My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 117
by Little PandaDistance
After a long winter passed, Ren Chenxi looked at her Mini-Map again and saw that the Red Dots on the beach had grown much denser. Moreover, in the past, the beach had basically only hosted low-tier seafood, with only the occasional mid-tier sea creature washing ashore. But now, as Ren Chenxi looked out, many of the crabs crawling sideways back and forth were almost entirely mid-tier. What was more, these crabs had grown far more ferocious. Almost the instant Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning set foot on the sand, they brandished their massive claws and rushed forward.
A mid-tier crab could no longer be dispatched with a single shovel stroke. However, even if their shells had hardened significantly, they were still no match for a single strike from Ren Chenxi’s gaudy long blade.
Without asking Mu Ning or offering her any card buffs, Ren Chenxi simply slapped an Acceleration Card on herself and began furiously hacking away at the crabs. As for Mu Ning, she did not utter a single word either. Passing straight through the various sea creatures on the sand, she headed directly toward the shoreline where the water was closer. Even when a few mindless sea creatures tried to attack her, she merely lashed out with her vine whip, sending them flying, though she did not kill them.
Ren Chenxi knew that just as during their previous excursions, Mu Ning’s targets were only the creatures in the sea itself; those on the beach were left entirely to her. However, the close coordination and various interactions they once shared on this shore were now entirely gone.
While chopping crabs and occasionally pulling out her iron shovel to dig up sea creatures buried in the sand, Ren Chenxi kept a close eye on Mu Ning’s movements. Seeing her stop on the sand some distance from the ocean to quietly begin fishing, Ren Chenxi instinctively glanced at the surroundings of the Green Dot representing Mu Ning on her Mini-Map—specifically the open sea directly ahead of her. Yet, amid the dense swarm of Red Dots, she could not discern anything unusual.
Forget it, she did not even know what she was on guard against. With Mu Ning’s strength, she could already leapfrog tiers to kill monsters. If real danger arrived, she could probably react in an instant on her own, right?
That was what Ren Chenxi thought, but she had not expected that when a massive fin of an 8th-order mutated shark broke the surface and charged toward the beach at a terrifying speed, she—who had been letting herself get slightly distracted every now and then—would still instinctively throw an Advanced Shield Card1 over Mu Ning.
To her surprise, the survivors who had been bragging back then turned out to be right. After enduring a bitter winter, a new high-tier ocean overlord, a mutated shark, had indeed been born in this stretch of the South Sea.
Having already faced high-tier mutated beasts twice before, Ren Chenxi did not panic in the slightest after applying the shield card to Mu Ning. With the cards currently in her inventory, dealing with this 8th-order mutated shark was child’s play. As for Mu Ning, back when she was only a 5th-order esper, she had dared to recklessly fight an 8th-order mutated octopus; facing an 8th-order mutated shark now, she merely retracted her vines with absolute composure and stepped back pace by pace.
Just as the mutated shark lunged onto the sand, Mu Ning held her vines in both hands, preparing to attack. But the very instant over a dozen of her vines wrapped around the beast, the massive mutated shark suddenly shuddered violently. A split second later, its giant head burst into a mist of blood with a sudden bang.
Ren Chenxi had struck first. She did not want to give the shark any chance to attack Mu Ning, as that would easily expose the protective shield she had cast over her. Mu Ning, seeing the giant shark in front of her get headshotted, showed no surprise whatsoever. She did not even turn her head. She merely took a few steps to the side with perfect calm, bypassing the shark’s carcass—which was at least the size of a basketball court—and returned to her fishing.
Ren Chenxi walked up to the carcass of the mutated shark with a blank expression, tightening her grip on her long blade as she began to butcher the massive beast.
Mu Ning’s attitude was already as clear as day. She no longer liked her. She did not even want to be ordinary friends. Were they destined to interact like two strangers forever?
That was fine. This was fine too.
Ren Chenxi knit her brows. Putting her weight behind the blade, she drove it deep into the colossal shark carcass. Instantly, a spray of foul, reeking blood splattered all over her. The furrow between her already tightly knit brows deepened. Yet she merely wiped away some of the blood on her face and continued swinging her blade. Since the shark was so massive, she would inevitably get covered in more of this rancid stench as she carved it up anyway. She might as well finish butchering the entire beast before using a Costume Card2.
Ren Chenxi spent the entire morning carving up the shark carcass and hacking down the suicidal sea creatures that kept throwing themselves at her. Meanwhile, a pile of mutated fish corpses accumulated beside Mu Ning. With her sharp eyes, Ren Chenxi noticed that Mu Ning had carved a hole into the head of each mutated fish, extracting the crystal cores from within.
As for the fish carcasses, Mu Ning simply abandoned them on the beach. Noticing that Ren Chenxi had stored the final piece of shark meat into her inventory, Mu Ning turned on her heel and walked toward where they had parked the Bus3. Ren Chenxi stared at Mu Ning’s retreating figure, then looked down at the mutated fish bodies littered across the sand. With a dark expression, she silently walked over and swept the fish into her inventory as well.
Did this person really have to go to such extremes? She would rather let so much fish meat go to waste than ask her to help store it in her inventory.
By the time Ren Chenxi had collected every last fish carcass into her inventory, Mu Ning was already inside the Bus. However, she had not started the engine, seemingly waiting for Ren Chenxi. Burning with silent fury, Ren Chenxi did not even glance at the idling Bus. Instead, she strode over to a flat stretch of ground nearby, summoned her off-road vehicle from her inventory, got in, used her Costume Card to change, started the engine, and sped off, kicking up a massive cloud of dust directly at the Bus.
The off-road vehicle was far faster than the Bus. Driving with a frosty expression, Ren Chenxi sped along the empty road, quickly leaving the Bus—which had trailed a beat behind her—far out of sight. Fueled by her mounting frustration, she raced wildly down the deserted highway. Only when she neared the base did she slam on the brakes, letting out a long, heavy breath.
After a long moment, Ren Chenxi reined in her emotions. She stepped out of the off-road vehicle with a neutral expression, recalled it into her inventory, and walked slowly toward the base.
Only Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning had gone to the shoreline that morning to scout the situation. The others had remained behind at the villa. After all, now that winter had ended, not only had the sea creatures evolved, but the mutated beasts on land had undoubtedly grown stronger after a winter of brutal, internecine slaughter. According to Mu Ning, the group was to hold off on any outside excursions until she confirmed the shore was safe, after which they would resume collective missions.
Thus, the girls happily busied themselves preparing for their snack stall, while the boys passed the time watching movies and playing video games.
The girls preparing the snack stall by the window of the Girls’ Building naturally spotted Ren Chenxi the moment she approached the villa. Seeing that she had changed into yet another outfit, they grew instantly excited.
“Xi-jie~ You’re back!” Tang Ying cried. “How is it? Is the beach safe? Did you and Mu xuejie… Wait, where is Mu xuejie?”
Only after rambling on did Tang Ying finally notice that the figure who used to follow Ren Chenxi like a shadow simply wasn’t there!
“I don’t know. We didn’t come back together,” Ren Chenxi replied coldly. Slipping past Tang Ying, she headed straight for the bathroom. She had been splattered with shark blood; although she had changed her clothes, she felt like the skin underneath was still a bit sticky and reeked of that foul stench, so she had to wash off immediately.
The girls watched Ren Chenxi’s retreating back in a daze, exchanging helpless glances before simultaneously letting out long, weary sighs.
With the greatest threat at the shore cleared, Mu Ning’s Squad resumed collective operations the very next day, driving the Bus straight to the beach. Seeing them head out, many other survivors in the base gathered their courage and followed them to the coast.
During these joint missions, the communication between Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning dropped to absolute zero. The girls had originally thought that after the two went to the beach together, their tense relationship would at least ease up a bit even if it didn’t improve immediately. To their surprise, the result turned out even worse than before!
Throughout the spring, as temperatures rose and nature awakened, the relationship between Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning remained stubbornly frozen in the dead of winter.
Spring in the south was incredibly fleeting. It felt as though winter had ended only a moment ago, yet summer was already forcing its way through the door. The girls had barely worn their light long-sleeved shirts for a few days before short sleeves became the norm for survivors all across the base.
Once the scorching summer heat set in, the base grew even more bustling, prompting the girls to revamp their snack stall menu once again. Leveraging Mu Ning’s ice-system ability, they pivoted primarily to selling various kinds of shaved ice4 and iced drinks. At the same time, they scaled back on steaming-hot snacks, replacing them with cold dishes and cold skewered hot pot. The drinks were made by mixing various fruit juice powders that Ren Chenxi had salvaged from the supermarket’s underground warehouse. The cost was negligible; she had several hundred boxes of assorted fruit juice powders sitting in her inventory!
Ever since Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning led the way back to the beach, more and more survivors had begun venturing to the coast. Furthermore, after surviving winter and spring, the population of mutated beasts in the wild had exploded. It was safe to say that most espers in the base were currently flushed with crystal cores. During the sweltering heat of summer, many survivors were more than willing to spend a few cores to cool themselves down and satisfy their cravings.
The booming business of the summer shaved ice and cold drink stall was so lucrative that it allowed the girls to acquire two more “watches” in one go.
The tail end of summer dragged on for an exceptionally long time. It took over two months of lingering heat before the temperatures finally cooled back to spring-like mildness. Yet the relationship between Mu Ning and Ren Chenxi remained frozen, showing no signs of thawing. In the past, if Ren Chenxi had initiated a cold war or tried to distance herself, Mu Ning would find all sorts of ways to approach her, seizing every opportunity to talk and smooth things over. It had to be said that this had indeed been effective, as could be seen from their increasingly natural interactions prior to all of this.
Now, however, when Ren Chenxi took a massive step back, Mu Ning no longer reached out. Instead, she took a step back as well. The distance between them could only widen, day by day.
The cold war between them didn’t just worry the girls; even the boys found the atmosphere incredibly awkward. On several occasions, Ren Muhui had tried to advise his sister, pointing out that since they would eventually leave this game anyway, there was no need to throw a tantrum and ruin her relationship with an NPC5 so completely.
Hearing Ren Muhui’s self-righteous advice, Ren Chenxi found it utterly laughable. So simply reverting to treating Mu Ning like a stranger was considered throwing a tantrum? She couldn’t be bothered to explain anything to someone as thoughtless as her brother. A player like him, who invested absolutely zero emotion into the characters of this world, would never understand. Only by severing ties completely now could she spare herself from unbearable pain when the time came to leave.
Footnotes
- An SSR-rank 'specially super rare' protective card capable of blocking a high-tier beast's attacks up to ten times.
- An N-rank system card in the game that randomly changes the player's outfit to various casual or cosmetic costumes.
- The large transport vehicle kept in Ren Chenxi's inventory, used by Mu Ning's squad as their primary transport.
- pàobīng; a popular Chinese dessert made of shaved ice piled high and topped with sweet syrups, condensed milk, or various fruits.
- Non-player character; an in-game entity controlled by the system rather than a real player, often viewed as a 'native' by transmigrated players.
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