Na'er: I Didn't Sleep At All

After the meal, the atmosphere in the living room was relaxed.

Leng Yaozhu, Leng Qingning, and Le Lingzhao, the three elders, sat on one side of the sofa, chatting about adult gossip.

Na'er was curled up in the soft sofa, holding a large bag of snacks in her arms, her little mouth moving incessantly as she ate with great relish.

An Lan lay down on a separate sofa and took out his Soul Tool phone.

With a light tap of his fingertip, the familiar startup sound played slowly—

"TiMi~"

How pleasant it is to play a round after a meal, he sighed inwardly, preparing to begin his moment of relaxation for the day.

Na'er, who had been tilting her head back to devour beef jerky, pricked up her ears. Instantly drawn by the novel sound, she leaned over with a snack still in her mouth, her clear eyes filled with curiosity as she examined An Lan's phone interface.

"What is this?" she asked vaguely while chewing.

Seeing this, An Lan took his spare phone from his storage Soul Tool and handed it to her: "A game. Want to play?"

Na'er glanced quickly at the unopened snacks on the sofa, weighed the options for a moment, and then nodded solemnly: "Play!"

Na'er took the Soul Tool phone and, as if she were naturally gifted with such things, immediately selected an icon featuring the portrait of a stunning blonde girl.

"TiMi~"

The pleasant prompt sound rang out once more.

Na'er's eyes lit up, and she asked curiously, "Who is printed on this square?"

"Qian Renxue," An Lan replied casually.

"Who is Qian Renxue?"

"A character in the game," An Lan could only explain it this way.

"Oh." Na'er seemed to understand, though she didn't press further.

When it came time to create an account and set a nickname, her fingertips tapped rapidly, and a line of text leaped onto the screen—Naive Cute Tear.

Fearing she would drag him down, An Lan didn't intend to play with her, so he said, "Familiarize yourself with the gameplay first. Once you're skilled, I'll take you to play."

With that, he contacted Yuanen Yehui, and the two formed a team to play together, roaming through Douluo Canyon.

The next morning.

An Lan woke from his sleep, stretched a long yawn, and sat still for a moment until the grogginess of waking up gradually faded.

After washing up and getting ready, he pushed open his bedroom door and stepped out.

As expected, apart from Na'er's door remaining tightly shut, Leng Yaozhu, Leng Qingning, and Le Lingzhao had already left together.

During yesterday's chat, Leng Yaozhu learned that An Lan had never entered the Spirit Ascension Platform, so she had specifically arranged for him and Na'er to challenge the primary Spirit Ascension Platform today.

At this hour, she was surely already waiting with his two mentors at a certain location for him and Na'er.

An Lan sat at the dining table, enjoying his still-warm breakfast while taking out his Soul Tool phone to send a message to Na'er.

To his surprise, Na'er replied almost instantly, and she was playing quite well.

[Immortal King: Are you awake?]

[Na'er: Awake.]

[Immortal King: That's good. I was worried you'd stay up late addicted to the game.]

[Na'er: I didn't stay up late; I didn't sleep at all.]

[Na'er:(●ˇ∀ˇ●)]

[Immortal King:...]

[Immortal King: Get up quickly. We're going to challenge the Spirit Ascension Platform in a bit.]

After typing the last word, An Lan put away his Soul Tool phone.

Seeing Na'er spending money like crazy in the game yesterday, he had felt something was off.

After all, the money she spent was no small sum; just what he had seen with his own eyes was enough for her to buy two thousand catties of chicken cartilage.

For a foodie to be willing to spend money on game top-ups instead of buying food was extremely abnormal.

Now it seemed his guess was spot on.

And she hadn't even planned on staying up late; she had pulled an all-nighter.

"Games are truly harmful," An Lan remarked casually.

The next moment, he quickly contacted his manager and instructed him to release a few more limited-edition skins this month.

An Lan considered himself kind-hearted; he priced every skin ridiculously high, targeting only Spirit Masters and leaving ordinary people alone.

He said this because, even with the highly developed Soul Tool technology of today, Spirit Masters still made up a very small percentage of the human population, with the vast majority being ordinary people living mundane lives.

Ordinary people scrambled for a living, barely making ends meet, while Spirit Masters were completely different; even those with low cultivation could basically achieve financial freedom.

Take the famous braised beef incident, for example: that little thug Guang Long, a mere two-ring Spirit Master, dared to run rampant in the city, collecting protection money and bullying ordinary citizens at will.

At this point, a clever person might wonder: with Guang Long's cultivation being so lowly, how has he not been beaten to death yet? Is it not because he relies on the influence of his brother, Guang Biao, the captain of the Eastsea City mecha brigade?

This statement seems correct on the surface, but in reality, it is not entirely true.

Do not think that just because Guang Biao was easily dealt with by Wu Zhangkong later, he was a nobody.

The mecha brigade is a legitimate division-level organization with a full hundred mechas under its command. As the captain, Guang Biao was the highest-ranking local military officer and the head of the military.

On the surface, it is because Guang Long has a big tree to lean on that he dares to act so unscrupulously.

But looking deeper, Guang Long is, at the very least, a Brahmin-level figure in this county, yet he still engages in the low-profit, demeaning business of collecting protection money.

This precisely reflects the most authentic ecological gap between ordinary people and soul masters in this world—soul masters are born superior, and bullying ordinary people is seen by many as a matter of course.

Therefore, An Lan harvests his leeks with a clear conscience.

Before long, Na'er's door opened gently from the inside.

The young girl's silver hair was slightly messy, with a stubborn cowlick sticking up on her head. Far from showing any fatigue from staying up all night, she looked vibrant and full of energy.

She walked quickly to the seat opposite An Lan and began to devour her breakfast.

Of course, the portion of breakfast was not even enough to get stuck in the teeth of a big eater like Na'er; it was purely for the sake of ritual.

In less than two and a half minutes, the two finished their breakfast and headed out together.

Outside the door, the sisters Bai Haoze and Bai Zhicen had already been waiting for a long time.

Seeing the two appear, Bai Haoze stepped forward and said, "An Lan, Na'er, Heavenly Phoenix has ordered us to wait here and take you both to the rendezvous point."

"Understood, thank you for the trouble, sisters." An Lan nodded slightly, responding politely.

Yesterday, the distance had been too great for him to look closely, but today, being closer, he noticed that although the twin sisters looked identical and were difficult for ordinary people to distinguish, their eye colors were different.

One had clear azure blue eyes, and the other had light emerald green eyes, each with its own charm.

Seeing An Lan's gaze shifting between her face and her sister's, Bai Zhicen immediately understood what he was thinking. She leaned over with a light laugh and pointed to her emerald green eyes, saying, "Little An Lan, remember this: I am Bai Zhicen, my pupils are green, and Bai Haoze is my older sister."

Bai Haoze, standing to the side, also covered her mouth and chuckled, "I am Bai Haoze, my pupils are blue, and Bai Zhicen is my younger sister."

After saying this, she sighed with emotion, "When you were little, we both held you. In the blink of an eye, you've grown so big."

Hearing this, An Lan instinctively scratched his head, his face full of confusion as he muttered to himself, Why does it feel like everyone has held the younger version of me?