CH 6

Accepting at face value that the other party had forgotten, Yang Juan did not find anything Night Ferry had said weird.

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: ?] 

Night Ferry paused, also slowly noticed the problem with the dialogue between them. 

The account that he was playing right now was Dead of Night’s alt account, which was not a secret within the guild. 

Did Sheep Curls mistook Dead of Night for him yesterday?

This was when Dead of Night’s text message came fashionably late— 

[You are not on your main account? I sent a message to your Errant Wolf account. I met Sheep Curls last night at the herb farm and exchanged a few words with her.]

The other party gave him a general account of last night’s event, and a second text message soon followed—

[Last night, I saw her with Farewell Sue San. They might be acquaintances. Another thing, someone put a huge bounty on Farewell Sue San last night. I doubt he went and found a stranger to share a bounty with, so I am pretty sure he went to find Sheep Curls especially.]

After Night Ferry read the message, he put his hands back on the keyboard. 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: Right, I remembered now. I told you last night that you did not have to finish digging all of the herbs, so you can get the rest to me tonight.]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: Okay.]

Night Ferry sat idly on the side for a while, looked at the other person’s level and found that his level was the same after he went offline last night. 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: You did not get on during the day today as well?] 

Seeing a question directed at him, Yang Juan took the time to type out a reply. 

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: No.]

[(Friend) Night Ferry: You have not forgotten that our guild has a level requirement.]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: I have not.] 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: Grind for EXP when you have the time, and do not slack off.]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: Oh, I did not slacked off.]

Night Ferry’s mood changed subtly as he stared at the dancer on the screen. 

Judging from the speed the other player is leveling, there was no way the dancer could join his guild by the end of the month, when the guild war ends.  

Even he himself could not bear to watch this any longer. 

Why was this double agent not in a hurry? Hoping that he would make an exception?

[(Friend) Night Ferry: You are thinking of using my authority to make an exception of recruiting you into the guild?]

Yang Juan stared at the message in surprise as it never crossed his mind.  

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: You can do that?]

Night Ferry wanted to break it to the other player. How could there be such a thing as a free lunch? Even a wonderful dream has a limit. 

However, as he was about to type that, out of the blue, he changed his original message. 

He was not the reason, it was the new message sent by Sheep Curls in their private chat.  

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: Night-gege (sweet)]

Zhuo Lan taught him that when a girl is making a request from a guy, she must use a sweet tone. 

In the chat record sent to Yang Juan by his friend, Zhuo Lan would refer to Dead of Night as ‘Night-gege’ and ‘Hubby’ alternately. 

Zhuo Lan also taught him not to be too pushy in front of Dead of Night, but also not to be too passive.  

The best way was to play hard to get. 

Yang Juan kind of got the idea, but he was still having a hard time wrapping his head on what it meant to be both not pushy and not too passive. 

On a literary analysis, the two were contradicting actions. 

But at least he knew he could not call ‘hubby’ casually. 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: Depends on your performance.]

Hearing the vagueness in the other’s words, Yang Juan frowned and thought about what it meant to have acceptable performance. 

Night Ferry did not stay here for long. 

At about ten o’clock, Yang Juan finished gathering herbs and wanted to meet up with the other man.  

Night Ferry told him to go straight to the gate of Smoke Beacon’s base to find himself. 

Pa abbx Tjcu Aejc j ktlif ab jgglnf ja atf vfralcjalbc. 

Qtfc tf jqqfjgfv bea bo atf agjcrqbgajalbc jggjs, Rluta Mfggs kjr jigfjvs offilcu lwqjalfca ogbw kjlalcu, rb tf lwwfvljafis kjixfv obgkjgv ab wffa atf vjcmfg. 

Coafg atfs olclrtfv agjvlcu atf tfgyr, Rluta Mfggs asqfv bea tlr defralbc.  

[(Friend) Night Ferry: What took you so long? I could have done an instant dungeon.]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: I walked here on foot.]

Ktlr kjr ktfc Rluta Mfggs gfwfwyfgfv atja atf vjcmfg kjr klatbea j wbeca. 

Now with a closer look, the dancer was wearing beginner outfits and using a beginner weapon, even less likely to have a mount. Now Night Ferry was certain that Willow and Sheep Curls are not friends, otherwise Willow would not have left the dancer unattended.  

He gave the chestnut horse that was stored in his inventory to Sheep Curls. 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: Keep it, so don’t make me wait next time.]

Yang Juan accepted the mount this time. 

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: I will return it to you once I am done with it.] 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: No need. This is the cheapest mount. If you give it back, it will only take up a slot in my inventory.]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: Thank you.]

Night Ferry did not reply, instead, directly inviting him into the party. 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: They are leeching experience for their side accounts, so you might as well come as well.] 

After reading the message, when Yang Juan was about to reply, the party chat was bombarded with messages. 

[(Party) Crush Pick This Sweet One: Little miss, do you remember me! We met last time!]

[(Party) Whiff of Rose: Sweet-mei, how dare you mention that last time.]

[(Party) Crush Pick This Sweet One: How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Sweet-mei! This great one has a dick! I’m a dude! (stomp feet)] 

[(Party) Whiff of Rose: When you make this claim, you should exclude the (stomp feet) emoji, at least I will be able to take you more seriously.]

[(Party) Crush Pick This Sweet One: …]

[(Party) Sheep Curls: Hello, everyone.]

As the two players were busy quarreling, Jingling, who had remained silent from the start, felt something was wrong when she saw how Night Ferry was interacting with Sheep Curls. 

[(Party) Jingling Bells Dear: Night-ge, why did you bring Willow’s roommate to this instance dungeon? Do you know Willow’s roommate?]

Having dropped this bomb, the other two gradually became aware of the subtlety of the situation and instantly stopped their bickering. 

They could not be blamed for being curious about this. After all, in this game, they have encountered countless cases of introducing a best friend to an in-game husband, and in turn, the good friend seduced the in-game husband away.

Yang Juan was sweating a little, feeling like he had done something bad behind Zhuo Lan’s back.  

While Night Ferry was clearly at ease. 

[(Party) Night Ferry: Willow asked me to help her level.]

The other party members immediately relaxed. 

Only Yang Juan knew he was lying.  

Only people with a guilty conscience would lie. Zhuo Lan was right. There was something up with Dead of Night.

During these two seconds of reflection, two more people joined the party. 

It was a male swordsman with a loli dancer. 

[(Party) Crush Pick This Sweet One: Oh oh, let me introduce the little miss. Faraway Farewell is from our guild, and tonight, he is bringing his girlfriend to level. So we came here to help them.] 

Farewell’s girlfriend greeted them in the chat. 

[(Party) Cat Nom Fish: Hello everyone, just call me Little Fish (sweet)]

Due to the addition of Yang Juan and Night Ferry, they had to switch from a five-player instance dungeon to a seven-player instance dungeon. 

Once everyone had arrived, they headed to the location of the instance dungeon.  

The seven-player instance dungeon, Nine Demons Underground Palace, is more difficult than the five-player instant dungeon, Star Cluster Valley.

In the team, Jingling plays the bard, a job capable of healing, and Farewell acted as the tank, leaving Night Ferry and Rose, duo assassins, and Sweet One, a swordsman, as dps.

Nine Demons Underground Palace has nine floors in total, and they just reached the fifth floor. 

At the entrance of the underground palace, there were stone statues of strange and ferocious-looking beasts. With how dark the passage was, their path was like the beast’s gaping mouth, with the faintest glimpses of torches flickering on either side of the wall.  

Even the background music emitting from everyone’s headphones turned eerie. 

This was often the time when the couples in the team began to feed other members dog food. 

Sure enough, the one couple in their party was no exception. 

[(Party) Cat Nom Fish: It is so dark here, I am scared (sad)] 

[(Party) Faraway Farewell: Little Fish, no need to be afraid, I will protect you, so don’t leave my side.]

[(Party) Crush Pick This Sweet One: (teeth ache) (teeth ache) (teeth ache)]

[(Party) Jingling Bells Dear: Mother, there are people here killing dogs!]

As Yang Juan watched them interact, he remembered what Zhuo Lan had told him.  

If he did not know how to pretend to be a girl, he should take notes on how female players act in the game and imitate their personality and tone. 

Yang Juan took the advice to heart, opened his pocket notebook and wrote on the blank page with a pen—

—Fear of the dark. 

Through the long passage, they entered the corridor into a square chamber with four hallowed-out corridors. They saw nothing but the bottomless abyss in each corridor, even with a faint echo roar of demonic beats.  

The first wave of mobs was lizard monsters, as they crawled out from the corner densely in a group. 

[(Party) Cat Nom Fish: What do I do, I have trypophobia QAQ]

[(Party) Faraway Farewell: Little Fish, hide in the back and don’t look. I will call you once we finished]

Cat Nom Fish obediently hid in the back.  

Yang Juan took up his pen and began to jot—

—Trypophobia.

[(Friend) Night Ferry: You go to the back as well.]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: Okay.] 

Sweet One and Farewell greeted the monsters with their blades. As they cleared out the small monsters, Night Ferry stood beside, cleaning out any monsters that got past the two swordsmen. While doing this, he received a new message.

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: QAQ]

[(Friend) Night Ferry: ?]

Yang Juan, who was slow in typing, finally sent the second part of the message. 

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: What does it mean?]

[(Friend) Night Ferry: …]

[(Friend) Night Ferry: It means crying.]

Yang Juan did not get it, but did not ask further.  

After they cleared the room, they continued. 

Little Fish, who had been hiding beside Yang Juan, trotted to the frontline to her boyfriend. 

[(Party) Cat Nom Fish: Farewell-gege, I listened to you and went to hide QUQ]

[(Party) Faraway Farewell: Little Fish is such a good girl (headpat), once we are done, I will get you this month’s fashion outfits (heart)] 

[(Party) Cat Nom Fish: Love you Q3Q]

[(Party) Crush Pick This Sweet One: Anymore PDA from you guys and I will call the police (torch) (torch) (torch)]

This finally stopped the love birds, they probably switched to their private chat. 

After walking through the dark corridor, they met the first mini boss who was guarding the gate—spider demon.  

Ones playing on their main account rushed to kill the monster, while ones on their side accounts kept in the back and stayed alive. 

Yang Juan took the opportunity to take more note—

—Do as told. 

After he got that down, he sent a private message to Dark Ferry. 

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: What is QUQ?]

[(Friend) Night Ferry: …A smile.]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: Q3Q?]

Night Ferry was feeling an incoming headache.  

[(Friend) Night Ferry: Are you a hundred thousand why?]

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: QAQ]

[(Friend) Night Ferry: What now?]

He was running out of patience.  

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: You are so fierce QAQ]

[(Friend) Night Ferry: …]

A fast learner. 

Yang Juan learned more than that. The other day, Zhuo Lan also said that the most important thing was to apply what he had learned. If he did not put these into action, he would be learning them in vain.  

At this time, he deeply implemented the principles and spirit that his roommate had passed on to him. 

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: When you were fighting the monster earlier, I did as I was told and hid in the back.]

Night Ferry was speechless for a moment, then he typed in a way that carried a slight sarcastic tone. 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: Oh, doesn’t that mean that I have to praise you something like, Little Sheep, good girl?] 

This was the third time that Yang Juan heard the other man address him like that, and was still feeling as embarrassed. 

Being so old now, only his relatives and friends would call him Juan Juan. 

And only Night Ferry calls him Little Sheep. 

Trying to ignore the rising heat on his face, he picked on his keycaps and immersed himself in typing, while hearing the sound of his gradually beating heart.  

[(Friend) Sheep Curls: Then does that mean gege can invite me to join the guild QUQ]

The hand holding the mouse suddenly trembled, as Night Ferry’s arrow that was aiming at the face of the spider demon, flew straight into the abyss outside the corridor behind the mini boss. 

Dealing zero damage to the spider demon.

The frontliners were dumbfounded.  

[(Party) Crush Pick This Sweet One: Am I seeing things??? There are times when Night-ge can miss his skill???]

[(Party) Jingling Bells Dear: (shock) (eat melon seed)]

[(Party) Whiff of Rose: (shock) (eat melon seed)]

[(Party) Faraway Farewell: (shock) (eat melon seed)] 

Yang Juan was also shocked. By the time he realized what had happened, he felt super guilty. 

Night Ferry was slightly annoyed, as he clicked on his keyboards like he was pounding on the earth. 

It was not that he was annoyed that he made a fool out of himself in front of others, but he was annoyed at suddenly losing his composure. 

[(Friend) Night Ferry: Fine, yes, I will let you in, are you happy now!] 

Damn this little spy. Useless at everything, except acting sweet and adorable.

The author has something to say: 

A’Ruan has Wine:

Gong: Although I am just swearing, it did not change the fact that I was moved by the cuteness. 

Important information from the first five chapters: 

Sheep Babe—Errant Wolf’s wife

Apricot Sprig—Sheep Babe’s main account

Blustery Dead of Night—Zhuo Lan’s husband 

Night Ferry—Blustery Dead of Night’s side account, the one controlling the account is not its rightful owner

Willow Tree Dear—Zhuo Lan

Sheep Curls—the account used to flirt with Zhuo Lan’s husband