Cui Xiaoyu

When Mo Tan woke up, it was already past eight in the morning the next day. His daily routine was usually very regular, but he had slept nearly an hour longer than usual. The main reason was naturally Innocent World, which had captivated him somewhat over the past few days. The game pod's wake-up function would inevitably affect his biological clock to some extent. After all, humans were one of the creatures most prone to dependence, especially when it came to things that could obviously make their lives much more convenient.

Just like how one's ability to do housework would decline after getting used to some bizarre fully automatic toilet...

Ahem, I'll stop there.

In any case, Mo Tan had noticed this as well, but he didn't really care. After all, maintaining a relatively stable schedule wasn't particularly meaningful for an active university student who rarely showed up at school, and he had basically been playing games lately without any other arrangements. Sleeping and waking a few hours later than usual wasn't a problem.

Besides, his current personality was the most agreeable one of them all...

"Looks like I really had been going to bed obediently before this." Mo Tan sat up from the bed with his hair in a mess and muttered. He was clearly relieved that he hadn't opened his eyes to find himself lying in the game pod.

Like most of us, he was very forgiving toward himself. He collapsed back onto the bed, hugged his phone, and took a good while to recover before sluggishly getting dressed. Reluctantly, he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face. During the entire process, he barely opened his eyes...

Then he went into the kitchen. After briefly inspecting the ingredients left at home, he began preparing breakfast while calculating when he should go shopping. At the same time, he subconsciously started working out his daily consumption and the shelf lives of discounted food and such.

As mentioned before, Mo Tan lived a relatively frugal life. To be honest, that was perfectly reasonable for any young person living alone while still studying, but it seemed somewhat incongruous when applied to him.

After all, setting everything else aside, his hacking skills and his ability to extort people in certain states were more than enough to keep him well fed and clothed...

The reason was simple. First, he was already well fed and clothed. After all, no one had ever seen Mo Tan go hungry or freeze.

Second, although Mo Tan had plenty of ways to make money, he also had several substantial fixed expenses. Chief among them was his extreme computer. The hardware upgrades alone cost no small sum every so often, to say nothing of the fact that the secondhand dealer he knew usually got him the most expensive versions of everything...

Finally, there was his personality.

Put simply, what Mo Tan valued most while in a Chaotic Neutral state was spiritual pleasure, not things like truffles, foie gras, or caviar. To him, a bottle of '82 Lafite and a bag of coffee costing eight yuan and twenty cents were hardly any different. He didn't reject material pleasures, but he never actively pursued them either, because such things offered him no "fun." Of course, if something he was interested in required money, he wouldn't hesitate to spend it...

Then there was Lawful Good. When Mo Tan was in that state, he almost never pursued material things. Although the reason differed from that in the previous state, he was still the sort of person who sought a certain kind of "spiritual sustenance."

Finally, there was Absolute Neutral, the personality Mo Tan was currently in. In this state, he wasn't much different from an ordinary person. He didn't want to eat bad food when good food was available, and he didn't want to make things hard on himself if he could live more comfortably. Luxury cars, villas, and beautiful women—cross that out—were things he rather yearned for as well...

However, he also had many concerns, and he was sufficiently content to go with the flow. Although he hoped to have more money on hand, he avoided anything that carried some risk or placed too much pressure on him. Besides, he didn't mind his current lifestyle. After all, it allowed him to keep a relatively low profile...

There was no one in this world without desires. It was simply that everyone's needs were different. At least for Mo Tan, this pace of life was quite nice.

Of course, people were fickle, and Mo Tan—who was severely self-contradictory—was no exception. Thus, there was no telling whether he might suddenly get the urge to mess around, amass a fortune, and buy himself luxury cars, villas, and gorgeous women...

In any case, that probably wouldn't happen in this book.

With that detour over, let's return to the main topic.

After Mo Tan finished breakfast and turned 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 came from outside.

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

"Oh, you two have gotten that close already?" After opening the door, Mo Tan looked rather surprised when he saw Yi Dong and Wan Yang, whom he had met at the gathering that day. Then he smiled at another person he hadn't seen before. "And this is?"

The fellow standing before him was nearly 1.9 meters tall and had a sturdy build. However, unlike the equally tall and robust Wan Yang, he didn't have even a trace of that slightly rebellious air. Instead, he gave off a very reserved feeling. His rather handsome face was framed by black-rimmed glasses, and he looked sunny and refined...

For some reason, though, Mo Tan felt that he radiated a... uh... Xianglin-sao sort of aura...

"Let's get inside first~" Yi Dong shrugged. "I've been wandering around outside with these two for almost an entire morning."

Mo Tan nodded and let them into the living room. He then brought over several cups and a bottle of fruit juice that was almost expired but not quite, and sat down with the three of them around the tea table.

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

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

"Nice to meet you." The young man Mo Tan hadn't met before extended a hand. "I'm Cui Xiaoyu. I was supposed to attend that gathering too, but I was delayed by some uncontrollable circumstances."

Yi Dong leaned over and added, "Xiaoyu as in cute little, and Yu as in sleet."

Mo Tan's smile instantly froze.

Cui Xiaoyu...

That guy's name really didn't match his appearance at all!

"Uh..." Cui Xiaoyu gave an awkward laugh and spread his hands. "My parents originally wanted to name me Cui Xiaoyu, but apparently the person registering it misheard them, and then..."

Mo Tan scratched his cheek with his index finger. "Can't you change it?"

"Yeah, I can. My dad originally planned to take me to change it right away." Cui Xiaoyu sighed. "But at the time, my somewhat superstitious grandfather happened to be over for a meal. He told my fortune, and then—Cui Xiaoyu, extremely auspicious."

Mo Tan felt a little uneasy...

"Then your dad gave in?" Yi Dong asked, barely holding back his laughter. This was also the first time he had heard the story from this friend he had only recently met.

Cui Xiaoyu shook his head bitterly. "No. I heard my mom gave in, but my dad still wasn't willing to accept it, so..."

"So?" The other three became interested.

"So apparently he also mysteriously calculated the fortune of my name himself." Cui Xiaoyu wore an expression of utter despair. "Then he gave in."

The atmosphere became extremely heavy for a while...

If this guy had been weak and effeminate, then fine. But with such an incredibly incongruous appearance, anyone would inevitably develop some psychological trauma looking at him!

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

Yi Dong leaned back halfway on the sofa and laughed. "More or less. The gathering on the elders' side hasn't ended yet. Xiaoyu only arrived yesterday. When I went to meet him at the station, he seemed to be in a bad mood, so I asked Wan Yang to accompany him around today. We happened to pass by your place."

"Daytime is just too boring now." Wan Yang spread his hands. "Playing Innocent World at night is much more fulfilling."

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

The three of them fell silent, and then...

"Innocent World, huh?" Cui Xiaoyu suddenly sighed lifelessly. "It's not fun at all."

Wan Yang was stunned. "You play too?"

"Heh heh." Cui Xiaoyu instantly transformed into Xianglin-sao. An almost tangible resentment seemed to coil behind him as he gave a hollow laugh. "I used to love it..."

Then, as though he had entered sage mode, he lowered his head and fiddled with his phone.

"Speaking of which, you've been way too busy lately." Yi Dong rolled his eyes at Mo Tan. "You promised we'd meet in the public space last time, then stood me up. Though I can understand it."

He knew most of Mo Tan's circumstances, so he really was fairly open-minded about it.

"I added you several times too," Wan Yang chimed in. "Every time, I got a notification saying there was no corresponding character online. Mo Tan, don't tell me you quit?"

Mo Tan immediately shook his head. "No. I've just been busy with some other things lately and haven't had much time to play. I'll add you both next time I log on. You two should be on every day, right~?"

The two of them nodded.

"I was on every day before too." Cui Xiaoyu's voice was full of despair. He shook his head vigorously as he mumbled, "I quit, I quit..."

The three of them wisely didn't ask any further. They chatted casually for a while, during which Mo Tan discovered a rather coincidental fact.

Remember when he had been using the character Tan Mo and had deliberately mistaken someone for another person in the public space to provoke Shuangye? The red-haired Orc who had come over to restrain him turned out to be Wan Yang.

Wan Yang had taken it as encountering someone with a mental illness and had just spent quite some time complaining about it...

Of course, in a certain sense, he hadn't been wrong.

In the afternoon, the three of them said their goodbyes and left. During their time there, Cui Xiaoyu had maintained his lifeless expression. Although he had chatted quite a bit and left a good impression, that desolate, weathered aura had never left him. Even his departing silhouette looked like Xianglin-sao to Mo Tan...

More than half an hour later, after switching personalities once, Mo Tan went out to feed the stray cats and dogs. When he returned home, he began browsing the forums.

He was feeling somewhat irritated because of that earlier theory about the "two-hour gap." If that possibility truly existed, he had to find a way to resolve it. Thus, as soon as he got home, he began searching the Innocent World forums for information related to it...

He didn't find any relevant information. During the process, however, he came across a post pinned at the very top of the General section.

The title was "Malice from Around the World," and the poster's ID was Killed by Supergodlike Slaughter.

When he clicked on it, Mo Tan realized that he had seen this poster's work before. It had been an introductory post about death penalties from several days ago.

It briefly explained the price of death in Innocent World, which was essentially equivalent to deleting one's character and starting over. The system would randomly assign a new race and starting location to a player who died, while all their previous items and experience would disappear. It was practically as severe as it could get.

Today's post, meanwhile, was an emotional rant. It was basically about how miserable, pitiful, and unlucky the poster was, describing all the moving tragedies he had experienced from the day the game launched until now. In the end, he announced that he had decided to go AFK, cherish his life, and stay away from games.

However...

Because he had received a large amount of support and encouragement in the few hours after publishing the post, the poster seemed to have perked up somewhat in his latest reply. He stated that he might consider giving the game another chance.

Mo Tan felt that he couldn't simply let this unlucky fellow lose his dreams, so he also left a brief reply. The gist was something along the lines of, "When Heaven entrusts a great task to a man, it will torture him, disgust him, break him, and hurt him," and he hoped the poster would believe that if he kept fighting after every defeat, he would eventually make it through the bitterness and enjoy the sweetness...

Then he continued gathering information. After spending two completely fruitless hours, he shut down the computer and lay down inside the game pod.

Your mental connection has been detected. Confirming personal information...

Connection complete. Reading character information.

Welcome back, Lawful Good Mo. Innocent World will load shortly. Good night.

When Mo Tan appeared in a corner of Anka Market, this largest trading district on the Northwest Continent had already awakened. Merchants and travelers came and went in an endless stream, making the place extremely lively.

There were still two days until the time the Forest Spirit elder had said someone would come to receive him. Mo Tan planned to stay away from danger as much as possible during this period and complete that world quest safely.

At the same time, he also wanted to improve his strength a little. After all, the strength of the characters Tan Mo and Hei Fan had both increased considerably, while this character was still only a level-one warrior. This was especially true after Tan Mo had just completed the unique quest "Destroy the Hero Dave," which had directly raised his Deceiver class to level five...

Feeling suddenly exhausted, Mo Tan thought for a moment before heading toward the Adventurers' Guild. He secretly resolved that today, he would complete several quests properly!

Just then, he suddenly heard a loud, distant-yet-approaching, drawn-out, clear, melodious, adorable... call.

"Woof!!"