My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 118

Leaving

After such a long cold war, even if Ren Chenxi’s feelings were incredibly dense, she would have understood by now. In truth, she hadn’t completely let go of Mu Ning at all. Moreover, she wasn’t actually dense; she had already realized this long before their cold war ever began.

But even if she realized it, what of it? What stood between them now was no longer just a matter of Ren Muhui.

            

A real-world game player and an in-game NPC… what kind of outcome could there ever be? Besides, she wasn’t someone who could stay in this game forever!

With a self-deprecating laugh, Ren Chenxi opened her quest panel once more. She hadn’t completed the daily quests below in a long time. Meanwhile, the Main Quest pinned to the very top featured a glaring countdown timer that constantly reminded Ren Chenxi of the exact time she would leave this game.

Perhaps she shouldn’t keep wasting her time by Mu Ning’s side? After all, no matter how hard she tried to treat her like a stranger, she couldn’t escape those inevitable daily interactions. Seeing Mu Ning’s back as she drifted further and further away always made the depths of Ren Chenxi’s heart ache slightly. Ren Chenxi knew this was the best way to make Mu Ning sever her feelings, but it also tortured her more and more each day.

            

So… why not leave? Leave Mu Ning’s side early, without having to wait for that distant ten-year mark. Find a place without Mu Ning, and peacefully spend ten years in this game. Perhaps, after these long ten years, her feelings for Mu Ning would gradually fade with the passage of time until they vanished entirely. When she returned to the real world and thought of Mu Ning again, her heart probably wouldn’t even register a ripple, would it?

Once the thought of leaving arose, it took firm root and sprouted in Ren Chenxi’s mind. Especially since, day after day, she could only catch glimpses of Mu Ning’s back from the corner of her eye, the urge to leave became even stronger.

Leaving—she was definitely going to leave. But before she did, she still had to make some preparations, didn’t she? With the cards and crystal cores she had accumulated, Ren Chenxi was confident she could take Ren Muhui and safely relocate to another base.

            

But if she left, what about Mu Ning… no, what about these companions who had been with her for so long? Without her freshness-preserving inventory and her Greasy Cards, everyone’s lives in the future would surely be a lot more inconvenient, wouldn’t they? So, before leaving, she should make as many preparations as possible: leave behind the supplies in her inventory, leave them a Crystal Core Generator and a Crystal Core Engine, stockpile more Universal Gasoline, and prepare some more weapons for the girls…

Because Ren Chenxi had so much to prepare—especially that massive mountain of critical supplies, which certainly couldn’t fit in her room alone—she had to find another location to store so many goods from the underground warehouse. While she was dragging her feet like this, Mu Ning, ironically, was going to leave the base ahead of her.

More accurately, Mu Ning’s family had arrived. They had come to take Mu Ning back to Ning’an Base in A City.

            

In this third year of the apocalypse, Ning’an Base in A City had undoubtedly established its prestigious status as the nation’s strongest and most elite base. In these times, there were only survivors from other bases running to Ning’an Base for better survival; no one had ever seen survivors from Ning’an Base running away. Especially traversing such a massive distance from north to south to come to a second- or third-tier base like Nanhai Base.

The moment Qi Sheng laid eyes on this group claiming to be from Ning’an Base in A City, an ominous sense of urgency immediately rose in his heart. His intuition told him that these imposing espers who had run to Nanhai Base were definitely not here to seek refuge at their base. Instead, they were likely here to snatch someone from their base!

After all, in these difficult times, have you ever seen any survivor coming to seek refuge who flaunted their wealth so loudly and ostentatiously? Not to mention that these survivors averaged a 5th-Order esper level, not to mention their clean and gorgeous clothing, and not to mention the cigarettes dangling from their mouths and the alcohol in their hands—just the massive RV behind them was enough to make Qi Sheng almost drool.

            

Unlike Qi Sheng’s simple, unadorned RV, and unlike the Fan Family’s flashy but impractical one, the RV driven by this group of espers was cool, its entire body shimmering with cold metal! In this apocalyptic world, who wouldn’t be tempted by such an armored RV whose entire body was almost completely wrapped in hard metal?

Qi Sheng forced down his excitement and stared at this group of showy espers with a guarded expression, though his tone remained polite as he asked about their intentions. Sure enough, the answer he received was exactly as he had expected—they had come to take Mu Ning back to A City.

Good grief, arriving and immediately poaching… no, taking away the highest-level esper in their base. These people really weren’t polite.

            

Of course, whether they would actually “take her away” was still up for debate. Even though these people claimed to be Mu Ning’s relatives, who knew if it was true or false? And even if they were really her relatives, the decision to stay or leave still belonged to Mu Ning herself, didn’t it? Even if they were her relatives, they might not be able to force Mu Ning to leave, right? Yet, if the other party could drive such a cool armored RV just to pick up one person, their life at Ning’an Base had to be far better than here at Nanhai Base.

In that case, Mu Ning might really leave with them. And what if, once Mu Ning left, she took her entire squad with her?

With an anxious heart, Qi Sheng finally waited for Mu Ning’s Squad, who had gone to the beach that morning, to return.

            

As for Mu Ning, her face instantly darkened the moment she saw this group of espers. She very quickly swept her gaze toward Ren Chenxi, who was standing several people away. By the time Ren Chenxi turned her head to look back, Mu Ning had already withdrawn her gaze, turning to stare straight at the man leading the group of A City espers.

“Zhou Zhilong, why are you here?”

The man Mu Ning addressed as “Zhou Zhilong” was tall and handsome, and his esper level was surprisingly 6th-Order, just like Mu Ning’s. His eyes were filled with tenderness as he looked at her. However, to Ren Chenxi, such lingering, ambiguous tenderness was exceptionally grating to look at.

            

“Ningning, your father and mother were worried about you, so they specifically had me come pick you up and take you back to Ning’an Base.”

As Zhou Zhilong’s voice fell, the two men standing behind him also spoke up eagerly.

“Yes, biaojie¹, Uncle and Aunt haven’t been able to stop worrying about you these past few years. They think and talk about you every single day, terrified of what would happen if you aren’t eating or sleeping well, or if you run into danger.”

            

“Fortunately, we came this time. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even have known that you, biaojie, were actually suffering in such a run-down, small base…”

The phrase “run-down, small base” instantly wiped the polite smile Qi Sheng always wore on his face right off. What run-down, small base! Although my Nanhai Base can’t compare to your Ning’an Base, we’re still a large survivor base! Do you people from Ning’an Base really have to look down on others like this?

Ordinarily, if survivors from other bases came to stir up trouble and try to poach his people, Qi Sheng would have beaten them senseless and driven them away long ago. But right now… on one hand, these people really were Mu Ning’s relatives, so no matter how annoyed he was, he still had to give Mu Ning face. On the other hand… he didn’t seem… entirely sure he could beat this group of espers in a fight.

            

But although Qi Sheng gave these espers face for Mu Ning’s sake, Mu Ning herself had absolutely no intention of giving these acquaintances a single shred of face.

“Heh, you keep claiming my parents miss me every single day? If they were really so concerned and worried about me, why didn’t anyone come looking for me during the first two years?”

“…” The two men who had been so affectionately calling Mu Ning their biaojie had never expected that, after several years apart, their biaojie would not only show no joy at their reunion, but would also be so blunt to them—and even undermine them in front of so many people!

            

But there was one thing the two biaodi² had to admit: their biaojie truly understood their Uncle and Aunt. Because during these three years of the apocalypse, Uncle and Aunt had indeed never spared a thought for Mu Ning. Even if they occasionally mentioned her, it was only to complain that this wretched girl hadn’t listened to them back then, insisting on going to university alone in far-off S City, so now that the apocalypse had suddenly come, she deserved to die alone out there.

The reason they had traveled all this way to this run-down place of Nanhai Base was because of students who had fled from S University all the way to Ning’an Base. They had informed them that Mu Ning had not only survived the sudden apocalypse but had also awakened water-wood dual-system abilities. These two types of powers were highly sought-after in any survivor base. Thus, the moment they learned of Mu Ning’s abilities, Uncle and Aunt immediately had the idea of bringing Mu Ning back to Ning’an Base. However, at that time, the Mu Family’s foundation in Ning’an Base was still shaky. Moreover, when they learned that Mu Ning had actually run off to Nanhai Base so far to the south, they could only curse her for being so thoughtless to run so far, all while they busied themselves handling their own affairs.

Now, the Mu Family had basically settled down in Ning’an Base. Thanks to their cooperation with the Zhou Family, although the Mu Family still couldn’t oppose the military that controlled the base, their standing in the stronghold had risen considerably.

            

At present, to further strengthen their alliance with the Zhou Family and secure more resources through Mu Ning’s dual-system abilities, the Mu Family patriarch—her Uncle—had held a discussion with the other directors of the Mu Family. They unanimously decided that they must send people to Nanhai Base to bring Mu Ning back and enter her into a marriage alliance with Zhou Zhilong.

Thus, as Mu Ning’s prospective fiancé, Zhou Zhilong had naturally stepped up, volunteering to lead the team of espers himself. He had traveled thousands of miles across a long, grueling distance to Nanhai Base to fetch his fiancée.

Now, as a gentle and considerate fiancé, Zhou Zhilong naturally noticed his fiancée’s rejection and resistance toward the Mu Family, so of course he had to step forward and soothe his fiancée.

            

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