My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 87
by Little PandaStirring Up Trouble
He had not even managed to buy the Crystal Core Generator, yet Fan Haotian was already mentally planning to kick out the Lightning-system esper who had been supplying power to the Fan family all this time. It showed just how determined he was to get his hands on Ren Chenxi’s Crystal Core Generator.
Unfortunately, reality slapped him hard across the face.
“We need the Crystal Core Generator ourselves. It’s not for sale!” Was he joking? They watched movies and played games every single day now. If she sold the generator, would she have to go back to buying electricity from that Lightning-system esper at those terrifyingly inflated prices? She was not stupid.
Faced with Mu Ning’s rather firm refusal, Fan Haotian felt displeased, but he kept a smile on his face as he turned to Ren Chenxi. “This Crystal Core Generator belongs to Miss Ren, does it not? If I were to offer another 500,000 crystal stones…”
“Mu Ning already gave me one million Level 1 crystal cores for this generator, so it belongs to her now.” Ren Chenxi kicked the ball right back to Mu Ning. She was not lying, either. The fifty Level 6 crystal cores Mu Ning had given her already covered half the value of a Level 8 crystal core, and then she had insisted on stuffing another ten Level 6 cores into her hands. So there—it just so happened that could count as her making up the difference for the generator’s crystal cores.
“O-one million Level 1 crystal cores?” Hearing Ren Chenxi say this, Fan Haotian naturally did not believe it. Given the relationship between the two of them, would they really need to spend a million Level 1 cores just to use the generator? But whether he believed it or not, Fan Haotian had no choice. He assumed Ren Chenxi had said this because she wanted to open her mouth like a lion1 and demand even more crystal cores from him for the generator.
This woman—sure enough, her eyes saw nothing but crystal cores! Fan Haotian internally sneered at Ren Chenxi, but he kept his expression under control, smiling with apparent sincerity. “In that case, we will offer 1.5 million Level 1 crystal cores…”
“I said it’s not for sale!” Mu Ning interrupted coldly, her patience wearing thin. “We need the generator ourselves. In a few days, we will be providing charging services to other survivors at the base. Charging 10,000 mAh costs only fifty Level 1 crystal cores. If you need to charge something, you can come find us then.”
“…” Once Mu Ning said this, Fan Haotian could only shut his mouth, unwilling as he was. These two women—truly, their hearts and eyes were filled with nothing but crystal cores! If they planned to use the Crystal Core Generator to earn crystal cores, then no matter how high a price he offered, they would never sell. After all, that generator could keep generating profit for them indefinitely! Unless they could offer an astronomical sum all at once, but… the Fan family was not made of money. Paying a sky-high price for a single Crystal Core Generator would drain their entire fortune. It simply was not worth it. If they urgently needed electricity, there was still that Lightning-system esper!
Only, if they wanted to go to the neighboring province to find Fan Juntian, the Lightning-system esper’s power output would not be nearly enough!
Thinking of this, Fan Haotian could only speak again. “In that case, would you be willing to rent the Crystal Core Generator to us for a period of time?” First, he would rent the generator from them for a while. During that time, he could let those experts—who ate for free and did nothing—study it. Once they had stored up enough electricity and gone to the neighboring province to bring Fan Juntian back, this generator…
Heh. When the time came, finding an excuse not to return it would work just as well! There was nothing the Fan family set their sights on that they could not get their hands on!
Just as Fan Haotian narrowed his eyes, secretly plotting what excuse to use and how many crystal cores to offer as compensation, Mu Ning’s ice-cold voice instantly shattered his beautiful fantasy.
“We’re not renting! If you need electricity, come pay to charge it yourselves later!”
“…” This time, Fan Haotian could no longer maintain his hypocritical smile. He stared darkly at Mu Ning, enunciating each word as a threat. “Miss Mu, do not speak so absolutely. Why not hear our offer before you decide—”
“We’re not considering it! Not renting! If you keep blathering, do not bother coming to us to charge anything later, either!”
When someone had spoken to this extent, Fan Haotian—accustomed at the base only to being flattered and fawned over—finally lost his temper. He glared at Mu Ning and Ren Chenxi for a long moment before forcing out a sinister, humorless smile. “Fine. Since Miss Mu is unwilling, we will not force the issue. However… I hope you will not regret this!”
With that threat, Fan Haotian led his large group of lackeys away in an imposing procession.
Ren Chenxi watched them leave, somewhat speechless. “Is he trying to intimidate you? A 3rd-order esper threatening a 6th-order esper?”
“Who knows? The despicable tactics2 they use behind the scenes are countless,” Mu Ning said with a shrug, unconcerned.
Hearing “despicable tactics,” Ren Chenxi immediately thought of those Fan family subordinates with the “drug addiction” debuff. “They… don’t they usually use drug addiction to control some espers? There were a few espers just now—I could tell from their appearance that they seemed to have developed drug addictions too.”
“Probably! That’s why they are so desperate to use the generator to store enough electricity, then go to the neighboring province to find Fan Juntian.”
“And judging by what Fan Haotian said when he left, they really might be preparing to use some dirty tricks against us!”
“So… what are you planning?” Mu Ning looked at Ren Chenxi’s wicked little smile and could tell she wanted to stir up trouble3.
“Instead of passively waiting for the Fan family to use dirty tricks on us, why don’t we strike first?”
“You mean… we sneak into Fan family territory to take a look? Using your…” Mu Ning lowered her voice as she spoke, casually closing the front door. “Using your Invisibility Card?”
“Smart~” Ren Chenxi gave Mu Ning a thumbs up. “Why put off until tomorrow what we can do today? Let’s go check out the Fan family tonight!”
“Alright!” Mu Ning would not have refused Ren Chenxi’s suggestion anyway. Besides, even though Fan Juntian was not around, the Fan family members were hardly good people. No matter what, after she had so firmly rejected Fan Haotian today, the Fan family would certainly be plotting against her and Ren Chenxi in private. Leaving a ticking time bomb4 like that to constantly gnaw at them was worse than taking the initiative to go remove it themselves!
Back on the third floor, the girls were still immersed in their horror movie, oblivious to Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning’s return. Ren Chenxi did not disturb them. She only planned to take Mu Ning with her to scout out the Fan family tonight.
After dinner, Ren Chenxi acted normally, playing games with everyone for a while and watching a movie. Only when the girls were yawning from sleepiness did she pretend to head to her room to sleep. Tantan did not like watching movies, so she had slipped onto Ren Chenxi’s bed early and fallen asleep. After entering the room, Ren Chenxi did not climb into bed and wake Tantan. Instead, she sat quietly on a small armchair beside the bed and summoned her card-drawing panel to start pulling cards.
She and Mu Ning had agreed on midnight. Even before the apocalypse, most people in this era would have been asleep by then. Without smartphones or more entertainment options, naturally there were not so many night owls.
Because she was unfamiliar with the Fan family’s territory, Ren Chenxi played it safe and spent another 100 crystal stones on a 200-draw pull. After various rounds of card synthesis, she ended up with 33 SR-rank Explosion Cards, 10 Recovery Cards, 6 Invisibility Cards, 10 SR-rank Critical Hit Cards, and 27 Acceleration Cards. Since there were unlikely to be any high-order espers in Fan family territory, she kept the 33 SR-rank Explosion Cards as they were rather than synthesizing them into SSR cards, just in case.
Then there were the R-rank Illusion Cards. Unknowingly, Ren Chenxi had already accumulated 105 of them. An R-rank Illusion Card could transform the person struck by the card—or the user—into the appearance of anyone they could visualize in their mind, but the effect lasted only 10 minutes. Curious, Ren Chenxi synthesized one SR-rank Illusion Card. The function remained the same, but the duration extended to one hour. An SSR-rank Illusion Card would probably last even longer, but she did not need that for now, so she only synthesized 21 SR-rank Illusion Cards.
After preparing these cards, Ren Chenxi sat quietly for a while longer. Only when the time neared midnight did she softly open her door and slip out. When she reached the stairwell on the second floor, Mu Ning was already waiting.
Seeing Ren Chenxi, Mu Ning went straight to the point, keeping her voice low. “Do we turn invisible now, or wait until we are closer to Fan family territory? How long does your Invisibility Card last?” Last time she had been turned invisible, Mu Ning had been too busy fighting the mutated octopus to pay attention. After the battle ended, she had been so exhausted she collapsed on the sand, so she had never calculated exactly how long she had remained invisible.
“Let’s turn invisible now. The invisibility lasts one hour. It’s fine—if we are not out by the time it is almost up, I will just stack another Invisibility Card.” The invisibility duration could be stacked, but Ren Chenxi only had six SR-rank Invisibility Cards and did not want to waste them. Since they were going to Fan family territory to scout the situation, she had no idea how long they might linger, so she would use the cards one at a time.
As soon as Ren Chenxi finished speaking, she swiftly applied a card to herself and to Mu Ning. In an instant, she could no longer see Mu Ning. In the relatively dark corridor, she could only see Mu Ning’s health bar.
“Alright, let’s hurry. In a moment—”
Before Ren Chenxi could say the word “go,” she felt Mu Ning grab her arm. “What are you doing!” Why the sudden grabbing and pulling!
“I cannot see you now. It would be better if we held on to each other while we walk, would it not? In case we get separated…”
“It is fine. I can roughly tell where you are.”
“But I cannot! What if I wander off alone?”
Then I will find you again, Ren Chenxi thought. With the mini-map and the green dot indicator, she was not worried about Mu Ning getting lost anywhere. But… explaining the mini-map to Mu Ning would be difficult. And now that they were invisible, Mu Ning could not see her either—she would probably feel uneasy. Fine then. If she wanted to hold on, she could hold on.
“Alright, then just hold on to my sleeve…”
Before she could finish speaking, Mu Ning felt her way along Ren Chenxi’s arm and found her hand, carefully trying to take it. But Ren Chenxi clenched her fist, avoiding Mu Ning’s fingers.
“Just holding my sleeve is enough!”
In the darkness, Ren Chenxi’s cold voice drifted over, making Mu Ning’s heart ache a little. Still, even if she could not hold her hand… at least she could hold Ren Chenxi’s sleeve. Mu Ning felt somewhat satisfied.
The author has something to say:
Xixi: Just holding my sleeve is enough!
Wooden-head: It is fine. Right now it is just the sleeve, but later when we encounter an emergency situation, we will “accidentally” hold hands~~~
Alright, alright, no need to rush! If you round it up, they are already holding hands and going out for a date at night~
Footnotes
- A Chinese idiom (shīzi dà kāikǒu) describing someone who demands an unreasonably high price or makes excessive demands in a negotiation.
- A Chinese term (xiàsānlàn) referring to low-class, despicable, or underhanded methods; often used to describe dirty tricks or unscrupulous behavior.
- A Chinese colloquial phrase (gǎo shìqíng) meaning to cause trouble, create a scene, or initiate some action or scheme.
- A metaphor for a looming threat or danger that will eventually explode; someone or something that will cause trouble in the future.
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