CH 46.1

Bai Lixin, “Was it you that I met in the copies?”

Dijia, “It was me, and it wasn’t me. If I have to say, they are all fragments of my soul.”

“However, they were no longer under my control once they were separated from my body. Although the first few ‘me’s’ didn’t hurt you, I can’t guarantee that the one after that won’t do something to you.”

But it had to be said that each fragment of his soul really cared for Bai Lixin.

No, not just the soul fragments, even he, the original body, could not help but chase after Bai Lixin.

It was just curiosity at first, but it later became undivided attention.

“Your fragments return to your body each time ?”

Dijia, “That is correct.”

Bai Lixin threw out another question, “Was it the original that I saw in the last copy?”

Dijia wrapped his arms around Bai Lixin’s waist and, with a twist, they switched positions. Dijia sat down on a table next to them and brought Bai Lixin to his lap, “How did you find out?”

His body swirled around and Bai Lixin subconsciously hugged Dijia’s neck, sitting firmly on Dijia’s lap, “You called me “precious collection” at the end.”

“Your memories of the first two worlds are not interchangeable, and “precious collection” is something you said in the River God copy.”

The man smiled and moved his hands up Bai Lixin’s slender waistline, “A very careful observation, but I still say that, even if I didn’t hurt you in the three copies, it doesn’t mean some fragments won’t hurt you. I don’t even know how many soul fragments are out there, so don’t be so relaxed even when you see me in a copy.”

Dijia suddenly froze after saying those words.

Don’t be too relaxed even when you see me?

Since when did he care about someone else? Or did he acquiesce to Bai Lixin in his heart, and that made him draw Bai Lixin into his protective circle?

Bai Lixin did not hold on to Dijia’s statement but continued naturally, “Okay.”

He answered as if this way of conversation had long been incorporated into his everyday life.

Dijia was confused.

Did he once know Bai Lixin?

Dijia opened his mouth, intending to ask if Bai Lixin knew him.

When he realized it, he slowly closed his mouth again; if Bai Lixin said he did, how should he answer?

He was almost at the point of fusing with the game. Would he ask Bai Lixin to fuse with him?

He couldn’t leave, but the young man still had a chance. He would at least send him away from here.

The words reached his lips and immediately changed content, “How much of your main quest has been completed?”

With both of his arms still hooked around Dijia’s neck, Bai Lixin pulled up the task bar and glanced at the top of the interface

[Main quest: 3% completed.]

Bai Lixin, “Three percent.”

Dijia’s voice sounded shocked, “Only 3%?”

Bai Lixin had now climbed to the 72nd floor, yet the main quest was only 3% complete! At this rate, he would have reached the 900th floor by the time he completed all the main quests.

Dijia cautioned, “In the future copies, take the moderate path.”

“Moderate path?”

Dijia, “Do the quests in a moderate manner, don’t make so much impact every time again. The main quest counts as the number of copies, not the performance score. According to your current progress, you’ll need to complete about 100 copies before you can leave the game. No matter what, don’t enter above the 900th floor.”

It was the 900th floor again.

S419M had also mentioned the 900th floor before. What exactly was above the 900th floor and what would happen?

Bai Lixin pursed his lips without saying anything, but the persistence under his eyes revealed his willfulness.

Dijai sighed silently, a gloved hand came to Bai Lixin’s neck, his fingers moving to pinch a small handful of the soft hair there.

“Forget it, we’ll talk about this sort of thing later. You’re yet to reach the upper levels.”

Bai Lixin nodded with a smile, “Okay. So, what do you know about the Sand Sea Guild?”

Dijia laughed in exasperation.

I told you to take it easy, and you pretended to be deaf and dumb.

I said forget it, and you smile?

Then you ask me about the Sand Sea Guild? Do you really take me for an encyclopedia?

“Ahem, I don’t know much about it. I’ve never joined any guilds.” He pondered for two seconds, “Or maybe I did, but I forgot, what do you want to know?”

Dijia played with the hair between his fingers, and Bai Lixin’s neck tickled. He instinctively tilted his neck and rubbed against the fingers.

The side of his face accidentally touched the back of Dijia’s hand, and Dijia stiffened slightly.

Bai Lixin, “This guild seems to have a high attractive index. Do you know their president?”

A vague figure came to Dijia’s mind, “I think I knew him before, but I can’t remember. This guild started off with just normal recruitment of members, and the Sand Sea Guild was once known as a charity guild. This guild used to recruit members who were desperate, but as the guild expanded, a screening system was introduced at some point.”

He paused, “But it’s understandable. Lives are at stake at every turn in this game, and one can’t do things that should be done in peaceful times.”

Bai Lixin frowned, “Is it because the president of the Sand sea Guild changed?”

Dijia, “No, the president of the Sand Sea Guild seems to have always been that person. As you know, this game tortures not only one’s body but also one’s spirit. Some players can’t withstand the mental torture and become psychologically distorted. Take that kid named ‘Xia Chi’ beside you. Don’t look at him as harmless now. There’s no telling what he’ll become after going through so many situations in the future.”

Bai Lixin tapped his fingertips on the demon mask, which immediately made a “tap tap tap” sound, “You’re telling me this, aren’t you afraid that I’ll change too?”

“You won’t.” Almost immediately, Dijia said with certainty.

Although he didn’t know why, he was sure that Bai Lixin would not change.

An electronic voice rang out in Dijia’s mind, and he regretfully ran his fingers across Bai Lixin’s neck, “I should leave, time is up. Have a good game, and I’ll see you later.”

With that, he lifted Bai Lixin up with his hands under his armpits.

Once Bai Lixin stood up, he saw the body opposite him suddenly start to shrivel and bend, then the clothes and mask fell slightly to the ground.

Dijia had unexpectedly disappeared into a cloud of air.

Before Bai Lixin could react, the clothes and the mask that had fallen to the ground filled up again.

The empty cuffs were filled up, and the scattered white gloves returned to the cuffs as if they were fitted with some sort of locator.

In just a few seconds, NPC 005 reappeared.

Only that this 005’s body was a little shorter than Dijia’s. The NPC shook his head and looked around, and the demon mask fell on Bai Lixin.

A cold, electric voice issued, “Hello player, how may I serve you?”

Bai Lixin, “Oh, nothing, you go about your business.”

005, “Okay player, welcome to Punk Paradise, enjoy your time here.”

The NPC looked around suspiciously before finally lifting the curtain and walking out, returning to the waiting area.

—————————————-

In a dark, luxurious bedroom, the man turned over and slowly sat up.

The pure black brocade quilt slid off him, revealing the man’s firm, broad arms.

System: [You are awake.]

The man let out an “mmm” and got up to walk to the exhibition cabinet. In the middle of the cabinet were two small trays, one large and one small.

On top of the larger one was a necklace of pink-purple pearls, and on top of the smaller one was a bracelet of pink-purple pearls.

Next to the two trays were small boxes with several small pearls lying peacefully in the middle of the golden satin.

System: [You seem to like these pearls a lot.]

The man’s eyes became tender, “Yes, they are beautiful, aren’t they?”

System: [Theoretically speaking, pearls are just stones inside shells, they are just products of nature. Since when do you like these products of nature?]

The man’s calloused fingers caressed the pink-purple necklace, “These are different. They are the only ones of this kind in the world.”

System: [You seem to have had a good experience in the last role play.]

Man, “It was not bad.”

System: [Excellent, my lord. You are already starting to feel the joy of being in control of your copy. This is one step closer to integrating with us. Would you like to join us completely today?]

Dijia’s eyes suddenly went cold and he decisively refused without hesitation, “No.”

The system was silent for two seconds before continuing: [It’s okay, take your time. We have all the time for each other, don’t we?]

Dijia said nothing more, but silently walked to the window.

As he looked down, the seemingly fluffy white clouds blocked his view.

They were on the same tower, but they might not be able to see each other.

——————————–

Bai Lixin’s purpose for coming to the game lobby was to find the [designate a copy] prop card. He looked around for a long time, but there was no sign of the prop card.

Bai Lixin: [Escape system.]

Escape system: [Hello, player.]

Bai Lixin: [You said before that the prop card for choosing a designated copy is in this game lobby; how come I don’t see it?]

Escape System: [Yes, player, but it has just been taken away.]

Bai Lixin frowned, [Just now? By whom.]

The escape system was silent for a few seconds before squeezing out a few words: [Team, “Sweeping the streets with a plugin”.]

Bai Lixin: “????”

Who?

By whom?

This odd team name was so familiar.

Bai Lixin stopped pondering and immediately left the place to look for Xia Chi.

As soon as he opened the door, he almost ran head on into Xia Chi.

The two small square boxes that Xia Chi was holding had turned into a large bucket. It was so heavy that Xia Chi could barely hold it himself and had to carry it with Song Lei.

Bai Lixin took a deep breath, and his eyes peeked into the bucket.

It was full of point coins, and on top of the point coins were a bunch of prop cards.

Bai Lixin: “……”

How could he have the nerve to say he was hoarding? Isn’t this what Xia Chi should call “hoarding”?

In front of absolute luck value, strength is all dregs, ah.

He should hug Xia Chi’s thighs in the future instead.

When he was almost hit, Xia Chi subconsciously shielded the bucket in his hand.

Only when he saw who had bumped into him did he exclaim, “Brother! Quickly look, this is what I’ve made for you!”

Bai Lixin, “…… Good job, it’s only been half an hour or so. What have you been doing?”

Xia Chi, “The lottery.”

“Didn’t you tell us to go out and relax? Well, I gave them some of your coins and remained with 100 coins. I wandered around by myself and just happened to see the Lucky Wheel. Brother, you were the one who said I had a high luck value, so I went to spin it.”

“I just happened to win the rarest X1000 points card. The charge was 3 coins per play, so I made you 3000 coins in one go. The little box wasn’t enough, so I switched to the bucket.”

“Then, I was holding the bucket and walking around when I happened to see the claw machine. It was probably just about to hit the limit as a few prop cards came out with one grab.”

“When I was about to come back, the NPC at the counter suddenly said I could participate in the points lottery draw of the day. The winner would get rare prop cards and point coins, and since there was no cost, I went to try my luck. To my surprise, I actually drew that rare prop card.”

Bai Lixin searched through the pile of prop cards above and found the [designate a copy once] prop card, “What about this card?”

Xia Chi’s movements were a little stiff as he poked his neck out to look, “This is the card from the points draw. I heard that this card has been hanging around here for ages and no one has ever won it, so maybe it just happened to reach the winning threshold.”

Bai Lixin gave Xia Chi a deep look; his expression was very complicated.

For a moment, he suddenly didn’t want to work hard anymore.

S419M: [Hahahaha, is this the difference in the lucky value world? Lord host, you did a fierce operation, and only increased 10,000 points to 20,000, and three prop cards. Look at others; they don’t even know what’s happening.]

Bai Lixin, “Can I have this card?”

Xia Chi laughed, “What are you talking about, brother? This pile of stuff is all yours. What do you mean by asking?”

Bai Lixin looked around and saw several malicious glances coming from the end of the corridor.

Without saying much to Xia Chi, Bai Lixin said solemnly, “Follow me.”

They walked out of the corridor in big strides and arrived at the counter.

On top of the counter were several strings of text scrolling up and down.

[Congratulations to the team of “Sweeping the Streets with a Plug-in” for winning the Grand Prize of the Lucky Wheel and receiving 3,000 point coins.]

[Congratulations to the team “Sweeping the Streets with a Plug-in” for winning the first prize in the points lottery draw, earning 1,000 point coins.]

[Congratulations to the team “Sweeping the Streets with a Plug-in” for winning the Grand Prize in the points draw and receiving a rare prop card.]

In the distance, players pointed at the lines of text.

“I’m *cracked, how dare you use a plug-in so blatantly? Why don’t you restrain yourself a bit?”

“With a plugin, this shouldn’t be sweeping the streets, this should be called “come and take”, right?”

“Are you sure the game lobby won’t do anything about it? Are they just going to let plug-ins proliferate all over the place?”

“Did you see those guys? That’s them! Bah, shame on you!”

In the midst of the masked NPC’s neutral goodness and the “friendly” gazes of the other players, Bai Lixin and the rest pulled some chairs calmly and sat down in front of the counter.

This was right in front of the NPC’s line of sight, and players wouldn’t dare act rashly.