In this position, Yu Jiu could only see the man’s sharp, clean jawline, a red lock of hair falling beside his ear, and a shimmering silver earring.
The man’s palm clamped around his waist. Through the thin fabric of his clothes, the intense heat of the man’s skin was unmistakable, and his rough fingertips seemed to be intentionally—or perhaps accidentally—rubbing against the soft skin at Yu Jiu’s waist.
Yu Jiu wanted to escape the contact. He reflexively pushed against the man’s chest, the corners of his eyes flushed with a lingering, indescribable allure. However, he was too weak to break free, and instead, his actions unintentionally conveyed a sense of coy resistance.
Beneath the man’s shirt were solid, taut muscles, unyielding and firm. Yu Jiu could not move a single inch.
“So impatient. Hasn’t it been less than five minutes since you left your captain, and you’re already busy finding a new protector?”
A malicious tone drifted down from above. The man was truly vile, leaning down specifically to whisper against the soft skin of his ear.
Yu Jiu recognized him. His features were too distinct for him to miss: Lu Shiyue, the vice-captain of Sharp Blade and a trusted teammate of Ning Jue. He was a ruthless man who had always looked down on him.
He had never entered a dungeon with Lu Shiyue, but he knew the vice-captain was responsible for reviewing every game playback. The footage of their dungeon runs had been reviewed by Lu Shiyue time and again, and Yu Jiu’s lackluster performance in the games had long since infuriated him.
Lu Shiyue had a volatile temper and despised the weak who relied on others. He had never found Yu Jiu pleasing to the eye.
Being grabbed was an unpleasant experience. Yu Jiu could not speak, his fair face turning flushed, his emerald eyes as misty as a morning forest shrouded in vapor.
Suddenly, Lu Shiyue let go. The pair of emerald eyes in his arms looked at him like a woodland sprite, possessing an unearthly beauty. They gazed at him as if begging for help, and his heart felt as if it had been pinched by something unseen. He pushed the youth away.
The embrace went empty in an instant. Against his better judgment, Lu Shiyue found himself missing the sensation from a moment ago. Yu Jiu’s body was incredibly soft, as light as a feather when held. His hands were soft, his fingers delicate, and his knuckles appeared almost pink. Even though he had pushed hard to break free, the sensation conveyed through his clothes had been impossibly soft.
When he was with Ning Jue, did his fingertips cling feebly to other people’s shoulders like that? Because he was so weak, he couldn’t break free even when being bullied, forced to endure it silently while biting his own red lips until they left tooth marks, unable to even utter a plea for mercy.
After the spawn was complete, seeing that Yu Jiu was alone, Lu Shiyue felt a fleeting sense of joy. It wasn’t because he wanted to see how this dodder-like creature would react without its protector, but because of a complicated, inexplicable emotion.
He didn’t like Yu Jiu staying with Ning Jue. He couldn’t quite put his finger on the reason, simply labeling it as a dislike for Yu Jiu.
The fragile body swayed unsteadily, on the verge of falling. If Yu Jiu tripped, his knees would turn a bright red. He was so fair and his skin so delicate; if he got hurt, he couldn’t even call out in pain, forced to hide in a corner and cry silently, the corners of his eyes flushed, waiting for Ning Jue to find him and huddle pitifully in the man’s arms seeking protection.
His body reacted faster than his brain. By the time Lu Shiyue regained his composure, he was already holding the youth in his arms. He was so small that Lu Shiyue could hold him completely; in the moment he caught him, he could smell Yu Jiu’s scent, a sweet fragrance that seemed to wrap around him in delicate wisps.
No wonder Ning Jue always liked holding him, the way he would lean entirely against him with such bashfulness. He also…
Lu Shiyue snapped back to reality, unable to believe that a simple gesture had triggered such inappropriate fantasies. Since entering the game, he had despised the weak who attached themselves to others like dodder, surviving in cruel games by seducing people.
Wasn’t Yu Jiu just like that? Suddenly brought along by Ning Jue, hiding behind him, raised by his side. Beyond that face, he had no ability to protect himself. He would shrink into a ball when meeting monsters, and he was a mute, unable to even scream for help.
He was incredibly weak; left to himself, he wouldn’t even survive the beginner dungeon.
Yu Jiu broke free from the restraint. He gave Lu Shiyue a glare that he imagined was fierce, then turned his head away to ignore him.
As for those earlier words about finding a new protector, even if he didn’t quite understand them, he knew they were nothing good. He was a mute now; except for Ning Jue, who understood a bit of sign language, no one else could communicate with him. It was troublesome to converse, and he didn’t want to argue with someone irrelevant to the plot.
[Welcome to the dungeon: Dragon’s Breath Town.]
[Player information loaded.]
The game’s announcement sounded, and the dungeon began.
[Dragon’s Breath Town, a tourist hotspot nestled in the mountains. It is named a town, but its land area is not small, rivaling the size of a larger, prosperous city. The town is famous for the Dragon’s Breath Pool, boasting beautiful scenery and backed by Dragon’s Breath Mountain. Every year, it attracts numerous tourists for sightseeing and tourism development.]
[The town has well-developed tourist facilities, including a museum introducing the creatures of the Dragon’s Breath Pool and a mountainside park themed around Dragon’s Breath Mountain. They have also developed thrilling night adventure activities. We look forward to the active participation of all tourists. Dragon’s Breath Town welcomes your arrival at any time.]
In just a few short sentences, the game had buried at least three landmines. Unless something went wrong, they would likely have to visit all three locations in the coming days.
[Main Task: Explore the secrets of Dragon’s Breath Town (Current progress 0/100)]
[Side Mission: Complete the Sightseeing Handbook stamp collection task (Current progress 0/3)]
[Personal Side Mission: Enter Dragon’s Breath Mountain to find &$&]
Yu Jiu’s personal side mission section showed garbled text. The game seemed to be experiencing interference, failing to assign him a specific personal task.
That was a good thing. Entering Dragon’s Breath Mountain sounded like the boss’s base camp; not having to perform a task there was a relief.
[Players in this game are randomly divided into two camps, with different side missions for each side. Players are in different planes. To accelerate the gathering of teammates, please strive to advance your side missions and enjoy the game.]
The system’s malicious voice echoed in his mind. The players had been divided into camps, and he and Ning Jue had likely been forcibly separated by the system.
Since being brought out of the dungeon by Ning Jue, this was the first time Yu Jiu had been apart from him. Ning Jue’s skill could bind souls; no matter how special a dungeon was, Ning Jue always kept him firmly by his side.
Yu Jiu remained silent, his long lashes covering his eyelids. A small cluster of shadows fell beneath them, veiling his emerald eyes. When he lowered his gaze, his pupils were partially hidden, evoking an unbidden sense of pity.
His fan-like eyelashes fluttered. Lu Shiyue felt an inexplicable itch; this craving for intimacy came out of nowhere. He should have been rejoicing or even cheering that the dodder had finally lost its support.
But seeing that misty glance of grievance Yu Jiu cast his way, his malice crumbled like a collapsing mountain, replaced by a restless, aimless dissatisfaction. What was he dissatisfied about? He didn’t want to see the helpless, bewildered, and pitiful expression on Yu Jiu’s face without Ning Jue nearby.
He was right there; Yu Jiu clearly could have…
[Please gather with players of the same camp.]
Yu Jiu naturally had no idea about the dark thoughts in Lu Shiyue’s head. As a minor cannon fodder, there was no difference between Ning Jue being there or not. Except for the soul-binding that made him feel weak when far away from Ning Jue, the further he stayed away from the protagonist, the more at ease he felt.
The protagonist’s side was full of plot triggers. For a cannon fodder to crowd in there was simply asking for trouble out of boredom.
The login location for Yu Jiu’s camp was a hotel in Dragon’s Breath Town. He and Lu Shiyue came downstairs one after the other, and several people had already gathered in the hotel lobby’s lounge area.
Their attire and demeanor were clearly out of place with the surroundings, making it obvious they were game players.
Even in role-playing dungeons, some players would try to mask themselves to blend in with NPCs, let alone a non-role-playing dungeon like Dragon’s Breath Town, where players made no effort to hide.
Lu Shiyue walked in front. He was quite popular among players as the notorious vice-captain of Sharp Blade, known for being capable and skilled. Those players likely recognized him.
The few players who had been sitting rose to their feet. One waved, “Vice-Captain Lu, we were just discussing the task when you arrived. Who is this?”
The speaker was a middle-aged man of average height. Lu Shiyue’s tall stature shielded most of Yu Jiu behind him, so the other players didn’t see him initially.
Unlike the players on the forum, those capable of entering high-level dungeons had caught wind of certain rumors.
The black-haired, green-eyed beauty beside Ning Jue was timid, weak, and a little mute, possessing no ability to protect himself, clinging to Ning Jue like a dodder.
The players weren’t really chatting about tasks just now; they were just killing time. Being in the same dungeon as the figures at the center of the gossip, the topic naturally drifted to scandalous rumors. With the people at the center of those rumors suddenly appearing before them, the middle-aged man felt awkward, pretending to wipe sweat from his forehead that didn’t exist.
Lu Shiyue looked displeased, his shirt wrinkled as if someone had been clutching it tightly. The vice-captain of Sharp Blade was famous for his terrible, highly volatile temper. The little beauty behind him had emerald eyes like the finest jade, flickering and shimmering. His hair was messy, as if he had been bullied, sticking to his pale, fair face. He had an innocent look, yet it gave him an indescribable air of sultry beauty.
Both of their faces looked grim, which seemed to confirm rumors from outside the Sharp Blade team that they were dissatisfied with each other.
The middle-aged man suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and turned to greet the other players. “Since all the players have arrived, let’s do a brief introduction. I’m Yan Xiao, this is my fourth time entering the game, so I have a bit of experience.”
Yu Jiu tried his best to minimize his presence. He had sensitively caught the flicker of strange emotion in the middle-aged man’s expression when he saw him. This wasn’t the first time he had been watched with such probing gazes, and Yan Xiao wasn’t the only one who was curious.
It would be best if you all stopped paying attention to a cannon fodder like me, Yu Jiu thought, shrinking further into the shadows.
He surveyed the players in the lobby: three men and two women, plus himself and Lu Shiyue, seven people in total.
“Gu Xun.” A lazy, slightly teasing voice sounded from the sofa. In a situation where all other players were standing, someone speaking while seated seemed exceptionally abrupt.
The man leaned against the sofa, turning his head nonchalantly. His features were deep and well-defined, his brows and eyes carrying an air of casual indulgence. The corners of his lips were upturned, and one of his eyes was covered by a black patch embroidered with silver patterns. His attire was also quite strange: a top hat on his head, a well-tailored tailcoat suit, and a silver-tipped cane resting on his right side.
He was dressed like a magician about to perform on stage.
Lu Shiyue seemed to know him, frowning with visible disgust.
“Alright, since everyone has introduced themselves, let’s go start the mission…”
“Wait a moment.”
Before Yan Xiao could finish his sentence, a playful voice interrupted him. Gu Xun seemed entirely unaware of the surrounding silence, one hand resting on his cane while the other was raised in a gesture to interrupt, looking with a smile toward where Yu Jiu was standing.
“Among us, there seems to be one little one who hasn’t introduced himself yet.”