Men Fell Silent, Women Wept

[Now you're treating us like strangers.]

[The streamer is keeping us at arm's length. He doesn't see us as his own people.]

[If only the bathroom didn't block the livestream.]

[Our stweamer must've been holding it in all day.]

[I've watched other streamers. Plenty of them just relieve themselves wherever they are.]

[What a sight. So beautiful I couldn't bear to look.]

[The streamer is so handsome. What a shame we can't see his **.]

[Shut up, he's my husband! Only I get to look!]

[Keep dreaming! With the facial features your species has, aren't you afraid you'll shatter his worldview?]

[Hmph! Our love transcends species!]

[Well, our love transcends gender!]

[I think I've just discovered something incredible...]

[God knows how many intelligent species this game has subjected to one public humiliation after another...]

[A big shot from our species paid a huge price to erase every trace of his embarrassing past...]

[I believe my dream guy will never have an embarrassing past!]

Never before had Xiao Hao felt privacy was as important as it was at that moment.

It was enough to move heaven and earth.

Men fell silent, women wept.

Xiao Hao had never imagined that one day, being able to use the bathroom alone would move him so deeply.

Opening the bathroom door, Xiao Hao emerged refreshed, his face glowing.

[Those who know realize he just went to the bathroom.]

[Those who don't would think he'd been up to something naughty.]

Xiao Hao glanced at his phone, and the comments scrolling across the screen made the corner of his eye twitch.

He accidentally pictured the other players' miserable situations, and the sheer vividness of those images made his eyes sting.

He couldn't bear to imagine it.

He absolutely couldn't.

He checked his phone. It was past ten.

Before he knew it, an entire day had gone by.

He looked at the floor-to-ceiling window. Whether it was day or night, all that lay outside was endless darkness.

Xiao Hao said softly, "Good night."

He seemed to be speaking to himself, his gentle voice tinged with anticipation for tomorrow.

[Good night.]

[Nighty-night~]

The viewers from other worlds had no idea that Xiao Hao had been saying good night to them.

In the softest corner of his heart, Xiao Hao silently said two words: Thank you.

Xiao Hao was an orphan.

He had rarely experienced kindness from the world around him.

More often, it had been malice.

Being an orphan meant having no one to back him up, no connections.

Starting in kindergarten, when he was at his most vulnerable, anyone could walk up and trample on him.

Throughout his childhood, everyone around him had a refuge called "home."

He had nothing.

He could only wield indifference as a weapon to protect himself.

The greatest irony was that, in such a cruel game, he had experienced so much kindness.

That night, Xiao Hao slept peacefully.

More peacefully than he did in his subsidized apartment in the real world.

The alarm rang right on time, playing the same familiar children's song.

After making do with a quick breakfast, Xiao Hao prepared to head out and fight monsters.

By tomorrow at the latest, he would have to gather soul-replenishing grass.

The moment he stepped through the door onto the dark red, muddy ground, the cold once again seeped toward his heart.

This time, however, Xiao Hao wasn't nearly as anxious.

To avoid being caught off guard as he had been in his last battle, Xiao Hao released the Shadow Seahorses first.

Once they emerged, Xiao Hao discovered that the seahorses, originally only twenty or thirty centimeters long, had already grown to around half a meter.

The "(juvenile)" label on their game information page had disappeared.

Good grief.

They had grown up overnight. What brand of growth hormones had they been given?

The viewers from other worlds had a bird's-eye view, and with help from their comments, Xiao Hao soon found the treasure chests.

They mostly contained food, along with a few doses of blood tonic, some cotton, and other things.

God knew how excited Xiao Hao was when he got the cotton!

Could anyone imagine it? Yesterday, Xiao Hao had spent an entire day running around on the seafloor in his pajamas, livestreaming the whole time!

He had been shivering from the cold!

During the battles, the wild monsters and seahorses had dazzling visual effects.

But Xiao Hao standing beside them in his crafted pajamas really shattered the immersion!

If he survived to the end, this would probably become one of his "iconic moments."

In the real world, it would have been utter social ruin.

Fortunately, he was in another world. Comparing himself with all those other players made Xiao Hao feel much better.

After crafting a snug black outfit resembling a military uniform, Xiao Hao gripped the Coral Spear tightly and continued onward. Ahead lay the wild monster the comments had mentioned-the Human-Faced Thornfish.

[My husband looks so handsome in that outfit!]

[Those sharp brows, those sparkling eyes, that elegant bearing-isn't this the boyfriend I lost over twenty years ago?]

[Ahem, newcomers, please get in line. He's my boyfriend, thank you.]

[Stop arguing, stop arguing! Our handsome boy is about to fight a monster!]

[The Human-Faced Thornfish is a real drama queen. Don't let it fool you, hubby!]

" sob, sob, sob..."

As he drew closer, Xiao Hao faintly heard crying up ahead.

The unbroken sobbing was soft and delicate, easily conjuring the image of a beautiful woman weeping heartbreakingly.

Unfortunately, the comments had already exposed its secret. Rather than play along with its performance, Xiao Hao acted as though he hadn't noticed.

As he approached, Xiao Hao spotted a pit up ahead.

The crying came from inside the pit. Xiao Hao sent a Shadow Seahorse to scout, but the creature didn't attack the seahorse.

Puzzled, he slowly drew closer. Xiao Hao could even hear his own heartbeat, and sweat seeped from the palm gripping his spear.

The closer he got to the pit, the slower Xiao Hao moved. Even his breathing grew quieter.

He was afraid the wild monster would suddenly leap out of the pit and catch him off guard.

With the spear tip aimed at the pit, Xiao Hao finally inched up to its edge.

Inside was a woman's head, with a fish's body below the neck.

The woman wept, occasionally wiping her cheeks with her tail as though brushing away tears.

Xiao Hao almost couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "We're on the seafloor! You're submerged in water! What the hell are you wiping?"

The head spotted Xiao Hao and uttered strange syllables. He had no idea what gibberish she was speaking, yet somehow he understood what she meant.

"A witch has cursed me. Only a prince's kiss can break the curse. Would you help me?"

Xiao Hao's face darkened.

Something about this felt wrong.

Looking only at the woman's head, there was no question that her face was exquisitely beautiful and heartbreakingly delicate. Her skin was so dewy it looked as though water might actually spring out of it.

With that face and that tone, it really did have a fairy-tale feel.

But wasn't this supposed to be a damn horror game?

Well, dark fairy tales were pretty horrifying too.

Seeing the monster's expectant expression, Xiao Hao felt that attacking without answering her would be rather rude.

So Xiao Hao replied very politely, "Sorry, I'm not a prince, so I can't break your curse. But that's all right. I can end your suffering."

As soon as he finished, the seahorses took the hint and unleashed Darkness Domain.

The head shrieked, her piercing soprano making Xiao Hao's scalp prickle.

Glancing at the spear tip, Xiao Hao decided to use it to shut her mouth.

Clang!

To Xiao Hao's astonishment, the instant he thrust the iron spear, the beauty's canine teeth lengthened into vampire-like fangs and clamped down on its tip. He could even hear a sound like weapons clashing.