CH 18

For the convenience of sending commands and communication during instance dungeons, players would usually create a small chat room in YY. 

Which was what Jiang Xiao’s five members party did. At the moment, when they saw Eastern Blizzard and others leave the dungeon lobby, someone spoke in the voice chat.

BB Love cried, “Holy cow! They were all guild leaders of giant guilds.”

Strongest O in Universe asked, “Leader, why were they looking for you?”

Blank threw out his imaginary scenario. “Could it be that they are Moon God’s go-betweens? When he announced that he only saw our sister-in-law as a friend, maybe he actually refused to give up. So he sent these guild leaders to pressure our leader to forcefully break the lovely couple apart. If our leader doesn’t agree, they will work together and kill him until he deletes his account!” 

Yue Ran: “…”

BB Love: “…”

Strongest O in Universe: “…”

“No,” Jiang Xiao shattered this outrageous suggestion. “They want to poach me as an officer.”

Several people were shocked as they asked the same question, “Which guild?”

Jiang Xiao calmly replied, “All of them.”

As he talked, he flipped through the instance dungeon records to find the reason. “We placed second in the new twenty-member dungeon, and third in the twenty-five member dungeon. They must have found out that I was the shot caller.”

Everyone understood. 

In this game, the greater the activities’ intensity, the more the leadership’s ability to command was put to the test. Large instance dungeons and raid bosses belonged to this category. For a large guild to grow, they absolutely need to unearth and recruit talented people, thus their attention was fixed on White Koi’s guild leader.

Blank worriedly whispered, “Then…”

Jiang Xiao concluded confidently, “I’m not interested.”

Blank and others immediately felt relieved. 

They knew their guild leader’s temper. If he wasn’t interested, he wasn’t interested.

Once this matter was done, the three guild members immediately changed the topic to urging their guild leader into getting his wife a working mic, so their sister-in-law won’t feel left out, being the only one using text chat.

Looking at the little summoner on his screen, Jiang Xiao explained, “He’s shy. He is fine using the party text chat.”

Being very cooperative, Yue Ran immediately sent a chat bubble in the game’s party chat. 

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: That’s right. It’s fine as long as I can hear hubby’s voice (happy).]

The corner of Jiang Xiao’s mouth raised slightly as he typed.

[(Party) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Cheer for me and I’ll carry you through all the five member instance dungeons.]

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: ‘Kay (dances in happy circle).] 

A single word set Yue Ran’s keynote for the night.

Doing what he said he would do, every instance dungeon they finished, he would give an adorable cheer. Such as [Hubby’s so handsome], [Hubby’s so powerful], [Hubby’s great] and so on. As if the cheers were ready at his fingertips.

Under an expert’s leadership, they soon finished all the high-level five member dungeons. Only the low-level ones were left. With excellent techniques, these low-level instance dungeons an expert could solo carry the team. But running them didn’t bring the slightest joy. However, because Yue Ran’s account was very poor, to get more instance dungeon materials, Jiang Xiao decided to speed run them too.

As Yue Ran’s small inventory was gradually filled with items, he realized that Jiang Xiao was actually helping him gather materials, so he had to send a message. 

[(Private) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Thank you so much, but I can run these easy instance dungeons myself. No need for you to waste your time.]

[(Private) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: I had nothing to do. It won’t take up much of my time anyway.]

He typed that as they finished their current instance dungeon. Yue Ran switched chat as he dutifully cheered for his husband.

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Hubby’s so dreamy (finger heart).] 

[(Party) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: (head pat)]

Dijcx rlutfv ojlcais. “P offi rilutais ilxf j atlgv ktffi.”

DD Obnf mglfv, “Zf abb.”

Vagbcufra Y lc Fclnfgrf ijwfcafv, “Zf atgff…” 

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Thanks everyone so much today (happy). I don’t want to keep bothering everyone. Hubby can solo carry me in the rest of the dungeons (happy).]

Aljcu Wljb jrxfv, “Pr fnfgsbcf yers?”

Dijcx afjrfv klat j rwlif. “Pa jii vfqfcvr bc sbe akb. Po sbe uesr kjca er bea, kf klii yf yers. Po cba, atfc kf jgf cba yers jcv klii mbcalcef ab yf atf eckjcafv atlgv uefrar.”

Both BB Love and Strongest O in Universe agreed, smiling, “That’s right.” 

Jiang Xiao said, “Then we continue. Having a full party makes it faster.”

The three light bulbs naturally have no objections.

What they said earlier was just a joke. They were, in fact, thrilled to help, as they went to the next dungeon along with the couple.

Yue Ran naturally also had no objection. He just concentrated on being a delicate flower, shaking his leaves from time to time in the party chat for his husband. 

However, there was a limit to his love vocabulary. When they completed the last dungeon, he searched his brain for a new cheer, to no avail, so he just typed out one he used before.

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Hubby’s great (finger heart)!]

[(Party) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: You used that, another one.]

Fuck, you are actually keeping track of these!? 

Yue Ran thought quietly as he added one simple word.

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Hubby’s super great (finger heart)!]

[(Party) >Smashing Vault of Heaven: Very good, my dear.]

Blank sighed softly again. 

BB Love and Strongest O in Universe immediately sighed with him, sadder than the prior one.

Jiang Xiao remarked, “Are you guys still free?”

The three understood the meaning of his question this time, as they bravely sent a (burn) emote before leaving the party with a smile, then turned and ran.

The remaining two exchanged a look with each other. 

When Jiang Xiao saw they were the only two left in the voice room, he changed the room’s password to prevent others from coming in by mistake. He said in voice chat, “I changed the room’s password. Can you chat?”

Yue Ran replied, “Yes, thank you for today.”

“No problem, going to bed soon?”

“Not sleepy.” 

“Then how about we do ‘open egg’?”

Yue Ran was more than happy to. “Okay.”

The so-called ‘open egg’ is an optional quest system in the game.

Once the player accepts the mission from the specific NPC, they need to complete a series of quests. After completing all ten quests, the player will receive a golden egg as a reward. The golden egg contains a variety of items. Common commodities being the majority, and the type of item that drops will be related to the player’s job class. In rare cases, players could get rare materials, but the probability was very low. One would need to be super lucky to score the jackpot. 

Neither of them was blessed by lady luck.

After receiving the golden egg, Jiang Xiao’s contained a HP recovery potion, while Yue Ran’s contained a chirping little bird.

The most common spirit beast with ordinary attributes. Originally, he wanted to toss it in his summoned inventory, but when he opened the window, he caught a glimpse of the little white chicken, he clicked open the summoned refinement window.

Jiang Xiao noticed no movement from him for a while, and inquired, “What’s wrong?” 

Yue Ran responded, “I want to see if the admin changed the upgrading feature through refinement of similar types of spirit beasts.”

Jiang Xiao knew what he was talking about. “So you want to refine it with the little, fat chicken?”

“Yes,” Yue Ran confirmed as he quickly read through the help menu. Seeing that nothing had changed, he placed the little white chicken and the little bird into the array at random, along with some common materials, and clicked ‘Refine’ in silence.

After waiting for a long time, Jiang Xiao asked, “Have you refined it?” 

Instead of answering, Yue Ran released the little fat chicken.

Jiang Xiao studied the chicken and found it was the same as before.

Yue Ran glowered, “This is the result.”

The little bird’s sacrifice didn’t make any difference. It was like feeding a dog. The little summoner questioned, “Am I going crazy?” 

Understanding his undertone, Jiang Xiao resisted the urge to laugh. “No.”

Yue Ran went quiet again.

The rejected little fat chicken didn’t know its owner’s true feelings at all.

It was thrilled to be released again as it flapped its tiny wings around its owner in a circle. Then it flopped to the ground with a ‘pa’ after a few seconds, lying there short of breath. 

Yue Ran deadpanned, “Oh, I see it could fly a little longer.”

Bah! Still only good for stew!

Jiang Xiao proposed, “Another? I planned to head to bed after one more.”

Checking the time, Yue Ran agreed. 

With immense patience, they completed ten quests again, and each received a golden egg. This time, Jiang Xiao got a common shoe. For Yue Ran, it was something for his job class again, a little white dog.

Disregarding the clashing types for the spirit beasts, he tossed the little white dog into the summoned refinement along with the little fat chicken. Planning to feed the cursed chicken to the dog, but as the white light dissipated, what he got was a chicken, and the only difference was its fat body was slightly bigger.

He showed his result to Jiang Xiao and asked, “Is the chicken I refined a bug?”

Jiang Xiao watched the little fat chicken circling around the little summoner. Not able to hold back his laughter, he chuckled in a low voice. 

He and Qin Xiujie were sitting at the dining table side by side, playing on their own laptops. He heard his friend’s chuckle as he was about to take a gulp of his water, resulting in him almost dropping the glass of water onto his laptop.

He stared at Jiang Xiao as though he were an alien, and whose smiling expression quickly vanished as he said in the same indifferent tone, “According to the game settings, no matter which job class, items produced by the player themselves have a higher value than ones generated by the system, no matter the tier or quality. The two spirit beasts you used for refinement just now were given by the system, so when combined with the chicken you refined, the system would see them as upgrade material.”

Inaudible mumbling came from his headphones, so Jiang Xiao said, “It’s late, I’m signing out. You should as well.”

When he finished, he closed out YY and then faced Qin Xiujie, who had been staring at him. 

Qin Xiujie questioned with a smile, “I have Ran Ran’s picture, wanna see?”

Jiang Xiao was too lazy to respond. After saying good night in the guild chat, he logged off.

Just as the screen turned black, Qin Xiujie shoved his phone screen in his friend’s face. On the screen, Jiang Xiao saw a young man with delicate facial features. The boy was very beautiful as he tried to look cool for the camera, but his eyes were bright with faint traces of warmth, just like a noble cat.

He squinted his eyes slightly, only to feel that the little summoner and the youth on the phone instantly merged together as one person. 

Qin Xiujie commanded, “Isn’t he just the cutest? He is the only omega among my familial generation.”

Jiang Xiao avoided the question. “Your family must have pampered him a lot.”

Qin Xiujie said, “Of course, the whole family pampers him.”

Jiang Xiao made a sound, but still didn’t answer the first question as he went into his bedroom. 

Not fond of pursuing a question relentlessly, Qin Xiujie stayed on the game for a while before sleeping.

The next morning, he woke up and went out with Jiang Xiao to enjoy their vacation. In the afternoon, they came back to the apartment for a rest. In the evening, he logged on to the game to help the guild run their instance dungeons. This pattern lasted for three days. When he finally played to his heart’s content, he switched off his vacation mode, said farewell to Jiang Xiao, and returned home. He was ready to direct his attention fully back to the game.

Yue Ran had a blast these few days as well.

It seems that Sunken Moon didn’t doubt him anymore. He hadn’t shown his face and pestered him recently, and never brought up the ‘apprentices’ matter. Those inexplicable fans also stopped bothering him. 

During the day, he collected herbs and orbs, and ran low-tier instance dungeons by himself. At night, he joined the arena with Jiang Xiao, then harder instance dungeon, opened eggs, and fed the chicken. After a month, he began to focus on researching summoned refinement.

Today was the day for his medical results.

He got up early. While his father was still packing, he seized the moment to play a bit. He planned to log his character off in the mining area so that when he came back online later today, it would save him a trip.

Fruity happened to be online as well. When she saw the notification from a guild member being online, she informed her friend immediately. 

A few minutes later, a certain guild officer from Phoenix Rune logged on to the game along with his girlfriend, and he quickly contacted his subordinates.

After a prior long discussion, they came up with a plan. The first step was to collect as much evidence as possible.

But it was easier said than done. They brainstormed helplessly and ended up with nothing. They decided to bluff. As it happened, they have a spy in Traceless Water’s guild, that they could put to use.

Following these days of observation, Vault of Heavens Essence would change where he mined daily and would migrate from west to east. 

Today’s mining area was in a remote place. What was more wonderful was that Traceless Water was offline, so it was the perfect time to process with their plan.

Under the Phoenix Rune’s guild officer’s instruction, the undercover agent quickly arrived at the location, and once he appeared before Vault of Heavens Essence vision, he sent a friend request with a message attached: [Urgent, I’m passing a message for the guild leader!]

Yue Ran glanced at the message and saw the guild’s name on the top of the random player’s head, Black Lion, so he declined the request.

[Decline reason: You have the wrong person.] 

The other person sent another friend request.

[Note: I was asked by the guild leader. Urgent task, please respond quickly—!!!]

Being in a decent mood, Yue Ran had the patience to ask the other guy to form a party and joined the party.

[(Party) Vault of Heavens Essence<: Which guild leader?] 

[(Party) Faithfully Devoted: Traceless Waster naturally, our guild leader!]

Yue Ran was sure that the random player got the wrong person, so he left the party.

The spy was at his wits end and sent a third friend request with the same message: [I’m not joking, the situation is urgent, please respond quickly—!!!]

In Yue Ran’s subconscious mind, he should tell the player to recheck on who the message was supposed to go to, but thinking it won’t make a difference if the guy refused to answer, so he declined the request with one word attached. 

[Decline reason: Password.]

The undercover agent: “…”

Yue Ran saw that he had broken the other’s brain. Before he could continue to pull the guy’s chain, he heard his father calling, so he sent a message in the local chat.

[(Local) Vault of Heavens Essence<: I was teasing you. You really got the wrong person. Have a good day.] 

The spy watched the little summoner go offline and reported everything to his guild officer.

When the guild officer heard this, he smacked the table. “Despicable, there is even a password!”

His underlining was speechless. “This person is really a professional. As soon as things turned south, he went offline. He even tried to brush the whole thing off the shoulder with his last message. Simply flawless!”

The ‘professional’ Yue Ran effortlessly tidied himself up and followed his father out the door. They arrived at the hospital half an hour later. 

The doctor read through the medical results for a while and looked at Yue Ran with pity.

Yue Ran: “…”

He knew right away that the result was the same!