With the inspection results as evidence and the guarantee of Han Yiyuan, Jiang Yan finally relaxed her tone: “Alright, we’re all adults here, so I won’t say much. Just remember to balance work and leisure in moderation, understand?”
This was undoubtedly what Jiang Shi wanted: “Rest assured, I have it under control.”
Jiang Yan sneered, “Oh?”
Jiang Shi welcomed her elder sister’s disdain with a smile, “By the way, Dr. Han is quite handsome.”
A single sentence smoothly wiped away the contemptuous expression on Jiang Yan’s face, replacing it with a smug one, “Right!”
Jiang Shi was seeing Jiang Yan like this for the first time, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit sentimental.
That Han Yiyuan indeed had something about him.
Two days later, when he returned to the gray holographic theme internet cafe, Jiang Shi appeared more composed and calm when he entered. He felt guilty about revealing the secret of going online to Bi Binghuo before and immediately gave up his reserved gaming spot. Moreover, he generously purchased a four-hour time slot.
Jiang Shi: “Let me say thank you.”
Bi Binghuo, with a cigarette hanging from his lips, swayed it up and down, “Between brothers, it’s nothing.”
Jiang Shi nodded, “Yeah, as long as there are no women involved, we’re good brothers.”
Bi Binghuo seemed to have not heard what he said, turned around, and walked towards the front desk, saying, “Business has been really good lately. Since you have some free time today, go ahead and use the computer. I need to tally up the accounts.”
Jiang Shi chuckled, turned around, and entered the virtual cabin.
Upon logging into the game again, he found himself not in the temporary storage point but at the entrance of the same instance where he logged out last time. It was still bustling with players coming and going.
Someone logging in unexpectedly was a common occurrence for everyone, but a few players noticed Jiang Shi’s appearance and couldn’t help but glance at him with a touch of amazement.
Jiang Shi noticed a few friend requests that the system had sent him and accepted them without hesitation. They were from the Canvas Shoes and his group who had run instances together before. Since the 2.0 update in the game had increased the friend list capacity, Jiang Shi, as a first-season returning player, had plenty of slots available.
After accepting the requests, several new IDs appeared on his friend list. Their avatars were grayed out, indicating that they were currently offline.
Jiang Shi glanced at them and then closed the friend list. He randomly selected a nearby team recruitment and continued to work on the returning instance quest.
These instance quests were not unlimited, though. Each returning player could receive rewards a total of five times during the return buff’s duration. Given that each instance run took at least an hour, this limit was enough for him.
This instance was completed as smoothly as always. Compared to the first day of returning when Jiang Shi was unfamiliar with the instance mechanics, he had become a seasoned veteran of this level 45 instance, handling it with ease.
So, what should he do next?
As he pondered this, he started to explore other rewards on the returning panel. Although running instances was the most convenient option for him, the rewards were limited to five times, which wouldn’t be sufficient to catch up to the regular level of the majority of players.
After two consecutive instance completions, Jiang Shi had only reached level 50 from level 40. Although he had met the requirements to accept the second job advancement quest at level 45, he wasn’t in a hurry.
To access the new content introduced in the 3.0 update, he would need to reach a level similar to Canvas Shoes and the others, around level 80. Rather than focusing on more job advancements, he believed it was better to increase his level first.
Jiang Shi quickly scanned the list and pinpointed a few returning quests with a high investment return rate. Just as he was about to get to work, a system message popped up unexpectedly.
[System: Congratulations, your invited friend has successfully bound to you. Enjoy the rebates in the future! (Binding progress: 1/3)]
Along with the system message, he received another message from a friend.
[Deep Well Ice Player: Poisoned milk?]
Jiang Shi paused for a moment and couldn’t help but laugh. Someone had actually been lured back by his invitation?
[Material Main Account: It’s me.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Are you for real? What’s with this weird name change? You didn’t even let out a peep when you quit the game back then, and now suddenly you’re back sending return invitations. If you’re going to say something, at least use 666; this 999 is too over the top!]
[Material Main Account: Blame me? I saw the event and sent it to a few people randomly. Who knew you’d actually come back.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: ?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Is this even human language?]
[Material Main Account: #Smile.jpg]
[Deep Well Ice Player: D*mn, so what’s this event about?]
[Material Main Account: Returning quest, take a look for yourself.]
A few minutes later.
[Deep Well Ice Player: …D*mn, can’t you at least pretend to have a conscience? You never do anything without a profit! But I did hear that this return event is quite lively these days, but what’s with these crappy tasks? Team instances, NPC missions, forced game interactions? There’s no gaming experience at all!]
Jiang Shi was well aware of Deep Well Ice Player’s situation and couldn’t help but feel a sense of amusement in his resentful words.
[Material Main Account: What about your estate butler? Didn’t he inform you about the current events?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Butler? I blew up the whole place when I quit the game back in the day!]
[Material Main Account: Oh, nicely done.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Spare me your sarcasm.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Where are you now? I’ll come find you.]
[Material Main Account: ? Do we need to meet in person to chat?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Cut the crap, just send me your coordinates right away.]
Jiang Shi thought for a moment and decided to compromise: [You send them to me. You just logged in, I’ll come to you.]
Deep Well Ice Player quickly sent his current coordinates, and Jiang Shi glanced at them before making his way there.
It wasn’t too far from his location.
Upon arrival, he found himself in an area of untouched woods, as expected.
Looking at the remarkably short stature of the Dwarven character and the familiar appearance, Jiang Shi couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic. “Can’t you adjust the height of the Dwarven race’s character model?”
A new message from his friend quickly arrived.
[Deep Well Ice Player: Get lost. You don’t understand; condensed essence is the way to go.]
Jiang Shi looked down at the character in front of him, who was several heads shorter than himself. “…So, now that I’m here, can you tell me the purpose of this meeting? So you can sincerely look into my eyes while messaging?”
[Deep Well Ice Player: It’s been a while; we should catch up.]
Jiang Shi read the message and fell silent for a moment, not saying anything.
The two of them started exchanging messages face-to-face.
[Material Main Account: So, is this what you call catching up? We can go through the entire conversation in silence; it’s a good format.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: What a waste of words! After all these years of knowing me, you still don’t realize that I’m socially awkward?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: If I dare to open my mouth, do you think I’d rather send you messages?]
[Deep Well Ice Player: But you, don’t play this message-sending game with me. Let’s talk properly! Otherwise, I’ll suspect you’re mocking me!]
[Material Main Account: Hi, what’s wrong with a little teasing~^_^~]
[Deep Well Ice Player: I’m the guy who blew up his home but didn’t blow up his work. Do you want to test a backpack full of explosives? Boomshakalaka instantly, you and a hundred of you can go down together.]
Jiang Shi knew that the socially awkward Deep Well Ice Player was capable of such actions. He casually found a tree to lean against and said, “Okay, let’s talk about something serious. Can you tell me if you’re really planning to come back and play?”
[Deep Well Ice Player: Let’s play around for a bit first, after all, I returned because you asked me to.]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Anyway, if I find it boring, I can always quit again.]
“Fine, so, how do you plan to level up?” Jiang Shi made a friendly suggestion. “I have three more instance quests to complete, and I can take you along if you want.”
[Deep Well Ice Player: No, I don’t like teaming up with strangers.]
Jiang Shi: “How about going to the newbie village and taking some NPC quests?”
[Deep Well Ice Player: I don’t like those indigenous people either!]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Sometimes these NPCs can chat more than real players; I don’t want to get involved with them in any way!]
Jiang Shi was quite frustrated with Deep Well Ice Player extreme social awkwardness. “…I can take you.”
[Deep Well Ice Player: No. Absolutely not.]
Jiang Shi: “So, how do you plan to level up?”
Deep Well Ice Player chuckled and pointed to an area not far away, sending a message: [Why do you think I came here? The wild boar group here is great. I can level up by killing them. One explosion and a group of little piglets are gone. It should feel quite satisfying. After cooking them, I can also get some meat to eat and recover some health.]
Jiang Shi looked at the nearby innocent wild boars and fell into silence. “You need to reach at least level 80 to access the new content. You can’t rely solely on killing monsters; it’ll take forever.”
Deep Well Ice Player didn’t seem to care: [I’ll just play around. Do you want to join me?]
“No, I advise against it,” Jiang Shi said. “Wild boars can satisfy your pent-up violence, but they won’t help you catch up to the level of the majority of players. Since you’re back, you should enjoy the game, and these little boars are so cute. How can you kill them?”
Deep Well Ice Player lifted a heavy cannon larger than himself onto his shoulder, choosing to ignore the Elf who was trying to convince him to engage in unnecessary social interaction: [If you don’t join, just keep your distance. Goodbye.]
A moment later, a series of explosions shattered the silence in the forest.
Jiang Shi watched as the startled birds took flight, and a look of amazement briefly crossed his face.
Well, Deep Well Ice Player didn’t interact with anyone, yet he still had quite the reputation. When it came to social anxiety and violence, sometimes there was nothing ordinary about it. His control over the art of explosions was such that one person could outperform an entire demolition team.
However, this bombing, though visually satisfying, wasn’t exactly efficient in terms of experience points. Jiang Shi silently gazed at the sky, which was now tinted with a reddish hue.
Never mind, he wasn’t the one to judge. Who else could help with this kind of output?
Lifting the cross in his hand, he walked over.
Deep Well Ice Player’s bombing area was a wasteland, but that didn’t deter Jiang Shi from approaching with ease. He skillfully avoided the landing points of each explosion, arriving in front of him without a scratch.
He symbolically cast a minor healing spell on Deep Well Ice Player and spoke in his usual calm tone.
In the midst of such grand and explosive destruction, a voice that was casual but exceptionally clear reached Deep Well Ice Player’s ears from his side:
“Seriously, it’s not right to kill such cute creatures. Protecting small animals is everyone’s responsibility.”
“Instead of harming these innocent little creatures, I think you should choose to do something more meaningful.”
“Don’t compete with these little creatures; come with me…”
After a second round of bombardment with a deviation, the veins on Deep Well Ice Player’s forehead finally twitched on the edge of exploding.
In the end, he couldn’t take it anymore and pointed the cannon directly at the persistent Light Elf. “Enough! Forget about these little piglets or whatever piglets. Don’t think I won’t assist! If you keep irritating me, I’ll blast you with a single shot!”
Deep Well Ice Player’s voice, though hoarse and strained, made it clear that he hadn’t spoken voluntarily in a long time.
Jiang Shi also remained silent, looking slightly surprised. “Hey, when was the last time you spoke to me?”
Deep Well Ice Player’s face turned sour upon hearing this.
Seeing that he was about to press the detonation button for the heavy cannon, Jiang Shi, at the right moment, added, “All right, I’ve told you I’ll help you level up. I know your situation. I just found a great return mission that you can do without having to communicate with anyone.”
This final addition brought Deep Well Ice Player, who had been on the edge of a meltdown, back to a brief moment of composure.
Jiang Shi received a new friend message.
[Deep Well Ice Player: Really? No social interaction required?]
[Material Main Account: Absolutely! You can trust me~^_^~]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Okay, what’s the task, then?]
[Material Main Account: It’s a ‘Return Mission: Collect Hatred Points (0/1500).'”]
[Deep Well Ice Player: Collect Hatred Points? I’m an expert at that! #RubbingHands.jpg]
Author’s note:
Our motto is: There can’t be any normal people in the main cast! (not really)
PS. In real life, I’m the one who’s silent online~ I’ll be giving away 100 red envelopes in the comments section. Thanks for your support!
It’s heartwarming to see old friend(s) respond to one’s call invitation back to the game