Chapter 22: Can I Hug You?
The beast arena was in complete chaos.
The little Titmouse weren’t particularly strong, but there were so many of them, and their speed made them incredibly difficult to deal with.
With the Illusion Snake disrupting everything on top of that, all the NPCs in the arena had already gone down. More than half the players dragged into the illusion had died, while some who had escaped being pulled inside took one look at the situation and fled.
Only a small number remained, still fighting the three half-demon bosses.
A half-demon boss was at least Level 100.
At full health, they were difficult enough to deal with already—especially ones like these, whose combat freedom was high and whose movements weren’t heavily restricted to a specific region.
Whenever players captured a wild half-demon boss, they had to form a full party, beat it down to critical health, then use an HP-locking item.
After that, the half-demon would remain permanently weakened.
The Half-Demon Titmouse that had been lent to Dragonbone Town was one such case.
But the half-demon that had broken into the beast arena was fighting with astonishing ferocity. One look was enough to tell it was at full health.
None of the players recognized it.
They assumed this must be some kind of sudden new storyline.
After all, Maidong City was a residential region protected by runestones.
Normally, neither demonic beasts nor half-demons could get inside.
“Nope, nope, we can’t beat this! I’m out!”
“What the hell is going on?! Where are the NPCs? More importantly, am I getting my bet back or not?!”
“Holy shit, what level is that Illusion Snake?!”
As the illusion vanished, the multicolored smoke finally began to thin.
The players who had survived inside immediately joined the battle.
Lufiel raised a barrier of sword aura to block another wave of attacking Titmouse and looked toward the three half-demons.
Of the three bosses, the Titmouse that had broken in was the strongest.
The Illusion Snake had absorbed a considerable amount of spiritual power through its illusion, making it difficult to deal with as well.
The other Titmouse was injured and being heavily protected by the flock.
Seeing how well the attack was going—and apparently deciding that no particularly powerful players were present tonight—the three half-demons deliberately positioned themselves near the exit.
They intended to kill everyone who remained.
Half-demons occupied a peculiar place in the game.
Sometimes, their treatment was even worse than that of demonic-beast bosses.
They weren’t merely killed.
They could also be captured and imprisoned.
Now that they had successfully rescued their companion, the three half-demons stared at the players in the arena with eyes full of fury and exhilaration at finally being able to take revenge.
Some of the players noticed their intention too.
One of them dodged a diving Titmouse and wailed,
“Help! I swear I’m never coming here again!”
Lufiel kept Dong Li protected behind him without drawing the Crimson-Gold Sword.
He could drive off or kill all three half-demons.
But the Crimson-Gold Sword was too recognizable.
Someone would immediately identify him.
And then everyone would know where he was—
and that someone was with him.
The main exit was blocked.
Breaking through somewhere else would be troublesome.
It would be easier to wait until everyone here was dead first…
At that moment, the Half-Demon Titmouse at the front suddenly turned its head sharply toward Lufiel.
It could vaguely sense that this human wasn’t weak.
And yet, for some reason, he hadn’t truly attacked…
Then the half-demon’s gaze shifted to Dong Li behind him.
Dong Li was hiding behind Lufiel too, quietly studying the half-demon.
The instant it saw those familiar violet eyes, the half-demon froze.
Dong Li’s face was covered by a mask, but it recognized him immediately.
At the same time, Rongrong pushed aside the black robe and poked its head out.
The Illusion Snake on the other side caught sight of it and froze as well.
The puppet pythons inside the illusion were all controlled by the Illusion Snake.
Naturally, it knew exactly how much help the little fox had given them.
It was also thanks to Rongrong’s golden flames that the Illusion Snake had recovered so quickly.
The two half-demons exchanged a glance.
Then they moved aside, opening a path for Lufiel and Dong Li.
Dong Li’s eyes lit up.
“He remembers me!”
Rongrong gave a soft “mm.”
Dong Li vaguely sensed something from it and curiously looked toward the Illusion Snake too.
Lufiel was surprised.
Demonic beasts and half-demon bosses almost never showed goodwill toward humans of their own accord.
But there was no time to think about it.
He immediately took Dong Li and left.
Amid the chaos, none of the remaining players noticed what had happened.
Once the two of them were gone, the three half-demons blocked the exit again and resumed their slaughter.
—
Outside the beast arena, Maidong City’s patrol guards had finally arrived, along with plenty of players who had come to watch the excitement.
Unfortunately, the patrol NPCs weren’t very high level.
They relied on players for practically everything.
And the players outside didn’t know what was happening inside.
Most simply stood at a safe distance and watched, with no intention of going in to help.
Maidong City was generally a safe place.
There weren’t many players who ran around killing people at random.
Since the incident had happened so suddenly, plenty of people hadn’t cleared out their inventories or brought level-protection items.
They didn’t want to die.
In an unnoticed corner, Dong Li followed Lufiel up the beast arena’s stairs to the top floor.
From there, they crossed a corridor and quietly slipped away into the night.
Only once they reached somewhere safe did Dong Li look back.
They were already two streets away from the beast arena.
The noise had diminished, though more players who had heard about the incident were still hurrying over to watch.
Dong Li hadn’t expected to run into that Half-Demon Titmouse again.
And compared with the way it had looked that morning, it seemed like a completely different person now…
He couldn’t help asking Lufiel,
“Will they get caught again?”
“Probably not,” Lufiel said. “Titmouse can fly. Capturing one requires preparation.”
Players in this game had no fully formed spirit bodies of their own.
For mounts, they either had to borrow one from an NPC or rent mechanical vehicles and similar transportation.
When it came to long-distance travel, the game was surprisingly primitive.
And as luck would have it, the arena was open these two days.
Many of the strongest players had gone to Dragonbone Town.
Dong Li still looked worriedly toward the beast arena.
Sure enough, not long afterward, a dark cloud of tiny Titmouse rose into the sky.
Three figures followed behind them.
The two Half-Demon Titmouse were flying away with the Illusion Snake between them.
Only after they disappeared safely into the distance did Dong Li relax a little.
He didn’t really know any of the three half-demons.
But escaping was still better than being locked inside that arena…
As he thought about it, Dong Li quietly glanced at Lufiel beside him.
The half-demons had gotten away.
And fortunately, the two of them were fine too.
They were still holding hands.
The warmth of Lufiel’s palm suddenly made Dong Li acutely nervous.
Inside the illusion, while they were hiding from the puppet python, Lufiel had even held him in his arms.
But an illusion was still an illusion.
Now that they were out, everything that had happened there felt almost like a dream.
The things he had seen and touched no longer felt completely real.
Only Lufiel’s words remained crystal clear.
He had said he never wanted to break up.
He had said he had been in the Fuling Region all along.
Dong Li simply hadn’t been awake, so he couldn’t see him.
Dong Li was deeply confused.
He remembered every single day from back then.
His memories didn’t match what Lufiel had described.
Still…there had been a period when he’d felt constantly dazed.
Nothing had interested him.
He had simply gathered herbs and made medicine mechanically, day after day.
But…
Lufiel didn’t really have any reason to lie to him.
Unless…he was lying just because he wanted them to get back together?
Dong Li wrestled with the thought, then secretly glanced at Lufiel again.
Their eyes met.
“Rongrong.”
Lufiel bent slightly closer.
“It’s getting late. Should I take you to an inn first?”
His voice was extremely gentle, almost coaxing.
As if he was afraid Dong Li might push him away again.
Dong Li remained silent.
If he didn’t go with Lufiel, he had nowhere else to sleep tonight anyway.
He had originally wanted to see a “performance,” only to walk into the beast arena and witness something completely different from what he expected.
Then chaos had broken out on top of that.
At this point, Dong Li had lost all interest in wandering around any longer.
Eventually, he gave a small nod.
Lufiel had been waiting patiently.
At Dong Li’s answer, the faint tension in his breathing finally eased.
Then Dong Li let go of his hand.
Lufiel lowered his eyes.
“All right,” he said quietly. “Stay with me.”
Dong Li was an NPC.
He probably couldn’t fully understand what Lufiel had told him inside the illusion.
Still, Dong Li had held his hand once.
That counted as progress.
And more importantly—
[Dong Li: 81 Affection]
[Region: Fuling]
His affection had increased by one point.
The Crimson-Gold Sword floating in the air trembled softly.
Lufiel suppressed the fluctuation in his mental energy and led Dong Li away.
—
Not long afterward, they arrived at an inn in Maidong City.
The inn was twice the size of the restaurant they had stayed at earlier.
It was specifically designed as a resting place for players.
But because the prices were high, most people didn’t bother unless they wanted to experience sleeping inside the game.
Dong Li carefully hid Rongrong beneath his robe and curiously looked around.
As usual, Lufiel rented a room on the highest floor.
On the way upstairs, he asked,
“Are you hungry?”
Dong Li hesitated.
Then quietly nodded.
After leaving the illusion, he felt tired.
And hungry.
Probably because Rongrong had refused to behave and done who-knew-what inside…
Dong Li lowered his head and pinched the tip of the little fox’s ear.
Once they entered the room, Lufiel poured him a cup of hot water before taking out food from his inventory one dish at a time.
Liufeng had bought these earlier too.
Ordinary food could stay fresh in an inventory for an entire day, so he had simply bought a large amount at once.
A message from Liufeng arrived right then.
[Liufeng: Heard something happened in Maidong City too. Were you there?]
[Liufeng: Half-demons actually rebelled and rescued one of their own? Holy shit, is that for real?]
Lufiel replied with a single word.
[Yes.]
Another message arrived almost immediately.
[Liufeng: You were actually there? Then how did all three half-demons manage to escape?]
His first instinct was that if Lufiel had been present, dealing with a few half-demons should have been easy.
But Liufeng quickly figured it out himself.
Dong Li was probably beside him.
Lufiel wouldn’t have wanted anyone noticing them together.
[Liufeng: There’ve been way too many weird things happening these past few days. Is this all buildup for some new storyline?]
There was one thing Liufeng didn’t say.
All of these strange incidents seemed to have started after Dong Li left the Fuling Region.
Lufiel, however, had no interest in any of it.
He didn’t tell Liufeng that Dong Li had said he knew the Half-Demon Titmouse.
He simply replied:
[Really.]
Then closed the interface.
Dong Li was busy gnawing on a sweet-and-sour pork rib.
Rongrong had slipped away to explore the rest of the room.
The two little beasts had come out too.
Lufiel had already seen Heidan, and his relationship with Dong Li clearly wasn’t ordinary, so Dong Li didn’t bother hiding them anymore.
Yuanbao wandered around sniffing everything.
Heidan stationed itself beside Dong Li’s bowl, crimson eyes fixed warily on Lufiel.
Lufiel sat across from them, completely indifferent to both little beasts.
He simply watched Dong Li eat.
When Dong Li finally filled his stomach, Lufiel cleared away all the dishes.
Rongrong eventually wandered back in from the balcony, and Dong Li picked it up.
Occasionally, voices drifted up from the street below.
Otherwise, the room was quiet.
For a moment, the atmosphere became strangely still.
Then Lufiel stood and walked toward Dong Li.
The inn was designed for players and didn’t have a separate dining area.
They had eaten with the food arranged on the coffee table, so Dong Li was sitting on the sofa.
Lufiel stopped in front of him.
Then bent one knee and crouched down.
He looked at Dong Li as though he had something to say.
“Rongrong. About what happened inside the illusion—”
Dong Li hugged the little fox tighter, suddenly nervous.
He lowered his head.
“Were the things you said in there… true?”
“Yes.”
“But I clearly remember…” Dong Li looked troubled and confused. “And… and how am I supposed to know you aren’t lying to me?”
Lufiel was silent for a moment.
“I can find a way to prove it.”
Liufeng was already researching how to transfer Dong Li out of the game.
Once Dong Li was free from the game, Lufiel could slowly find a way to make him understand everything…
Dong Li thought for a while.
Then said,
“Then… then find me some Mind-Bewitching Herb. I’ll make a truth potion!”
If Lufiel drank a truth potion, Dong Li would know whether he was lying.
The corner of Lufiel’s mouth lifted faintly.
“All right. I’ll find it.”
He also needed to look for Nine-Lotus Herb anyway.
He wanted to restore his partnership with Dong Li.
But Dong Li wasn’t like an ordinary NPC.
He had his own independent consciousness.
Their in-game partnership existed mainly to loosen the system’s restrictions between them.
“Rongrong, I’ll prove it.”
Lufiel lifted his dark eyes and held Dong Li’s gaze.
“But we never broke up.”
Being stared at like that made Dong Li even more nervous.
His heartbeat sped up on its own.
Even if Lufiel really hadn’t lied…
Dong Li’s memories were still completely different.
To him, he had genuinely gone through an entire heartbreak.
And now…his ex-boyfriend wanted to get back together.
“I haven’t made the truth potion yet…” Dong Li murmured. “I-I…”
Lufiel didn’t pressure him.
He remained crouched in front of the sofa, quietly watching Dong Li.
His gaze was intent.
Dong Li couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
After a while, Lufiel spoke softly.
“Can I hug you?”
Dong Li’s lashes trembled.
His fingers tightened.
Back when they were dating…
Lufiel had never once asked him something like that.
Author’s Note:
Dong Li: (O ^ O)
