CH 87

Thank you to Kitkat001 and TinaVu for the ko-fi~

So, in the following time, you could see Gu Langu still sitting upright on the bamboo raft, unmoving, like a resolute statue. Instead, it was Shu Shuishui who would often pretend to fish for a while, then quietly wedge the small fishing rod onto the bamboo raft, gently get up, pick out the largest fish from the cup, and secretly place it into the bucket beside Gu Langu.

Once, twice, thrice…

Every time the little dormouse leaned over the edge of the bucket to look inside, a hint of dissatisfaction would pass through his eyes. Even though, in the end, almost all the fish it had caught were transferred into the bucket, the bucket still appeared empty.

When Shu Shuishui was once again transferring the fish to the bucket, just as the little fish had entered the bucket, Gu Langu’s gaze shifted over.

Shu Shuishui, with his furry body, still hung on the edge of the bucket. He wiggled his little paws in the air, then waved his claws to greet Gu Langu and pointed at the bucket. “Gu Gu is so amazing. You’ve caught so many fish, and each one is bigger than the ones I caught.”

Gu Langu looked at Shu Shuishui’s small water cup, in which only a thin and feeble little fish remained, leisurely swimming without appearing crowded. Then he looked at his own bucket, where slender little fish darted around merrily, the school of fish had grown in size.

A slight movement stirred within Gu Langu’s heart, and a smile crept into his eyes. “Shui Shui is amazing.”

Shu Shuishui’s little ears twitched, and then he shook his head earnestly. “No, no, no, it’s Gu Gu who’s amazing.”

Gu Langu couldn’t help but chuckle softly. He also wedged the fishing rod onto the bamboo raft and then turned to lift the small dormouse, holding it high. He leaned his head sideways, his ear pressed against the furry chest of the little dormouse.

“Does Gu Gu want to lean on my chest? Sure, go ahead!” Shu Shuishui struggled to puff up his furry little chest.

Gu Langu couldn’t hold back another laugh. “I wanted to hear if Shui Shui’s heartbeat would speed up when telling a lie.”

Shu Shuishui’s little ears trembled, and he instantly caught on, using his paws to cover his chest. “Shui Shui didn’t lie. Gu Gu caught bigger fish than Shui Shui did. Gu Gu is truly amazing.”

Laughter brimmed in Gu Langu’s eyes, and he didn’t make things difficult for the little dormouse. He lowered Shu Shuishui and placed him at eye level.

Locking eyes, Shu Shuishui once again found himself entranced by the beauty. His little ears kept twitching. “Why aren’t there any stars in the sky of this space? It turns out they’ve all landed in Gu Gu’s eyes.”

Gu Langu felt his heart contract sharply, unexpectedly feeling the urge to shed tears.

Such cheesy words sounded so special to Gu Langu’s ears. It seemed that in his entire life, no one had ever spoken to him like this. While the world praised his accomplishments, his fierceness, and his abilities, only Shu Shuishui could see the starlight in his eyes. He didn’t even realize that his own eyes held starlight.

Gu Langu leaned his head forward, gently pressing his forehead against the furry head of the little dormouse.

Shu Shuishui was incredibly obedient, and he went along with it, rubbing against Gu Langu. “What’s the matter, Gu Gu?”

Gu Langu rested his head against the small melon-shaped head of the dormouse. His heart was heavy with an indescribable satisfaction, even more content than conquering the Xian Ge galaxy, more than tearing through battlefields, more than ripping through starry rivers. It seemed that all that mattered was this, and everything else could be disregarded. “Shui Shui, when will you grow up?”

The little dormouse touched his own small ears. “It should be soon. I have a feeling, but I’m not sure when. By the way, Gu Gu, are you looking forward to me being 1.8 meters tall too?”

The corner of Gu Langu’s mouth lifted in a smile again. “Hmm, Shui Shui, grow up quickly.”

Shu Shuishui extended his paw and touched Gu Langu’s forehead. “Gu Gu, don’t worry. It won’t take too long. I want to be as tall as Gu Gu.”

This time, Gu Langu didn’t reply because he didn’t know how to convince Shu Shuishui. In reality, there isn’t much difference between 1.78 meters and 1.87 meters.

As the little dormouse continued to touch, suddenly his paw froze. “Gu Gu, I just realized your hairline is excellent too.”

Gu Langu: “…” Why does the little mouse always have such skewed focuses? Could it be a cultural difference leading to aesthetic preferences, like necks and legs?

By the time Gu Langu placed the little dormouse back on the bamboo raft, the raft had drifted quite far, moving at a leisurely pace.

Neither the man nor the dormouse continued fishing. Shu Shuishui simply lay down on his back on the raft, gazing at the vast emptiness above. Gu Langu did the same, lying on his back, his deep pupils fixed on the boundless void.

“Gu Gu, what’s there?” The little dormouse’s paw pointed at the empty darkness, curiosity in his eyes.

Gu Langu fell silent for a moment. “That’s an endless void and also limitless possibilities.”

The dormouse nodded as if understanding, then got up, ran to his little backpack, unzipped it, and pulled out a few snow-white hazelnuts.

Holding the hazelnuts, the little dormouse returned to lie beside Gu Langu’s head and handed him one.

Gu Langu took it and examined the nut in his hand. In truth, the hazelnut didn’t have much taste because Gu Langu had never tasted a hazelnut before. He couldn’t really conceptualize the taste of a hazelnut. The hazelnut that Shu Shuishui had given him earlier, Gu Langu couldn’t bear to eat; he had been keeping it as a memento.

However, Shu Shuishui didn’t mind at all. He treated it as if he were eating an ice cream cone shaped like a hazelnut, gnawing on it with a crunching sound. As he nibbled, he gazed at the black expanse above, along with the snowflakes that continued to gently fall from the sky.

The snowflakes had never stopped, even though they were tiny. Each one displayed delicacy. Whenever Shu Shuishui found a particularly beautiful or unique one, he would excitedly extend his tiny paw and point it out to Gu Langu.

Gu Langu twirled the jade-white hazelnut between his fingertips, his gaze following every move of Shu Shuishui. He would also carefully observe each snowflake that Shu Shuishui mentioned, hoping that tomorrow, his subconscious could create such snowflakes. Even though tomorrow, Shu Shuishui might not continue paying attention to the snowflakes.

In the vast and boundless expanse, the black of the heavens met the white of the earth. The intense collision between light and darkness was softened by the scattered and fragmented snowflakes.

Amidst the silver-white undulating mountain ranges, a pure and silver river flowed gently. On the surface of the river, a spacious jade-white bamboo raft drifted leisurely. It had no destination, no endpoint; it was carefree and free-spirited.

On the bamboo raft, a person rested with their head cradled in their hands, their perfectly graceful body stretched out on the raft. Beside their head was a little dormouse lying on its back. Although the dormouse wasn’t using its paws as a pillow, it hugged its large tail.

The man and the dormouse chatted casually, their conversation free-flowing and spontaneous. Occasionally, they would turn their heads to exchange glances as they discussed. Sometimes they burst into laughter, at times expressing surprise, and other times falling into contemplation. Eventually, at some point unnoticed, both the man and the dormouse drifted off to sleep on the bamboo raft.

Though the world was blanketed in snow, it didn’t feel cold. The delicate white snowflakes were like a thin quilt gently covering the two figures.

When Gu Langu woke up the next day, he turned his head and found the little mouse was gone. He sat up abruptly, causing the bamboo raft to sway on the water’s surface as the ripples spread.

The sleeping Shu Shuishui was disturbed but didn’t wake up. Instead, he just turned over and continued sleeping.

As a result, the pure white bamboo raft next to him was now home to a fuzzy warm brown bundle that had rolled half a circle. It was only now that Gu Langu realized that Shu Shuishui wasn’t missing; he was covered by snow. Only his little nose stuck out, forming a small package with the snow that had piled up, a sight Gu Langu had missed.

The snow in this world wouldn’t melt, but accumulated snow would automatically disappear once it reached a certain thickness, always maintaining a consistent depth.

Gu Langu extended his hand and gently brushed the white snow off the warm brown bundle. However, it was impossible to clean it all off. Gu Langu could only place one hand behind the little mouse and the other in front, gently flipping Shu Shuishui over.

In this manner, the sleeping little dormouse was turned onto Gu Langu’s palm.

After some careful maneuvering, Gu Langu managed to clean off all the accumulated snow from Shu Shuishui’s body without waking him up. Looking at the warm brown bundle in his palm, Gu Langu couldn’t help but marvel at the quality of Shu Shuishui’s sleep. He had been buried in snow last night and still hadn’t woken up.

Little did Gu Langu know, not only Shu Shuishui, but almost no hibernating rodent would wake up due to being buried in snow during their hibernation. This unique species would persist in their slumber even if they froze or starved to death, choosing to pass away in their dreams.

Not long after, Shu Shuishui also woke up from his slumber. The little dormouse stood on all fours, stretched his small body, and felt the soft sensation under his paws. He realized that he was in the palm of Gu Langu’s hand, so he lazily stretched.

Shu Shuishui waved his little paw. “Good morning, Gu Gu.”

“Good morning, Shui Shui,” Gu Langu replied softly, gently placing his palm flat on the bamboo raft. Shu Shuishui spontaneously took small steps and walked down.

Without any particular goal in mind, the morning felt unusually leisurely for the man and the dormouse.

This duo spending time together couldn’t understand the feelings of others striving hard to conquer dungeons. Gu Langu wasn’t particularly interested in dungeons, and with Liu Po and Nan Ge in the team, they wouldn’t choose excessively risky dungeons. Although the danger was present, it wasn’t life-threatening.

Gu Langu didn’t have a habit of looking after children, and he approved of the strengths of those around him, including newcomers like Xie Feng. Both Nan Ge, NanFang, and Yu Jin had gained his recognition.

So, as the freezing season arrived, Gu Langu and Shu Shuishui had only participated in that initial dungeon.

On the other hand, Nan Ge and the Liu Po brothers from Zone B had already completed five dungeons, receiving rewards of varying quality, all provided by the Galactic Alliance.

Sometimes, everyone couldn’t help but sigh. Nobody had figured out the triggering conditions for dungeon rewards. Although Shu Shuishui had received a pair of rings from dungeon rewards, nobody could make sense of their specific functions.

On the 42nd day of entering the simulator, Gu Langu once again received an invitation to team up for a dungeon raid. The message came from Nan Ge, who provided details about the dungeon. This time, it was a group dungeon with specific rewards. The person who contributed the most to the successful completion would receive an unlimited-duration simulator!

This news set the simulator space ablaze. It wasn’t just the simulated city under Cang Zhan Star that was excited; conservatively estimated, at least five simulated cities would participate in this large-scale dungeon. A simulator city consisted of ten Wild Stars, so five simulator cities meant fifty Wild Stars, making Cang Zhan Star, as one of the fifty-one, suddenly seem insignificant.

They had indeed gathered numerous simulators, but all the simulators collected had a limited usage lifespan. Once the expiration date arrived, the simulators would self-destruct. Therefore, even though the explicit reward for this dungeon was just one simulator, the words “unlimited duration” were enough to drive people crazy with desire.

Major factions were in a frenzy, searching everywhere to form teams with powerful individuals. No one wanted to miss out on this opportunity.

The members of Gu Langu’s base were naturally no exception, especially Xie Feng. Since he learned about the news, he had been in a state of excitement. He personally sought out Nan Ge and expressed his eagerness.

As a top technological talent, Xie Feng had long been curious about simulators. He had been researching them and had practically been locked in his home working on his own simulator whenever he logged out. By now, he had made progress; at the very least, Xie Feng was now eighty percent confident that he could disassemble and repair a simulator to restore its functionality after dismantling it.

This seemingly simple disassembly and assembly process is something that no one on Cang Zhan Star has been able to accomplish so far. The internal structure of the simulator is incredibly complex, with many components being irreversible. Disassembling it is exceedingly difficult, and reassembling it requires going through tens of thousands of procedures. During the process, one also needs to ensure not to trigger the self-destruct mechanism of the simulator. Comparing disassembling a simulator to defusing a bomb is not an exaggeration.

Of course, Xie Feng wouldn’t easily dismantle a simulator unless he was fairly certain that reassembly was possible, perhaps not achieving a hundred percent restoration. After all, the brutal lesson from the micro-farm incident was still fresh in his memory. Dismantling the farm had caused a lot of trouble. If he were to dismantle a simulator, it would likely lead to a severe reprimand.

While researching simulators, Xie Feng’s greatest concern was the self-destruct mechanism. He was eager to find a way to safely eliminate the binding system without affecting the simulator’s functionality, but he had yet to find a breakthrough.

Unexpectedly, the simulated space suddenly announced a group dungeon task, with the reward being an unlimited-duration simulator. The temptation was too great. If Xie Feng could fully understand it, he might even be able to modify all the simulators at the base, freeing them from the limitations of usage lifespan.

In this way, Nan Ge contacted Gu Langu, wanting to secure this unlimited-duration simulator.

The dungeon’s activation time was set for three days later. The clues provided by the Galactic Alliance about the dungeon were sparse. They only knew that the overarching backdrop was a star system in ruins. Due to the vastness of the area and the expanse of space, the collective dungeon was organized.

Gu Langu agreed to participate in this team-based dungeon and informed Shu Shuishui. The man and the dormouse had been traveling in the snow world for some time now. Even though the borders of the snow world were extending infinitely, they were consistently met with the colors of black and white, which inevitably led to visual fatigue. Despite the fact that the world Gu Langu had created now had a clearer sense of hierarchy, the shades of white had been divided into numerous different gradients. The pure white world had gradually taken on the charm of an ink painting.

Shu Shuishui also agreed readily and decided to find a different place for hibernation. This year’s hibernation method was already quite unique, and Shu Shuishui had taken it rather well. Compared to the state of perpetual sleep, this hibernation that felt like real dreams with starts and stops had its own charm, especially since Gu Langu was there beside him.

Everything was well-prepared. When the group of people arrived at the central square three days later, the square was packed with people, especially around the entrance to the dungeon. There was barely any room to move.

The group of people was in no rush. The entrance to the dungeon would remain open for a whole hour, and anyone could enter during that time.

At this moment, Liu Du almost wished he could pick up the mouse and give it a thorough rub. He truly didn’t expect Shu Shuishui to stay at the login screen for over a month. In his understanding, no one had ever used a simulator like this before.

Among the crowd, everyone was excited. After all, the reward was an unlimited-duration simulator. Who wouldn’t be tempted?

So, as the light at the entrance to the teleportation area lit up, the people around it couldn’t wait any longer and jumped in. Those behind pushed the ones in front, and in less than three minutes, the once-crowded central square had emptied out.

Gu Langu’s group also stepped forward to enter. However, just as they were about to be teleported, the little dormouse on Gu Langu’s shoulder suddenly became restless, turning around anxiously. In the end, it hurriedly left a message near Gu Langu’s ear. “Gu Gu, I might be undergoing a transformation. You go in first. I’ll enter the dungeon on my own and find you.”

Before there was time to react, Gu Langu didn’t even have a chance to make a sound. The teleportation array activated, and simultaneously, the weight on his shoulder lightened as the fuzzy bundle disappeared.

Everything happened too quickly and abruptly. Not only did Gu Langu fail to comprehend it, but Shu Shuishui himself didn’t react in time either. When Shu Shuishui was forcibly logged out of the simulator, he found himself lying on top of Gu Langu.

Sensing the change in his body, Shu Shuishui propped himself up on his arms, suspended above Gu Langu. Gu Langu had tightly closed eyes, his brows furrowed as if experiencing something quite unpleasant.

Shu Shuishui didn’t dare to delay. He quickly opened the simulation pod and exited from Gu Langu’s simulator. He swiftly found another simulator from his mental space, initiated it, and began searching for a suitable space to open the simulation pod.

The space inside the tent wasn’t enough for two simulators, so Shu Shuishui could only activate the simulator outside the tent. Before leaving the tent, he grabbed Gu Langu’s black coat and draped it over himself. With his fair legs exposed, Shu Shuishui sprinted rapidly to the side of the simulation pod. With a powerful push, he leaped towards the pod.

A loud “thud” echoed as Shu Shuishui landed inside the simulation pod. Thankfully, the quality of the simulator was good, and it didn’t break.

Standing inside the pod, Shu Shuishui finally realized that he was now human, not a dormouse, and didn’t need to run and jump to get in. Still not entirely accustomed to his human body, Shu Shuishui lay down inside the simulation pod.

Luckily, the controls were completely automated, and Shu Shuishui only needed to manipulate it with his mental energy. After logging into the game and undergoing a brief loading period, Shu Shuishui found himself in a vast hazelnut forest that seemed somewhat familiar. The trees were adorned with fist-sized, gleaming golden hazelnuts!

Shu Shuishui managed to restrain his urge to climb up and instead logged into the simulation city. He then headed straight for the central square. Along the way, the running Shu Shuishui attracted a lot of attention.

When he arrived by the teleportation entrance, the little dormouse couldn’t hold back and, just like in the past, leaped straight into the teleportation entrance. In the central square, those who hadn’t participated in the strategy were left somewhat dumbfounded. They wondered if the barefoot individual who had just raced by had overslept and rushed so quickly that they couldn’t even see their face clearly.