CH 129

The forest is still dark under the red moon, with only the faint chirping of insects, but it does not bring much life.

Xiao Lan stood by the lake, facing the calm water, and asked Luo: "What do you think of what Adeline said?"

Luo said, "What Adeline said was largely consistent with what we had previously investigated, and we had previous speculation about the identity of Mrs. Hong Yue as possibly Mrs. Weld, which was generally plausible."

Dai Bumao wiped his snot bubbles from his earlier tears: "How can it still be, and possibly not be credible?"

Xiao Lan said, "It's also possible that Adeline is lying to us, after all, she and Mrs. Hong Yue are the only ones who know what really happened back then."

Dai Bumao: "What then?"

Xiao Lan smiled, "The NPCs may be deceitful, but not the plot quest. Unsealing Adeline must be an important part of passing the level, so let's follow the quest first. As for Mrs. Hong Yue's identity, let's find a chance to lift her black veil and find out."

That's a bold proposal.

To lift the black veil from Mrs. Hong Yue's head would certainly require an unrelenting attack from her, which would be no less dangerous.

Dai Bumao was dumbfounded and couldn't help but blurt out, "Lifted your lid?"

Xiao Lan: "......"

Why are you still singing?

Xiao Lan said, "Wake up, if it's really Mrs Weld, she's not only married with a son, but she can hammer a living man to death with a fan."

Dai Bumao: "......"

Boing ......

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After Mrs. Hong Yue related, Xiao Lan brought up another matter: "Let's find other players to work with at breakfast tomorrow, three people won't be enough to break the tower's seal."

Dai Bumao nodded in agreement, after which the three returned to the college.

--

Luo also sent Xiao Lan to his dorm room as usual today.

He left only after Xiao Lan said that he would have no problem sleeping alone.

After a shower and lying in the standard student bed, Xiao Lan's heart can't help but feel a sense of anticipation.

What will appear in the dream?

Will it unlock the doubts in his mind?

......

He had been sleeping well and soon sleep had struck him.

In the blackness of the world, sound and light suddenly appeared again.

The surroundings were already familiar to Xiao Lan, the office where he and Luo had first met as teenagers.

Beneath the warm yellow glow of the candlelight, the teenager and the man in black still sit chatting to each other, both of them shrouded in a soft light.

The teenager, holding a teacup, was telling of his experiences since entering the game.

"I just walked out and saw a group of guys about my age, all wearing school uniforms. But I knew every word they were saying, but I didn't understand any of them together, what with 'newbie' and 'playground' and guess how I died ...... "

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"Then a strange guy attacked me, he was so strong and looked crazy ......"

"To escape, I hid in an empty room and found a card in a cupboard and said it was a skill or something."

"What kind of skills," said the man in black, looking interested.

The teenager gave him a description [poverty cannot limit my imagination] and asked, "What is this poverty value? Does it mean I have to be poor?"

The man in black refilled both of their teacups and spoke in an unhurried tone, "Simply put, it is true, and it is not enough to have nothing, you must be poorer than the average person in order to have, say, negative equity."

Teenager: "...... Who designed this pitfall skill?"

If you wanted to activate this skill, wouldn't you have to be a pauper for life?

The man in black had one hand on his chin and a few prodding lights under his eyes, "Don't remember, if it wasn't that guy, then it was probably me, right?"

The teenager cast a condemning look -

Is this a human thing to do?

However, this one doesn't seem very human.

Anyway, the teenager hadn't seen any man who could turn people out of existence with a wave of his hand.

Also, the "guy" he mentions doesn't seem to be ......

The man in black looked at the teenager and smiled up, "Do you have any plans for the future?"

The teenager was a little confused, "Later? Here?"

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To be honest, he was only fifteen years old and really didn't have much social experience, so he was at a loss in this dangerous and somewhat crazy game world.

Although the position he is in now is safe, he is well aware that just a door away is a world of violence and killing outside.

Later?

He is also unsure of what to plan for after his time here.

The teenager said hesitantly, "Probably just ...... take one step at a time and see how others are doing before you think about your own arrangements."

"What if you could go back?" The man in black asked again.

The teenager was a little surprised: "Can I still go back in?"

The man in black blinked at him, "Not normally, but with a little cheating it's not out of the question."

The teenager lowered his voice as if he was afraid of being overheard by someone, "Are you going to help me cheat?"

The man in black gave a slight nod.

The teenager smiled, " Luo, you're so nice, I'd love to take you to eat my mum's biscuits sometime."

Instead, the man in black said, "There may never be a chance, I am unable to go to the real world."

The teenager thought for a moment, "Then I'll learn, and if I get the chance later I can make it for you!"

The man in black laughed lightly, "Good, then I'll keep the anticipation alive for now."

Xiao Lan from the sidelines: "......"

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What a dare to make and a dare to eat.

Teenagers, years later you will experience the toxic beatings of society and then discover the fact that you are not gifted in cooking and will soon abandon your palate and go on to the pinnacle of poverty.

Seeming to think of something, the teenager asked, "Will we get a chance to meet again later?"

The man in black thought for a moment and thought it better to tell the truth: "Something very bad might happen if we meet again."

Teenager: "What kind of things?"

The man in black: "You will be in the same crisis as before, and I ...... am seriously wounded and near death, weakened to the limit."

The teenager put down his teacup, "In that case, I'll take care of you."

That sounds a bit naive and a bit insouciant.

Even if he enters the game again, he is just a newcomer with nothing, so what will he do to keep others safe?

But the teenager was serious in what he said, and it was clear that this was not a casual perfunctory remark.

The man in black looked at the teenager, "Things would have been so bad back then that I probably wouldn't be what I am now and you wouldn't remember me."

The young man wondered, "Why? I shouldn't forget someone like you?"

And the man in black just smiled and didn't answer.

He had no intention of telling the teenager that he would erase the memories associated with himself from his mind.

If you want to cut off everything related to the Advent world, it is better not to leave any traces of it, lest it will arouse the curiosity of the teenager and end up killing him instead.

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The teenager said solemnly to the man in black, "When the time comes, if you need help, just act pathetic and look like the kind of person who would be in danger if you didn't get help, even if I don't remember anything, I'll definitely help you."

The man in black did not laugh at the teenager's somewhat impractical-sounding proposal.

He also sat up straight solemnly and said, "Yes, I'll remember that."

Then the man in black rose to his feet.

He lifted his hand in the air and gestured at the wall, his movements looking as if he were a painter who had already made up his mind and was working on his long-awaited new work.

It seems to be very impressive.

The teenager followed his movements.

Teenager: "......"

The man in black was skilled in his movements no mistake, but he had only painted a door on the wall.

The door was still crooked, the two sides not the same height and the two borders strutting in different directions, full of defiance.

It might not have been easy to guess that it was a door if it hadn't grown into the wall.

The witty teenager felt that he had probably inadvertently picked up on the fact that the other man had a different aesthetic direction in art.

Or simply a soul painter?

The door slowly takes shape as the man in black moves.

He waved his hand across the room and pushed open the art-filled door, behind which some halo of light appeared that could not be seen in detail, not knowing exactly what it led to.

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The teenager also stood up and surveyed the door, which was quite incredible both in terms of its shape and the way it appeared.

Teenager: "Through here I can go back?"

The man in black nodded, "This will be the place to go back to where you left off in the first place."

"That's in my bedroom, I remember being in bed earlier." The teenager remembered something else, "What about my clothes? Do I have to wear this?"

Man in black: "No need to change, your clothes will automatically return when you get back, but-"

With that, he moved closer to the boy and ran his long fingers across his strangled neck, and with his movements, the marks from the boy's strangulation disappeared as if they had never existed.

The man in black then tapped his fingertips over several more of the injuries he had examined earlier, and where the teenager could not see them, they too healed at a rapid pace.

Finally his eyes fell on the teenager's wrist, "This is the wound you got earlier, right, it looks like it's been a few days."

The teenager said, "Hmm."

The man in black reached out and brushed the teenager's wrist, and as he did so, the gauze that had been carefully wrapped changed back to the appearance of the cloth the teenager had haphazardly wrapped before.

"That's pretty much it." The man in black said.

The teenager touched his wrist, and from the looks of it this was the same one he had before, but it didn't hurt at all anymore, and obviously still felt the same after being bandaged by the other man.

Sensing the boy's confusion, the man in black said, "It's just a bit of Little Xiao's blindfold, it'll keep you going until your wound heals."

The teenager found such a technique truly magical.

Suddenly the teenager felt his eyes go dark.

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He looked up to find that the man in black had stood in front of him at some point.

The man in black stretched out his fingertips and flicked them on the teenager's forehead, a black mark appeared on his forehead and disappeared again in a flash.

The young man only felt a chill on his forehead, and as he reached for it he found he could feel nothing: "What is this?"

The man in black said, "You will bear the mark of the Advent World after you are chosen by it, and even if you are sent away, you will soon be found again."

"I have left a mark of power on your body that will temporarily suppress the link between the Advent World and you. However, if I am ever seriously injured or die, this mark will fail and the link between you and the Advent World will then be restored once again."

Xiao Lan, a bystander, suddenly understands.

It turns out that the peace he enjoys for the time being is due to the fact that Luo has blocked his contact with the Advent world.

The reason for his re-entry into the game was probably related to Luo's being sealed in an envelope.

But he had only recently entered the game, whereas Luo seemed to have been in the envelope for a long time, so what was the reason for that?

Is the time in the envelope not the same as the outside world?

Or is there something else that Xiao Lan cannot guess?

Then think of Xiao Chengyan knowing his skills and having debt prepared for him.

Xiao Lan wondered what the relationship between Luo, Xiao Chengyan and the rebel would be.

Could Luo be the rumoured rebel?

"It's time for you to go back." The man in black's voice interrupted Xiao Lan's thoughts.

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Xiao Lan returns his attention to the two people in the dream world.

The teenager stood by the door and gave a clean smile to the man in black, "So ...... see you later."

The man in black looked at him, "You should expect that we will not see each other again."

The young man said, "According to the etiquette of farewell, it is to say goodbye"

The man in black smiled back, "Okay"

The teenager finally waved at him, "Goodbye."

The man in black waved back, following the teenager's example, "Goodbye."

After bidding farewell, the young man turned and stepped into the world behind the door, his figure engulfed in a cloud of light and shadow, to the point where he disappeared.

The man in black looked at the empty door and dropped his hand.

With another lift of the hand, the door instantly disappeared.

He made a goodbye pact that only he remembered.

Even if the goodbye doesn't mean anything good is going to happen.

But, he was in an unexpectedly good mood.