A moment later, at Yi Dong’s house.
“So you two just kept losing for over twenty rounds?” Ji Xiaodao, clad in a black windbreaker, leaned against the sofa, a hint of surprise on her cool face. “Unbelievable…”
Yi Dong lay slumped on the table, his face dejected. Scattered around him were various cards, chess pieces, instruction manuals, and game tokens, and behind him, a palpable aura of resentment seemed to flow. “Although I’ve never really won much when playing these games with a certain person, who knew those three were so inhuman?”
“Strongly agree.” Also sprawled on the table was Wan Yang. This tall, cheerful young man had vacant eyes and a pale, defeated expression, like a downtrodden daughter-in-law. “I already owe Kang Lan twelve meals, Mo Tan eight meals… and the worst part is I owe Yu Cheng three meals, and she said she doesn’t need them… Ah, I’m going to die…”
Yu Cheng squirmed uncomfortably, shrinking her neck and murmuring, “I don’t need… Mm, no need to trouble yourselves.”
“It’s fine, those three can be counted on me.” Mo Tan chuckled softly, winking at Wan Yang. “As the Holy Maiden’s vanguard, the low-ranking priest Black Vatican is more than willing to accept your gambling debt on her behalf.”
Wan Yang glared at him fiercely. “Never!”
“Tsk tsk, terrible contract spirit.” Mo Tan glanced at Wan Yang disdainfully, wagging his index finger. “No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend~”
Wan Yang was stunned. “How the hell do you know I don’t have a girlfriend?!”
“Subjectively speaking, it’s because the entire room is permeated with the scent of single dogs.” Mo Tan shrugged, smiling lazily. “Objectively speaking, I could use your walking speed as a starting point to do an analysis of about thirty thousand words, and then rigorously, meticulously, and seriously conclude that ‘you are a virgin.’ Want to hear it?”
Everyone was astonished!
Wan Yang immediately panicked, looking at Mo Tan as if he’d seen a ghost. “No!”
Kang Lan burst into a fit of laughter.
Ji Xiaodao gave Mo Tan a blank look. “Jerk.”
As for her older sister, Ji Xiaoge… well, let’s not mention Ji Xiaoge for now…
Yu Cheng froze for a moment, then turned to look at Mo Tan beside her with some confusion. “Uh?”
Yi Dong, however, gave Mo Tan a meaningful look. “Ahem!”
Yi Dong was a broad-minded person, though this might not have been innate; after all, if he weren’t broad-minded, Mo Tan would drive him crazy sooner or later. But he was also a very meticulous person, so Yi Dong not only immediately noticed that Mo Tan’s personality had shifted but also realized that Yu Cheng, who had been interacting with the latter (in the game), seemed puzzled, so he quickly gave a subtle hint.
“Heh~ It seems I’ve been too lax lately from messing around too much in the game…”
Mo Tan instantly understood his best friend’s meaning, so he immediately adjusted his state and smiled kindly at Wan Yang. “Just kidding, don’t mind it.”
“I don’t mind.” Wan Yang slumped back onto the sofa with a worried expression, curling into a large lump, and mumbled, “After all, I even know that Gu Gu Jiang is already a mother, so a little more Strike isn’t much, but you’re a bit too sharp…”
Yu Cheng shook her head slightly. “Just now, Mo Tan seemed a little different, um, a little strange.”
“Was he?” Kang Lan blinked curiously, winking at Yi Dong and chuckling, “I think he’s pretty much the same. I still have that recording of someone owing meals last time.”
Yi Dong: “…”
Yu Cheng shrank her neck. “Um, I just… just said it…”
“This girl is so sharp!”
“Hmph, that figure is truly unmatched~”
Yi Dong and Mo Tan both sighed in their hearts, though the content seemed to differ slightly.
“Speaking of which,” Mo Tan gestured with his chin in a certain direction, raising an eyebrow, “how long is she going to keep laughing?”
On the beanbag chair right next to Ji Xiaodao, a short-haired girl wearing a small beret was hugging her shoulders and laughing wildly in a low voice. Although dressed quite neutrally, she still couldn’t hide her rather stunning beauty. She was trembling slightly while continuously making sounds like, ‘Puhahaha… Ah hahahaha… septic tank… fell in hahahahaha…’ This had been going on for nearly ten minutes.
It was Ji Xiaoge, without a doubt.
As soon as she entered the room, she started shouting about the announcement of the Innocent World, and then expressed her ‘Pfft, puhahahaha~’ opinion about players being teleported into a septic tank after logging off and back on. She had maintained this state ever since… and hadn’t stopped.
“Tsk tsk, although I also find that whole thing pretty amusing, Xiao Ge’s… ” Wan Yang clicked his tongue, looking at Ji Xiaoge with some hesitation. “Is she sick?”
Ji Xiaodao, standing beside her, shook her head, her tone as calm as still water. “My sister has been like this since she was little. She’s very happy.”
Kang Lan also shifted her focus from Ji Xiaoge’s appearance to her laughter, sighing, “This is more than just happy, hey, she looks like she’s about to laugh herself unconscious!!”
“Sister, calm down.” A hint of embarrassment flashed in Ji Xiaodao’s grey eyes, then she gently placed her hands on her sister’s waist and applied a slight pressure.
Ji Xiaoge suddenly shivered, then shrieked in pain and bounced up from her spot. “Ow ow ow ow! Uh… sorry, sorry, I think I lost control just now~”
Forcibly exiting her laughter mode, she stuck out her tongue sheepishly and sat back down awkwardly. “I just think that announcement was really too funny.”
“Understood, understood…”
Everyone nodded.
Then Mo Tan suddenly stood up and said with a smile, “You all chat, I’ll be gone for a moment.”
“Where are you going?” Yu Cheng asked subconsciously.
Yi Dong opened his mouth. “Don’t…”
But he still didn’t manage to stop him. Almost the instant Yu Cheng asked, Mo Tan replied with a serious face, “To make a contribution to the septic tank.”
“Sigh… I knew it.” Yi Dong covered his face and sighed deeply.
“Pfft, hahahaha…”
Ji Xiaoge couldn’t hold back again. Ji Xiaodao, who had just managed to calm her down, immediately glared at Mo Tan fiercely. “Gross!”
Yu Cheng’s face flushed red as she lowered her head, feeling that Mo Tan was indeed a bit strange today, even though he seemed perfectly fine when he opened the door earlier…
“Alright, everyone, see you later~” Mo Tan chuckled as he walked towards the bathroom, turning back halfway to wink. “I’ll be right back.”
Yi Dong threw the cushion from behind him. “Please flush yourself down when you’re done!”
…
One minute later.
Mo Tan casually locked the bathroom door, then sat on the toilet lid and pulled out his phone. He typed in a suspicious-looking website address while chuckling softly. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a ‘routine contact’ outside the game, let me see…”
He logged into a webpage filled with advertisements for virtuous female artists, psoriasis cures, and recruitment notices for dubious schools. At the very bottom, he found a string of rapidly refreshing characters, with a few slowly sliding letters next to them.
“There’s even a hint~” He blinked in surprise, chuckling softly. “Clearly telling me the password is a calendar… Heh heh, just how lonely are you…”
A few minutes later, Mo Tan successfully deciphered the cryptic message.
“You foolish BLACK! I already know who you are! Hurry up and say something nice, and this granny might consider letting you off~”
Mo Tan frowned. “What nonsense is this?”
“Hahahahaha, the last message was a trick, were you scared? Were you scared? Seeing you haven’t replied for so long, have you been scared silly~”
Mo Tan twitched his mouth, sighing. “Is this guy trying to show me how much of an idiot she is…”
“Hey! Haven’t we teamed up for a long time? I found a particularly scammy software company a while ago, want to give them a thrill?”
“It seems like it’s been a long time…”
“You’re not spending all your time in the game now, are you?! Those little brats are all guessing if Black Sun has retired from the jianghu. Although having such a big reputation is all thanks to this girl, isn’t it a bit inappropriate for you to be slacking off like this?!”
“You’re a little brat yourself, aren’t you? If not, that’s even sadder, isn’t it? When did you stop developing, a few years ago?”
“Hey~”
“Hey your head, hey.”
“Tch, so boring. It’s super cold lately. I went out yesterday and found out it snowed! It was so cold!!”
“…”
“You didn’t fall for that!?”
“I’m not stupid…”
“So~ bor~ing~”
“Then go die.”
Mo Tan finished reading Shuang Ye’s messages from this period, complaining all the while, then used the instruction manual of a board game he’d seen earlier as a password book to send a coded message—‘Are you sick?’
Five minutes later, Shuang Ye’s reply refreshed: “Wow! So you’re still alive!”
“I won’t die even if you do.” Mo Tan curled his lips, replying with a cold chuckle, “Are you going through puberty? But an A-cup is a no-go.”
“This old lady doesn’t have a puberty phase, but you, showing up only during the New Year, is it because you’re lonely, isolated, and cold? Tsk tsk, you pathetic, creepy, ugly otaku hiding in a dark basement.”
Shuang Ye’s message refreshed rapidly.
Mo Tan rolled his eyes, quickly typing over the other party’s message—‘I’m so pathetic, yet I haven’t come here to leave messages complaining about how boring it is. Aren’t you even more miserable?’
“Can you even chat?!” * 20
Mo Tan watched the characters scroll wildly across the screen, a playful smile on his face, then slowly replied, ‘Firstly, this isn’t a place for chatting. Secondly, I guess you’re spending the New Year alone in some dim basement or something, and you’re exceptionally lonely because you can’t log into the game. If I guessed correctly, please give me a little red flower.’
One minute later.
“Wrong guess, here’s a pile of shit for you.”
Shuang Ye’s message popped up.
“Such a long time…”
Mo Tan rubbed his chin with a half-smile. “Did I really guess correctly?”
Then he replied, ‘Alright, alright, I’ll gladly accept this pile of shit. You go have your fun, I’m currently having a party with a bunch of friends, super happy.’
Two seconds later.
Shuang Ye’s message refreshed—‘Go to hell, go to hell, I’m happy too~’
“Heh, is that so~”
Mo Tan curled his lips, then opened the official forum of Innocent World and leisurely browsed, occasionally switching back to the previous page to take a peek.
Sure enough, five minutes later, another message popped up—‘Hey, still there?’
Mo Tan raised an eyebrow, deliberately waiting a moment before slowly replying, ‘I’m here.’
“Tch, didn’t you just say you were going to a happy party? It was a lie, wasn’t it! You’re alone and miserable now, aren’t you! Actually, you weren’t talking just now because you were looking at the forum or something, right?!”
Shuang Ye’s messages were extremely fast this time.
“You, who’ve been guarding this page, are worse off than me.” Mo Tan chuckled, then replied crisply, “Yeah, you guessed right. I’m home alone and bored, and the game is shut down, so I have nothing to do tonight. I’m practically molding.”
“Hmph hmph, want me to be nice and scold you for two or three hours~”
Shuang Ye replied instantly.
Mo Tan smiled, then slowly scrolled the screen and typed, ‘No thanks, for us, these days don’t really matter, do they? Watching anime, playing games, writing programs, sleeping, and it’s over.’
“You’re right, so uncool~”
Shuang Ye seemed to agree wholeheartedly, then immediately sent another message—‘But still, let’s be a little perfunctory. Happy New Year, BLACK.’
“I really am a good person~” Mo Tan shook his head, sighing, then casually replied, ‘Happy New Year. Go do whatever you need to do, I’m going to catch up on some sleep first~’
“Go away, go away! This young lady is going to watch anime~”
Mo Tan casually exited the webpage, then put away his phone, unbuckled his belt, pulled down his pants, and began to take a dump.
…
Fifteen minutes later.
Mo Tan strolled back, looking at the horrified faces of the others, and smiled apologetically. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“It really was a ‘long’ wait!” Yi Dong pointed at the clock on the wall, jumping up and shouting, “We were just guessing if you really flushed yourself down!”
Yu Cheng immediately shook her head innocently, lowering her head and timidly whispering, “I didn’t guess…”
“Ahem, no one really guessed, Yu Cheng, don’t be nervous.” Wan Yang laughed, then winked at Mo Tan. “Did you go report to your girlfriend?”
Mo Tan sat properly on a beanbag chair, shaking his head. “No, I’m single.”
Yi Dong immediately nodded quickly. “That’s right, no one wants him.”
“Cough, I don’t think this is about whether someone wants… uh, never mind.” Mo Tan said subconsciously, then smiled wryly and shook his head. “Let’s just say that’s how it is.”
Ji Xiaoge covered her mouth and chuckled softly. “It couldn’t be because your standards are too high or something…”
Clang, clang, clang!!!
A loud banging on the door startled everyone in the room.
Yi Dong immediately stood up, walking towards the door and shouting, “Hey, hey, hey, coming, who is it, are you breaking the door down or knocking? Don’t rush, don’t rush… Holy crap, Xiao Yu, what’s wrong with you, Xiao Yu?!”
Chapter 226: End