Here's the kiss I promised you

Bai Luochuan: ?

Holy shit.

Was this game really that sensitive?

When he first entered the game, he had chosen to use his own appearance. He had assumed it was like creating a character model that stayed saved to his account.

So it actually scanned his face directly every time.

Could the game characters recognize every change, too?

Once again, he silently gave the game developers a thumbs-up.

Not a single cent of those tens of millions had gone to waste!

In stark contrast to Qi Yu's icy attitude, Bai Luochuan actually laughed despite being treated this way.

He blinked and organized his words.

Then he said carefully, "Qi Yu, I am Bai Luochuan. Some troublesome things happened earlier, so there's a bit of a problem with my projected appearance. I'll see how to adjust it. Anyway, the way I look from now on... probably won't change again."

"I called because I might not have looked very well the last time we spoke. I was afraid you'd worry, so I wanted to talk to you again."

"Anyway, I'm fine. Don't worry."

"I have some other things to investigate and take care of, so I'll leave it here for now."

Qi Yu really was very important to him.

Important enough that he would think to log in specifically to reassure him.

But real life was just as important.

He needed to confirm his own situation first, so he could have more time and freedom to play the game.

Bai Luochuan could still distinguish priorities on such a basic matter.

But while he said all this, Qi Yu maintained that wary, icy expression without giving him any response.

Bai Luochuan didn't mind.

After his last sentence, he had intended to end the call.

Then he suddenly remembered something, smiled, and leaned over to kiss his phone's camera.

He added one last thing. "Right, there's the kiss I promised you last time. Don't get impatient. As soon as I'm done, I'll contact you right away."

As he spoke, he switched to the shop screen out of habit.

Qi Yu hadn't looked very well just now.

As a proper boyfriend, he needed to send him some more gifts.

Five years together.

Bai Luochuan knew better than anyone what Qi Yu liked and disliked.

So he filled his cart with snacks.

Then he selected Qi Yu's favorite body wash and shampoo.

And, out of habit, set the quantity of everything to x99.

Only then did Bai Luochuan contentedly tap to pay for everything.

However...

[Payment failed. Your bank card has insufficient funds. Please use another card and try again.]

Bai Luochuan: ?

He tried another card.

The result was the same.

There were only two cards linked to this phone.

Both had insufficient funds.

Wait.

Everything he had bought only came to five thousand.

And that was already more than he had?

Just how poor was he in his current identity?

He left the shop with mixed feelings. Having failed to buy Qi Yu any gifts, he was too embarrassed even to go say hello again.

He hurriedly exited the game and checked his bank balances.

Wonderful.

One card had 0.

The other still had 500.

Forget buying gifts for his darling.

Whether he had enough to feed himself was a pretty serious problem, okay?!

Bai Luochuan stood frozen, his mind blank.

This was a little serious.

Never in his life had he seen bank cards whose total balance amounted to just three digits.

It really left Bai Luochuan somewhat at a loss.

But before he had time to consider anything else, the phone in his hand began vibrating and ringing.

The contact name displayed was "Brother Chen."

Bai Luochuan frowned.

After three seconds of hesitation, he answered anyway.

The instant the call connected, a man's voice came through.

It carried intense resentment that bordered on wailing.

He said, "Luochuan, just look at what you've done! Didn't I already tell you? For us Betas, it's all about an ordinary, peaceful life. Don't get mixed up in those Alphas' and Omegas' affairs. Especially Yan Cheng-he's a high-grade Alpha! A man among men, a male among males, you..."

"Hold on," Bai Luochuan interrupted "Brother Chen" almost instinctively.

His voice held some hesitation and confusion.

He said, "Being a high-grade Alpha makes someone a top-tier man?"

The question came a little out of nowhere.

It even stunned Chen Miao on the other end of the line.

Only after a long pause did he answer awkwardly, "You can't compare them to the commander, can you? There's only one supreme-grade Alpha in the whole world. Aside from him, even high-grade ones are already hard to come by."

He didn't seem to notice anything wrong with this conversation.

After just a pause, Chen Miao continued, "Besides, I'm talking about things in our industry. This time, you only got beaten up. It wasn't anything serious. If you keep trying to get close to him, I really can't guarantee what his obsessive fans might do next. So..."

Bai Luochuan barely took in any of the rambling that followed.

He had only grasped one thing.

The original owner of this body was a Beta.

And a rather unfortunate Beta who had been rumored to be involved with an Alpha, then beaten up by his obsessive fans.

The division into genders such as Alpha, Beta, and Omega was rather different from Bai Luochuan's original world, which only had men and women. But thanks to the dating game he had played before, whose setting included these secondary genders, it wasn't too difficult for him to understand now.

Put simply, Betas were ordinary people, no different from those in his own world.

Their physiques had no enhancements whatsoever.

Their mental power, intelligence, and other attributes all fell within the normal range, too.

Alphas and Omegas were superior mutants.

Alphas possessed exceptional physiques and extremely high intelligence, and their mental power was naturally top-tier as well.

Although Omegas were physically weaker than even ordinary Betas, their compatibility with Alphas allowed them to soothe Alphas in every respect and prevent them from going berserk. Thus, some called Omegas the divinely chosen chains bestowed upon beasts.

After all, aside from their beastlike instincts, Alphas and Omegas could also undergo beast transformation.

They possessed beast forms, though they could remain untransformed most of the time.

Beyond that, Alphas and Omegas had absolutely perfect appearances, along with pheromones unique to them.

The so-called soothing was the mingling of pheromones.

But all of these were concepts from the game.

Bai Luochuan had never experienced them in person. Everything he knew came from text alone.

He didn't know how different the era he was in now was from the game's setting.

So, after briefly organizing the information in his mind, he spoke.

Bai Luochuan interrupted Chen Miao. "Sorry, Brother Chen. Actually, I can't really remember the things you're talking about. You said someone beat me up? There seems to be something wrong with my memory. What I mean is..."

Bai Luochuan hadn't even finished.

Chen Miao interrupted him. "Don't tell me you've lost your memory. You pulled the same act the last time you got into trouble."

Bai Luochuan: ...

Ha-ha.

He had heard the story of the boy who cried wolf plenty of times.

He hadn't expected to experience it himself.

Bai Luochuan seriously considered how to explain.

But Chen Miao seemed more adept at handling this sort of thing than he was.

After a pause of just a few seconds, he sighed. "Stay home. Don't go anywhere. I'm coming over now. Whatever it is, we can talk in person."

Naturally, Bai Luochuan didn't refuse.

After all, with an explanation coming right to his door, he might as well take it.

As for the time he spent waiting, he needed to learn about this world first.

More importantly, he needed to check the game's projection system.

If his husband kept mistaking him for someone else, wouldn't that be a problem?

Meanwhile.

In the military commander-in-chief's office.

Lu Ran placed a stack of documents on the desk.

Looking at Qi Yu behind the desk, he explained, "We traced the signal very quickly this time, but we've investigated and ruled out the target before. He's that minor Beta actor with the exact same name. You said he looked similar, but definitely wasn't your spouse."

He didn't look even remotely similar.

His eyes and brows were completely different.

How was he anywhere near as beautiful as my wife?

Qi Yu cursed inwardly.

He leaned back in his chair.

He looked up toward the ceiling.

His long silver hair hung dull at his sides.

His golden eyes were dim, too, as though shrouded in a thick haze.

His slender fingers tapped lightly against the chair's armrest twice.

In the end, he sat upright, picked up the documents on the desk, and began leafing through them page by page.

Even though the video call had been very brief.

Even though they had never actually met.

He could still be certain that face wasn't his lover's.

But...

"Look into what's happened to this person recently, down to the details. I don't want a general introduction like this. It's meaningless."

He tossed the documents back onto the desk.

Qi Yu thought for a moment.

Unable to stop himself, he added, "Lu Ran, could I have gone mad from missing him so much? So much that... for one instant, I thought this person might be him."

-

(The ABO setting has lots of personal tweaks. Just read along; no need to correct any of the settings~ Please don't save up chapters QAQ. It'll kill the stats.)