Slick Move

Explored worlds: League of Legends, Dungeon & Fighter, CrossFire, QQ Farm.

"I fucking knew it!"

After making up an excuse to get rid of Shen, who'd wanted to beat him up to avenge the villagers, Li Ke sat at the back of the carriage. He covered his face and stared at his system, at a complete loss for words.

Was he really at war with Tencent or something?

How could it even send him to a world based on this kind of minigame?!

He could've let the rest slide, but why had he brought back an ear of corn?

Couldn't he have brought back some useful agricultural knowledge?

And was QQ Pet going to be next?

If it really had to be a Tencent game, couldn't he send Li Ke to the world of Final Fantasy?! Or just any world where it was easy to gain supernatural powers?!

And the world of Final Fantasy had actual catgirls!

Catgirls he could do this and that with, and then that and this!

And catgirls belonged to a matriarchal society!

He could legally build a harem!

Tencent was handling the publishing anyway, and he could get right in with his Tencent account! What was the problem?!

Come on, at least let him see some catgirls!

Li Ke really wanted to flip the table. What else could the system have explored? It had given him a farm. Did that mean he could also end up in the worlds of QQ Speed, QQ Sonic, or QQ Dance?

He was a swordsman, for crying out loud—a swordsman as cold as ice and snow!

Farming! Dancing! Rollerblading! Racing! Competing in pet contests!

Did that make any sense?!

Did it?!

No, it didn't!

"...Forget it. Thinking it over, this might be a high-yield seed. After all, in that dream, this thing was ready to harvest in just a few hours. It ought to be a pretty formidable weapon."

Li Ke took a deep breath, pushed those thoughts aside, and sighed as he prepared to put the ear of corn away. Whatever else, it was a treasure he'd brought back from that world. There was a good chance it had inherited that ability to ripen in just a few hours.

And if it really did, he could change the fate of the whole world.

But just then, he noticed something was off.

"Why does this corn smell so good?"

Li Ke peeled back the bright green husks, and then...

Then he saw the golden kernels, which gave off a rich corn aroma. Even Shen, driving the carriage up ahead, couldn't help turning to look.

"Whoa, when did you roast that? So fast?! And it smells amazing!"

Shen wasn't all that surprised that Li Ke had corn. He knew Li Ke had a flaming longsword; he was just curious about how quickly he'd cooked it.

But Li Ke's face had gone black as the bottom of a pot.

Bringing back an ear of corn was bad enough, but it was fucking cooked!

Fine, fine. Why let my anger give someone else the satisfaction...

Li Ke took several deep breaths, split the ear of corn—which was still bright green on the outside but cooked inside—in half, and handed one piece to Shen. Then he started munching on the other.

Shen hesitated. He'd been taught from childhood not to eat anything stolen or taken by force.

"This doesn't feel right... It was stolen, after all..."

Li Ke shoved half the ear of corn into his mouth, shutting the annoying guy up.

Shen tried to spit it out, but the next moment, he was stunned by its taste. The aroma, the sweetness—it was a wonderful flavor he'd never experienced before!

He'd never eaten corn this delicious in his life!

He pulled the corn out of his mouth, looking like a roasted pig with it sticking out of his face. His expression shifted back and forth as he felt Li Ke had corrupted him yet again.

He even felt a surge of dread.

"Could it be..."

Was stolen corn really tastier?

He felt as though he were standing on a cliff's edge. One tiny step farther, one more bite of corn, and he'd plunge into an unfathomably deep abyss, becoming someone he no longer recognized.

Li Ke saw what he was thinking. As he ate the corn, which was bizarrely delicious, he added, "I bought it! Go ahead and eat!"

"Oh."

Shen immediately started eating happily. Li Ke couldn't help thinking how easy this guy was to fool.

But Shen only cared that it wasn't stolen. Whether it really wasn't stolen...

Did he know?

He didn't!

The future of the Kinkou Order was truly worrying.

However, while the two of them were munching on corn, a great flock of birds suddenly took flight from the distant woods. Li Ke and Shen exchanged a look, then acted as if they hadn't noticed and continued onward.

But Li Ke quietly edged closer to his spear, while Shen chewed faster.

Li Ke glanced at the corn in his hand, then at the woods in the distance. He didn't know how those Noxian assassins had found them or how they'd gotten ahead of them, but...

He couldn't help thinking it was pretty stupid to blunder into the woods like they were in a wuxia movie, despite knowing there were assassins and traps inside.

So he considered the spiritual energy he had left—barely enough for one simulation—and narrowed his eyes.

"So the 'simulation' you get when you level up doesn't cost anything, and it even gives you an extra world... It's useful, but not by much. Still, it's just what I need right now."

Li Ke didn't care much about getting another world. He could search for new worlds on his own whenever he wanted; it just cost spiritual energy.

But a free simulation after leveling up was at least somewhat useful.

He just didn't know whether he could level up again in the future, or what sort of effects further upgrades might have.

Right now, though, he obviously had to deal with the trouble ahead.

Simulations weren't guaranteed to come true. He'd made it through the ordeal with ease in the simulation, but this was reality. It never hurt to be careful!

So...

Li Ke focused his mind on his spiritual world, slipped into the Void, and chose to blur his memories.

Year one: You were born, a healthy baby boy.

Year two: You grew up strong and healthy.

Year three: You grew up strong and healthy.

Year eighteen: You joined Global Risk.

Year nineteen: You were caught in a zombie crisis. You died in the horde while protecting the public.

Based on this simulation, you received the following rewards. Choose one to claim:

1. Maximum health slowly increased by 10; vitality: 20 points.

2. Full set of Global Risk equipment

3. Slightly increased favorability with the entire Fox Hunter mercenary organization.

Without hesitation, Li Ke chose option two. He pretended to take the items out of the pack on his back, then handed a grenade to Shen, who'd been watching his pack with curiosity.

"Do you know how to use this? You don't? See this pin? Pull it out, then throw it into those woods right away."

Shen glanced at Li Ke's pack, curious about how he'd managed to fit all this stuff inside. But he was even more curious about what the items were.

"What's this thing? And what's this one? They look so strange."

Shen stared at the high-explosive grenade in his hand, curiously tugging at the pin. He even picked up the pistol Li Ke had set aside and pointed the barrel at his own eye to examine it.

Li Ke was silent for a moment, then said, "A Piltover short sword."