Whether It Was or Not, It Probably Was

At dinner, Yu Qingshan and Yi Qiuguo did not even need Yu Xunge to say anything before telling Yu Xunhuan to go ask Su Yitong for information.

Yu Xunge advised, "But don't alert her either. What if she's already a player? If you ask like that, she might think you suspect her or are testing her, and that could hurt your relationship."

Yu Xunhuan nodded repeatedly.

Yu Qingshan then asked in detail about the game. Yu Xunge told him everything she could, saying that money was hard to earn in it. She had only played for two hours and earned just 2 silver coins and a shabby bag. She had bought that bottle of healing potion when she was preparing to leave the city to fight monsters. But right after buying it, before she had even bought a weapon, the game disappeared.

Yu Xunhuan said gravely, "This game should appear again. We just don't know what pattern it follows."

Yu Xunge shook her head. "You can't find anything about it online. That day, I suddenly wanted to look up World of Warcraft, the one we played in high school. I found something with a similar name and downloaded it to try it out. But this game doesn't even have advertisements, and nobody talks about it online."

Yu Qingshan commented, "That's normal. Who would openly talk about something like this? At most, they'd tell their family."

Yi Qiuguo said, "Should we stockpile anything? I have a feeling things are about to get chaotic."

The whole family discussed it for a long time before calling it a night. She did not know whether it was just her imagination, but Yu Xunge truly felt that Yu Qingshan and Yu Xunhuan treated her even better now. They had always been affectionate with her, but after being reborn and clearing her head, she had always felt that something about it was deliberate. Now, though, that affection carried the sense that she was truly one of them.

A few days later, the family gathered at the hotel again. This time, Yu Xunhuan had brought news: someone had cut off Su Yitong's ear.

Before Yu Xunge could say anything, Yi Qiuguo said, "Could what happened to you have been done by an enemy of the Su Family? They didn't have a chance to get at her before, so they could only take it out on you!"

Yu Xunhuan's expression made it clear that he thought the same, but his lips were pressed tightly together. He did not want to become the villain who made baseless assumptions about others.

Yu Xunge advised, "Whether it was or not, you'll be family soon enough. You'll be safer at the Su Family than outside."

Whether it was or not, it probably was. But just treat it as if it wasn't, all right?

Yu Xunhuan truly felt uncomfortable. He believed that the Su Family had caused trouble that dragged him into it, but he was also worried. If it really had been the Su Family's enemies, did Su Yitong know about the thing that had happened to him...?

He suddenly recalled how he had inexplicably fainted on the morning of the sixth. At the time, he had assumed it was because of his irregular schedule and low blood sugar, but what if the Su Family's enemies had not wanted him to play that game...?

No, that was not right either. Back then, he had not even known about the game. He had merely felt like watching some short videos to kill time.

Yu Xunhuan slumped back onto the sofa as if deflated. Just as Yu Xunge had said, whether it was or not...

What else could he do?

Although everything had been going smoothly, Yu Xunge was not without her troubles.

Gold Forging was explicitly goblin-exclusive. Even though she had learned it, it turned gray after she left the game. She had to use Disguise to turn into a goblin before the skill would light up.

Disguise was immensely useful, but its cooldown was also long. She could only use it four times a day at most. To avoid affecting her usual use of it, over the past few days, she would turn into a green goblin ten minutes before bed, sit by her bed and craft three gold coins, then go to sleep. By the time she woke up in the morning, the cooldown would have ended.

After turning into a goblin, aside from her daily coin crafting, she would also conveniently go invisible and use Phantom Shift into Su Yitong and Liang Yuchuan's bedrooms to steal from them. Not much, just once from each of them, then she would go home with her remaining 60% health and catch up on sleep.

But after only two days of stealing, she discovered that Su Yitong's bedroom—no, almost the entire Su Family residence—had been fitted with mist-spraying equipment. It was not only in the garden; the interior of the villa, even every room, had these devices. The instant she noticed water mist in the room, she used Phantom Shift to leave the Su Family residence. Then, as soon as she returned home, she discovered that her invisibility potion had failed. She could see her own body again.

What a lavish expense. How many revealing potions did they have to use every day?

No, weren't these people afraid of their furniture getting moldy?!

No matter how fine and light the mist was, no matter how high-end the furniture was, could it withstand being sprayed twenty-four hours a day?

But it did not matter. She drank an invisibility potion and returned to the Su Family residence. This time, she appeared directly beneath Su Yitong's bed. Even if she was revealed there, it would be fine. She could steal from her and leave.

Looking out from beneath the bed, she saw that the Su Family had not descended into chaos and finally relaxed. It seemed she had not been discovered earlier.

She just did not know whether Su Yitong's bedroom had surveillance cameras. But even if she had been recorded, it did not matter. She was so cautious that every time, she not only put on a layer of Disguise before drinking the invisibility potion, she even wore a swim cap and mask before using Disguise. Ever since she had needed to turn into a goblin to craft gold coins, she had gone to both the Su Family and House Liang every day in goblin form.

Because of what had happened to the Su Family, when she went to Liang Yuchuan's home, she also shifted directly beneath Liang Yuchuan's bed... only to find herself beside Liang Yuchuan's bed. Looking down, she realized the bed had been changed, and even the space beneath it had been sealed off.

Fortunately, House Liang had not started using revealing potion mist yet. After stealing from Liang Yuchuan, she took a walk through the walk-in closet in Liang Yuchuan's bedroom to unlock the map. Next time, she could shift directly there.

Yu Xunge insisted on visiting the Su Family and House Liang every day. Over the course of a month, she succeeded twice: she stole 1 point of Intelligence from Su Yitong and 1 point of Strength from Liang Yuchuan.

Yu Xunge's current attributes were:

[Strength]: 7+1

[Constitution]: 7

[Intelligence]: 10+1

[Agility]: 18

[Luck]: 10 (maximum)

[Charm]: 10 (maximum)

Aside from that, what troubled her most was still her profession skills.

She knew of many pieces of equipment and items that would mutate after the game invasion, but there were priorities. Those things would not run away. What she needed most right now was to practice Alchemy and Engineering.

These days, Yu Xunge stayed cooped up in the villa with an extremely regular routine. In the mornings, she grinded Alchemy experience; in the afternoons, Engineering experience. She grinded Cooking experience during all three meals, then deliberately placed a serving of meat beside the cat nest. Ever since she started using cat toys, cats came to stay overnight in the cat nest outside her villa almost every night.

At night, she practiced archery on the second floor of the villa. Before sleeping, she read Alchemy notes or Engineering notes.

On weekends, she went to the lake in the villa district to practice fishing. After the game invasion, fish in many waters would mutate. Only with a sufficiently high Fishing level could she catch higher-quality fish.

Unfortunately, her Alchemy soon became stuck at Advanced (77/100000). After Alchemy reached Advanced, the herbs it required simply could not be substituted in reality. She could only use the ones she had bought back from the game, and now all her materials had been used up.