Chapter 18

The arena matches ran from 7:30 to 9:30 PM. When Lu Hang returned to the dorm, he saw Xiang Huaizhi wearing only one earpiece while swiftly controlling his game character to slash his opponent out of the PK scene with a single sword strike.

“Insane skills, man.” Lu Hang tossed his backpack onto the bed and complained, “What’s with adults these days? For a birthday, they have to summon the entire family, crowding around a huge table like it’s New Year’s Eve dinner—firing questions one after another, starting with academics then moving to relationships. Ruined my appetite so bad I had to bail when my dad went to the bathroom… Who’d you team up with for arena tonight? Bet you dropped ranks hard without me—holy shit?!”

Lu Hang swallowed the rest of his grumbles the moment he saw who was in Xiang Huaizhi’s party.

At 9:30 sharp, the arena closed on time, and all teams waiting or in the middle of battles were instantly kicked out by the system to the arena teleporter. In the blink of an eye, the city walls were crowded with people.

Xiang Huaizhi spoke up, addressing his team members: “Let’s go.”

Without giving his teammates any time to react, he immediately disbanded the team right after finishing his sentence.

[Current] Little Sweet View: Thanks for carrying me in the arena, big bro! Bye-bye, big bro! *^o^*

This dialogue box popped up abruptly, startling all the players around. For a long while, no one flew away, and they remained crowded on the city wall.

Without even looking back, Xiang Huaizhi was the first to leave the scene.

Lu Hang coughed twice and pretended to be cute: “Thank you, brother, for taking me to the arena~”

Xiang Huaizhi: “Are you a parrot spirit?”

And the tone was nothing like the imitation. If it were Xiaotianjing, she would definitely drag out the last character with a long, lingering tone.

After listening to it for two hours, he nearly had a nervous breakdown.

“I’ll just mimic it once, don’t attack me.” Lu Hang pulled up a chair and sat beside him. “Lao Xiang, you’ve got something going on! You actually took Sweet Little Scene to the Arena?! Is her gear even complete? You’re willing to throw away your rank just to carry a girl?”

“The Fox Immortal Cave doesn’t rely on gear,” Xiang Huaizhi replied. “I didn’t lose any points.”

“No points lost?” Lu Hang thought for a moment. “Oh, her account’s points were reset, right? So you matched against complete noobs? Was it even fun?”

Calling them noobs wasn’t entirely accurate. The first three matches were against weak opponents, but after running into Chun Xiao and her team, they started matching against opponents all above 2,500 points.

However, after Little Sweet Jing gradually became familiar with the PK skills of the Fox Immortal Cave, they never lost a single match. On the other hand, she nearly got ambushed several times by members of the Idle Pavilion. Fortunately, learning from past mistakes, whenever a battle was about to end, Little Sweet Jing would start running all over the map, determined not to appear within the enemy’s casting range.

It must be said that this little fox immortal’s gameplay was much better than he had imagined.

“It’s no different from a 1v1,” Xiang Huaizhi said.

Lu Hang’s computer was always left on. In the game “Nine Heroes,” there was a location called Penglai Wonderland, where players could gain a small amount of experience every three minutes just by being idle. Although the gains were minimal, it was better than nothing. He sat down in front of the computer and glanced at the friend messages he had received during his idle time.

“How can there be no difference? Jingjing is so talkative…” Lu Hang frowned as he read the new message. “Xiangsibugu actually messaged me… Hey, Lao Xiang, she’s asking what your relationship with Xiaotianjing is. How should I answer?”

Xiang Huai raised an eyebrow. “You added Xiangsibugu too?”

“Yeah, she tried to recruit me for the Idle Pavilion before, but I didn’t join because that guild has too much drama. Good thing I didn’t, or it’d be super awkward between me and Xiao Jingjing now.” Lu Hang looked up at him. “Hurry up and tell me, how should I reply?”

Xiang Huai logged his character into Penglai Wonderland, then got up to wash up, tossing back a single word: “Friends.”

[Friend] Road Faraway: They’re friends, what’s the matter?

[Friend] Lovesick No Regrets: Impossible.

[Friend] Lovesick No Regrets: Little Sweet View just confessed to Heart Yearns For in the arena.

Damn, that really happened?!

Lu Hang glanced back at Xiang Huaizhi who was washing up and shook his head with a tsk.

Young man, you’re not being honest.

[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: Haven’t you heard a saying?

[Friend] Xiangsibugu: What saying?

[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: First friends, then siblings, and finally little sweethearts.

[Friend] Xiangsi Buguz: ……

[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: I’m just giving you a heads-up—Xiao Tianjing has been joining us in dungeons a lot lately. If anyone from your guild dares to PK my bro…

[Friend] Lu Tiaotiao: You know how it is—scumbags have bad tempers. Who knows what he might do to win over a girl? [Shuts up]

While rinsing his mouth, Xiang Huaizhi suddenly sneezed and thought to himself, winter is almost here.

    ——

Over the weekend, Jing Huan returned to his school dormitory carrying a bag full of food and alcohol.

As soon as he stepped into the dorm, he heard Gao Zixiang shouting, “Hurry up! Heal me! Or I’m gonna get focused by the boss! Damn, you missed again… Do you even know how to play Fox Immortal Cave?!”

Lu Wenhao: “Fuck, if you’re so good, you heal then! This crappy class has such a small skill range—if you can hit one out of three blood pools, you should thank the gods! Besides, do skills have no cooldown? Do you think I’m a 36D that can just squeeze out heals anytime?”

Gao Zixiang said coolly, “I can see those two lumps on your chest aren’t much smaller than 36D either.”

“Bullshit, have you felt them?”

Jing Huan: “…”

What the hell kind of R-rated conversation is this.

He put down the bag and glanced at the empty makeshift dining table: “Where’s the pot?”

Lu Wenhao glanced at him briefly: “Huanhuan, you’re here? So early? Hold on, just a sec, we’re running a 25-man dungeon.”

Jing Huan: “Why are you playing Nine Heroes again? Didn’t you delete your account?”

“You know how it is—I barely have any classes this semester, so I’m bored out of my mind every day. I bought an account just to run dungeons with this idiot. His team is about to compete in the server war, and they’re short on materials.” At this point, Lu Wenhao huffed, “And instead of thanking me, he complains about my gameplay every damn day!”

Gao Zixiang: “No, do you know what class he bought? Fox Immortal Cave! Isn’t that just to mess with me on purpose? And he refuses to switch classes when I ask…”

Jing Huan paused his hand: “What’s wrong with the Fox Immortal Cave? Isn’t it pretty strong?”

“The strong ones are all others, just him, he can’t even cast Blood Pool…” Another Blood Pool missed, Gao Zixiang couldn’t take it anymore, “After this dungeon, you’re going to change sects, damn it!”

Jing Huan couldn’t be bothered to listen to their argument: “So you’re saying I provide the food and drinks, and I still have to wait for you two grandpas to finish your game before I can eat?”

“No no no, it’s almost over, just ten more minutes… no, five minutes,” Gao Zixiang said. “Our pot was borrowed by Room 102, we still need to go get it back from them.”

Jing Huan regretted it—he should have just bought a pot and ingredients to cook hotpot at home and be done with it.

He picked up the bags again and turned to leave.

“Hey, Huanhuan, where are you going?” Gao Zixiang quickly called out to stop him.

“Going home to eat hotpot.”

“Don’t go!” Gao Zixiang said, “We’re almost done, bro! Just sit for a bit—we’ll definitely finish in five minutes!”

Jing Huan glanced at his watch: “If you’re not done in five minutes, I’m pulling your internet cable.”

With that, he tossed his bag onto the bathroom counter and opened the dorm room door.

Lu Wenhao: “Didn’t you say five minutes? Why are you leaving already…”

“Get the pot,” Jing Huan said without turning his head.

Jing Huan knocked on the door of Room 102, and after a long wait, there was a sound from inside. The door opened, and a peculiar smell wafted out.

Jing Huan couldn’t help but frown slightly, resisting the urge to cover his nose.

“Oh, Jing Huan, what brings you here? Quite a rare visitor.” The one who opened the door was a classmate from their major. They had played basketball together but weren’t close.

Jing Huan: “Yeah, here to get our dorm’s pot.”

“Oh right, I’ll get it for you right away, hold on.” The other person turned and walked into the dorm room.

Through the crack in the door, Jing Huan caught a glimpse of the situation inside. Putting aside everything else, the pile of stinky socks discarded outside the bathroom alone killed most of his appetite.

The person quickly returned, handing the pot to Jing Huan: “Sorry about that, I meant to return it earlier but got caught up playing games and forgot.”

“No problem,” Jing Huan replied as he took it and prepared to leave.

“Hold on, Jing Huan, I actually have something I want to discuss with you.” The guy asked, “Next weekend is my birthday, we’re just having a casual celebration at the bar across the street. Wanna come along?”

Given their relationship, they really weren’t at the stage where they could invite each other to birthdays.

But Jing Huan was handsome. As long as he showed up, he’d be a walking advertisement—he could probably get the entire department’s girls to come.

Jing Huan smiled, his tone polite yet distant: “I’m busy, can’t make it.”

With that, he turned and walked away, not giving the other person a second chance to invite him.

Jing Huan examined the pot in his hand as he walked upstairs.

If he wasn’t mistaken, that smear of reddish-orange on the pot lid… could it be chili oil from Unit 102’s hotpot meal?

The pot had been borrowed before he moved out – which meant it had been two weeks already. Could that damn stain even be washed off now?

Might as well just buy a new one.

He thought for a moment and decided to first check the situation inside the pot before making any decisions. He walked to the window in the stairwell, placed the pot on the windowsill, and casually opened the lid.

There, lying quietly in the center of the pot, was a black object with an orange tint, impossible to miss. Sensing movement, it quickly circled around the inside of the pot, proving its vitality.

Jing Huan was caught off guard and came face-to-face with it. He stood frozen for a few seconds before his legs suddenly went weak, almost causing him to stumble.

He opened his mouth to scream, only to realize that he was so terrified he couldn’t even make a sound.

With his last bit of strength, he flung the pot violently into the air!

Jing Huan’s greatest fear in life has always been insects. Even seeing spider models in games would make him feel disgusted, let alone having one crawling right next to his fingers!

For a moment, he even thought he was about to go into shock.

The pot crashed to the ground with a sharp, piercing sound, and the cockroach crawled out, scurrying around as if it had lost its way. Terrified, Jing Huan stumbled backward in a panic, only to misstep and feel as though his heart had skipped a beat—

He bumped into a wall of flesh.

Jing Huan let out a sigh of relief, thinking, “Good… at least I won’t fall to my death.”

The person behind him was also startled, but he reacted quickly. To prevent Jing Huan from falling further, he swiftly reached out and wrapped his arms around Jing Huan’s waist, holding him steadily.

“Are you okay?” the person behind him asked.

The voice was extremely familiar. Jing Huan almost blurted out instinctively, “It’s fine, thanks, bro—”

Both of them froze simultaneously.

Jing Huan snapped back to reality and cursed inwardly.

Damn that “Heart’s Desire” bastard, always yapping in his ear every day, making him now hear that asshole’s voice in everyone else’s.

He turned his head, making eye contact with the guy behind him, and said sincerely, “…Thanks, man.”