Chapter 349: 82: Priceless Jade

The first thing Lin Hao did when he woke up was verify that the copy had completed, and that Jade had messaged him. The copy of his assistant, that he'd created to connect to the copy, announced that the Emperor had declared that the World Dragon's wrath would fall upon the Empire. It also complained that it could no longer connect, so everything looked good.

The second thing he did was send a message to Devon Yu. When the next step of their recovery plan completed, even if Jade had failed to trigger the Dragon, the world would shortly be deleted by the pirates themselves. He trusted Jade's message, and was sure that there was nothing left to delete.

Only then did he call Danika. The window of the little room showed only a streetlamp and darkness beyond the glass.

--

When Danika arrived with Lin Hao's own ticket home, he asked her, "What is with this weird little apartment? Is this like some sort of historical oddity?"

She replied a little cooly, "This was my apartment before I moved in with Shinichi this weekend."

He tried to backpedal verbally, "Ah, I see. It's cute and warm, even if it is arranged very…"

His words trailed off for a moment and Danika said, "…inconveniently for someone with working legs. I know."

He eyed her legs, and then shrugged and told her, "Well, at least the arrangements make sense if I know that."

Danika just grinned at him, and after a moment he grinned back.

His expression sobered as she asked, "Chen Zing said that you might have good reasons to be worried about people trying to find you? Did they threaten you?"

"No, as far as I know they are waiting for Lee Soobin to return to work in the morning," Lin Hao replied quickly. "It's later that I'm worried about, like if they could track where I was staying back to you?"

"What in the world are you getting her involved in!?" Shinichi demanded suddenly from his position just outside the door.

Lin Hao gazed at the doorway in surprise and Danika explained quickly, "I didn't understand and thought that you were afraid they'd intercept you at the airport, so Shinichi is coming to the airport with us."

"Um, okay?" Lin Hao replied questioningly.

"He's feeling jealous because all I've been talking about is how worried I've been about you," Danika admitted half teasingly.

Shinichi pushed the door all the way open and protested, "That's not why!"

Lin Hao walked over and took one of the three drinks Shinichi was carrying and said, "It's okay, you brought me caffeine, I'll forgive you your possessive interference."

Danika laughed and Shinichi gazed at her and then shook his head. "I'm here to keep anyone from stopping you at the airport. She won't tell me what you've been up to, but it is sounding pretty shady."

Lin Hao nodded and agreed, "A bit shady on my part, but not hers." He took a long drink before asking sarcastically, "What are you going to do to keep someone from stopping me? Offer to sign autographs?"

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"Yeah, pretty much," Shinichi agreed dryly.

Lin Hao coughed, while Danika assured him quickly, "It will probably be really effective. All you have to do, if it looks like someone came to catch you, is yell 'Aichi Shinichi of Underneath' excitedly. But it sounds like it won't be needed?"

After he recovered his composure, Lin Hao told Danika, "Yeah, I should be fine. You can both go home first. And it's okay you know, as soon as I'm safely on the plane you can tell him what we've been up to, as long as you leave out the company's name and such so that no one who hears about it can slander them and start people asking awkward questions."

"They deserve to be slandered!" Danika replied a little petulantly. "And since you stuck me with being in charge while you're here, I think I should stick with you until you're checked in at the airport."

Lin Hao chuckled, and wondered how much of the King of Cats', and Jade's, personality had been shaped by this girl. "Alright, and they might deserve it, but everyone steals code in this industry. I first got into programming by messing with mods for games that were considered illegal and a violation of the game's licenses."

Danika gave him such a disgusted look that he laughed.

Shinichi forestalled Danika when she turned to him and declared, "I'm still coming with you." He pulled down the glasses perched on his head and settled them on his nose, crossed his arms over the truly garish design on his shirt, and waited.

Danika found herself grinning again. If anyone recognized him in that outfit, she was going to tease him about it forever.

--

Lin Hao tucked his bag into the compartment, edged his way to his seat, and flopped into it with a thump that seemed to startle the person next to him. He leaned his seat back and heaved a deep sigh. They'd not only been successful, they'd come out of this adventure with something priceless.

Someone shifted uncomfortably behind him and he pulled the seat back upright. Technology couldn't change physics, and time couldn't change a merchant's desire to collect every possible coin from each trip. And he was probably lucky that Starcraft Technologies was covering the cost of the flight at all.

He gazed at the flight display and swiveled his screen's view until he was watching the city he'd just looted of stolen treasure fall behind him. The pirates had actually done him a favor, by pushing the game's operating limits like that.

Danika had done better at performing as a team lead for them than he'd expected too. She'd been nervous at first, but she'd quickly grasped everyone's capabilities and needs and they'd gotten everything done efficiently enough. She was actually pretty good at finding unexpected solutions in real scenarios too.

He could envision her eventually growing into someone who could take over the guidance of Living Jade Empire's story someday, if Devon Yu moved on.

The screen of the person beside him showed a drama of some kind titled 'Unstoppable Opposites!' The screen was wreathed in gold hearts and Lin Hao gave a small snort of laughter. Opposites didn't always attract, as 'Living Jade Empire' had proven with some of its early failures in matchmaking. People actually did much better with at least a strong similarity in their base values.

Danika and Shinichi were a good example of the game's ability to find good personality matches. Despite the apparent disparity between them, those two were far more similar than they realized. They were both fighting the world's perception of them, and shaping worlds with nothing but their perceptions and way of connecting ideas into stories.

He frowned suddenly, as he wondered if the game had guided Danika into getting a job where she could create stories and match Shinichi better. He shook his head and decided that he was over thinking things because he was still tired. The game might be able to gradually alter someone's mindset, but it couldn't actually affect events in the real world.

--

After Lin Hao's plane was in the air, Danika turned to Shinichi, and asked, "How much of the King of Cats' personality came from Lin Hao do you think?"

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