of blood...

This was... wasn't this just like a bunch of bratty kids watching too many horror movies and picking up bad habits?!

They didn't just watch movies for entertainment; they were learning, they were imitating!

They were trying to understand human fear, human emotions, and human reactions through movies!

Honestly, the owner of that cinema should bear a little bit of the blame...

It was his brilliant idea to continuously play horror movies for a group of AIs that were actively learning human behavior!

And that final incident...

The lights in the screening room suddenly went out, the doors suddenly closed, and the owner and staff all went mad...

It was all easily explained now.

That group of Synthetics who had "learned bad habits" from the horror movies...

Started running wild like a horde of demons!

Hiss...

Incredible.

That kind of scene, to anyone who didn't know the truth...

Just thinking about it was absolutely terrifying!

In the dim theater, all sorts of monsters and demons literally getting up in your face in real life!

And with the doors closed, you couldn't even run!

Hmm...

A moment of silence for the owner and the staff.

"Tsk, tsk..." Fang Qi stroked his chin.

Deducing up to this point... he was basically certain!

That cinema on the third floor probably wasn't a "haunted" place at all!

It was a—

A gathering place for Synthetics!

A hidden nest for awakened AIs!

And those "audiences," those "couples," those entities that let him and Liguang go in to watch the movie, only to end up staring at them in unison...

They were that group of Synthetics!

They had once disguised themselves as humans in this cinema, mingling in the crowd, hiding in the dark, observing, learning, and imitating!

That was why...

When they were in the cinema's ticket hall earlier, they seemed so incredibly real!

Because they had long since mastered human expressions!

But... why did they lure him and Liguang there?

Fang Qi narrowed his eyes slightly.

Was it... for Liguang?

Because Liguang was a special awakened AI?

Or... was it for him?

But no matter what, they probably didn't want to hurt them!

In the cinema, they were surrounded, with those "audiences" in front, behind, left, and right.

If that group of Synthetics had wanted to harm them, they could have made their move long ago!

But the reality was that they didn't.

They just watched, and in the end, they even took the initiative to clear a path and let them leave.

...What did that mean?

A show of goodwill?

Trying to win them over?

Or testing them?

Fang Qi subconsciously looked at the silver-haired girl beside him.

Liguang was still sitting quietly, her eyebrows slightly lowered, her expression still gentle and obedient. A small section of her fair nape was exposed beneath her beret.

What... was she thinking?

She felt a sense of familiarity with that group.

She had realized early on that those "audiences" were her own kind.

She... wanted to go back and watch the movie.

Fang Qi's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.

Then what should he do now?

His current situation was actually quite delicate.

Dawn Company... was an enemy, not a friend!

This point had been verified countless times.

Although An Lian seemed to be on his side and had acknowledged him as her younger brother... she was being monitored by the company and couldn't say or do anything!

In the previous loop, she had been outright silenced by the company!

As for Lin Xiaoyou...

Her identity was still a mystery, and it was unknown whether she was a friend or a foe.

Right now, he needed allies!

He needed to figure out if this group of Synthetics was secretly harbored by Dawn Company, or... if they had gathered privately, like Xiaoyue in the movie?

If this group of Synthetics weren't his enemies, if they were just like Liguang.

Then in order to be with Liguang forever, perhaps he really could...

"Smack!"

Fang Qi slapped the table and suddenly stood up!

"Ah—!"

Lin Xiaoyou was so startled that she jumped in her seat!

She stared at Fang Qi with wide eyes.

"S-Senior?! What are you doing! You scared me to death!!"

Xiao Qing was also startled; the milk tea in her hand was squeezed flat, and a few drops even spilled out!

But Fang Qi ignored them.

He turned his head to look at the silver-haired girl beside him.

Liguang was looking up slightly.

The crimson in her red eyes was still swirling rapidly, but she didn't speak. She just looked at him quietly, as if she was...

Waiting for his choice.

Fang Qi gave a hard pull with the hand that was intertwined with hers—!

The silver-haired girl was pulled right up from her seat!

She crashed directly into his embrace!

"Mmph!"

She let out a soft, light gasp, her cheek pressing against his chest.

The sweet scent of strawberries instantly drifted into his nose, smelling much better than the strawberry cake and strawberry boba milk tea on the table!

Fang Qi lowered his head and leaned close to her ear.

"Liguang..."

"Let's go back now!"

"Master will accompany you to finish watching the first movie of your life!"