The players, dressed in their frilly pink nurse uniforms and still struggling to adapt to the constant draft blowing up those skirts, suddenly heard a loud crash from the stairwell.
It sounded exactly like something heavy being kicked down the stairs and slamming into the ground with a resounding bang. The echo hadn’t even faded before they heard Qi Yu’s furious roar, completely unfiltered and seething with rage.
“I… damn it!”
What followed was a chaotic clatter of thumps and crashes, so intense it made everyone’s scalp go numb.
Wang Yicheng let out a long, heartfelt sigh. “Honestly, maybe it’s a blessing we didn’t go up there. Qi Yu really is a good person.”
The others silently nodded, their faces pale with shared understanding.
Listening to those violent, bone-rattling noises, those repeated heavy impacts, anyone could tell Qi Yu was in the middle of an extremely fierce fight, even with the game’s BOSS protecting him.
If it had been any of them going up instead… forget a bloodbath, they wouldn’t even leave behind a whole corpse. Someone would definitely drop dead on the spot.
This dungeon was unbelievably, ruthlessly dangerous.
Song Qing, who knew exactly what was happening on the third floor, only let out a cold snort.
Danger?
With Xie Shao there, what damn danger?
He seriously thought that so-called “intense battle” upstairs should be renamed “intense flirting.”
That bastard Xie Shao never did anything proper; all he ever thought about was causing trouble!
And the culprit in question, fresh from causing trouble, was currently standing at his room door, neatly dressed, mood bright and very sincerely inviting Qi Yu inside for a seat and a nice warm cup of tea.
“No.” Qi Yu refused instantly, every muscle taut with vigilance. He clutched at the hem of his little pink skirt, eyes shiny with tears, his face flushed with a mix of shame, anger, and leftover panic.
Anyone could tell at a glance that he had just been very, very bullied.
Meanwhile, Xie Shao had both hands tucked into the pockets of his white lab coat, looking radiant with satisfaction, like he had just won the lottery.
“There are no other entrances on the third floor. If you want to get to the laboratory, you have to pass through my room. It’s really just sitting inside for a moment. I’m not going to do anything to you.”
If Qi Yu could have, he would have spat at him right there.
Because just minutes earlier, in the furious scuffle that erupted after Xie Shao smacked his butt, Qi Yu, the delicate, soft little fish, had tragically been defeated.
Not only did he fail to teach the shameless doctor a lesson, he was even subjected to the humiliation of having his skirt flipped up.
The nurse-cosplay “Doctor’s Wife” uniform came with no safety shorts underneath.
And so, Qi Yu had been completely, mercilessly, thoroughly seen from head to toe by Xie the Pervert.
Even though he knew, based on certain past events, that he technically wasn’t a “pure little fish” anymore, those incidents were vague memories, nothing he experienced fully sober.
Facing this kind of situation with his full senses intact, Only now did he realize how unbearably humiliating it actually was.
Was this what it felt like… to be defiled?
It was absolutely terrifying.
The moment he thought about his pink lace panties being seen by that man, Qi Yu felt his breath catch. Especially when he remembered the look in Xie Shao’s eyes at the time…
He really thought he was going to lose those panties then and there.
Fortunately, thanks to his desperate, unyielding struggle, he somehow managed to preserve the last shreds of his dignity and force his skirt back down but even that didn’t feel safe enough.
So he took off his jacket, tied it around his waist, and knotted it tight over his skirt. It looked mismatched and ridiculous, sure but who cared? At least it felt secure!
Xie Shao, watching Qi Yu glare at him like a wolf-eyed grandmother guarding her little lamb, could only sigh helplessly. It was his fault, after all.
He hadn’t actually meant to do it, he had just reached out instinctively but as a man, he didn’t fully understand how fragile or revealing girls’ clothing tended to be.
He genuinely didn’t know skirts flipped up that easily.
But once his mind began replaying what he saw, Those long, slender legs, wrapped in half-length white socks…
Above them, smooth, pale skin with barely any hair… and higher still, the soft small curve under the pink panties,
No. No, absolutely not.
He could not keep thinking about that.
If he did, he would be testing the limits of his self-control.
Xie Shao coughed twice, straightened his back, and forced himself into the posture of a righteous gentleman before inviting Qi Yu inside again.
Qi Yu, clutching the tied jacket guarding his skirt, stepped in with exaggerated caution. What he saw inside surprised him: a study-like room filled with an unmistakable sense of daily life.
A wall to wall bookshelf, crammed with thick academic volumes. A desk with a steaming cup of tea, an open book midway through, several pens scattered across the surface.
The bedroom door was half-ajar, its interior out of view but even without seeing the rest, anyone could tell someone had genuinely been living here for a long while.
Qi Yu froze for a second at that realization.
He had assumed Xie Shao followed him from dungeon to dungeon using some special trick, maybe locking onto him and entering early to replace the dungeon’s BOSS. He never expected it to look like… the man had actually been here long enough to settle in.
Did he really arrive after the last dungeon and live here as “Doctor Xie Shao”… all the way from the hospital’s peak to its downfall?
How long would that even be?
A subtle guilt rose in Qi Yu’s heart. He turned to look at Xie Shao, lips parting as if to speak, then closing again because he couldn’t organize the words quickly enough.
When Xie Shao shut the door and turned around, he found Qi Yu staring at him with an expression that alternated between “You poor pitiful thing” and “Are you actually an idiot?” over and over again.
Xie Shao burst out laughing.
He reached out and ruffled Qi Yu’s hair.
“What’s going on in that head of yours? Why are you looking at me like I’m some abandoned, mentally challenged orphan from a rural village?”
…An accurate description, to be honest.
Qi Yu secretly applauded Xie Shao’s literary creativity.
“I was just thinking… did you really live here for a long time?” Qi Yu accepted the tea Xie Shao handed him. The heavy white porcelain cup had an austere, official vibe to it. Green tea leaves floated gently with the ripples in the water.
He took a sip and it tasted surprisingly good.
“You were supposed to be the dungeon’s BOSS, and yet you don’t behave like one. You can move across different dungeons but the game doesn’t purge you as a bug. You have a real body, warm to the touch, just like us, and yet you’re not a player.”
“Xie Shao… what exactly are you?”
Qi Yu cupped the tea in both hands, asking sincerely, voicing the question that had weighed on his mind for a long time.
To be honest, it was a deep question. Their relationship, though ambiguous and absurd at times, wasn’t something that truly demanded clarity and in the game’s logic, their identities were always at odds.
Qi Yu didn’t understand why Xie Shao acted so inexplicably close to him but he truly felt that Xie Shao never had any intent to harm him.
Xie Shao understood him too well…
But Qi Yu? Aside from the little the man revealed of himself, he knew nearly nothing.
He asked because he couldn’t help wanting to know more.
“Me?” Xie Shao pulled a chair out for himself and sat down.
The serious, refined porcelain cup had been handed to Qi Yu, while he himself held a small mug decorated with a bright red cartoon carp, childish and out of place.
“Don’t overthink it. I’m nowhere near as complicated as you imagine.”
“If I really had to describe it… I’m probably just something drifting inside the game. Somewhere between a player and an NPC. I can’t leave, so I’m stuck wandering around like this. A pitiful little creature, really.”
Pitiful?
Qi Yu couldn’t help it, his sympathy burst out instantly. His brain quickly spun up eighteen different tragic backstories involving heartbreak, betrayal or accidents that forced Xie Shao’s soul into the game system.
He opened his mouth, ready to comfort him.
But Xie Shao continued before he could say a word.
“Though honestly, this state isn’t bad at all. I don’t have to work, I don’t have to participate in dungeons and I can do whatever I want. I can get anything from the game system too. It’s stingy with you players, sure but it treats me decently enough.”
“Oh, right. I can also open a backdoor for you. The things you players call items? I have an absurd amount of those.”
Beep,
Player Qi Yu.
Status: automatically adjusted.
Sympathy → Envy of the Rich.
To hell with sympathy!
What bastard needed sympathy?!
This man was clearly the pampered golden child of the game system, A disgustingly wealthy boss-level tycoon who desperately needed to be taken down!
Two seconds after switching his state, Qi Yu reluctantly returned himself to normal mode. He still had one more question he wanted to ask.
“So… staying in the game alone all the time, doesn’t it get lonely?”
Hardly anyone to talk to, only the occasional bored teasing of wandering ghosts, and only when a dungeon activated could he see living, conscious people. Honestly, that kind of existence sounded miserable.
Even having piles of items couldn’t cover that level of miserable.
Xie Shao: “It’s pretty boring.”
Qi Yu: sympathetic eyes.
Xie Shao: “Which is why I chose to play with you.”
Qi Yu: “…”
He took it back. This man, this demon, deserved no sympathy!
Zero! None!
Also, what kind of bizarre phrasing was that?! Play with you?? Couldn’t he say something normal, like “We’ve overcome the boundary between player and NPC and developed a meaningful bond”?
Was that so hard?
Did he learn language from his P.E. teacher instead of a Chinese teacher?!
He had asked a serious question, only to receive a pile of unserious, unhelpful, and entirely non-specific answers.
Qi Yu huffed angrily, stood up, took two steps, and stomped back to the table. He grabbed his teacup and downed half of it in one go before pointing at Xie Shao.
“Come on. Let’s go unlock the door.”
“Mm.”
Xie Shao didn’t resist at all. Obediently, he led Qi Yu to the far end of the floor and opened a large door that clearly hadn’t been touched in a long time.
Beyond it stretched a narrow corridor, and at the very end stood a metal door with a cold, gunmetal sheen, solid, intimidating, completely impermeable.
Xie Shao took out one of the keys he had kept and combined it with the key they obtained from Song Qing. Together, the two pieces formed a single intricate key with countless fine teeth, complex, heavy, clearly important.
Qi Yu reached out to take it.
But Xie Shao deliberately retracted his hand.
He leaned closer to Qi Yu, lowering himself just enough so their eyes were level. The casual smile always curling on his lips vanished at some point without Qi Yu noticing. The air between them abruptly thickened, heavy with something unspoken.
“Before I give you the key,” Xie Shao said quietly, “I want to give you something else first.”
“What?” He was standing far too close. That posture, that angle, Qi Yu felt awkward all over. He instinctively retreated a step but the cold chill of the metal door at his back reminded him he had nowhere left to go.
So he clenched his teeth and forced himself to meet Xie Shao’s gaze head-on.
With their eyes locked, he suddenly realized something,
Xie Shao’s irises were incredibly dark. Not just black but a pure, bottomless darkness, so deep it felt like staring into them would pull him straight in.
Qi Yu’s fingers curled tightly into his palms.
He could feel, clear as day, his own heartbeat pounding rapidly beneath the thin layer of skin.
He was nervous.
Which was why he couldn’t help pressing again, tense and breathless:
“What exactly are you giving me?”
If you’re going to give it, then give it!
Why drag it out like this?!
Xie Shao didn’t answer with words. Instead, he reached up to his neck and removed a long red string. The cord was slightly faded, as if it had been worn for many years, the bright red now muted into a darker tone.
Hanging at the end of it was a small fish carved from white jade, smooth and gleaming like still water.
He looped the jade fish around Qi Yu’s neck.
After adjusting it properly, he tucked it naturally into Qi Yu’s clothing.
It had always hung against Xie Shao’s chest, so when it slid against Qi Yu’s skin, it wasn’t cold at all. Instead, it carried the lingering warmth of Xie Shao’s body, seeping through, spreading faintly across his skin.
Qi Yu: “…”
His face flushed, quickly, dramatically, unmistakably red.
“Y. you… why, why are you giving me this?”
“Because it suits you.” Xie Shao smiled gently. He lifted his hand and softly brushed Qi Yu’s hair with a warm, almost tender touch.
“My little fish,” he said, voice low and soft, “you must remember, never trust others too easily in this game and above all, don’t trust the game itself.”
“Don’t try to hoard points to go home. Spend what you have. Focus on keeping yourself safe. When you enter the next dungeon, the first thing you must do is find me. Understand?”
Maybe it was the gravity in his tone.
Maybe it was the softness in his voice.
Qi Yu found himself nodding in a daze.
Only after nodding did he realize, Wait! Something was wrong here.
Why was Xie Shao telling him all this?
Did something happen?
Something Qi Yu didn’t know?
A cold metal weight was pressed into his palm.
The moment Qi Yu’s fingers touched the key, a system prompt abruptly flashed before him.
[Player Qi Yu has obtained the critical item required for dungeon completion. Main quest progress detected at 99%. Objective updated: Open the laboratory door.]
[Irregular activity detected within the dungeon.]
[Cheating has been identified.]
[Offending party located: NPC Xie Shao. Initiating punishment protocol…]
Cheating?!
Punishment?!!
Those two words hit him like a thunderbolt.
Qi Yu spun around, heart leaping to his throat, desperate to ask what was going on. Why had the system suddenly detected something?
Would the punishment affect Xie Shao? Would it affect him? What did any of this mean?
A hundred questions exploded in his mind,
But before he could voice even one, Xie Shao had already grabbed his hand, forced the key into the lock, and twisted it with a sharp, decisive motion.
Click.
The door swung open.
But instead of the horrific laboratory they expected, a sea of pure white light opened before them, the radiance of players completing the dungeon.
He thought he heard faint cheers from the others.
Qi Yu panicked and reached for Xie Shao’s hand but before he could grasp it, that familiar, weightless feeling surged beneath his feet. The world spun violently.
In the next instant, he was back in the plaza of the players’ living district.
In his ears lingered only Xie Shao’s soft, lingering whisper,
“Qi Yu… you must find me.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Cresvynia
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
✦ The translator summons words. You may summon coffee. ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Enter the GameChapter 2 · Pick a roomChapter 3 · DeadChapter 4 · AtticChapter 5 · ResponsibleChapter 6 · A bamboo BasketChapter 7 · DiaryChapter 8 · Song QingChapter 9 · Sent to HospitalChapter 10 · Second CopyChapter 11 · Leaking InformationChapter 12 · Special Prop!Chapter 13 · Doctor GhostChapter 14 · Store RoomChapter 15 · Psychiatry HospitalChapter 16 · Things of PastChapter 17 · Second FloorChapter 18 · He’s adorableChapter 19 · You Like Him?Chapter 20 · Kiss meChapter 21 · Group women’s clothing PlayChapter 22 · Where’s my Skirt?Chapter 23 · Wife of Murder Doctor….Chapter 24 · Go to Third floorChapter 25 · You must find me!Chapter 26 · See you in the next dungeonChapter 27 · VideoChapter 28 · Player ForumChapter 29 · Two women vying for one manChapter 30 · The Giant WolfChapter 31 · A Kind and Benevolent FatherChapter 32 · Preparing the change clothesChapter 33 · Red Heart FruitChapter 34 · In what ways do I fall short of him?Chapter 35 · KissChapter 36 · Bald performanceChapter 37 · The Prince Has ArrivedChapter 38 · Prince Song QingChapter 39 · Should we…Chapter 40 · A Kiss of True LoveChapter 41 · BanquetChapter 42 · Snow White KingChapter 43 · KingChapter 44 · I miss you so much!Chapter 45 · LeavingChapter 46 · Wanting to See HimChapter 47 · Resource Type InstanceChapter 48 · The Banquet BeginsChapter 49 · KissChapter 50 · Full-Dive Virtual RealityChapter 51 · Everyone Is a LiarChapter 52 · MegaphoneChapter 53 · Dragon???Chapter 54 · Fire DragonChapter 55 · A powerful Fire DragonChapter 56 · Want Some Barbecue?Chapter 57 · The Characteristics of the GameChapter 58 · A little DragonChapter 59 · Searching for her sonChapter 60 · We’re Going to Tear Up the HostageChapter 61 · Mountain CollapseChapter 62 · DiscussionChapter 63 · Digging for Crystals?Chapter 64 · Making Money Selling LiquorChapter 65 · A KissChapter 66 · I’m the Best LookingChapter 67 · Ghost Ship 101Chapter 68 · Has the Competition Begun Yet?Chapter 69 · LotteryChapter 70 · First PlaceChapter 71 · The Sea Monster ArrivesChapter 72 · CooperationChapter 73 · The Man in the MaskChapter 74 · WarChapter 75 · The Players’ RevengeChapter 76 · ReturningChapter 77 · The End