Having completed the guild patrol quest, Shen Jiali collected some experience points, finally advancing from level one to level three and unlocking a new map.
Guild Leader Muyan led the eight-member squad aboard a transport plane to the notoriously terrifying Yueyue City.
As soon as they stepped off the plane, a torrential downpour blurred their vision.
The entire Yueyue City was shrouded in a bizarre, undulating gloom. Dilapidated and hazardous buildings dotted the city everywhere, and the pale moonlight casting down upon the cold-toned ruins looked precisely like a horror scene straight out of a movie. The lush, verdant trees lining both sides of the road only added a few extra layers of spooky chill.
Amidst the intersecting streets, one could occasionally spot a few players hurrying past and quickly boarding planes to leave, alongside heavily injured lone-wolf players collapsing on the ground, waiting for passersby to lend a helping hand.
The guild members casually pulled up a few heavily injured players, who expressed their gratitude before fleeing the ill-omened place at lightning speed.
One of the members suggested: [Let Iron Bull Chrysanthemum stay near the plane; let’s go inside to do the quest. He doesn’t have any items, and his level is low; going there will only drag us down.]
Shen Jiali gave thanks inwardly: What a loyal bro, thank you bro for bringing me along to drag you down.
[Guild Leader Muyan: If Iron Bull Chrysanthemum himself doesn’t participate, it won’t count as having done the quest.]
Another member: [Even so, we don’t have extra energy to protect him.]
[Muyan: Just look after yourselves, you don’t need to worry about anyone else.]
Unable to withstand the guild leader’s repeated insistence, the members couldn’t say anything more and simply let it be.
Shen Jiali thus lost his chance to slack off. Hatred—the hatred of a collapsing world.
[Guild Leader Muyan: @Iron Bull Chrysanthemum, stay behind me, I’ll protect you.]
SUN also immediately jumped in: [@Iron Bull Chrysanthemum, stick close to me, don’t go anywhere.]
Shen Jiali: Who on earth am I supposed to follow? Can you guys coordinate your stories?
[Muyan: Follow me, my gear and level are higher.]
[SUN: Give me one minute.]
With that, she ran toward the plane and left. Exactly one minute later, SUN returned carrying a massive rocket launcher… a rocket launcher… a rocket launcher priced at 1999 USD in the trading market, which, converted into in-game currency and then into RMB, cost roughly two thousand yuan.
The members were dumbfounded.
Good grief, they had run into a heavy-spending whale.
[SUN: @Iron Bull Chrysanthemum, stick close.]
This scene was weirder than freaking Yueyue City: two individuals who could practically be considered top-tier heavyweights across the entire server were vying for the affection of a dullard, black, brute-force beginner wearing a big tank top and flip-flops.
Bizarre things happen every year, but this year there were an ungodly amount of them.
Shen Jiali followed the squad to Yueyue University. Under the virus-infected apocalypse, everything in sight was a complete mess. Monster carcasses lay scattered haphazardly across the ground, surrounding a massive, entwining century-old redwood tree at the center of the campus. The tree bark’s surface displayed distorted human faces, screaming as they tried to break through their bonds.
Behind the tree, a grayish-blue lump seemed to be writhing, but most of its body was blocked by the tree trunk, making it impossible to tell what on earth it was.
Their task was to chop down trees; besides increasing experience points, with good luck they could also unearth rare minerals.
Everyone pulled out their stone axes and swung fiercely at the tree trunks.
The crafting method for a stone axe was the simplest among all items: go into the forest, chop two trees, mine two rocks, and you could synthesize a stone axe.
Yet Shen Jiali didn’t have one. He had originally gone to the forest intending to make a stone axe, but because his inventory was overloaded, he dropped a portion of the timber in the forest and promptly threw the whole matter to the back of his mind.
Consequently, the dark, burly Iron Bull Chrysanthemum wielded his sandbag-sized fists, striking egg against rock against the tree trunk punch by punch, gaining +0.1 experience points continuously…
Abruptly, a violent earthquake struck, and the fruits on the redwood poured down like rain.
The grayish-blue lump of flesh behind the trunk writhed even more violently. The next second, a hoarse scream pierced the night sky, and that grayish-blue mass abruptly emerged from behind the tree. Everyone widened their eyes and instinctively stepped backward.
This illogical behemoth stood a full three stories high. Its bluish-gray skin was covered in blood-stained, tattered wedding gauze, flesh and blood fused together, defiling her rotting, swollen face in a deeply terrifying manner.
The monster even had a level displayed above her head: ???, meaning her level was unknown, and she might even exceed the players’ maximum level of one hundred. A single person could never handle her; teamwork was required.
For the sake of the quest, everyone gave it their all—
The members raised their weapons and launched a heavy firepower output.
Yet the monster possessed a self-healing function. Even if half her health bar was depleted, if the output chain broke, she could immediately recover health at a steady pace.
Moreover, her movements were extremely agile. One second she was dozens of meters away, and the next she vanished abruptly, teleporting right into a player’s face to launch a virus shockwave.
Shen Jiali collapsed in one second.
Fine by me. Staring at the computer for too long strained my eyes, I’ll just squint for a bit.
Yet there were always hot-blooded players like Muyan who declared, “I will never abandon any comrade.”
He sprinted at top speed to Iron Bull Chrysanthemum’s side, patched him up to full health, and used his own flesh and blood to shield him, placing himself firmly in front while outputting crazily against the monster.
Shen Jiali sighed.
Trying to force a slacked-off person to be proactive, are we?
Left with no choice, he had to pull out his sandbag-sized fists and punch the monster one fist at a time.
Then he was sent flying ten meters away by a massive slap across the face from the monster.
[SUN: @Muyan, do you even know how to play? Leave Iron Bull Chrysanthemum to me; just look after yourself.]
SUN topped Shen Jiali’s health back up to full, shifting left and right alongside his movements to precisely block him airtight behind her, while simultaneously managing to spare energy to unleash rocket launcher fire against the monster.
The other members were utterly speechless. And they thought this black brute wasn’t dragging them down damn it, what on earth did the guild leader and this cash-whale seeing in him? Did this dark, rough, and tough skin poke their XP or something?
The monster seemed to possess a level-locking skill; she refused to attack high-level players, choosing instead to torment a level-three newbie.
However, SUN and Muyan refused to yield an inch, standing dead firm in front of Shen Jiali. In the gaps between reloading ammunition clips, one person took charge of outputting, while the other took turns using their mortal flesh to absorb the monster’s virus damage.
Finally, under the combined attacks of the teammates, the monster’s health bar emptied out, transforming into bluish-gray particles that vanished into thin air.
Meanwhile, Muyan and SUN’s health bars had dropped below the neck, and their stamina values were reduced to the absolute minimum. If they couldn’t recover health in time, they would end up just like the players they saw when they first arrived—collapsed in pools of blood.
To fight the monster, the blood packs and supplies everyone brought had been completely depleted. Thus, dragging their last shreds of stamina, SUN and Muyan chopped down the redwood tree and acquired the rare minerals.
Immediately afterward, both of them collapsed onto the ground simultaneously, unable to move another inch.
At that moment, two prompts popped up on Shen Jiali’s panel simultaneously: [Player SUN, Guild Leader Muyan have sent you rare minerals. Do you accept?]
Shen Jiali was just about to click “No” when a prompt appeared in the chat box:
[Muyan: Rare minerals can be used to synthesize tombstones. Take them.]
Shen Jiali blinked and clicked “Yes.”
The other members sighed and complained, nursing unspoken bitterness, muttering that their stamina was exhausted and they had to return to the guild camp to replenish blood before coming back to bring blood packs and nutrients for the two fallen comrades.
The group dragged their battered bodies onto the plane, not even bothering to spare a single word of concern as to whether Shen Jiali wanted to tag along, leaving him behind with two corpses in the perilous Yueyue City as they returned to the guild camp.
[Muyan: @Iron Bull Chrysanthemum, it’s dangerous here, you should head back first.]
[SUN: I was going to say it even if he didn’t—you head back first.]
Shen Jiali watched them silently, then turned around and walked away.
Though it was just a game, seeing Iron Bull Chrysanthemum’s resolutely departing back, a faint trace of disappointment inevitably welled up in both of their hearts.
Lying amidst the corpse-strewn Yueyue University, gazing up at the brilliant starry sky after the rain had stopped, neither of them spoke a word.
Just leave, then. Go on.
An airplane parked at the entrance of Yueyue City, and two figures descended from it.
[Player A: Holy crap, coming to Yueyue City always feels so damn terrifying.]
[Player B: Look who’s talking, told you to log on early but you insisted on playing ranked matches, came late didn’t you? The quest is already over, my rare minerals—waaaaaaah TAT]
[Player A: What’s that over there? Is that a monster NPC?]
[Player B: Emmm, looks like a player?]
Along the gloomy, eerie road, a black brother wearing a white tank top, shorts, and flip-flops was harvesting berries from the roadside bushes when an infected wolf lunged fiercely forward, opening its bloody maw and tearing wildly. The black man’s health bar visibly plummeted at a rapid pace.
The two players looked at each other, pulled out their guns, and shot the infected wolf dead.
The black brother climbed up from the ground and continued harvesting berries with a body full of bloody gashes.
[Player A: Bro, go harvest berries in the forest; why are you here? It’s very dangerous here.]
The black man said nothing, keeping his head down to continue harvesting berries, his movements clumsy yet carrying a trace of stubbornness.
Elsewhere.
SUN and Muyan lay on the ground for a long time without seeing anyone come, planning to go AFK to attend to other matters.
Abruptly, a system prompt popped up: [Player “Iron Bull Chrysanthemum” has sent you berries, do you accept?]
Rotating the camera screen, they saw that dark, rough, and faintly foolish face of Iron Bull Chrysanthemum.
Iron Bull Chrysanthemum was covered in tattered rags and drenched in blood. One of his tank top straps had even vanished, hanging loosely and slouching off his body, while his stamina bar beside him had dropped to single digits.
The two remained silent for a long time, accepted the berries, and after recovering a bit of health, finally managed to stand back up.
[SUN: Why are you injured? Did you get hurt harvesting berries for me?]
[Iron Bull Chrysanthemum: .]
[Muyan: Thanks to Little Ju for the hundred berries.]
He observed carefully: Iron Bull Chrysanthemum had given SUN eighty-eight berries and given him a full one hundred.
He won.
Even though Iron Bull Chrysanthemum had distributed them randomly without giving it much thought.
[SUN: Ju’er knows I’m a freelancer, so giving me 88 berries—does that mean you hope my wealth pours in endlessly?]
[Iron Bull Chrysanthemum: ……?]
One calling him “Little Ju” and the other “Ju’er”—it truly made one sigh. Could people in this world have a little less unrequited narcissism and a little more self-awareness?
Once both of them were back on their feet, the members finally arrived tardily with blood packs.
Returning to the camp, Shen Jiali looked at his experience points, which had leveled up to 5, and decided to log off and lie down for a while.
As a result, Muyan called out to him: [Speaking of which, where are you from?]
[Iron Bull Chrysanthemum: Earth.]
[Muyan: I mean which city is your home in?]
[Iron Bull Chrysanthemum: Jinhai.]
[Muyan: What a coincidence, I’m from Jinhai too. So, if you have time, shall we meet up offline?]
[Iron Bull Chrysanthemum: No time.]
[Muyan: I want to send you a rare tombstone blueprint recipe.]
[Iron Bull Chrysanthemum: Have time.]
[Muyan: Then how about 3:00 PM tomorrow? The location is the first themed cafe on Huaihai Road [Smile]]
[Iron Bull Chrysanthemum: .]
Although the grand real-life project progress of “Garden of Life’s Latter Half” was practically non-existent, being able to acquire such an airtight, luxurious grand tomb in-game could slightly soothe his heart, which had been battered and riddled with holes by the world.
He suddenly felt a little bit expectant.
Huanhai Electronics Headquarters.
“Slap!” Nan Liujing closed his laptop. Although he didn’t use force, it still produced a loud snap.
He had purchased a high-level game account, changed the name to SUN, and in order to ensure he could lead Shen Jiali into joining a large guild to meet more high-level players, he had ordered Shen Jiali to rapidly level up his new account. That way, through day-and-night association between Shen Jiali and a wealthy, gentle high-level player, they would quickly develop mutual affection, smoothly gathering evidence of his infidelity.
If he wanted to emerge unscathed from a divorce lawsuit, aside from those trivial matters too numerous to record, the strongest evidence was infidelity on the other party’s part.
He had thought this would be a protracted campaign, but to his surprise, within a mere two days, the two of them had agreed to an offline meeting.
Moreover, Shen Jiali had given Muyan one hundred berries while only giving him eighty-eight.
His slender fingers gradually tightened, and faint blue veins faintly bulged across the back of his hand.
Very well, nothing wrong with that—this grand divorce plan is just around the corner.
Since the Shen family dared to send a defective counterfeit surrogate over, they had better be prepared to bear all the consequences.
Secretary Yan came out after dropping off the file, patting her little chest with lingering fear.
President Nan’s expression was truly too terrifying; she reasonably suspected something had gone wrong with the company’s operations. Otherwise, how could a person’s face look as gloomy as that, making him look like an evil ghost crawling out of hell, radiating black aura all over?
At night, looking at the pile of unidentified black matter on the dining table, Nan Liujing gripped his knife and fork as his fingers slowly tightened.
“No appetite, Uncle Li, help me upstairs.”
Uncle Li acknowledged the order and, looking at the young master’s darkened face, didn’t even dare to draw a loud breath.
What was the matter this time?
Nan Liujing cast a sideways glance at Shen Jiali, who was resting his eyes and dozing while slumped over the table, his gaze turning gloomy.
Entering the room, he instructed Uncle Li to go tend to other matters first, then opened his computer and pulled out “Divorce Plan 5.0,” adding the two words “Infidelity” right after the column of Shen Jiali’s crimes.
Yet after barely a moment, he hit the return key and deleted those two words.
His personal lawyer had already helped him draft the divorce agreement, and with crime piled upon crime accumulated, the Shen family would never dare harbor the slightest grievance.
Clutching that divorce plan, Nan Liujing remained silent for a long time, hardened his heart, slammed the agreement onto the desk, and pulled out his fountain pen, intending to sign his name first.
However, his peripheral vision caught his water cup in an instant.
On the white water cup was a small red dot; upon closer inspection, it was a tiny strawberry sticker.
His hand holding the pen abruptly paused.
Not long ago, for reasons unknown, Shen Jiali had gone out of his mind and plastered his bought stickers all over the head of the bed, densely covering the whole area. Uncle Li had spent a massive amount of effort cleaning them all off completely.
He hadn’t expected there to still be a fish that slipped through the net.
This person was just like these omnipresent stickers, seemingly having quietly invaded every minor aspect of his life.
The pile of tattered craft works piled in the corner of the room—clearly there were blind people willing to collect them at high prices, and all he had to do was say the word “good” and it would be settled. Why keep them here to be an eyesore?
Sure enough, Shen Jiali was someone who couldn’t be kept around. He only unconsciously disrupted all his plans, and he hated this feeling of having his plans thrown into disarray.
Nan Liujing’s gaze shifted back to the divorce agreement.
Whatever, I’ll sign it once I snap definitive photographic evidence of Shen Jiali’s infidelity. No need to rush this exact moment.
He shoved the agreement back into the drawer and slammed it shut with a thud.