Morning wake up, embrace the sun. Unfortunately, Xiao Qing’s body lacks a trace of brilliant sunshine.
He reluctantly poked his head out from under the covers, with swollen eyes and a pale complexion, like a corpse crawling out of a grave.
Second Treasure, as clever and cute as he is, is also an evil god cub. He murmured and muttered in his dream all night long, leaving Xiao Qing feeling like his whole body was falling apart, especially his head, which felt like it was about to explode.
But Xiao Qing still mustered the courage to move his body, shuffled into the bathroom for a shower, and then soaked himself in hot water with an added grapefruit-scented purifier, scrubbing himself vigorously. The strange and dangerous odor between his nostrils gradually dissipated.
The nightmarish murmurs also retreated into the depths of his mind, no longer treading on his nerves like a tap dance.
He’s back.
Fortunately, Second Treasure meant no harm to him, just wanting to chat with him remotely about some trivial kids’ stuff, otherwise, he’d have to face the three consecutive sanity checks as soon as he opened his eyes.
In Second Treasure’s concept, dream invasion is probably something similar to the smartwatch for kids, just like sometimes Third Flora would send a few butterflies out of nowhere to greet him. The symptoms of being contaminated by the evil god are more likely due to Xiao Qing’s own abnormal physique — enhancements like this are all sensitive to evil gods, even more so than allergies.
Gurgling in the hot water, Xiao Qing spat out a few bubbles with the scent of grapefruit, his consciousness entering the game chat room.
In the team chat, Huahua and Zhou Qian were enthusiastically discussing skincare — mainly Zhou Qian envying Huahua for only needing to take care of her hands, compared to her full set of skincare routine, which is both convenient and inexpensive.
[Qiqi: Waaah, I have to apply eye cream, neck cream, and do face masks at least twice a week, otherwise, my whole body will crack immediately, let me show you, even I’m not that troublesome QAQ]
[Qiqi: Crying Cat Head /jpg]
[Huahua: Sigh… Same here, the new hand cream I bought isn’t working well, the more I apply, the more it flakes, even though it’s fine when I use it myself.]
[Qiqi: If it’s fine for personal use, it might be a fragrance issue? I once had that happen, the white tea-scented body lotion exploded when I applied it, but switching to a rose-scented one solved it.]
[Huahua: Oh… there’s such attention to detail…]
[Tiantian: If you need hand cream, come to me! I have lots of Oxxdan samples here, all kinds of flavors. Try them on your hands, if they work well, we’ll buy the full size!]
…
Xiao Qing casually skimmed through the girls’ lengthy and horrifying conversation, then scrolled through the chat records where Xu Yintang had been unusually silent for the past few days, not even responding to the message from Tiantian about the new flavor of potato chips.
Usually, Xu Yintang would reply.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Pcvffv, tlr wbbv rffwfv boo.
Coafg j wbwfca bo mbcafwqijalbc, Wljb Hlcu qglnjafis wfrrjufv We Tlcajcu.
[I Have Horns on My Head: Sugar daddy, are you free today? [Cat poking head out /jpg]]
Po We Tlcajcu vlvc’a gfqis, tf kbeiv pera mbcalcef bc tlr bkc.
[I Have Horns on My Head: There’s a job over at Guoteke that needs some help, the difficulty isn’t high, and the pay is pretty good, should be able to finish it today~ Sugar daddy, interested in checking it out?]
Po sbe mjc’a ifjgc la, pera vbc’a ifjgc la~
Tbe wluta pera rajga fcpbslcu la jr sbe qijs.
Wljb Hlcu tjqqlis qjmxjufv atf ajrx lcobgwjalbc jcv rfca la ab We Tlcajcu, yfaalcu atja atfgf kjr jc 80% mtjcmf We Tlcajcu kbeiv yf lcafgfrafv lc atlr ajrx.
After all, as a task location, Ping City’s No. 3 Junior High School (referred to as “No. 3”) where the mission is located, had an unknown alumnus named Xu Zhongping more than ten years ago and an art teacher Yu Kong who was fired after less than one semester of employment and disappeared without a record. Followed by a sensational serial murder case at the same time, where several teachers, students, and school leaders of No. 3 were found dead in their homes, leading to the direct closure of the school for nearly a month, and the case remains unsolved to this day.
Further investigation would reveal that in addition to the killings, many more teachers and students of No. 3 exhibited severe symptoms of anxiety and depression — Xu Zhongping, then fifteen years old, even attempted suicide and was sent to the hospital.
Xu Zhongping left Ping City due to transferring schools, and coincidentally, all the killings stopped at the same time, shortly after which No. 3 announced its closure.
Although there were rumors of vengeful spirits and the like, the students of the year remained tight-lipped, even today, over a decade later, many claimed they didn’t know who Xu Zhongping and Yu Kongyou were.
—A little knowledge: people aren’t so confident in their memories; if pressed, they might immediately claim they don’t know anything, basically indicating they’re lying.
Xiao Qing also attached a file he had previously compiled while investigating Xu Zhongping for Xu Yintang’s reference, patiently waiting for half a day, and sure enough, after dinner, he received Xu Yintang’s confirmation response.
Xiao Qing sent a message to the Guoteke side, then suddenly remembered Shi Yuebai, who was “reportedly” ruthlessly kicked out of bed by their sugar daddy. Recalling Xu Qi’s recent sorrowful WeChat Moments, he opened the very old post from the [Believe It or Not] and gave it a like.
—He saw Shi Yuebai in the list of likes.
[Believe It or Not]
[Need people! Need people! Need people!!!]
After liking the post, Xiao Qing hummed a tune and opened a puzzle game, silently counting one — two —
Before he finished his four thousand and eight hundredth level of the puzzle game, a private message from Shi Yuebai arrived.
[Moon God: Location, time.]
[Moon God: [Red envelope]]
…
That’s why Xu Yintang and Shi Yuebai were sitting in a car, with Director Qin, the task manager sent by Guoteke to assist and supervise, driving in front — mainly responsible for ensuring that players don’t get too carried away and cause trouble in the real-world missions. They may not have jurisdiction over players killing and setting fires in the missions, but within the borders of their country, they have a complete set of laws.
And you can’t expect these temporary workers to complete the job and then dutifully write task reports; they’re too lazy to even write a hundred-word summary.
Recalling the situation he had received from a player, including but not limited to dozens of sixty-second voice messages, several gigabytes of video compression packages, and a serialized novel claiming to be based on real events — each chapter a pit… Director Qin, with the online pseudonym [Believe It or Not], looked even more weary, observing Xu Yintang and Shi Yuebai in the rearview mirror.
Shi Yuebai was an old acquaintance of Guoteke, the first player to actively engage with them. Director Qin had never worked with him personally, but according to feedback from colleagues, he was considered a conscientious player among the best.
From their usual business exchanges and Shi Yuebai’s ability to also manage his own business, he did seem like a reliable and decent person.
As for the other one, Mr. Xu…
In Xiao Qing’s words, “Our sugar daddy is super nice.”
Thinking about Zhang Ping and Li Hang, who were still in the rehabilitation hospital, and then thinking about Xu Yintang’s experience growing up in that eerie hospital without any common sense education, the credibility of this statement was probably less than 5%.
Without hesitation, Director Qin labeled Xu Yintang as one to be observed closely, trying to nod in a calm and friendly manner towards the tentacles poking near his face.
“Thank you, no need.”
The tentacle that rolled up a small piece of bread for him swayed, then retracted it dejectedly.
Its disappointment was quite evident, like the drooping tail of a sad puppy, causing Director Qin to feel a momentary pang of guilt.
Fortunately, the flickering light of Xu Yintang’s finger flames woke him up, and he coughed to explain, “You can’t eat while driving, it’ll cost you points if you’re caught.”
Although he really wanted to explain the dangers of playing with fire in the car, upon closer observation of the tentacles flickering into a bundle of dancing tendrils, Director Qin swallowed his words back.
Anyway, even if the car exploded, the players wouldn’t die.
Xu Yintang didn’t notice the way Director Qin looked at him, akin to a teacher checking a student’s homework. He was fully focused on trying to mimic the shape of flames with his tendrils, one of the small tricks Blake taught him to control his body.
He hadn’t mastered it yet; simulating something like flames, with energy flowing, was more difficult than clothes or shoes. But compared to the world questions he simply couldn’t learn, Xu Yintang preferred to practice how to conjure fireballs.
Shi Yuebai’s golden beast eyes watched the twisting and winding tendrils, which already looked very much like flames. If you didn’t stare at them, you wouldn’t realize their true nature. They accurately captured the characteristics of energy flow, and the heat really gathered and dispersed around them.
Shi Yuebai opened a bag of marshmallows, brought it close to the “flames” to toast it, then sandwiched it between two small round biscuits and fed it to Xu Yintang.
“Do you want to try roasted codfish fillets? Or something like squid ear fillets, they’re also delicious.”
Xu Yintang chewed on the crispy and creamy marshmallow biscuit in his mouth, feeling tempted, but before he could nod in agreement, a series of beep-beep notifications sounded in the car.
It wasn’t his phone ringtone, nor was it Shi Yuebai’s.
But the ringtone seemed to emanate from them, and it sounded vaguely familiar.
Shi Yuebai quickly responded, taking out a vibrating phone from the system backpack. Xu Yintang also remembered this phone that issued hidden tasks, and with his tendrils extinguishing the tiny flames, he asked, “Is it a task?”
“Ah, it’s from Wang Laowu.” Shi Yuebai opened the message and quickly scanned it, his face showing a subtle expression, “The task location… Ping City No. 3 Junior High School.”
[Hidden Instance – Gray Part-Time Job, Instance Loading…]
[Part-Time Job Task: Part-Time Student, Activated.]
[Part-Time Job Location: Ping City No. 3 Junior High School]
[Part-Time Job Remuneration: 100,000 points/day]
[During the part-time job period, please strive to be a good student who follows school rules and develops comprehensively in morality, intelligence, physical education, aesthetics, and labor. If any personal behavior causes personal or property damage, the game will not be responsible.]
Author’s Note –
Recently, my favorite pastime has been roasting codfish fillets and squid ear fillets over a candle, slowly toasting them one by one and then savoring them slowly. It’s been an effective way to alleviate the binge eating cravings and anxiety caused by work not going smoothly during this period.
Plus, the slightly burnt and crispy texture adds a delicious touch, and being low in calories, it doesn’t induce guilt when eaten as a late-night snack. If anyone wants to try it, remember to practice fire safety.
Squid fillets huh. They are delicious…
(º﹃º)