"You..."
Chu He was just about to speak when Kachi cut him off with a furious tirade.
"I'm Xia Yao's best friend! What you did to her in that dream was absolutely unforgivable!"
"Listen..."
"You humans have some nerve. Do you have any idea how much Xia Yao hates men?" Kachi put her hands on her hips and rose onto her tiptoes, trying her best to look more imposing. "Forget touching her—you'd turn to ash just for looking at her for more than three seconds!"
"You may be pretty good-looking, but if she finds out you didn't just look at her in the dream, but touched her, and... and slept with her..."
"And so often, too! Thirty years! Except for the year she was pregnant, you two didn't take a single day off!"
By now, Kachi's delicate little face had turned bright red. Yet her starry eyes glittered with unusual excitement.
"Listen, we—"
"I won't listen, I won't listen!" Kachi shook her head vigorously, like an unreasonable child. "The evidence is conclusive. What could you possibly have to explain?"
She suddenly wiped all expression from her face, set her little jaw, and spoke in a businesslike tone. "Let me be frank with you. I've already made a copy of your dream. If you don't want me to show it to my best friend, you have to agree to one condition."
"Right now!"
"Immediately!"
"Without delay!"
She puffed out her little chest and made a demand that Chu He never saw coming.
"Kiss me the way you kissed Xia Yao in the dream!"
No one knew how she'd endured those thirty years of watching her best friend live in blissful romance and passion night after night in the dream, all within half an hour in the real world.
And no one knew how many pairs of underwear she'd secretly changed during those thirty minutes.
Chu He stood rooted to the spot, completely stunned.
This was so ridiculous it had come full circle and arrived at the height of absurdity!
After such a long detour, with all those threats and intimidation, that had been her goal all along?
He understood in an instant.
Kachi wasn't actually angry. She was just a gossip who loved watching the drama unfold.
She still didn't know what Xia Yao and Chu He really were to each other. Her idea of her best friend was still stuck on that "keep your distance" phase.
Thinking of that, Chu He didn't feel offended at all. If anything, he found it a little funny.
"Pfft."
He couldn't help letting out a soft laugh.
Kachi, who had been brimming with righteous fury, immediately froze and looked at him in confusion. "Hey, human from Dragon Country, what are you laughing at? Did the shock make you lose your mind?"
"Nothing." Chu He shook his head and looked at her with an amused glint in his eyes. "I know you're Xia Yao's best friend."
He paused, then stated the next part as calmly as if it were a simple fact.
"But I'm Xia Yao's man."
The moment he said it, Kachi's expression changed. Her scrutiny and curiosity gave way to deep pity and sympathy.
Looks like this human had gone crazy and started talking nonsense.
"Why are you looking at me like I'm an idiot?" Chu He felt a little unnerved by her stare.
"If you're not an idiot, then who is?" Kachi sighed with a look of pity. "You say you're Xia Yao's man. Are you still dreaming, or did a fever fry your brain?"
As she spoke, she actually floated over and reached out with her fair little hand to feel Chu He's forehead.
But the instant she drew near, she abruptly froze.
Her little nose twitched twice on its own.
An incredibly familiar scent slipped into her nostrils.
It was Xia Yao's scent!
There was no mistaking it!
Kachi's starry eyes suddenly narrowed!
She couldn't hold back any longer and blurted out a curse.
"Holy crap, you really are?"
"Yeah," Chu He said. "Before we came to the library, we were lying together!"
The moment those words left his mouth, the air seemed to freeze for a second.
This time, Kachi was the one left dumbfounded.
Her starry eyes locked onto Chu He, as though she could find a trace of a lie on his face.
Several long seconds passed before she sucked in a sharp breath. A flash of realization crossed her mind!
No wonder!
No wonder the Xia Yao in the dream had felt so real! That domineering possessiveness, that peculiar way of thinking—apart from the clingy, tsundere side of her best friend that Kachi had never seen before... none of it had been made up out of thin air!
So the man standing in front of her had dreamed about a real person!
Once she understood, Kachi looked at Chu He in a completely different light.
She leaned closer, her little face brimming with barely contained excitement and curiosity. Lowering her voice by a whole octave, she looked like a sly little fox.
"How... how did you two meet?"
Chu He found her gossip-loving expression amusing, so he answered honestly. "It's a long story. We met yesterday afternoon, and by that night, we were already staying together."
"Boom—!"
Chu He's words exploded in Kachi's mind like a bomb!
Her little mouth gaped wide enough to fit an egg, and she froze solid.
Met yesterday afternoon...
Already staying together that night?
Damn! Was this really her best friend—the one who treated men like trash and claimed she'd stay single forever?
That was way too fast. Was a wish-fulfillment romance actually playing out in real life?
Kachi's brain crashed for a full half-minute before it finally rebooted.
She looked at Chu He, her eyes shining more brightly than ever, and grabbed his sleeve.
"You have to tell me every single detail!"
Just then, the Dream Gate rippled again. A blond, blue-eyed foreign survivor walked out in a daze, followed by a second, then a third...
Kachi grew anxious at once.
She didn't want these ordinary people interrupting her while she was enjoying the gossip!
With a wave of her little hand, a blank sign flew onto the information desk. A line of blood-red text appeared on it by itself: [Test over. Return to your dorms on your own. Don't touch anything on the bookshelves, or you'll face the consequences!]
After that, she didn't even glance at the trembling survivors. She grabbed Chu He by the wrist and pulled him around behind the information desk.
"Come with me!"
She pushed open an inconspicuous little door and pulled Chu He inside.
Beyond the door, the space opened up into a vast expanse.
This was Kachi's private room.
It was less a room than an observation deck built in the starry sky. There were no walls; all around them, brilliant rivers of stars slowly flowed, and countless stars flickered within arm's reach.
The floor was laid with some unknown black crystal. It felt as smooth and warm as jade beneath their feet, reflecting the starlight above.
At the center of the room was an enormous circular bed. Deep purple velvet sheets were piled high with pillows of every material and color, forming a soft little island.
Above the bed hung a canopy strung with countless tiny crystals. It refracted the starlight, casting dreamlike patterns of light across the room.
"Sit!" Kachi pointed at the big bed, then eagerly hopped onto it and settled herself among the most comfortable pile of pillows. As if by magic, she produced a brand-new hardcover notebook and a quill.
She sat cross-legged and opened the notebook on her lap, looking at Chu He with eager anticipation. "Hurry, tell me! Start with the first time you met!"
Watching her, and thinking of her gossipy nature, Chu He found himself at a loss for words.
He considered it. There was nothing to hide about what had happened with Xia Yao, and winning over her SSS-Class best friend could only do him good.
So he told her everything, from how he'd arrived in this world to how he'd met Xia Yao and how their relationship had developed step by step into what it was now.
Kachi listened with shining eyes, her quill flying across the notebook. Every so often, she gasped in amazement or giggled behind her hand, her little legs swinging excitedly.
But what intrigued her most was Chu He's unfathomable kiss. It could actually grant him the ability to obtain Anomaly Cores!
She couldn't help staring at Chu He's lips, feeling a growing desire to find out what a kiss with him tasted like—what was it about it that made even Xia Yao so captivated?
Before you continue