Two minutes later, a lean boy followed Yi Dong into the living room. He wore black-rimmed glasses, had a messy head of hair that seemed to stick out in at least eight directions simultaneously, and was dressed like a performance artist, all while wearing a friendly smile.
“I thought I was the first one here. Hiss, it’s so cold~” Kang Lan breathed into his palms while enthusiastically greeting Mo Tan, “Happy New Year, Mo Tan Tong Xue.”
Although the two hadn’t contacted each other since their last gathering, Mo Tan still smiled familiarly, “Happy New Year. I just arrived too. Mainly, I’ve been playing games more frequently lately. Two months ago, I probably wouldn’t have been awake by now.”
“Honestly, that statement feels too out of place, though I’ve been the same lately.” Kang Lan plopped down next to Mo Tan, looked around Yi Dong’s living room, and then froze, “What, what, what, what is all this?! Yi Dong, is your whole family a fan of Gu Gu Jiang?!”
Yi Dong chuckled dryly and shook his head frantically.
Mo Tan shrugged, “When I saw you come in just now, you seemed so calm, I thought I’d finally met someone composed.”
“I was so cold my brain hurt just now, I didn’t notice.” Kang Lan shivered, then continued to stare wide-eyed at the numerous, ubiquitous, and perfectly integrated posters, promotional images, figurines, and various merchandise of a certain person around the house, muttering, “Eighty percent of these are limited editions, and there’s even a signed photo calendar from when Gu Gu Jiang first debuted. You’re shaking your head to fool who…”
To clarify, Gu Gu Jiang is a very popular female coser of unknown age. She is highly renowned in the industry for her versatile aura, capable of embodying almost any character, and enjoys widespread fame both domestically and internationally. Coupled with her exceptionally high Appearance and the mysterious, realistic character effects that accompany her appearances, she has been revered as a Legend for over a decade.
However, Gu Gu Jiang has no management company, group, or operating team, nor has anyone been able to uncover her true information—her age, background, birthday, zodiac sign, real name, or home address are all unknown. Even the legendary King of Paparazzi, Han Bingwei, failed to track her down, and even encountered more than twenty car accidents in three consecutive days as the sole injured party during his pursuit. After that, he mysteriously vanished from the jianghu.
So, back to the main topic…
Yi Dong sighed, “I’m not her fan.”
Kang Lan scoffed, “Nonsense… Uh… Is your dad?”
Yi Dong sighed * 2, “My dad isn’t her fan either.”
Kang Lan rolled his eyes, about to say something else, but was interrupted by Mo Tan, who couldn’t bear to watch anymore, “Yi Dong isn’t lying to you. His dad isn’t Gu Gu Jiang’s fan… His dad is Gu Gu Jiang’s husband.”
Clang!!!
Kang Lan immediately slid off the sofa, his knee hitting the coffee table hard, “Ow, holy crap!”
“Be careful, be careful.” Mo Tan quickly pulled Kang Lan up, patting his shoulder with a wry smile, “It’s true. Uncle Yi is Gu Gu Jiang’s husband.”
Kang Lan’s eyes nearly popped out, “Then Yi Dong is…”
“Yes, he’s the son.”
“Really the son!?”
“Although he can be a bit of a brat sometimes, he is indeed the son.”
“Really the son… Holy crap!”
“Who are you calling a brat?!” Yi Dong kicked Mo Tan, then nodded to Kang Lan with a conflicted expression, “The Gu Gu Jiang you’re talking about is indeed my mom. Please keep it a secret~”
Kang Lan grabbed Yi Dong’s wrist, “What’s your mom’s surname?!”
“Gu, Gu Yan Yue.” Yi Dong shook off his hand with a forced smile, wrinkling his brows in distress, “Why does it sound like you’re insulting me when you talk like that…”
Kang Lan pushed up his seemingly heavy glasses, “I kind of regret why I came empty-handed…”
“Just coming is enough. My parents aren’t home anyway.” Yi Dong turned around, got a cup of hot water, and put it in Kang Lan’s hand, “Should we change the subject?”
The latter, after all, wasn’t a completely hopeless otaku, so he didn’t gossip any further about Yi Dong’s mother. He first took a sip of hot water, then let out a long breath, “Did you two see today’s announcement? The one for Innocent World.”
Mo Tan and Yi Dong both nodded simultaneously, “Yes, we saw it.”
“Although I wanted to wait until everyone arrived to talk about this, there’s one thing I really can’t hold back…” Kang Lan pulled out his phone, quickly swiped twice, then turned the screen towards them. A string of text was highlighted in bold, “Don’t you think these two points are really too strange?!”
The two looked closely, and it was indeed about the previous update announcement regarding the fix for the ‘BUG where players were repeatedly slapped in the face after going offline and falling into a coma’ and the ‘BUG where players were teleported to a nearby cesspool upon relogging’…
“Hahaha~” Yi Dong couldn’t help but laugh, pointing at the two lines of text on the phone, “I think this should be considered an official prank, right? After seeing so many strange notes in the game, I’m used to this kind of thing.”
Mo Tan, however, held a different opinion, frowning, “I don’t think the official team would joke around in the formal content of an announcement. Look at the offline coma one; it’s very possible that an NPC saw a player faint nearby and tried to wake them up by slapping them.”
“Alright, even if that one makes a little sense.” Kang Lan pouted, poking the phone screen hard, “But being teleported to a cesspool after logging out and back in, what the hell is that? I’ve logged in not in my original spot many times, but I’ve never heard of being teleported to such a bizarre place! Who would be that unlucky?!”
Yi Dong agreed, “It really seems to be the case…”
Mo Tan was about to nod, but then seemed to suddenly remember something, opening his mouth but failing to speak.
“But honestly, I don’t dislike the official team occasionally pranking us or anything.” Kang Lan put his phone back in his pocket, drained the warm water in the cup in front of him, and comfortably snuggled into the sofa, “And the notes in the game too.”
“Oh, right.” Yi Dong slapped his thigh, looking at Kang Lan with some curiosity, “At that time, I remember besides Yu Cheng, you should have been the highest level, right? What level are you?”
Mo Tan discreetly pursed his lips. He knew Yi Dong too well; this guy clearly wanted to show off after his stroke of luck. One should know that although this guy played one day less than everyone else, a certain encounter before had given him tons of rewards, and he was now halfway into the ranks of high-end players. Of course, that was provided Yi Dong was in his Zombie form; his living form’s necromancy was simply a joke.
“Me?” Kang Lan’s glasses seemed to flash, then he smiled nonchalantly, “Not bad, Forest Ranger Level 20, Priest Level 12, just enough to get by.”
【Level 20…】
Mo Tan was startled, then looked at Yi Dong with a bit of amusement, feeling that his face was a little swollen.
Sure enough, the latter immediately wilted, only able to nod sheepishly, “Impressive, impressive, I’m impressed…”
“That really is impressive.” Mo Tan also echoed with considerable emotion, “I know quite a few people, and none of them have reached level 20.”
Kang Lan subtly grinned, “Actually, there are quite a few. Many professional players are already at 20. I only reached it yesterday; I’m still far behind.”
“Seriously.” Yi Dong’s expression became serious as he stared at Kang Lan and asked earnestly, “Have you been waiting for us to ask this?”
The other party nodded very readily, “Yes, I always feel like my standing would drop a lot if I said it first.”
Yi Dong casually picked up a soft cushion and threw it over, which Kang Lan immediately caught in his arms.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Mo Tan felt that the latter’s hand reached out even earlier than Yi Dong reached for the cushion…
He shook his head, temporarily putting that question aside, then turned to Kang Lan and asked, “You just said many professional players are at level 20. Does that mean professional players have already entered the game? Also, why is everyone stuck at level 20? Is level 21 very difficult to level up?”
Mo Tan’s question was much more technical. One should know that no game club or studio had officially entered Innocent World yet, and none of the professional players fighting on the front lines individually had made any public statements on social media about having joined the game.
Then there was the level issue. From Kang Lan’s tone just now, it seemed that there was a big gap between him, a newly level 20 player, and those big shots who had already been level 20 for a while. It sounded as if 20 was the cap.
“Mo Tan, you’re very perceptive~” Kang Lan pushed up his glasses like a grim reaper, then said with a smile, “That’s right, actually, many professional players have already entered Innocent World for a while now. Studios, clubs, and individuals are all involved, but it hasn’t been officially announced. I only found out because I’m in the core fan group of one of the professional players.”
Yi Dong asked curiously, “I didn’t realize you followed celebrities. Which professional player is it?”
Kang Lan pushed up his glasses like a Roast : “Bibizi.”
Yi Dong was immediately stunned.
Mo Tan, however, stroked his chin and nodded, “I remember that professional player. Is she the girl who really likes to sing during her live streams?”
“Holy crap, your range of interests is quite wide.” Yi Dong was shocked.
“I have a good memory, is that a problem?” Mo Tan glared at him, then looked back at Kang Lan, “But I remember she doesn’t seem to have any particularly impressive achievements, does she?”
Kang Lan nodded, “But she’s good-looking.”
Yi Dong craned his neck and asked, “And then?”
Kang Lan: “That’s enough.”
Mo Tan / Yi Dong: “…”
“Ahem, anyway, that’s roughly what happened.” Kang Lan coughed lightly, then awkwardly changed the subject, “As for the level 20 thing, I’ll explain it all once everyone arrives. Otherwise, it’s too tiring.”
Yi Dong narrowed his eyes at him, “Actually, you just want to put on a show a few more times, right…”
Kang Lan gave him a thumbs up, “You understand me!”
Then a pleasant ringing sound came from not far away~
“Someone else is here, I’ll go get it.” Yi Dong said, then slowly stood up and walked towards the entryway.
Mo Tan slapped his head in realization, “Oh right, his house has a doorbell. Why did you knock just now?”
“My hands were frozen numb.” Kang Lan pulled another cushion into his arms and said muffled, “I hit it with my shoulder just now… An old man passing by almost called the police.”
Mo Tan immediately looked at him with respect, “You’re ruthless…”
Immediately after, the two saw a tall boy wearing angry-red gloves, an angry-red down jacket, and having angry-red short hair stride in forcefully, then squat down next to the radiator at the living room entrance and stop moving.
Mo Tan / Kang Lan: “…”
“Yo!” Wan Yang, whose game ID was Huo Yan Yang, hunched his neck and greeted the two, then shivered and grinned, “It’s really f*cking cold…”
Kang Lan looked at his own graffiti-covered long shirt, then at Wan Yang’s oversized down jacket, which looked exceptionally thick, and felt a little wronged.
“He’s even worse than Kang Lan.” Yi Dong, with an exasperated expression, also walked in and glanced at Wan Yang, “Can you two believe it? This guy pressed the doorbell with his nose.”
Kang Lan immediately panicked, exclaiming, “With your demeanor, how the hell can you fight Evil Cultists on the Great Snow Mountain?! You’d probably freeze into a human popsicle just stepping out of the house!”
“Ahem, we call it the Holy Mountain, not the Great Snow Mountain.” Wan Yang replied earnestly, then continued to shiver, “I’m not afraid of the cold at all in Innocent World, but outside the game, I’m helpless. Hiss… My mom’s genes are too strong; I’m 90% like her.”
Yi Dong rolled his eyes, “Your mom is also that afraid of the cold?”
“Not exactly afraid.” Wan Yang shook his head vigorously, chattering his teeth as he took off his gloves, “She just likes warmth and hates cold, and so do I. She’s a C-country person but has red hair, and so do I. She’s nearly 1.8 meters tall, and so am I. She has a bad temper and a fiery personality, and I used to too… But after being beaten a lot, I became as docile as my dad.”
“…”
All three were stunned. Finally, Mo Tan, with a very subtle expression, broke the silence, “So the 10% you take after your dad is?”
“Gender.” Wan Yang answered earnestly.
Yi Dong nodded thoughtfully, muttering softly, “Perhaps the reason our elders are so close to each other is… they’re all quite eccentric?”
“Ha, enough about that nonsense, I’ve recovered!” Wan Yang seemed to have overcome the 【cold】 status with the help of the radiator, laughing as he stood up and pulled out his phone, “Seriously, did you guys see today’s system announcement?”
The three nodded simultaneously.
“That Arena system seems a bit interesting, but what I’m more concerned about is…”
Wan Yang poked his phone, pointing at a line of bolded text he had specially highlighted, and said in a deep voice, “How could anyone be so unlucky as to be thrown into a cesspool by the system when they log in?!”
Kang Lan and Yi Dong immediately nodded in agreement.
Mo Tan didn’t know why he felt this topic was a bit ominous…
Chapter 223: End