Chapter 50

Jing Huan now not only felt irritated when seeing “Heart’s Yearning,” but even the Nine Heroes game interface looked annoying to him.

So he simply closed the game and lay down on the bed.

Staring at the ceiling, he blankly wondered, what on earth had he been babbling about just now?

It’s all because of Heart’s Desire kept bothering him, forcing him to come up with such a lous excuse.

After a moment, Jing Huan covered his eyes with his arm. Had his outburst just now ruined all the effort he’d put in over the past few months?

Surely not, right?

Aren’t they always saying girls are most temperamental during their period? Heart’s Desire couldn’t possibly be that petty…

Xiang Jing rolled over in bed and buried his face in the pillow.

Screw it! He’d enjoy himself first and think later! Besides, he hadn’t said anything too outrageous just now—at most, he’d used a few too many punctuation marks.

If Heart’s Desire really got angry over this, then that just meant they were oversensitive.

His phone on the table suddenly vibrated sharply.

Jing Huan let out a long sigh, maintaining his posture as he reached out to the table, pulling his phone toward him.

Xiang Huaizhi: Are you there.

It was actually Xiang Huaizhi.

Jing Huan blinked weakly as he typed with little energy.

Xiao Jing ya: I’m here, big bro.

Xiao Jing ya: No… I accidentally typed an extra word with my input method. What’s up, Xiang ge?

Xiang Huaizhi: Wanna come out for some night basketball?

Xiao Jing ya: Not going, I’m sleepy and about to head to bed.

Xiang Huaizhi glanced at the time—it wasn’t even 7:30 yet.

Xiang Huaizhi: Going to bed this early? Are you feeling unwell?

Even though it was the same question, when it came from Xiang Huaizhi, Jing Huan didn’t find it annoying at all.

Resting his chin on the pillow, he replied.

Xiao Jingya: No, I just didn’t get enough sleep last night. A quick nap will do.

Xiao Jingya: [Muscles]

Xiang Huaizhi: Got it.

Lu Hang returned to the dorm still covered in sweat.

“Xiang Xiang, it’s such a shame you didn’t come earlier… You have no idea how intense the game was just now. The point difference stayed within one basket the whole time, and in the last three seconds, I made the game-winning shot!” Lu Hang was already feeling impressed with himself just reminiscing about it. “I was absolutely unstoppable.”

Xiang Huaizhi said calmly, “Not a pity. If I were there, the match wouldn’t have been so close.”

“……” Lu Hang had no retort.

He took off his shirt and casually tossed it into the laundry basket, ready to step in for a shower.

“Lu Hang,” Xiang Huaizhi suddenly called his name, “I need to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

Xiang Huaizhi frowned, his tone hesitant.

“If someone who’s always pestering you suddenly starts acting impatient with you…”

“Has Sweet Jing finally had enough of you?”

“……”

Seeing his silence, Lu Hang was startled: “No way, I was just joking… Did Sweet Jing really break up with you?”

“No.” Xiang Huaizhi somewhat regretted asking him, “Forget it, pretend I didn’t ask.”

Perhaps he was overthinking it. Jing Huan didn’t really say anything much, just being sleepy and adding a few extra exclamation marks.

But why not just say you’re sleepy, instead of saying you’re…

Lu Hang noticed something fishy from his expression and raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

Since Xiang Huaizi forcibly changed the subject, he just had to add his two cents: “About what you just mentioned—that situation is pretty obvious.”

Sure enough, Xiang Huaizi asked, “What’s obvious?”

“I’m tired of chasing, my heart is dead, I don’t love anymore.”

“?”

“People’s affection has its limits. Without reciprocation, those limits grow smaller and smaller,” Lu Hang said with a solemn expression. “No one is willing to be a simp forever. You need to coax them a bit.”

Xiang Huaizhi didn’t quite understand, but he felt that whatever Lu Hang was saying wasn’t anything good.

He frowned, “You’re the dog.”

Lu Hang: “?”

Lu Hang: “That’s just a trendy phrase, I wasn’t actually calling Xiao Jingjing a dog.”

Xiang Huaizhi: “You stink, go take a shower.”

Lu Hang: “…Yes, sir.”

Lu Hang picked up his towel and headed into the bathroom, thinking to himself: Right, right, Little Sweet Jing isn’t your simp—I’m the damn simp here.

    ——

The next day, Jing Huan woke up bright and early.

Out of habit, he picked up his phone, intending to send “Good morning” to Heart’s Desire, but as soon as he opened WeChat, he saw a message from his cousin.

Cousin: [Photo] Huanhuan, do you like it?

The photo showed a pair of sneakers, vibrant in color and sleek in design.

Xiao Jing: Love it!

Sis: Glad you like it, not in vain that I queued up early in the morning to buy it for you. [smug]

Sis: What’s with your profile picture and WeChat name? I had to search through my contacts for ages to find you [laughs to tears]

Xiao Jing: …Nothing, just lost a game of truth or dare. Did you specially queue up to buy this for me?

Sis: What else? My legs are sore from standing in line. Isn’t your birthday coming up soon? I’ll mail it back home for you.

Xiao Jing: ? You’re not coming back?

Sister: I’ll be staying for a while longer, I found a job here.

The siblings chatted for half an hour before ending the conversation.

Jing Huan closed Liang Ran’s chat window, his peripheral vision catching a glimpse of Heart’s Desire’s avatar.

Morning my ass.

Yesterday’s foul mood came rushing back. Cursing inwardly, Jing Huan viciously pressed his phone’s lock button and threw off the covers to get up.

Today, Heart’s Desire and Long Road Ahead have full schedules—whether they’re real college students or not, Jing Huan doesn’t know, but it’s true that these two won’t appear in the game during the day on Friday.

Jing Huan logged into Nine Heroes and, as soon as he entered the game, saw people around him flaunting their new outfits, parading before his eyes.

Jing Huan finally felt a twinge of regret—no matter how angry he was yesterday, he shouldn’t have returned the outfit.

He had just wasted a perfect opportunity to squeeze money out of Heart’s Desire.

This is what he thought, but he genuinely didn’t care about that new outfit. He clicked his mouse to head toward the city teleporter, planning to knock out his daily quests first.

The city teleporter area was always the liveliest spot in “Nine Heroes.” Players loved setting up stalls here, idling here, and even more so, forming teams here.

[Current] LoveLifeLoveJiajia: “Heavenly Palace Raid, LFG+++ forming my team, levels 120-130, DPS preferred!”

[Current] QiaoYao: “Looking for a hubby~ I’m a voice lover, hoping for a sweet-voiced hottie. If we vibe, we can video call~~ [blowing kiss]”

[Current] Little Luo: Kirin Mountain dungeon+, need a Fox Immortal Cave.

[Current] Little Luo: Kirin Mountain dungeon+, need a Fox Immortal Cave, no other sects+, no entry fee.

This player named “Little Luo” successfully caught Jing Huan’s attention.

The Kirin Mountain dungeon is a five-player raid, not only tedious in process but also requiring 100 gold to initiate—usually 20 gold per member.

The rewards for this dungeon are actually not good, even quite poor. The only reason players farm it is to spawn the hidden boss.

Killing the hidden boss drops rare materials. When the dungeon was first released, players rushed to farm it, only to be discouraged by the boss’s low spawn rate. Many players have never even seen what the hidden boss on Qilin Mountain looks like.

Over time, very few people bother to farm this dungeon anymore.

Jing Huan is interested because he happens to need the rare materials dropped in this dungeon.

However, he quickly dismissed this thought. With his terrible luck, it was better to just spend money and avoid the trouble.

In the game, Little Fox Fairy turned around and prepared to leave.

[Luo Zai invites you to join his team. Yes, No.]

[Luo Zai has set you as a private chat target.]

[Private] Luo Zai: Want to come? No entry fee.

[Private] Xiaotianjing: …No, I don’t have that kind of luck.

[Private] Luo Zai: How would you know without trying? The team is all high-damage dealers. It’ll be quick.

[Private] Xiaotianjing: Why do you only want Fox Immortal Cave players?

[Private Chat] Luo Zai: Can tank and heal, convenient.

This was the first time Jing Huan heard someone bringing a Fox Immortal Cave along for dungeons for “convenience.”

[Private Chat] Luo Zai: Coming? It’ll just take an hour.

Jing Huan thought it over. Since Lu Tiaotiao and the others wouldn’t be back until afternoon anyway, he could save his daily quests to grind later.

So he clicked accept and joined the team.

After entering the dungeon, he casually opened the teammate list to take a look.

He didn’t know about the others, but he recognized the dual-blade swordsman in the team.

Named FavoriteMaiMai, ranked second in the DPS leaderboard.

As Luo Zai said, there was indeed no healer in the team. The only girl was called Xiao Mai, who played a mage class.

Jing Huan stared at this loli character named Xiao Mai for a long time, feeling that she looked somewhat familiar, but couldn’t recall where he might have seen her before.

The five quickly entered the dungeon. Jing Huan had originally prepared to just coast through, but upon loading into the game, he realized something was off.

He saw that both Zui Ai Mai Mai and Xiao Mai had empty hands—they weren’t wielding any weapons at all.

[Team] Xiaomai: My husband and I have no weapon durability left, so we can’t use them. Sorry about that.

Without weapons, the damage output from the sect is less than half of the usual amount.

The process of restoring durability for purple-tier equipment is particularly troublesome, and there’s definitely no time to repair them now.

[Team] Loving Maimai: It’s fine, let’s just proceed like this. It’ll be slower, but no big deal. Besides, isn’t there a Fox Immortal Cave member in the party?

Killing monsters slowly means they would take significantly more damage from mobs, putting greater pressure on the healer.

Jing Huan was bewildered—his original intention was to be carried through the dungeon, so how did he end up doing the heavy lifting instead?

[Team] LoveMaiMai: Well, since you got a free ride, it’s only fair that you put in some effort, right?

Reading this, Jing Huan couldn’t help but frown.

He was originally persuaded by the team leader to join the team, so why does it seem like he’s just hitching a ride to save money?

But since it was just a dungeon run, Jing Huan didn’t plan to make a big deal out of it.

[Team] Little Sweet Jing: 1

Just then, the guild’s WeChat group suddenly lit up with notifications.

Autumn Maple: @SweetJing, wanna run a dungeon together?

Jing Huan casually took a screenshot of the battle scene and posted it in the group chat.

SweetJing: I’m already running a dungeon right now.

Autumn Maple: Why are you running this dungeon? The EXP gain is so low.

Little Sweet Scenery: Wanna see if we can farm some centipede legs. [pouty face]

Autumn Maple: Hahaha, well, good luck with that.

The further you progress in the dungeon, the harder it gets. With Jing Huan being the only healer in the party—and Fox Immortal Cave not being a dedicated healing class to begin with, its healing output can’t compare to Mount Putuo’s, plus you can’t just AFK through it—he felt even more exhausted than during Arena battles.

[Party] Little Sweet Scenery: Is Wheat online?

[Team] Xiaomai: Ah.

[Team] Xiaotianjing: Aren’t you wearing any armor? Why are the monsters hitting you so hard?

“She noticed…” the girl said in surprise through YY private chat, “How could she even tell that?”

“It’s fine.” The man’s voice sounded casual and indifferent. “So what if she noticed? No big deal, just say whatever.”

[Team] Wheat: I checked, my armor has no durability left either.

Not checking your equipment’s durability before a dungeon run is the most irresponsible behavior, needlessly increasing your teammates’ burden.

Jing Huan didn’t respond anymore. Having made it this far, anything said now would be superfluous.

Finally, after two hours, they cleared the last minor enemy and prepared to face the BOSS.

Jing Huan let out a sigh of relief and straightened up, ready to face the BOSS.

[You have been kicked from the team by Luo Zai.]

A line of yellow text popped up, and Jing Huan stared at the system notification, unable to process it for several seconds.

[Current] Little Sweet Jing: ?

The other four members in the team ignored him, directly entering combat mode with “In Battle” indicators appearing above their heads.

Jing Huan frowned as he clicked to spectate.

There stood Zui Ai Mai Mai and Xiao Mai shoulder to shoulder, their weapons gleaming brilliantly, exaggerated and flashy.

Only then did Jing Huan realize—he’d been tricked.

They made him play as a healer all the way, exhausting himself to keep them alive for two hours, only to kick him out right before the boss.

Not killing the BOSS means no dungeon progress; this run would be a complete waste for him.

After playing Nine Heroes for so long, Jing Huan was encountering something like this for the first time.

…Fucking disgusting.

What he didn’t expect was that even more disgusting things were yet to come.

Twenty minutes later, the BOSS fell, and the system popped up a notification.

[Dungeon Team: Luozai and his teammates worked together to defeat the Centipede King and retrieved the “Invitation Letter of the Centipede Demon” from its body!]

They triggered the hidden BOSS.

Jing Huan was forcibly transported into the Centipede Demon’s cave by the system. He never expected that his first encounter with this dungeon’s hidden BOSS would happen under such circumstances.

Jing Huan placed his hands on the keyboard, ready to reveal his other identity—the notorious “Mom Hunter” in Nine Heroes.

Back when he played LOL, he often trash-talked with teammates. With his lightning-fast typing speed, he never lost an argument.

Talking shit might not change anything, but at least it made him feel good.

Screw this harmonious gaming crap—Daddy ain’t tolerating you bastards anymore.

He typed a line of text and was about to send it when he noticed another notification pop up in the chat channel.

[Dungeon Team: Ji Xiaonian has joined the team.]

Jing Huan’s fingers froze.

About ten seconds later, Ji Xiaonian appeared in his field of vision and joined Luo Zai’s party.

The five said nothing, each silently entering the battle with the hidden BOSS.

Jing Huan took a deep breath, silently deleted all the words in the chat box, and flew away from the scene.

He logged into the exchange and browsed for a long time, bookmarking several purple-tier items in a row.

Then he added them to the shopping cart, purchased, and paid.

Finished in one go.

The gang’s WeChat group started flashing again.

Qiufeng: [Image] @Little Sweet Jing, why aren’t you in this picture?

The image Qiufeng sent was a battle screenshot of Ji Xiaonian and the others fighting the hidden boss.

Little Sweet Scene: Got kicked while fighting the boss.

Autumn Maple: ??

My Destiny Peach Tea: ??? Huh??

Spring Xiao: What happened?

SweetScenery: It’s fine.

SweetScenery: I’ll go handle it. To avoid causing trouble for the guild, I’ll leave the guild and group chat first.

After dropping this message, Jing Huan exited the group chat before anyone could react, immediately leaving the guild without hesitation.

He opened his friends list and scrolled through to find an old friend.

[Friend] Little Sweet Scene: Are you there?

[Friend] Energetic Little Mosquito Incense: I’m here, sis. What’s up?

[Friend] Little Sweet Scene: Help me tail a few people. Let me know when they’re alone or in a group of less than three. Follow them for two days first, and I’ll give you five hundred.

[Friend] Energetic Little Mosquito Incense: What are you planning to do? [Surprised]

[Friend] Little Sweet Scenery: Kill.

Even a clay figure has three parts of temper. He never plays the role of a punching bag, especially when he’s been in an extremely bad mood these past two days and desperately needs to vent.

[Friend] Energetic Little Mosquito Incense: …Fine, give me their IDs.

Jing Huan sent over the IDs of all five people.

[Friend] Cheerful Mosquito Coil: Not a sister. Anyone else maybe, but this AbsoluteMcFan is the second highest DPS in the server. Three of you combined might not be enough to take him down. Why not focus on targeting others instead?

[Friend] SweetLittleScenery: Don’t teach me how to kill 😀

Cheerful Mosquito Coil looked at the emoji after her message and inexplicably felt a chill run down her neck.

[Friend] Cheerful Mosquito Coil: OK, got it.

Since those five players were all in the same team, they naturally proceeded to do other dungeons together.

At 3 PM, Jing Huan was busy increasing the cultivation points for his Nine-Tailed Fox spirit when Yuanqi Xiaowenxiang finally sent a message.

[Friend] Yuanqi Xiaowenxiang: They just finished the Havoc in Heaven dungeon and disbanded the party. The other three are in the safe zone now, while Xiao Mai and Favorite MaiMai are doing the Couple’s Quests.

[Friend] SweetJing: Got it.

[Friend]Vitality Little Mosquito Coil: I’ll help you keep an eye on Ji Xiaonian. She keeps moving; she might leave the safe zone any moment now.

[Friend]Little Sweet Scenery: No need, just help me follow Favorite Mai Mai and his wife.

[Friend]Vitality Little Mosquito Coil: ??? You can’t take them on alone, sis. Be careful or you’ll get counter-killed and lose your gear!

[Friend]Little Sweet Scenery: Can you just be an emotionless spotting machine?

[Friend] Energized Little Mosquito Coil: Okay, I’ll report every minute.

Jing Huan put away the Nine-Tailed Immortal Fox and switched to his fastest movement speed attributes.

Of course he knew he couldn’t defeat that damned couple in a straight fight, but he could ambush them. Both were damage dealers and squishy – as long as he could land crowd control quickly and dodge their summoned beasts’ skills, picking one off wouldn’t be hard.

While strategizing, he headed toward the coordinates Energized Little Mosquito Coil had reported.

Arriving at the Moon Palace where they were located, Jing Huan licked his lips and was about to check the coordinates.

A dialog box popped up, blocking his view.

[Xin Xiangwangzhi has invited you to join his party. Accept, Decline.]

Jing Huan froze, instinctively checking the time.

Three in the afternoon.

Jing Huan’s hand moved faster than his brain, and by the time he realized it, he was already in the team of Heart’s Desire.

He blinked, momentarily at a loss for words, and blurted out, “Brother.”

Heart’s Desire led him forward by the hand.

Coming to his senses, Jing Huan couldn’t help but curse inwardly, “Fuck.”

Got tipped off for nothing.

“Why are you online…” Jing Huan asked, “Didn’t you have a full schedule of classes today?”

The team member finally responded, with Heart’s Yearning’s voice sounding unusually heavy: “Mm.”

What did “mm” even mean?

Unable to secure a kill, Jing Huan felt quite regretful. Sitting cross-legged with his chin propped in his hand, he said, “Brother, yesterday I…”

[Alert! Team Leader Heart’s Desire has initiated a forced PK against player Favorite Mai Mai!]

Jing Huan: “…”

Jing Huan: “?”

The battle commenced so abruptly that not only were the two opponents caught off guard, but even Jing Huan was startled.

[Current] Xiao Mai: ?!

[Current] LoveMcDonalds: Xiang Shen, what do you mean by this? [question]

Jing Huan snapped back to reality and asked uncertainly, “Brother, what are we about to do…”

“Kill people.”

Xiang Huai Zhi’s tone remained unchanged, using the same casual voice they’d use during dungeon runs as he asked, “Who do you want to kill first?”

You can get the complete pdf below

[purchase_link id=”1812″ text=”Purchase” style=”button” color=”blue”]