So You Didn't Notice?

Lu Xiu looked at Jian Li, still curious, but didn't force her to say anything out of curiosity.

This is inappropriate.

Scars are something like that.

It can't be healed simply by someone forcibly tearing it open.

If you're really curious, just ask someone else.

Thinking of this...

Lu Xiu withdrew her gaze, pushed herself up from the floor with both hands, and stood up.

"Alright, stop being so sentimental."

Lu Xiu extended a fair hand and offered it to Jian Li: "Get up. I can't keep sitting with you in the entryway as punishment, can I? Also, don't sit alone like that next time. If you're really feeling unwell, come find me. You're usually quite frequent visitors to my place, so why are you sitting alone today?"

Jian Li tilted her head slightly, looking at Lu Xiu, who was standing there gracefully.

Under the bright lights, Lu Xiu's beautiful eyes held no extraneous emotions; she simply gazed at her, her eyes clear and pure.

Jian Li slowly raised her hand and grasped Lu Xiu's outstretched hand; the moment their fingertips touched.

She discovered that Lu Xiu's hands were really soft and warm.

Lu Xiu exerted a little force.

With Lu Xiu's help, Jian Li slowly stood up.

Next.

She looked down and subconsciously reached out to straighten the slightly disheveled hem of her pleated skirt.

Seeing this, Lu Xiu naturally bent down again, stretched out her fair hand, and gently patted the places she hadn't paid attention to before.

This time, I also brushed the dust off her fair thighs.

Don't sit on the floor next time.

As Lu Xiu patted the dust off, she said helplessly, "There's dust everywhere. It's okay on the hem of your skirt, I can just pat it off, but it's on your legs too. Your legs are so white they're almost blinding, so it's too obvious if there's dust on them."

Jian Li lowered her eyes, looking at Lu Xiu's natural movements, her eyes filled with a strange expression.

She let Lu Xiu help her clean herself up.

As Lu Xiu straightened up, Jian Li's gaze naturally fell on Lu Xiu's fitted jeans. The jeans perfectly hugged her beautiful curves, but because they had just sat together on the entryway floor without any restraint, the originally clean jeans, especially the area around the buttocks, were covered with obvious grayish-white dust.

It's quite eye-catching even on dark fabrics.

Following Lu Xiu's example, Jian Li bent down slightly, reached out her slender hand, and gently patted the dust off Lu Xiu's clothes.

But this sudden movement caused Lu Xiu's delicate body to freeze instantly.

Then.

She jolted awake, and like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, she hopped forward a small step and turned around.

A faint blush appeared on her originally fair and pretty face at a visible speed, and she said shyly, "Don't touch me, don't touch me----"

Jian Li remained in the position of reaching out her hand, a hint of confusion flashing across her face.

"I feel something's off."

Lu Xiu took a deep breath, suppressing her strange feeling. "I'll do it myself."

Jian Li looked at Lu Xiu, who had recoiled like a startled cat: "But you just now—"

Mingming also took a picture for me.

And the action was so natural.

Why is there such a strong reaction when it's my turn to help?

"This is different."

Lu Xiu understood the unspoken implication in her words. After a moment of silence, she said, "I hate it when other people touch me—it's too much trouble. I don't know what I ate before, but I'm developing all over—never mind."

Lu Xiu didn't continue the conversation, but instead abruptly changed the subject. "Do you have anything to drink here?"

Seeing Lu Xiu's unusually shy expression.

Jian Li's hand, which was suspended in mid-air, paused slightly. She pursed her glossy red lips, and a strange light once again appeared in the depths of her beautiful eyes.

----What a strange person.

She has a free-spirited and decisive side, but also a sensitive and shy side.

They might even feel embarrassed about such trivial things.

----They are indeed different.

Not only are their attitudes on important matters completely different, but even this vivid and lively personality, as well as the stark contrast between their seemingly bold yet surprisingly shy nature, bears no resemblance to the image in my memory.

She is not that person.

She is Lu Xiu.

Seeing Jian Li standing there without saying a word, Lu Xiu assumed she was thinking about something nonsensical. She gave her a light glare, then stepped forward, took Jian Li's wrist again, and led her through the entryway into the living room.

After entering the living room.

Lu Xiu glanced around casually and found that the overall layout and furnishings were almost identical to her own apartment. She immediately let go of Jian Li and walked effortlessly to the refrigerator in the corner.

Open the refrigerator door.

A blast of cold, white air hit me.

Lu Xiu bent down, rummaged through the bottles, took out two bottles of mineral water, and handed one of them to Jian Li.

The two stood facing each other and drank water.

"Oh, right."

Lu Xiu put down the bottle, then suddenly remembered something. She rummaged through her backpack and handed a prop to Jian Li: "Take a look at this prop for me. Can you see any information in it?"

Jian Li took the strange prop that resembled a pale flame.

She lowered her eyes slightly, her gaze falling on the props as she examined them.

A moment later.

Jian Li looked up, handed the prop back to Lu Xiu, and gently shook her head. "----No, all I see are a bunch of question marks too."

"Even you can't see the attributes?"

Lu Xiu took it casually, somewhat surprised, and then asked curiously, "Do you know what this is?"

Jian Li shook her head gently again. "I can't tell."

Lu Xiu was somewhat surprised, then looked at the Ancient Lord Soul Shard in her palm and couldn't help but frown slightly, falling into deep thought.

Even with sequences as high as those in the Jian Li, no specific information can be found.

That means this thing is currently useless, and might even be something completely beyond our current capabilities.

This thing was actually a bit more unusual than she had imagined.

Jian Li asked, "Is this a dungeon reward?"

"Yes, the reward for completing [Dark Souls] for the first time."

Lu Xiu snapped out of her daze, unable to understand, and could only toss it back into her backpack. "But as you can see, it's all question marks, I don't know what it's for either."

Upon hearing this, Jian Li wanted to say something more.

But at that moment...

[System Announcement]

[Prison Rock "Gallagher" has completed the Dark Souls dungeon.]

Both of them tilted their heads slightly at the same time.

"Another person has cleared the level. Prison Rock is keeping a close eye on them."

Lu Xiu withdrew her gaze. "And the time it took you all to complete the game was almost the same—"

"Yes, that's normal—after all, the procedures are relatively fixed."

7

Is that so?

Lu Xiu asked curiously, "Didn't you go to the Painted World? Didn't you go to fight Artorias— "

[Goddess Intervention.]

Lu Xiu's voice suddenly disappeared.

He was immediately banned from speaking.

But Jian Li still heard what was said earlier.

"----?"

Jian Li looked at Lu Xiu, her red lips slightly parted.

The Painted World?

Artorias?

Seeing Jian Li's expression, Lu Xiu gently patted her forehead.

So none of these people knew!

At the same time.

On the forum.

As the number of players who completed the game increased, most of the players who were stuck in the mid-to-late stages of the game began to frantically exchange information.

At that moment, several new posts suddenly appeared on the forums of Nine Provinces and Prison Rock.

[Brothers, I just discovered that the original Northern Undead Asylum can actually be revisited!]

[Huh? How do I get back?]

[Near the Firelink Shrine, find the giant eagle's nest, then curl up inside and pretend you're an egg! After a few seconds, the eagle will fly over and drag you back to the Undead Asylum!]

[????]

[Holy crap, really? What can I do back there?]

[Going back allows you to fight a powerful Stray Demon! More importantly, returning to the cell where we started can get you an item called the Peculiar Doll!]

[ha?]

[Hey guys, what's going on? I killed a golden crystal monster in the Darkroot Garden and rescued an NPC named Dusk —then I just killed a blue crystal monster in the Duke's Archives, got a Broken Pendant, and went back to where Dusk was, and there's a vortex inside that leads to another map.]

[ha????]

[No!]

As these posts gained popularity...

All the players who were thrilled by Jian Li, Gallagher, and others' completion of the game were completely dumbfounded when they saw the newly revealed maps.

Even considering only the known content, the sheer size of this SSS-level instance is already outrageously large.

The early-game maps emanating from the Firelink Shrine, and later-game maps such as the Sen's Fortress and the Anor Londo.

And then there are the Lost Izalith, New Londo, the Duke's Archives, and other places you need to go to collect the King's Souls—that's already torturous enough, and huge enough.

But they discovered that there was more—

Behind this seemingly complete world lies a vast amount of content that requires specific items or even time travel to unlock.

Are you kidding me?!

The most shocked were the players who had already completed the game.

Prison Rock.

Gallagher, who had just logged out of the dungeon, was slumped in his chair without any regard for his image.

He opened the forum in a daze.

I originally wanted to read other people's posts bragging about themselves to recharge.

But as soon as he opened the forum, he saw things like "Dusk" and "Painted World"—

moment.

His previously relieved expression vanished, and his eyes widened in disbelief.

Disguised as a bird egg and snatched away by a giant eagle? Entering a painting with a doll? Traveling through time to a new map with Broken Pendant?!

Gallagher felt his brain trembling.

What the hell!

There's even new content?!

No wonder the completion rate on the settlement panel is so low!

At that moment, a communication panel popped up in front of him, from the Prime Minister of Prison Rock.

The Prime Minister allowed him to pass through again.

Gallagher stared at the information on the communication panel, his pupils instantly losing their luster.

He recalled his despair and madness driven by the poisoned blowguns in the Blighttown, the excruciating pain of being pelted by traps and rolling stones in the Sen's Fortress, and the agony of being repeatedly pounded to the ground by two knights, one fat and one thin, in the Anor Londo—

He thought that by slaying the Lord of Cinder, he had finally ended this nightmare and could now receive flowers and praise as a hero of the Prison Rock.

And now! They're telling him! He's gone through so much painstaking work, only to have completed a half-finished game?! He's missed so many things?!

Gallagher stared at the cold command on the communication panel, his lips trembling violently, before he broke down completely. "No!"

Architect, are you out of your mind?! Why make such a big deal out of it?!