Roman froze for a moment, then sprang upright the next second. "Really?"
"You heard me." In the dim light, Lu Mi noticed how brightly his eyes shone, reminding him of dazzling gems. "Go to sleep. We'll start tomorrow."
He soon regretted telling him about it before bed. Roman was still tossing and turning in the middle of the night, clearly too excited to sleep.
Lu Mi was a light sleeper. After feeling Roman turn over for the eight hundredth time, he sighed and sat up.
The person at the head of the bed quickly sat up too.
There was no moon in the Public Rest Area, natural or artificial. They faced each other in complete darkness, listening to each other's breathing.
"Did I wake you?" Roman asked cautiously. As though making a momentous decision, he slowly turned to get out of bed. "I'd better sleep on the floor."
"Roman." Lu Mi stopped him. Perhaps staying up late had muddled his mind enough for him to set aside all his hesitation and concerns and ask the question that had lingered in his heart for so long.
"Can you tell me why you always wear a face covering?"
Roman sat on the edge of the bed, seemingly looking up at him, and remained silent for a long time.
Over the next few days, the two of them rarely went out.
In the mornings, Lu Mi taught Roman to read, starting with the most basic pinyin.
In the afternoons, Lu Mi practiced spells in his room while Roman sat at the table beside him, doing the exercises Lu Mi had assigned.
On the third day, Roman's notebook was soaked for the third time by water Lu Mi had summoned.
Lu Mi didn't know whether to laugh or get angry. "I told you to go back to your own room to do your exercises!"
"It's fine. I don't blame you." Looking magnanimous, Roman casually shoved his exercises beneath the cabinet beside him. "Let's go for a walk. We'll be entering a dungeon soon, so let's relax first."
Lu Mi agreed, tested his new spell once more, then gave the room a quick tidy before heading out.
Many new facilities had been added to the Public Rest Area over the past few days, and the square was bustling.
Those who had secured part-time positions had also put on staff uniforms and were calling out to customers and directing them around the newly opened facilities.
The most popular of these was a shop called Wonderful Dream. There were still a few minutes before it opened, yet a large crowd had already gathered around it.
From far away, Lu Mi heard a woman's voice advertising over the loudspeaker:
"Fulfill your every wish and get an early taste of life in Utopia! An hour of happiness in your dreams takes just three minutes in reality! Not enough gold coins? No problem! You can pay with popularity points. Come and enjoy yourselves!"
"Strange." Lu Mi looked at the other newly opened shops. "Why have all the recent activities been ones that use popularity points instead of gold coins?"
A woman crowded beside them answered, "They're probably planning to screw with the players. Be careful when entering and leaving dungeons lately."
Lu Mi suddenly thought the voice sounded familiar. He turned to look and saw a tall woman wearing glasses.
He froze for a few seconds before calling out tentatively, "Shen Yiwen?"
Shen Yiwen was the woman who had apologized over the phone after bumping into Lu Mi and Roman.
The woman nodded. "That's me. Hello, Lu Mi."
"What did you mean when you said to be careful?"
Shen Yiwen seemed to have been pushed a few steps closer by the crowd, allowing Lu Mi to make out a Human-Faced Sunflower tattoo on her left upper arm.
"When something's out of the ordinary, there's bound to be something fishy going on. Just be careful-fucking shove me again, I dare you."
Lu Mi was still wondering whether Shen Yiwen's vague answer meant that this supposed prank was merely her guess, or whether she didn't want to reveal too much to someone she barely knew.
Then her sudden profanity caught him off guard. Her expression and tone remained calm, yet she exuded an intimidating authority without showing anger. Clearly, though, those words weren't directed at him.
The person she had cursed at quickly turned around, tossing her blond hair behind her and revealing a face Lu Mi didn't want to see.
She sneered. "Miss Shen is still so precious. Even in the game, everyone still has to clear a path for you."
Shen Yiwen stood a head taller than her and looked down at her as though she were an insect. "Well, well, Jin Bi. Times have certainly changed. Since graduation, you're completely unrecognizable."
They were college classmates? It looked like there was some serious bad blood between them. What a small world.
Lu Mi had no intention of getting involved. Taking Roman's hand, he tried to leave, only to find people packed around them on every side, leaving no room to move.
Shen Yiwen and Jin Bi traded several rounds of snide remarks. Finally, unable to win the argument, Jin Bi forced down her anger and said, "Please move aside. I need to get to work."
As she passed Lu Mi, she said, "You didn't know, did you? A part-time job can delay your next dungeon entry by at least twenty-four hours."
Lu Mi nodded. "And if you don't earn enough gold coins, it'll also delay your permanent escape from the game."
Jin Bi appeared to be an employee of Wonderful Dream. Her uniform prompted people to clear a path for her automatically. With her head held high, she walked to the shop entrance.
"Please be patient, everyone. We'll be opening shortly. Also, please make some room. We've got a few big shots here who want to cut in line."
The crowd fell silent for two seconds before someone looked around and asked, "Who? Neither Cheng Cheng nor Xu Zhi is here."
"Our rising star on the popularity ranking, of course," Jin Bi announced slowly and loudly. "Lu Mi, and his friend Shen Yiwen."
Lu Mi, who wanted to leave but couldn't, was baffled. This trick again?
Since the big screen displayed photographs of everyone on the ranking, many people recognized him immediately.
Someone scoffed. "Pah. I thought he was someone important. He's just a pretty face those ghost viewers happen to like. Once they get bored of him, he'll vanish from the ranking."
"Exactly. I thought he'd cleared a ton of dungeons or something."
Amid the chorus of condemnation, Lu Mi slowly raised his hand. "Please move away from me. It's almost time for me to enter a dungeon."
That single sentence instantly silenced the clamoring crowd. A circle with a radius of five meters opened up around Lu Mi.
After all, anyone standing beside him would be dragged into the dungeon.
A panel popped up in front of Lu Mi and began counting down. Seeing him manipulating something in midair, everyone lost their doubts and turned their attacks toward Shen Yiwen, whom they had overlooked earlier.
"This chick's pretty good-looking too, but she's too tall, and those muscles are scary."
"Hey, gorgeous, want to try the shop out with me? My treat, hahaha."
Expressionless, Shen Yiwen rested her hand on Lu Mi's shoulder. "So noisy. I'm going into the dungeon too. I can't wait another second."
The countdown ended, and both of them vanished.
In the final few seconds, Shen Yiwen raised her middle finger, her expression disdainful. "Goodbye, you bitches and dumbasses. Even the monsters in the dungeons understand respect better than you do."
The onlookers froze, then burst into laughter. The few people who had insulted Shen Yiwen flushed red and shouted that if that bitch hadn't entered the dungeon, they would have beaten her until she cried.
The scene stabilized, and the hand resting on Lu Mi's shoulder withdrew-a new dungeon journey had begun.
Before you continue