With a thud, Vill-V successfully joined the Pagoda Squad. Though Mobius was furious, she had still gone easy on her.
"So you were behind the backyard mess too?"
Mobius clapped her hands and asked sharply. Vill-V scratched her head awkwardly. "Uh, haha, so the backyard stuff was discovered too? I clearly buried it all underground, haha."
"Unfortunately, all your evidence was dug up and neatly laid out in the backyard!" Mobius shot Vill-V a glare and said irritably, "That was very artistic, you know!"
"Alright, alright. It's rare for everyone to have time to get together today, so don't be mad!" At a time like this, only Elysia dared step forward under that icy pressure. She wrapped her arms around Mobius's waist from behind. "But what about the dress I gave you, Mobius? Why are you still wearing this outfit today?"
Elysia secretly gave Vill-V a look. Vill-V understood at once and immediately ran to the backyard to deal with the scene.
Mobius's body stiffened when Elysia hugged her waist. After hearing Elysia's words, her expression grew even more awkward.
Only after Vill-V had cleaned up the scene did the party begin. Li Ming, Rin, and Cosmo helped Aponia look after the children, while Aponia sat off to the side drinking with Mobius, Sakura, Vill-V, and the others.
When Chrono learned that the children wanted barbecue, he stopped resting, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work.
Cosmo and Adam ran around everywhere. Kevin and Su rarely got the chance to meet, so they chatted on the balcony for a while. Just as Li Ming wanted to take a break and grab a glass of wine from the table, someone swapped it out of his hand without him noticing. A glass of orange juice appeared in his hand instead.
Li Ming froze for a moment and turned around. Wine-red long hair swept past him in a fragrant breeze, carrying an intoxicating scent. It took him a while to react. "Ah, Eden..."
Before he could finish, a hand covered his mouth. "Shh, don't say it. It's a surprise. Long time no see, Ming!"
Her wineglass clinked against Li Ming's orange juice. In the blink of an eye, she vanished. Li Ming stared with dead fish eyes. "Really..."
But his attention was quickly drawn to the conversation between Mei and Elysia nearby.
"Mei, aren't you planning to move in yet?"
"Mm, we'll talk about it later. Besides, there are so many people here. It wouldn't be convenient."
"You're already living together before getting married..."
Then Mei kept chasing Elysia around, while Elysia did not dodge and simply let Mei pound on her. Li Ming felt as if he had heard something explosive and quietly moved away to avoid being silenced.
Suddenly, Pardo came over. "Brother Li Ming, come over and give us a hand."
??? (+_+)?
Li Ming touched his face. Once he confirmed Pardo had not called the wrong person, she dragged him over. He saw that she had already gathered Su, Cosmo, and Adam.
"Brother Li Ming, come on." Seeing Li Ming hesitate, Pardo pulled him over and gathered the four of them together. "Sister Eden said she prepared a huge surprise and needs everyone's help."
"We're ready!" Cosmo and Adam said.
Su looked calm and indifferent, but Li Ming was rather confused. He did not even know what they were supposed to do. Then they headed to the basement and saw Vill-V apparently talking with Eden.
A stage had been set up in the middle of the basement. It was filled with instruments, including a piano, guitars, bass guitars, and more.
"You're here?" Eden walked over, looked at them, and smiled gently. "Thank you for the effort, everyone."
"It's nothing. Everyone's happy today." Su appeared calm, with no emotion visible on his face.
"Sister Eden believes in us, so we're very happy!" Cosmo and Adam looked full of energy.
Only Li Ming had a vague guess, but he was not sure. "So what exactly are we doing?"
Vill-V said excitedly, "A concert, of course!"
Vill-V then assigned everyone their positions. Pianist: Su. Guitarists: Cosmo and Pardo. Bassist: Adam. Drummer: Vill-V. Lead vocalist: Eden.
"So what exactly am I doing?" Li Ming pointed at himself. Vill-V then pointed him toward a spot at the highest point of the stage. "Atmosphere crew and lighting technician: Li Ming!"
Looking at that flashy, bizarre lighting console, Li Ming felt his embarrassment meter explode. Fortunately, the atmosphere crew and lighting technician should be backstage and would not appear onstage, so he relaxed a little.
Then, once everyone was in position, Li Ming was still getting familiar with the buttons when he heard Vill-V shout, "Is everyone ready? The Golden Courtyard Concert begins now!"
Li Ming was launched into the air. A huge hole opened in the ceiling, leading to the backyard. As Li Ming took off, the stage activated as well. The stage itself had been built from the broken robots originally in the backyard.
Elysia clearly knew about this plan too and had called everyone into the backyard early. Those children were the best atmosphere crew. When the lights came on, the children's eyes lit up with excitement.
They became even more excited upon seeing the people onstage. Elysia propped up her face and smiled. "My, Eden really knows how to surprise us."
"I refuse to believe you didn't know." That was Mobius. Her face darkened when she saw her Klein Intelligent Furniture dismantled beyond recognition.
Kevin, Chrono, and Hua watched from the balcony. Sakura held the newly awakened Rin, and the two sat in the living room watching through the window. Li Ming hurriedly focused the lights and turned on the music, while Vill-V shouted, "At this moment, the grand performance begins!"
However, who knew what Vill-V had added to Li Ming's control panel? Paint spraying, acceleration, flashing effects, spiraling skyward... The flood of controls made Li Ming dizzy.
His eyes turned into spirals, but Li Ming still held on until the end. He just felt incredibly nauseous.
Once the concert ended, Li Ming immediately slipped away. He could not even be found now, lest he see someone and vomit all over them.
So when Vill-V led everyone over to celebrate, they could not find him at all.
"Bleurgh!" Li Ming had just finished vomiting. He leaned against the wall and slowly sat down, his face pale. He had only just eaten, yet now he was back to square one. Li Ming was depressed to death.
It clearly had not been like this when he arrived. How had it ended up this way?
While leaning against the wall and feeling dizzy, Li Ming took the chance to enter the system and open the missions. Sure enough, "Help Chrono, the head steward, complete a banquet," "Chrono's favorability increased by 10," and "Obtain the commission for the Inscription of Annihilation" had all been marked complete.
He clicked to claim the commission reward. He had not felt Chrono's favorability at all, but he could clearly feel the Inscription of Annihilation.
A warm sensation appeared on his face. Looking into a mirror, he saw an orange-red inscription on it. The Inscription of Discipline at his neck was not very noticeable yet, but the Inscription of Annihilation was on his left cheek. It was extremely conspicuous.
This left Li Ming deeply annoyed. Fortunately, it was not too obvious. Otherwise, he would have gone looking for Chrono to fight him to the death. Why not blame the system?
Because if Chrono really beat Li Ming to death, he could use the system to run away in time.
He checked the inscription's effect: Blade Edge · Sword Tomb · Sword Scar: The lower your HP, the higher your total damage. For every 100 HP lost, total damage increases by 1.0% (maximum 180%).
After thinking it over, Li Ming felt the effect was decent enough. At least if he was at low health, he would still have a chance to turn things around instead of having no ability to resist at all.
"Brother Li Ming, come out quickly! Everyone's looking for you!" Rin knocked on the door and spoke softly.
Li Ming shook himself awake. "Okay, I'll be right out!"
After rinsing his mouth, Li Ming finally came out of the bathroom. Sakura and Rin were both outside, and Rin thoughtfully handed him a glass of milk to help him recover.
Li Ming looked at it, then took a few pastries to suppress the churning acid in his stomach.
Once Rin saw that Li Ming was alright, she pulled him over to Su. "Brother Su, please see if there's anything wrong with Brother Li Ming."
Su settled down and examined Li Ming. "Nothing is wrong. You just exercised intensely after eating, which caused physical discomfort. But with Ming's current physical condition, this should not have happened. What did you do?"
"If I said I was only dizzy from the lighting console Vill-V made, would you believe me?" Li Ming said with a bitter smile. He still felt a little nauseous and took another sip of water before managing to suppress it.
After hearing Li Ming's words, Su's mouth twitched. "The lighting console you mean is that one?"
He pointed outside at the lighting console that looked like a UFO flying through the sky, with dazzling lights, spiraling flight, and a starting speed of eighty kilometers per hour. "Vill-V couldn't find you earlier, and then the children said they wanted to ride it. So Vill-V modified it a little and took all the children up there."
"Who's up there?" Li Ming's hand trembled, and terror filled his heart. This was simply a horror scene.
"Other than Sakura, Rin, Chrono, Griseo, Aponia, you, and me, basically everyone went up."
Li Ming immediately looked at the lighting console outside, flying through the air and illuminating a hundred meters around it. His heart was filled with guilt. Sure enough, not long after, unidentified liquid sprayed out of the sky, scaring Li Ming into quickly shutting the window.
As if Aponia had foreseen it, she returned to the house. Chrono, who was in the backyard, was not so lucky. Yellow juice poured directly over his head.
Chrono touched his hair, fell silent for a moment, and did not curse. He simply walked into the house and took a shower.
Li Ming and the others silently swallowed, hoping the people up there would not suffer too badly.
But the more you did not want something to happen, the more likely it was to happen. Who knew that lighting console could accelerate a second time? Heaven knew what Vill-V had installed on it.
In any case, Li Ming watched the yellow juice that had initially appeared in tidal waves turn directly into a yellow sea. He felt that today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow were all unsuitable for going outside. Forget commissions—until this Yellow Juice Courtyard turned back into the Golden Courtyard, Li Ming absolutely would not take a single step outside this house.
Not even the Old Ancestor could stop him. I said so!
Before you continue