“I’ll face it with you.
Please…
please don’t leave me all alone…”
Momonga spoke to his friend with a trembling voice.
He was afraid—terrified that the secrecy meant Naiyuan would vanish the moment they woke up tomorrow.
When he saw the information, his first reaction hadn’t been anger, but fear.
Recalling Naiyuan’s recent behavior, the marks on the calendar, and the information in the message, a terrifying thought flashed through his mind.
“Suicide!”
When that word crossed his mind, Momonga was startled.
It was the scenario he dared not imagine most.
Subconsciously, he wanted to deny it, but the information before him made it impossible to refute.
He had tried his best to maintain his composure, quietly getting rid of Herohero so he could be alone with Naiyuan.
Once they reached the Treasury, Momonga could no longer hold it in.
He exploded, roaring to vent the fear and terror in his heart.
His voice, laced with a cocktail of emotions, echoed through the Treasury, striking Naiyuan’s mind with force.
Looking at his friend’s questioning face with a complex expression, Naiyuan didn’t know how to answer for a moment.
He had thought his actions could be hidden for a couple of days without issue.
He hadn’t expected to be exposed so quickly, and at a time like this.
With the game about to close, the developers had released all sorts of rare items to make one last profit.
So, after logging off yesterday, Naiyuan had sold everything he could liquidate.
He had done the same with the loans.
He kept a portion of the money and spent the rest on the game to buy various rare items.
He had secretly tucked the portion he kept under the bed in Momonga’s house.
These were the savings he had accumulated over years of work.
Though the amount wasn’t huge due to his spending on the game, it would still improve his friend’s life.
All of this was preparation for transmigration.
If he transmigrated, the loans wouldn’t matter.
If he didn’t, he would take the drugs he had prepared and end it the next day.
The money left for Momonga was specifically in case Momonga didn’t transmigrate either; after all, he was Naiyuan’s only friend.
Everything had been planned out perfectly, but Naiyuan hadn’t expected a last-minute accident.
“I…
I’m sorry…”
Naiyuan opened his mouth to say something, but in the end, only an apology came out.
At a moment like this, he didn’t know how to explain.
Should he tell him directly, “I’m planning to transmigrate”?
That would likely make Momonga even more worried.
After all, another way to say “transmigrate” was “to die.”
Thinking it over, Naiyuan realized with frustration that whether he told the truth or lied, both paths seemed to lead to death.
“I’ll come over to your house to stay with you after we log off.
I’ll take a few days off work.”
Having vented his emotions, Momonga seemed to have calmed down slightly, speaking in a gentler tone.
“I’ll help you pay off the debts.
You can come work at my company.
It’s a bit tiring, but we can look out for each other.
We can play new games together, eat together, talk about all sorts of things…”
“So please, don’t just disappear one day, okay?”
Momonga extended his skeletal arms and slowly embraced Naiyuan.
Afraid that Naiyuan would do something drastic, he desperately wanted to change his friend’s mind.
“…Thank you, Satoru.
It’s good to have met you, my friend.”
Naiyuan raised his hands and returned the embrace.
Though he felt the hard sensation of bone, he found it incredibly warm.
“It’s good to have met you in this life, Satoru.
Maybe living a full life like he said wouldn’t be so bad.”
Naiyuan thought silently.
For the first time, he felt that perhaps transmigrating wasn’t that important.
As long as his friend was by his side, what difference did it make whether he transmigrated or not?
Everyone has something they treasure most in life, and perhaps he had finally found his.
“Me too.
I’m very happy I met you, Naiyuan,” Momonga replied.
Feeling that Naiyuan had been swayed by his words, Momonga’s tense heart finally relaxed.
He had been terrified that his friend was still set on his dark path.
If it really came to that, he would have to use his own life to threaten him.
No matter what, he couldn’t let his friend die, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.
“By the way, shouldn’t we go find Hero-kun?
He’s probably been waiting a long time.”
Naiyuan remembered that Herohero was still waiting for them and spoke up quickly.
“Oh no!
I completely forgot about Herohero!
It’s already been over ten minutes!!”
Momonga had been lost in thought, but Naiyuan’s words snapped him back to reality.
Looking at the system interface, it was already 11:20 PM.
Momonga let out a desperate cry.
*Sorry, Herohero, I didn’t mean it.
Please forgive me.*
“Ahem, we’d better hurry and get the items.
Time is running out, and Hero-kun might get angry.”
“Oh right, right.
Fast, fast.
I think they’re over here.”
“Whew, good thing I didn’t put them in the Mausoleum, or we’d have to walk a long way.”
Hurriedly clicking through the Treasury interface to withdraw the items, Momonga finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It was lucky these new World-Class Items hadn’t been stored in the Mausoleum, otherwise they couldn’t have retrieved them so quickly.
“It seems our laziness helped us out.
I thought since the game was closing, no one would come to steal them, so I didn’t bother putting them in the Mausoleum.”
Naiyuan couldn’t help but tease Momonga as he watched him scramble.
“Uh, to be able to talk about being lazy with such confidence, Naiyuan, you really are…”
Momonga rubbed his smooth skull.
Seeing that his friend had fully recovered his spirits, he was quite happy.
*Just to be safe, I’ll move in with him tomorrow and keep an eye on him for a month,* Momonga thought, deciding he couldn’t let his guard down just yet.
“Alright, since we found them, let’s go.”
Naiyuan urged him.
He had made up his mind now, and those troubling thoughts seemed to have vanished.
While he still cared about transmigrating, he wasn’t as obsessed as before.
He felt as if a weight had been lifted.
Like a limp rod suddenly hardening without warning, he had undergone a complete transformation.
“Naiyuan!”
“What is it?”
“Nothing, I just suddenly felt like calling your name.”
“Satoru!”
“Then I’ll call yours too.
Can’t let you have the last word.”
The two looked at each other and, after a few seconds, couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
…
The Sixth Floor, the Arena.
Herohero was dozing off, feeling dazed.
“Naiyuan, Momonga…
why haven’t you come yet?”
“I’m about to reach my limit…”