My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 112
by Little PandaWhen Enemies Meet
The girls who had rushed up to the second floor in a hurry to catch some gossip1 were disappointed to miss out on the sensational scenes they had anticipated. By that evening, however, everyone noticed Mu Ning’s active attempt to distance herself from Ren Chenxi. During dinner, she no longer clung to Ren Chenxi’s side. When they watched movies, she sat by herself on the far side of the room. Sometimes, she even retired to her bedroom early.
Ren Chenxi did not react to Mu Ning’s cold shoulder. She ate and drank as usual, still watching movies and playing games as usual. Yet, when night fell—and only when it was time to sleep—she would hold Tantan in her arms and head straight up to the third floor to sleep.
After that day, the two of them became like complete strangers, barely exchanging a word. Even if there was something that absolutely had to be communicated, Mu Ning would only pass messages through Zhang Tongqi, Wu Tong, or the others. Ren Chenxi did the exact same in return.
Day after day, Tang Ying watched the couple she shipped2 grow colder and colder, drifting apart until they were practically strangers. She was anxious, yet completely powerless to stop it. What could she do? Both of them were legendary powerhouses3, while she was merely a minor fourth-order Crystallization esper. Usually, she only dared to quietly ship them in private. To actually bring it up in front of those two powerhouses… wouldn’t that just be looking for a swift death?
It wasn’t just Tang Ying, the CP Chief; nobody in the villa wanted to see the relationship between Mu Ning and Ren Chenxi freeze over. Yet, even though they wanted to step in and ease the tension, the complete lack of cooperation from both parties left them entirely helpless.
Egged on by Chen Gu and the others, Ren Muhui eventually went to find Ren Chenxi to figure out what was really going on between them. However, Ren Chenxi’s reply was incredibly cold.
“Ge, why do you care so much? It’s just a game anyway. We’ll have to leave eventually. Instead of wasting your energy worrying about this and that, you’d be better off thinking about how to raise your strength, complete your quests, and try your best to survive ten years in this apocalypse!”
Indignant at being looked down upon by his own younger sister, Ren Muhui grumbled, “Hey, I’ve been working really hard lately, alright?! How have you not even noticed that my level has shot up a ton?”
Over the past few days, neither Ren Chenxi nor Mu Ning had gone outside due to their arm injuries, so they hadn’t interacted with Ren Muhui very often. Every time he did drop by, Ren Chenxi never paid close attention to his level. Now that Ren Muhui mentioned it, Ren Chenxi naturally had to give him some face, reluctantly checking his level.
Hm, not bad. He was already Level 3. But it was still just a player level—fucking useless.
“How did you raise your level? Compared to your player level, shouldn’t you be focusing on leveling up your skill instead?”
“My skill level went up too, okay?! I practiced exactly the way you taught me—finding a target and casting the skill on them. Remember a few days ago when that mutated bird swarm attacked the base? I was using my skill on those mutated birds! It’s just a shame that my skill level was so low back then; my effective range was only one meter, and I could only target one creature at a time. I was risking my life, specifically picking out the mutated birds that slammed against the windows to practice on!”
“So, thanks to those mutated birds, what level is your skill now?”
“It’s already Level 4! Plus, if a mutated bird hit by my skill gets killed by Chen Gu and the others, the experience points go to me~ So not only did my skill level go up, but my player level rose with it! My effective range is four meters now, and I can lock onto four targets at once to cast the skill~”
“Wait, did you notice if those mutated birds dropped items after being hit by your skill and killed by others? Like crystal cores, or bird meat…”
“Eh? Really? I didn’t even know… Though after the mutated birds retreated, we did see some scattered crystal cores and chunks of meat on the ground. But I just assumed they fell out because Chen Gu and the guys had blasted the birds to pieces…”
Hearing Ren Muhui say this, Ren Chenxi felt something was off.
“You saw the crystal cores and shredded meat on the ground? They didn’t go into your inventory?”
“I hadn’t even gathered those things into my inventory yet!”
“Then your inventory… doesn’t have an auto-pickup function?” Ren Chenxi stared at Ren Muhui with a deeply conflicted expression. “My inventory has an auto-pickup feature. You just have to check the box to use it…”
The moment she finished speaking, Ren Muhui hurriedly summoned his inventory panel. He flipped through it and searched up and down for a long time, but he couldn’t find the auto-pickup function she mentioned.
“Holy shit! Can this game really discriminate against novice accounts like this?! This father is clearly a veteran player!” Ren Muhui shot Ren Chenxi an incredibly resentful look. “Why does your account have so many features that I don’t?”
“…” Because I inherited your account and then modified your player information! Ren Chenxi obviously didn’t dare say that to him. Caught flat-footed, she could only spin a guilty lie on the spot. “How should I know? Maybe it’s because you logged into the game yourself using a gaming helmet, whereas I was just sleeping peacefully when I was inexplicably pulled into this trash game! Maybe the system gave me more compensation because of that?”
Hearing Ren Chenxi spin such a load of nonsense, Ren Muhui actually found it quite logical, so he dropped the subject.
It was only after he walked out of the Girls’ Building that Ren Muhui suddenly realized—he had clearly gone there to ask his little sister if she and Goddess Mu had a thing going on4! How on earth had he allowed her to change the subject so easily?
Since he couldn’t get a straight answer about the relationship between Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning, Ren Muhui didn’t press further. His little sister had a point: this world was just a game world, and they would leave sooner or later. Rather than wasting time gossiping about game NPCs, he might as well focus on raising his own strength.
Ever since he used the mutated birds as training targets, he had discovered during the skill leveling process that his seemingly useless “Whoever I Glare At Gets Unlucky” skill was actually quite effective against enemies.
Take the mutated bird raid on the base, for instance. Of the mutated birds struck by his skill, some crashed into walls and committed suicide at high flight speeds. Some were flying along when suddenly a mutated bird with a long, sharp beak shot up from behind and stabbed its beak straight into its rear. And others were so unlucky that they crashed into several surrounding birds, dragging a whole cluster down to fall from the sky together.
Thanks to Ren Muhui’s skill, he had been a massive help while Chen Gu and the others were busy defending the windows against the attacking birds. Still, even after several consecutive levels, he remained unsatisfied with his skill’s effective range. In a deadly apocalypse like this, the longer his skill’s attack range, the better!
Thus, without needing any prompting from Ren Chenxi, Ren Muhui had been looking for ways to keep upgrading his “unlucky” skill over the past few days. Unfortunately, since the mutated birds retreated, they now had more than enough mutated bird meat. Combined with their abundant seafood supplies, everyone had been too lazy to go out hunting for several days.
Ren Muhui knew that his skill was still mostly useless, but when someone was truly down on their luck, they could literally choke to death on a sip of water. He didn’t dare use his good brothers around him as practice targets. As for the other survivors wandering around the base, he couldn’t just bring misfortune upon them for no reason either.
After all, this game world had suddenly updated into an apocalypse survival game, and these NPCs were already miserable enough. They had struggled so hard just to survive; why should he go out of his way to make their lives even worse?
He wouldn’t target NPCs he had no grudge against, but… he did have an enemy in this game. He just wasn’t sure if this particular enemy NPC was still breathing.
Thanks to his brave contribution during the blood donation last time, both Liang Ke and Qi Sheng held a favorable opinion of Ren Muhui. Moreover, since he was Ren Chenxi’s older brother and Mu Ning’s “boyfriend,” Qi Sheng readily agreed when Ren Muhui approached him, asking to see Fan Juntian and the other human scum who had tortured him all along the way.
Ren Muhui had only asked with a give-it-a-shot attitude, never expecting that Fan Juntian would actually still be alive! Sensing his confusion, Qi Sheng patiently explained that although Fan Juntian had committed countless atrocities, his esper ability was highly unique. It was perfect for Liang Ke and the other doctors to study, especially since there were still quite a few survivors in the base who hadn’t managed to shake off their drug addictions.
Rather than feeling any sympathy for scum like Fan Juntian being used as a lab rat, Ren Muhui felt a surge of gloating satisfaction. He eagerly urged Qi Sheng to take him to see Fan Juntian, wanting to witness exactly how pathetic his enemy’s current existence was.
To Ren Muhui’s immense disappointment, however, Fan Juntian was far from emaciated or gaunt. Instead, he had been kept white and chubby, with only a slightly pale complexion.
Failing to see his enemy in a miserable state, Ren Muhui turned to Qi Sheng in dissatisfaction. “Sheng-ge, who would’ve thought? Our base treats heinous criminals pretty damn well!”
Catching the subtext in Ren Muhui’s words, Qi Sheng waved his hands in embarrassment. “Brother, it’s not that I want to treat this prisoner well. It’s just… Xiao Ke still needs him for her research! If we don’t feed him well, I’m afraid his body won’t hold out after a few blood draws, and he’ll kick the bucket…”
Fine, he was just an experimental subject; keeping him well-fed and hydrated was simply so he could be tortured.
Ren Muhui rolled his eyes in annoyance and tapped on the window. Inside, Fan Juntian seemed to have just finished a round of trials, lying on the bed with his eyes closed to rest. At the sudden sound of the tapping, he bolted awake and glared fiercely at the glass. There, he saw a smiling Qi Sheng and a clearly malevolent Ren Muhui.
“Fuck you %￥#@*&!”
Perhaps because he was well-fed and hydrated, Fan Juntian’s voice was loud and his momentum formidable despite his pale face. Ren Muhui filtered out the stream of crude curses and directly asked Qi Sheng, “Sheng-ge, you don’t mind if I use this trash5 to practice my esper ability, do you?”
Back when Ren Muhui was dragged all the way to the base by Fan Juntian, he had already become immune to his constant abuse. But immunity didn’t mean he enjoyed it. He was still irritated.
“Brother, what is your esper ability anyway…? Just make sure you don’t accidentally torture him to death! Xiao Ke is still waiting to use him for more experiments!”
“Don’t worry, Sheng-ge. My ability is Whoever I Glare At Gets Unlucky. With this trash locked up inside the room, my ability won’t be enough to kill him~”
The moment the words left Ren Muhui’s mouth, Qi Sheng waved his hands frantically, blocking Ren Muhui’s gaze as he took a massive leap backward.
“My good brother, feel free to use this trash to practice your ability all you want! This older brother has things to attend to, so I’ll take my leave first!” With that, Qi Sheng fled the laboratory like a gust of wind.
The author has something to say:
Ren-gege: When enemies meet face to face, jinx them to death!!!
Oh no, I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been staying up late shipping CP recently, but the eyelid of one of my eyes won’t open properly now. It’s just half-drooping. My mom said I need to rest well for the next two days, and if it’s still like this, I have to go get it checked.
Um… please be prepared that the author might have to take a leave of absence in advance. After all, it’s an eye issue, and I don’t dare to be careless.
So, my little friends, please don’t stay up late, and make sure to take care of your health!
Footnotes
- The term 'bāguà' (八卦), originally referring to the eight trigrams of Daoist cosmology, is modern Chinese slang for juicy gossip, rumors, or prying into others' personal lives.
- To 'kè CP' (磕CP) is Chinese internet slang meaning to 'ship' a romantic pairing, actively obsessing over and supporting their relationship, whether real or fictional.
- The slang 'dàlǎo' (大佬) refers to a big shot, powerhouse, or highly influential and top-tier player or master of a craft.
- The slang 'yǒu yī tuǐ' (有一腿, literally 'to have a leg') is a colloquial expression meaning to have a secret romantic or sexual relationship, or to have a fling going on.
- The slang 'zhāzhā' (渣渣) is Chinese internet slang referring to dregs, trash, or a complete weakling.
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