The moment the words left his mouth, the surrounding time and space immediately warped. The 5D system simulated the sensation of transporting the two of them to an open clearing.
The venue seemed to be mimicking a secret realm from a cultivation novel. It was designed with a heavy sense of immortal cultivation, the mountainside was covered with various trees and plants, each uniquely shaped, and some of the flora even emitted a faint, gentle bioluminescence.
Shen Buqi had never seen a scene like this before. Curious, he asked, “A-Shi, do you know where this is?”
Ji Weishi shook his head, his bright eyes narrowing slightly with a smile. “My boyfriend just needs to hold my hand. No need to worry.”
There was that title again. Shen Buqi had blushed furiously the last time he heard it, and this time was no exception. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something but not knowing what, leaving the soft pink tip of his tongue resting nervously against his lower lip.
Ji Weishi’s heart stirred. He leaned down and pressed his lips against him.
Perhaps it was due to the unfamiliar environment, but this kiss felt exceptionally long. Their tongues chased each other like water snakes, drawing out wet, sticky sounds. By the time it ended, Shen Buqi couldn’t even fully pull his tongue back.
Unexpectedly, a gentle mechanical voice chimed. “Congratulations to both players for completing Task 1: Wild Kissing. Points +2. You still need 98 points to reach the target. Please keep up the good work.”
Shen Buqi looked at Ji Weishi in dazed confusion. The lingering flush at the corners of his eyes drew a strike of vivid crimson against his snow-white skin.
Ji Weishi smiled softly. “Since this is a romance space, I guessed it would require intimate contact. I just wanted to try it out, and it turned out to be true.”
Yet, having gotten the better end of the deal, he still behaved like a spoiled child, wearing a troubled look. “However, it seems this task doesn’t just want us to be intimate; it also requires certain specific conditions. Xiao Yi won’t dislike it, will he?”
Shen Buqi had never played this game before and listened to him intently, being entirely too obedient. Hearing the question, he shook his head hurriedly. “I won’t…”
His tongue was still numb, yet his voice was resolute. “It felt very nice.”
Meeting his gaze, Ji Weishi paused for a fraction of a second. He licked his canine teeth with the tip of his tongue, savoring the residual sweetness, his eyes darkening. “That’s good. After all…”
After all, if he remembered correctly, the designer of this amusement park had some pretty progressive ideas regarding sex.
Under Ji Weishi’s guidance, the two of them hugged, kissed, and licked each other some more in the clearing, but they failed to trigger any further rewards. It seemed identical tasks could only be completed once.
By the time they finished, the surrounding area was gradually growing crowded. These people hadn’t just entered the game, they had been guided here through various prompts.
Ji Weishi figured that the initial setup of the game was meant to separate couples, just so they could fulfill whatever that “wild copulation” task was.
He kept these observations in mind.
Without exception, these people were all couples paired off in twos. Judging by their appearances, none of them looked very old. With the advancement of technology, human lifespans had reached over five hundred years, greatly extending their youth and prime.
The genders of the couples were quite diverse, featuring all kinds of combinations, though Alpha-Omega (AO) pairings still made up the majority.
Everyone’s tasks seemed to have hit a bottleneck. Listening to the noisy chatter around them, most people here were completely at a loss, failing to gain even those initial 2 points. Complaints rose and fell, with people muttering that they had no idea what they were supposed to be doing.
However, order was maintained fairly well. After all, people came to the romance zone to have fun; flirting was the main objective, and no one was truly fighting tooth and nail just to win a reward.
Those with a strong competitive drive had all gone to the combat zone to pilot mechas.
“We are now entering the group task phase. Everyone, please line up in sequence, and make absolutely sure your lover is right by your side~”
A playful young woman’s voice rang out. Ji Weishi guessed this was another research achievement led by Zhou Ranqing, creating authentic voices for androids.
Through this female voice, he could roughly guess what was coming next.
Taking Shen Buqi with him, he stood in a relatively inconspicuous spot, neither too far forward nor too far back.
The queue formed quickly. Under the machine’s instructions, the tail end of the line swung around to form a circle, making the crowd slightly cramped.
Shen Buqi didn’t quite like the feeling of being pressed so closely against strangers. He tried his best to minimize the space he occupied, but every time he shrunk back a little, the person next to him would immediately seize the opportunity to push closer.
His subtle movements didn’t escape Ji Weishi’s eyes. Without saying a word, Ji Weishi pulled the youth directly into his arms.
Then, with a freezing expression, he glared at the encroaching stranger. “Can’t you see it’s already crowded enough here?”
The offender was a young male Alpha. Though young, he had a sharp temper. With his partner right beside him, his temper instantly flared up for the sake of his pride:
“Are you fucking sick? I’m not crowding you. Besides, he kept backing away, so I thought he was trying to give me some space. Damn, what awful luck. To think I’d run into an idiot like you while out having fun. My bad luck.”
Saying this, he also pulled his own partner into his arms, adding maliciously.
“Or is your partner afraid I’ll be interested in him? How hilarious. Don’t flatter yourself. Look at my partner, an A-class Omega. Would I be stupid enough to touch a Beta?”
His partner was just as insufferable, clinging tighter to his chest at those words. “Hmph~ Hubby is right.”
Shen Buqi: ?
He had seen AO couples in District 7, but usually, one side was begging for favors from the other, acting subservient on the surface. He had truly never seen anyone talk so bizarrely in public.
He had never witnessed such genuine, heartfelt… absurdity.
Ji Weishi’s expression grew even stiffer. He came from an elite family. Even before his genetic testing, he was the pampered young master of the clan, and after the results came out, no one dared to speak to him in such a manner.
Moreover, this Alpha had recklessly released his pheromones, a metallic stench that was utterly nauseating.
In an Alpha’s world, intentionally releasing pheromones was either a provocation before a fight, or a sign of absolute confidence in one’s strength, believing pheromones alone could intimidate others.
Ji Weishi had no interest in an open pheromone clash. If he truly released his pheromones, there would probably be very few Alphas in this arena who could remain standing.
However, administering a little warning with his mental strength was perfectly fine.
He directly unleashed his mental energy, which had just been soothed by Shen Buqi, directing it in a targeted strike. The Alpha’s face turned instantly pale.
The catch was that Ji Weishi’s outward expression didn’t match that powerful surge of mental strength at all.
He rested his head against Shen Buqi’s shoulder, his voice trembling slightly: “Xiao Yi, I’m scared…”
Warm breath drifted against his small, beautiful earlobe. Shen Buqi had been slightly spacing out, but hearing this, he didn’t hesitate for a second. He grabbed the Alpha’s arm, twisting and pinning it downward. Under the double assault of mental and physical force, the Alpha dropped straight to his knees on the ground, his face contorted in agonizing pain.
Shen Buqi quickly let go, staring at his own hand in confusion. This shouldn’t happen. He had held back his strength; logically, this Alpha should only feel sore for a few days, not suffer this badly.
Could it be that because A-Shi had been so badly frightened, he had accidentally used too much force in a moment of panic?
After this commotion, when the two of them stepped back into line, forget about crowding, the people around them wished they could stay eight miles away.
Recalling Shen Buqi’s protective actions just now, Ji Weishi felt a secret surge of smug satisfaction.
But Shen Buqi’s expression was different from before, he seemed lost in thought.
Ji Weishi quickly leaned in and nuzzled against the youth’s shoulder in that same posture. “What’s wrong?”
Shen Buqi snapped out of it, forcing a reassuring smile. “It’s nothing. Just thinking about some things.”
He still hadn’t fully recovered from that Alpha’s words.
It wasn’t because he felt insulted, but rather because he had caught a distinct implication from the man’s speech: to an Alpha, a Beta was inferior to an Omega.
It felt very uncomfortable.
Even though Qin Che had told him that Ji Weishi was an S-class Alpha who didn’t need an Omega during his rut.
And even though Qin Che had told him that the world didn’t require an AO pairing to constitute the best kind of love.
Still, he just couldn’t get over that hurdle.
His heart felt heavy and suffocated.
He had lived perfectly fine for over a decade without a secondary gender, and his life had been smooth sailing. But ever since he met A-Shi, it stopped working.
Agitated inside, he failed to notice a virtual screen appearing out of thin air in the center of the space.
A task was posted on it.
A wave of collective gasps arose from the crowd, accompanied by some bashful complaints.
By the time the noise pulled Shen Buqi back to reality, the virtual screen had already vanished.
Confused, he tugged at Ji Weishi’s sleeve. “A-Shi, what happened? I didn’t see it.”
From the side, the corners of Ji Weishi’s lips had originally been curved in a trace of a mocking smirk, but the moment he turned to face Shen Buqi, his lips softened into a tender smile.
“It’s nothing. It just wants us to take turns kissing.”
Shen Buqi was bewildered. “Huh? Didn’t we already kiss just now?”
Ji Weishi shook his head slightly, placing a finger over his lips. “Shh, let’s watch how they do it.”
The simulation here featured an endless forest with dim lighting, casting a faint, pale glow that made his gaze look incredibly bewitching like the siren’s song, or the splash of a mermaid’s tail, luring people forward.
Shen Buqi couldn’t help but fall deep into that bottomless, dark abyss.
The order of the line had stopped mattering the moment it formed a circle. Now, it was a matter of whoever was bold enough going up first.
After a long period of hesitation, a Beta couple unexpectedly took the stage first. The man and woman didn’t care about the gazes of others at all, locking into a deep, passionate embrace and kiss in the center of the arena. The sticky, wet sounds were amplified by the machines, and the image of their deep kiss appeared on the massive virtual screen.
It was a bit too excessive. Their tongues seemed to turn into fish, brushing against each other in the water, separating, and then heavily colliding again, playing a game of hide and seek.
Cheers erupted continuously from the audience. Forced to broadcast such a private matter in front of everyone, the couple seemed to thrive even more under the spotlight.
Could other people’s cheers actually serve as a catalyst?
Shen Buqi watched in incomprehension. Whenever he kissed A-Shi at home, his head would feel dizzy and his face would burn. Why did they seem to have no such reaction?
In fact, right now, just watching their excessive display made the tips of his ears burn hot.
His hand, which was linked with Ji Weishi’s, clamped down tightly. Sensing his nervousness, Ji Weishi smiled silently.
So pitiful, he can only rely on me.
Yet, his face showed an expression even more anxious than Shen Buqi’s. “Xiao Yi, can you handle it? I’m a bit nervous. Let’s go up last, that way we can stop whenever we want.”
Shen Buqi nodded, and the two began to wait.
The couples who dared to go up afterward were basically very uninhibited. By the time they stepped down, every single one of them was flushed red.
Some had even kissed to the point of developing physiological reactions.
Ji Weishi found the sight repulsive and reached out to cover Shen Buqi’s eyes.
This cover remained all the way until it was their turn to take the stage.
Ji Weishi claimed he was covering his eyes so Shen Buqi wouldn’t be afraid while walking up, but in reality, it carried a heavily possessive, protective undertone. His sharply chiseled face was filled with arrogance and coldness, making many people avert their eyes, not daring to look straight at him.
However, this prolonged covering also had a unique effect. When they reached the stage and he removed his hand, Shen Buqi’s dark eyes were glazed over with a layer of faint mist, the corners of his eyes flushed a delicate red from the warmth.
The sound of the crowd jeering and cheering still rose and fell all around them.
Yet, Ji Weishi made no further move, instead looking at Shen Buqi with a timid, vulnerable gaze.
His meaning was crystal clear, but it took a long moment for Shen Buqi to realize it.
Perhaps, A-Shi wanted him to take the initiative for once.