Chapter 1454: Little Xin Has Grown Up

It was night. I should be sound asleep under my warm blanket right now, but I wasn’t.

"Ugh…"

I abruptly sat up. I was probably dreaming, but I felt like I just heard Xinran’s cry of surprise just now. My mind wouldn’t stop thinking back to the moment she had fallen into the darkness; the regretful and longing look she had shot me at the very end. It was a memory that had been forever engraved into my heart, and I could never absolve myself of this regret and self-blame if I didn’t act to save her from the Purgatory.

I miss her so much…

……

I picked up my phone. It was 3 am. After a long thought, I finally decided to bring up my contact list and call the vice president of Eternal Moon Corporation’s southern branch in China, Qin Yun.

Du du…

Five long dial tones later, the call finally connected—

"Hello? Lu Chen?" Qin Yun’s voice sounded a bit slurred. I had obviously woken her from her dreams.

I hesitated for about two seconds before steeling myself. "Yes. I mean, hello, Qin Yun. It’s me, Lu Chen…"

Qin Yun chuckled. "Do you not have a clock? Why are you calling me at this time?"

"I know. It’s about…" I hesitated again.

Qin Yun hit the nail on the head. "Xinran, am I right?"

I sighed. "Mn. I want to know how Xinran is doing, but I can’t wait until the server maintenance is over, which is why I’m calling you right now. How is Xinran doing in the Purgatory, and… how can I find her after I get there?"

Qin Yun hummed for a moment before answering, "There are some things I cannot reveal even to you. I may be the vice president of Eternal Moon’s southern branch, but that doesn’t mean that I have the power to breach the NDAs. Also, the stuff you’re inquiring about is controlled by the system’s core AI. No one except the main AI knows where she is. It’s funny, but Shusheng kinda had the same conundrum as you…"

"Shusheng?"

"Yes. Actually, I’m going to pass the phone to him. He’ll explain things better than I can."

It didn’t take long before I heard Ding Shusheng greeting me, "Hello, Lu Chen!"

"Hello."

He said in a somewhat helpless tone, "Both Sister Yun and I are the vice presidents of Eternal Moon’s southern branch, but we don’t have the power to interfere with the game’s storyline or progression mainly because all this stuff was designed at the very beginning. It’s part of the core AI and there’s no way to change it. To be honest with you, I have someone I care about deeply in the game just like you, Lu Chen. I very much want to meet her too, but I cannot due to my work responsibilities and the NDAs. Do you understand how it feels to be forced to watch someone from afar without being able to help them at all?"

That caught me off-guard. "I don’t know…"

Shusheng chuckled. "It’s fine. Anyway, I want to thank you for rescuing Binglan from Dragonspeech Iceberg. I don’t know where she’ll be garrisoning her forces, but I will find her no matter where she is in that virtual world. Even if it turns out that her memories have been wiped clean, I will find a way to awaken them all the same. So, give it your all, Lu Chen. Xinran will survive the Purgatory because she knows that her beloved will do everything in his power to find her. Moreover, she knows that he’ll succeed because he is unrivaled in that world, am I right?"

A smile finally broke across my face. "Yes, I will find her. Thank you, Shusheng!"

"Mn. Anyway, I’m going to hang up now. If we chat any longer I’m afraid that we will wake up Ling Xue…"

I nodded before asking, "One last question."

"What is it?"

"It’s 3 am, and you’re together with Ling Xue and Qin Yun. The three of you are sleeping together, aren’t you?"

For a time, there was only silence from the other side of the phone. Then, Shusheng said, "Would you believe me if I told you that we’re actually in the attic, watching the stars and waiting for a meteor to pass by so we can wish for great wealth next year?"

I answered solemnly, "I would rather believe that a meteor punched through your villa’s roof and smashed both Ling Xue and Qin Yun onto your bed!"

Shusheng couldn’t say anything. I heard Qin Yun chuckling on the other side of the phone before saying, "Enough, you wretched man. It hasn’t even been two minutes since you started talking with each other, and it feels like the entire world has been corrupted by your vulgarness!"

The call ended in a cheery note.

……

I put down my phone and fell quiet for a bit. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t fall asleep, so I poured myself a cup of coffee, put on a shirt and walked to the balcony.

I watched the starry sky while holding a cup of steaming coffee. Although the phone call had ended on a good note, my mind was still a mess of worries and fear. Xinran had already been grievously injured when she fell into the Purgatory with Lin Na, and Lin Na had become stronger than ever before after consuming the Great Saint’s power. Not even Binglan could fight him alone, so how on earth was Xinran going to escape Lin Na’s Starlight?

The more I thought, the messier my thoughts became. I was so out of sorts that I accidentally spilled some boiling coffee on my hand. I let out a yelp of pain, put down the cup in a hurry and pressed the burned spots on the back of my hand to my lips.

"Big bro…"

Suddenly, I heard a girl calling out to me from behind. I turned around and saw that it was Lian Xin. She was wearing a light pink jacket and hugging herself gently. She shot me a smile as she walked over, "Why are you still awake at this time?"

I gave her a nod before replying, "I couldn’t really fall asleep, so…"

"Is it because you’re worried about Xinran?" Lian Xin asked after approaching me.

I smiled. "I guess so…"

Lian Xin smiled and hugged me gently. "It’s really cold at this time of the night, you know? Are you afraid that you’ll catch a flu like this?"

Me: "..."

Lian Xin buried her face in my chest before saying softly, "I understand your worry for Xinran, big bro. I really do. It’s just like how Beiming and I feel toward you. We treat you better than anyone else because we know you’ll always care for us, and that you’ll never abandon us. We are not your women, but we are still one of the people you care about the most. If anyone dares to bully us, you won’t hesitate to bash their faces in at all costs…"

Lian Xin looked up and shot me a smile. Her eyes looked absolutely beautiful under the night sky. "Even when you’re 90 years old, you’ll still swing your walking stick at the bastard who bullies me or Beiming, won’t you?"

I smiled back and hugged her. "Little Xin has truly grown up, I see. You understand a lot more things you didn't understand before."

Lian Xin chuckled. "Really? Why do I feel like you’re talking about something else?"

She pressed her breasts harder against my chest, and I let out a snort of exasperation. "I mean both physically and mentally."

Lian Xin stood on her tiptoes and pecked me once on the cheek before saying, "This one’s for Beiming. We all understand that you’re concerned for Xinran’s wellbeing, but you should know that we are just as concerned for your wellbeing as well. Sleep soon and don’t make us worry any more, big bro. Always remember that you have our full support in finding Xinran in the Purgatory!"

"Mn!"

I nodded strongly and hugged Lian Xin tightly. I rubbed my cheeks between her neck once before saying, "Well, I’m going back to my room. You should go back to sleep as well, Little Xin."

"I will. Be a good boy, okay big bro?"

Me: "..."

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

……

The night passed in a chaotic mess of dreams. It was already noon when I woke up the next day. Time was short, so I logged back into the game as soon as I had a quick lunch with He Yi, Murong Mingyue and Lian Xin. It was time to see what wonders the Level 250 class promotion offered, and what else there was for a player to fight for after Level 250.

Swhoosh!

I reappeared in Sainthelm Ruins. Lin Na’s spell had nuked the entire place to figurative hell, and there was literally nothing to do here. It was time I left and sought out my mentor, Rinser!

I dragged out Dark Moon City’s interface and teleported directly back to the city. The next moment, my senses were assaulted by the sight and sound of countless people. Sky City, Vanished God City and Wind City had fallen to the Purgatory Legion, so players had no choice but to grind and resupply themselves in player territories. Naturally, Dark Moon City’s businesses were booming. Only a couple of hours had passed since the maintenance was over, but we had earned almost a week’s worth of normal income. We were making big money even though we hadn’t increased the prices of the teleportation, repairs, potions and more.

I summoned the Ancient Divine Dragon and activated Fusion Armor immediately. Amazingly, even without any stratagems, cards or buffs in effect, my base HP still sat at a whopping 2.23 million. Assuming it was buffed by 150% by Purple Dragon, 240% by the Seven-string Yaoqin, and used an HP card, I could see it breaking the ten million mark. I would have higher HP than many minibosses…

……

"I’m here, Lu Chen~!"

Xu Yang waved the Omnislash and greeted me from afar on his Dragonscale Beast.

I gave him a nod before asking, "Is everything normal inside the game, Brother Xu Yang?"

Xu Yang snorted. "Other than the fact that the main cities have fallen, Purgatory mobs are everywhere, players are dying non-stop, and the NPC legions’ asses are being kicked so bad they’re hiding in mountains, I suppose that everything is ‘normal’..."

I let out an awkward laugh before saying, "It’s not that bad. We’ve gone through worse than this. So what if we lost our main cities temporarily? We simply need to retake them. Also, there are nearly 150 player territories in Sky City alone, so it’s not like we’re lacking in supply spots."

"Minus five…"

Xu Yang said something I couldn’t make head or tails of until he explained, "Last night before the system maintenance, a total of five Purgatory Mad Dragon main guild and subguild territories have been occupied and abandoned. As a result, we are 5 territories shorter than we were before!"

That was shocking news. "What the fuck? 5 territories? Are you sure?"

"Yep!"

Xu Yang nodded heavily. "Obviously, it was Dark Mercenaries who did it. This is probably the first step of Little Piglet’s revenge. While we were fighting a decisive battle at Sainthelm Ruins, he had invaded our borders, taken out all of Purgatory Mad Dragon’s effective strength, and destroyed 5 territories in a row. Not only that, the guilds assisting Purgatory Mad Dragon including the 50k Gold Cavalry Warsky Alliance had lent to them were defeated as well. Little Piglet is absolutely at his peak right now!"

I sucked in a deep breath. "Yeah, that makes sense. Little Piglet now has the Crimson Dragon Arm and the Heaven Suppressing Necklace. As he is, not even Warsky can defeat him one on one[1]."

Xu Yang chuckled. "Mn. Even if we do not respond to this, Dark Mercenaries have offended many Chinese guilds including Warsky Alliance. One might say that Little Piglet is burning all his bridges so he may focus fully on his revenge. Well, that’s how a man should be!"

I smiled. "Anyway, I’ll be taking my leave…"

"What are you doing?"

"I’m going to find my mentor and complete my next class promotion!"

"Awesome!"

The moment Xu Yang gave me a thumbs-up, I leaped into the air and vanished into the clouds in just the blink of an eye. It was of course my new ability, Flight. It was so awesome that Xu Yang’s eyes widened like saucers. "What the heck, that’s so cool…"

1. E/N: One of the few times this can make sense. Little Piglet with Vajra and Heaven Suppressing Necklace is literally unkillable as of now. He can literally solo a player, 10 players, 100 players, 10000 players or even a million players. Unless he somehow ends up with no enemies around him and lets mages bombard him with no repercussions, he can do whatever. ☜