Cui Xiaoyu

Mo Tan woke up at 8:00 AM the next day. Usually, his routine was very regular, but he slept in for almost an hour longer than usual. The main reason, of course, was the [Innocent World], which he had become slightly addicted to these past few days. The awakening function of the game pod inevitably had some impact on his biological clock. After all, humans are one of the most prone-to-dependency creatures, especially on things that can obviously make their lives much easier.

It's like how your dexterity deteriorates after getting used to some weird, fully automatic toilet...

Ahem, I digress.

In short, Mo Tan was aware of this, but he didn't really care. After all, a relatively stable routine didn't mean much to this active college student who hadn't shown his face at school in a long time. Besides, he had basically been playing games recently and didn't have any other plans, so sleeping in a few hours wasn't a problem.

What's more, his current personality was the most agreeable one...

"Looks like I really did sleep obediently," Mo Tan muttered, sitting up in bed with his hair all messed up. It was clear that he was very relieved not to wake up and find himself lying in the game pod.

Like most of us, he indulgently flopped back onto the bed, hugged his phone, and lazed around for a good while before reluctantly getting dressed and dragging himself into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. During this process, he barely opened his eyes...

Then he went into the kitchen, and after taking a quick look at the remaining ingredients, he started preparing breakfast while planning when to go grocery shopping, subconsciously calculating his daily expenses and the expiration dates of discounted foods.

As mentioned before, Mo Tan lived a relatively frugal life. To be honest, this was quite reasonable for any young person living alone and still studying, but it did seem a bit out of place for him.

After all, putting aside everything else, his hacking skills and his ability to extort people in certain states were enough to ensure that Mo Tan would never have to worry about food or clothing...

The problem was simple. First of all, he originally didn't have to worry about food or clothing anyway. No one had ever seen Mo Tan go hungry or freeze himself.

Secondly, although Mo Tan had many ways to make money, he also had several significant fixed expenses. The most pressing of these was his extreme computer. The hardware updates every so often were not cheap, especially since a certain secondhand dealer he knew usually got him whatever was the most expensive...

Finally, there was the issue of his personality.

To put it simply, Mo Tan in the [Chaotic Neutral] state valued mental pleasure the most, not things like truffle foie gras caviar. A bottle of '82 Lafite and a bag of $8.20 coffee were not much different to him. He didn't mind material enjoyment, but he never actively sought it out, because that kind of thing didn't give him any 'fun'. Of course, if there was something he was interested in that required spending money, then he would definitely not be stingy...

Then there's [Lawful Good]. When Mo Tan was in this state, he almost never pursued anything material. Although the reasons were different from the previous state, he was still the type to pursue some kind of 'spiritual food' at this time.

Finally, there's the [Absolute Neutral] personality state that Mo Tan was currently in. At this time, he was no different from ordinary people. He didn't want to eat bad food if there was good food available, and he wanted to make himself comfortable rather than suffer. He actually yearned for those luxury cars, villas, and pretty girls (scratch that)...

But at the same time, he also had a lot of concerns, and he was easygoing enough. Although he hoped to have more money on hand, he avoided things that were somewhat risky or put too much pressure on him. Besides, he didn't mind his current life, because it allowed him to keep a low profile...

There is no one in this world without desires, but everyone's needs are different. At least for Mo Tan, this kind of lifestyle was pretty good.

Of course, people are fickle, and Mo Tan, who was inherently self-contradictory, was no exception. So you never know when he might suddenly have a whim to mess around and make a lot of money, then get himself some luxury cars, villas, and beautiful women...

But you probably won't see that in this book.

So, digression over, let's get back to the story.

After Mo Tan finished his breakfast and was about to turn on his computer to browse the forums and watch some anime, his doorbell rang.

"Buddy! I brought some friends to hang out with you!"

Yi Dong's voice rang out outside the door.

So Mo Tan adjusted his mental state, then reluctantly got up to open the door...

"Oh, you guys are getting along so well." After opening the door, Mo Tan glanced at Yi Dong and Wan Yang, whom he had met at the party the other day, with some surprise, then smiled at another person he hadn't seen before: "And this is?"

This brother was probably close to 1.9 meters tall and had a very sturdy build. However, unlike Wan Yang, who was also tall and strong, he didn't have that slightly arrogant aura. Instead, he gave people a very restrained feeling. He had a rather delicate face and wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses, looking quite sunny and intellectual...

For some reason, Mo Tan felt that he exuded a kind of... uh... a vibe of a nagging old woman...

"Let us in first~" Yi Dong shrugged: "I've been accompanying these two outside for almost a whole morning."

Mo Tan nodded, let the others into the living room, then took a few cups and a bottle of juice that was about to expire but hadn't expired yet, and sat down with the three of them around the coffee table.

"Hey!" Wan Yang winked at him: "Long time no see~ Although it's only been a few days."

Mo Tan smiled at him kindly. Wan Yang had left a good impression on him that day~

"Nice to meet you." The guy Mo Tan hadn't met before extended his hand to Mo Tan: "I'm Cui Xiaoyu. I was supposed to go to the party that day, but I was delayed due to some uncontrollable reasons."

Yi Dong leaned over and added: "The 'Xiao' in 'little cutie', the 'Yu' in 'sleet'."

Mo Tan's smile froze.

Cui Xiaoyu...

This brother's name doesn't quite match the way he looks!

"Uh..." Cui Xiaoyu chuckled dryly and spread his hands: "My parents originally wanted to name me Cui Xiaoyu, but it seems like the person at the household registration office misheard it, and as a result..."

Mo Tan scratched his cheek with his index finger: "You should be able to change it, right?"

"Yeah, I can change it. My dad was originally planning to change it for me directly." Cui Xiaoyu sighed: "But at that time, I had a somewhat superstitious grandpa who was freeloading at our house. He did a divination for me, and so, Cui Xiaoyu—auspicious."

Mo Tan felt a little panicked...

"And then your dad compromised?" Yi Dong asked with a suppressed laugh. This was the first time he had heard this newly acquainted friend mention this.

Cui Xiaoyu shook his head with a bitter face: "No, I heard my mom compromised, but my dad was still not willing to give up, so..."

"So?" The curiosity of the three was piqued.

"So, supposedly, he also did a superstitious calculation for my name." Cui Xiaoyu looked like he had lost all hope in life: "And then he compromised."

The atmosphere became very heavy for a moment...

If this brother was weak and effeminate, it would be fine, but with his extremely incongruous appearance, anyone would have some psychological shadow!

"Ahem." Mo Tan quickly changed the subject and asked Yi Dong: "You've been pretty free lately."

Yi Dong leaned back on the sofa and said with a smile: "I guess so. The gathering on my family's side hasn't ended yet. Xiaoyu just arrived yesterday. When I picked him up at the station, I felt that he was in a bad mood, so I asked Wan Yang to accompany him around. We just happened to pass by your house."

"I'm finding the daytime too boring now," Wan Yang said, spreading his hands. "Playing Innocent World at night is incredibly fulfilling, though."

Yi Dong's eyes lit up immediately. "Yeah! My nightlife has never been this rich!"

The three of them were speechless for a moment, and then...

"Innocent World, huh?" Cui Xiaoyu suddenly sighed, sounding utterly dejected. "It's no fun at all."

Wan Yang was taken aback. "You play too?"

"Heh." Cui Xiaoyu instantly transformed into a Xianglin Woman, a palpable aura of resentment swirling behind him as he gave a dry laugh. "I used to love it..."

Then, as if entering a sage mode, he lowered his head and fiddled with his phone.

"Speaking of which, you've been way too busy lately," Yi Dong said, rolling his eyes at Mo Tan. "You promised to meet up in a public space last time and then bailed on me, though I guess it's understandable."

He knew about Mo Tan's situation most of the time, so he was indeed quite understanding.

"I've added you several times too," Wan Yang chimed in. "Every time, it says there's no corresponding online character. Mo Tan, did you quit the game or something?"

Mo Tan immediately shook his head. "No, I've just been busy with other things lately and haven't had much time to play. I'll add you guys when I'm online next time. You two are on every day, right?"

The two nodded.

"I used to be on every day too," Cui Xiaoyu's tone was filled with despair as he shook his head vigorously while muttering, "I quit, I quit..."

The three of them wisely didn't ask any further questions, and then chatted casually for a while. During this process, Mo Tan discovered something quite coincidental.

He remembered that when he was using the character 'Tan Mo', the red-haired Orc who pulled him away when he deliberately mistook someone in the public space to provoke Shuangye was actually Wan Yang.

The latter regarded it as encountering someone with a mental illness and had just been complaining about it for a while...

Of course, in a sense, he wasn't wrong.

In the afternoon, the three said their goodbyes and left. During this time, Cui Xiaoyu had been looking like he had no will to live. Although he had chatted a lot and made a good impression, he was always surrounded by that desolate and world-weary aura. In Mo Tan's eyes, his departing figure looked just like Xianglin Woman...

More than half an hour later, Mo Tan, having undergone a personality shift, went out, fed the stray cats and dogs, and then returned home to browse the forums.

He was feeling a bit troubled, the reason being that previous conjecture about the 'two-hour gap'. If there really was 'that possibility', he had to find a way to solve it. So, as soon as he got home, he immediately started searching for information on a certain aspect in the Innocent World forum...

He didn't find any relevant information, but in the process, he saw a post that was pinned high at the top of the general section.

The title was Malice from All Over the World, and the poster's ID was: Slaughtered Like a God.

When he clicked on it, Mo Tan realized that he had seen this poster's post before. It was an informative post about death penalties from a few days ago.

It briefly explained the cost of dying in Innocent World, which was basically equivalent to deleting your account and starting over. The system would randomly generate a new race and starting location for the dead player, and all previous items and experience would disappear, which was as serious as it could get.

Today's post, however, was a venting post, basically saying how miserable, how pitiful, and how unlucky the poster was, how many epic tragedies they had experienced from the start of the beta test until now, and finally expressing their decision to quit the game, cherish life from now on, and stay away from games.

However...

Because the post had received a large number of encouragements and supportive messages in the short few hours after it was posted, the poster seemed to have perked up slightly in their most recent reply, saying that they might consider giving the game another chance.

Mo Tan felt that he couldn't let this unlucky kid suddenly lose their dream, so he also replied simply to the first floor, with comments along the lines of 'Heaven is about to assign a great task to this person, and will surely torment them, disgust them, ruin them, and hurt them', hoping that the poster would believe that as long as they kept fighting after repeated defeats, they would eventually be rewarded for their suffering...

Then he continued his information gathering and, after spending two fruitless hours, turned off the computer and lay down in the game pod.

[Your mental connection has been detected. Verifying personal information...]
[Connection complete. Loading character information.]
[Welcome back, Lawful Good Mo. Loading Innocent World. Good night.]

When Mo Tan appeared in a corner of Anka Market, the largest trading area in the Northwest Continent had already woken up. The merchants and travelers coming and going were endless, making it very lively.

There were still two days before the Wood Sprite Elder said someone would come to pick him up. Mo Tan planned to stay away from danger as much as possible during this time, hoping to complete that world quest safely.

But at the same time, he also hoped to improve his strength a little. After all, the strengths of the Tan Mo and Hei Fan characters were much stronger than Mo's, especially after the former had just completed the unique quest 'Destroy "Hero" Dave', which directly raised his Trickster class to level five, while this character was still just a level one warrior...

Suddenly feeling very tired, Mo Tan thought for a moment and then walked towards the Adventurers' Guild, secretly resolving to seriously complete a few quests today!

But at this moment, he suddenly heard a loud, approaching, drawn-out, crisp, and cute... call.

"Woof!!"

Chapter 44: The End

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