“If you continue to be this shameless, I am truly going to get angry.” Xing Yun crossed her arms, walking in front, and spoke in a low voice.
Rong Ping’an: …
Before she could respond, a little girl hopped over to them. She wore her hair in double braids and smiled particularly brightly. “Big sister, do you want to play with me?”
Another little girl? Xing Yun frowned. She now had the illusion that every time she saw a little girl, something bad happened. She raised her foot, feeling a strong urge to simply walk past.
Where did this wild child come from, pulling random strangers to play games? It clearly is not normal.
“Big sister, will you play with me?”
As they brushed past her, Xing Yun felt a sudden tremor in her heart and silently stopped moving forward. She hesitated for a moment and asked, “Play what?”
“Jump rope.”
Xing Yun’s mouth twitched. Who wanted to play jump rope with her? But she touched her fragile little heart and still said with forced patience, “Fine.”
Soon, Xing Yun realized that she had agreed a bit too hastily. She thought she would be jumping with the little girl, but it turned out that she had to do the jumping while the little girl just watched from the side.
She did not have much physical exercise in the real world, and even though her body had been strengthened, it still made her irritable. “Are you done yet? How long do I have to jump?” Xing Yun’s eyelids began to twitch as well, and she could not help but shout out.
Ever since she started taking the jump rope from the little girl, Rong Ping’an had been watching from the side, enjoying the spectacle. As soon as Xing Yun shouted, she laughed until she could not stop.
The little girl, however, was very dissatisfied. She sat on the grass, tilted her head to look at Xing Yun, and after waiting for a long time without saying anything, shook her head to indicate, “It is not enough yet.”
Rong Ping’an crouched nearby and watched Xing Yun, her face full of the expression: That serves you right for talking to an NPC so casually; has the retribution arrived? Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a man walking over, carrying a small box of apples. “Xiaoxing, I told you not to run around.”
The man looked at Xing Yun and Rong Ping’an with a face full of apology.
Rong Ping’an’s brain sounded an alarm. Regarding NPCs that appeared out of nowhere, her primary strategy was caution.
The man also noticed her wariness and waved his hands, saying, “I am her father. Xiaoxing has caused you both trouble; why not come sit at my house? There are many other people there from outside, just like you.”
Rong Ping’an did not reply directly; her expression was grave.
Xing Yun was still jumping rope, swearing as she jumped. What kind of psychiatric setup is this? If God is mentally unwell, she should see a doctor; does she have to torture people like this?
“There is fine wine and delicious food in the house. You can stay as long as you want, and your friends are there too.” The man rubbed his hands and smiled, full of hospitality.
Stay as long as we want? But they were players in the Infinite Game; how could they stay in one place for too long?
Rong Ping’an: “Is it a trap?”
Xing Yun: “There is nothing I do not dare to do.”
She looked at the horizon, where drifting clouds were slowly pushed away by the wind until they disappeared completely from view. The sun hung in the center of the sky, shrinking everyone’s shadows into a tiny point. From the chimneys of the houses in the village, plumes of white smoke rose, bringing the aroma of food.
Xing Yun: “This place is indeed surrounded by mountains and water, and I do not feel any particularly terrifying danger. It is not an unreasonable thing to rest for a couple of days.”
Rong Ping’an’s tightened nerves eased somewhat. She smiled; for some reason, even though this place gave off a strange vibe, it also made one feel at ease.
The little girl: “Since Dad said so, stop jumping and come with us.”
Xing Yun and Rong Ping’an looked at each other; in reality, besides the village before them, it seemed there was nowhere else to go.
However, what surprised Xing Yun was that the person entertaining them turned out to be Yu Xi.
“Since you are here, hurry up and sit down.” Yu Xi smiled sincerely and warmly.
Seeing him, Xing Yun felt much more settled in her heart. After all, he was a guy with “Absolute Perception”; following him meant there would not be any accidents.
Xing Yun relaxed, but Rong Ping’an did not. She looked puzzled: “You managed to get hired as a waiter in the dungeon?”
Yu Xi was bewildered: “Is this not what I should be doing?” He opened the diary in his hand; the cover was blood-red. The contents of the diary were very strange, with no dates, only weather conditions and a few bloody words. Everything is good, I love it here, I belong here.
“You can rest however you like here; there is no danger whatsoever.” He looked out the window, and Xing Yun followed his gaze. Outside, the smoke from each household was rising in spirals, and someone was out grazing sheep and leading cattle.
Yu Xi turned and took two roasted sweet potatoes, handing them to Xing Yun and Rong Ping’an: “You will like it here.”
Although the two of them accepted the potatoes, they looked at each other and did not eat.
After all, the current state of affairs made it difficult to eat with peace of mind.
Yu Xi looked at Xing Yun. Instead of urging them, he turned to another topic: “Do you want to write in a diary to record your life here and dilute everything from the past?”
“Oh.” Xing Yun nodded faintly. Under Rong Ping’an’s puzzled gaze, she gave her a reassuring smile and then pointed directly at the one in Yu Xi’s hand: “I want to write in the one you are holding.”
Yu Xi’s expression revealed hesitation, but Xing Yun did not wait for him to think it through carefully; she reached out and snatched it away. She started running as soon as she got it, not forgetting to open the diary on the way to check the contents. Rong Ping’an cooperated with her tacitly and blocked Yu Xi.
Yu Xi was pushed off balance by Rong Ping’an, but he still tried to walk toward Xing Yun. His eyes looked as if they could spray fire, and he lifted his foot to kick Rong Ping’an. Rong Ping’an dodged to the side, her hem fluttering in the wind, completely at ease.
After all, she had her rhythm game mode; she could even dodge God’s attacks, let alone Yu Xi. Under her teasing, Yu Xi became increasingly impatient and restless.
Xing Yun slowed her pace. The first page of the diary was a complete bloody handprint. Her brows twitched: “How bizarre.”
[Day 1, Sunny. Everything here makes me feel very at ease. Although there are some strange situations from time to time, overall it is much better than in the Infinite Dungeons.]
[Day 2, Cloudy. The little girl came to find me to play games again. I do not understand why it is always me. She said I can still read, so she will always come to find me. But how could I not know how to read?]
Seeing this, Xing Yun fell silent. She did not even know if she should flip to the next page; she was afraid of what would happen if she saw later on that she could no longer read.
Taking a deep breath, she flipped through with trepidation. Fortunately, no such situation occurred.
[Day 3, Sunny. The headless man… I saw a headless man! Walking back and forth in the wheat waves. Why would something like this happen? I definitely did not see it wrong. The little girl came over and asked if I wanted to become a person like that. Oh my god, she saw it too. It seems I have to find a way My heart is very uneasy.]
[Day 4, Rainy. I do not quite know what I wrote before. Did I see something yesterday? It seems not. Oh, right, why did I want to write this diary? It seems someone said I would not know how to read, but that is not true at all. It seems I was not affected, and everything is normal.]
[Sunny, everything is good.]
[Sunny, everything is good, I love it here.]
Xing Yun curled her lips: “Brainwashed in five days; too weak.”
[Sunny, everything is good, I love it here, I belong here.]
[Sunny, everything is good, I love it here, I belong here.]
Everything that followed was just this one sentence, with no new content at all.
Xing Yun sighed. The NPCs here seemed to be of a higher level; they knew how to play psychological warfare. They implanted the idea that discovering one cannot read is a normal thought process, yet that situation would never happen, thus disrupting human cognition.
Although Rong Ping’an held off Yu Xi, she had no way to control the free-spirited little girl. The girl rushed over and snatched the diary from Xing Yun’s hands, smiling brightly as she took out a new one: “Yours is here. Come on, there is only happiness here, no!”
Before the little girl could finish, Xing Yun pulled the diary from her hands, used all her strength, and threw it away, creating a neat and beautiful arc.
She suspected that the little girl’s speech had a certain level of brainwashing capability. Since that was the case, why listen to her finish? She was not the kind of “strictly righteous” character who would not make a move until someone finished transforming; she would directly interrupt the spell-casting.
However, the little girl did not seem to mind at all, smiling as she took out another one: “There is more.”
Xing Yun watched her perform magic tricks quietly and reached out to grab it again.
The little girl pulled her hand back; this time, she did not let her take it easily and said coldly with a stern face: “You are not allowed to throw it away.”
Xing Yun was startled: “Alright then.” It was not until Xing Yun impatiently agreed that the girl was satisfied and let go. As a result, Xing Yun did not take her seriously at all and directly threw it away again with a backhand.
The little girl’s smile began to falter: “…”
She took a deep breath, trying hard to maintain her smile, and looked up at Xing Yun: “Forget it. Staying here is also an annoyance for someone like you who is hard to manage. I will send you out. But life outside is not as comfortable as it is here. And here, you can see everything you want to see and get everything you want to get. For example, the friends you lost in the Infinite Dungeons, the regrets of real life.”
The more she spoke, the more engaged she became, but Xing Yun did not care.
“Stop.” Xing Yun had a completely indifferent face. “I have never lost any friends, and I have no regrets in real life. My family is alive, my friends are healthy. Take me out now.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the little girl’s mouth twitched. Generally, people would be reluctant to leave when encountering such a good thing, especially when seeing dead relatives and friends. But she had not expected to encounter someone like Xing Yun; it truly left her at a loss.
“Alright then, I will take you out.” The little girl extended her hand, looking sincere. Xing Yun looked at her cheeks, which still had baby fat, and felt a moment of trance. She did not expect that, taking advantage of this moment, the little girl used a knife to cut her palm, pressed her handprint onto the diary, and then tossed the diary into Xing Yun’s arms joyfully.
Is this the legendary forced love? Xing Yun felt the dull pain in her palm and simply did not know what to say.
Rong Ping’an also discovered something was wrong and rushed over. She reached out to tear off the page with the handprint on the diary, but it had absolutely no effect.
Xing Yun threw the diary on the ground and stomped on it repeatedly with her feet. When she picked it up to look, it was not even wrinkled.