The first thing he did after getting home was hurry to exchange his accumulated points for things.
Jiang Nuo really was someone who could never save up points.
That had been common knowledge back in the instance worlds, too.
Everyone knew that Madman Jiang, who topped the solo rankings, took MVP every round, yet the points listed after his ranking were always in the single digits.
That made the hundred thousand-plus points beside second place particularly conspicuous.
In his words, he never knew if he would die the next second, so why save his points?
Like right now.
He had finally saved up over three hundred points, only to spend them all exchanging for two things, without a single point left.
Touching the necklace that had appeared around his neck, Jiang Nuo seemed to recall something through it and drifted off for a few seconds.
Only when someone knocked on the living room door did Jiang Nuo slowly get up to answer it.
"It's already so late. Don't you have a date tonight, Brother Cui?"
He leaned against the doorframe and teased him casually.
"Oh, get lost. We broke up."
Cui Ming came in looking thoroughly aggrieved, handed Jiang Nuo a bowl of malatang without any numbing spices or chili, and plopped onto the sofa.
"Do you have any idea what's happening online right now? You don't go online at all!"
Jiang Nuo was counting on his fingers how many breakups this made. At his words, he obediently looked up and blinked.
"Go ahead. I'm listening."
"Tian Dong has been confirmed dead. The people behind Weird and Strange Adventure have been summoned for questioning. It probably won't be back online until they make changes."
Cui Ming logged into Weibo on his tablet and handed it over.
"Do you know anyone from the Hua Country Daoist Mysticism Association?"
Jiang Nuo gave a puzzled sound. "The what association?"
Nope. Never even heard of it.
"I don't know either, but they're an official Hua Country organization, so they probably have some serious backing. They even specifically tagged you on Weibo."
Remembering the instructions from that slave driver of a boss gave Cui Ming a headache.
"Weird and Strange Adventure can't go back online for now, but you can't just keep going without work. Why not start a livestream show of your own, with ghost hunting and paranormal exploration as the theme?"
Jiang Nuo's face fell. "Can't I just not work?"
"Sure. Announce your retirement from showbiz right now, then you'll never see Si Yan again."
Jiang Nuo: "..."
Strange. That threat worked, but something about it felt really wrong.
Cui Ming had known that threat would work. He couldn't help chuckling. "Livestreaming this stuff isn't exactly ideal, but you're so capable that it shouldn't be much of a problem."
That brought another thought to mind. Rubbing his hands, he shuffled closer. "Jiang Nuo, how do I usually treat you?"
Jiang Nuo looked up, unsure what he was getting at, but nodded anyway.
"Very well."
He really did. During the days before the incident, Jiang Nuo wouldn't even have had food to eat without Cui Ming's help.
"Well, in that case, how about you tell my fortune and see when I'll finally find true love?"
He had been dumped by five girlfriends in a row. Cui Ming felt certain he had some gene that cut off his romantic prospects!
Jiang Nuo studied Cui Ming's face. Though he was only in his thirties, he already looked thoroughly weathered.
His brow formed deep furrows when he frowned.
Seeing how intently Jiang Nuo was studying him, Cui Ming hardly dared breathe.
A few minutes later, he was nearly suffocating. He sucked in a deep breath and asked, "Have you figured anything out?"
"Hehe."
Jiang Nuo smiled teasingly. "Brother Cui, what seems far away is right under your nose."
Cui Ming: ?
What did that mean?
It took him two seconds to react. Then he suddenly sprang up, clutching his chest as he eyed Jiang Nuo warily.
"You're still under contract to promote a CP with Si Yan!"
Jiang Nuo, once again: "..."
"Brother Cui, I'm pretty looks-obsessed. I'm not that desperate."
"So you mean you've fallen for Si Yan?"
Cui Ming thought for a moment and asked in surprise, but Jiang Nuo denied it again.
"No, not that either. I just think he's pretty fun."
Pretty fun? Why did that sound like something a scumbag would say?
Cui Ming gave his neck a shake, but ultimately didn't dare say it aloud.
The kid was downright uncanny these days.
"All right, I just came to let you know. I'm sleeping here tonight."
Cui Ming yawned. "Seriously, my place always feels so cold and gloomy."
The place wasn't small and had a guest bedroom. In the past, Cui Ming would stay here whenever Jiang Nuo had an early-morning engagement.
Jiang Nuo was already used to it.
Holding the tablet, he scrolled for a while and replied to a few interesting fan comments. Then, unbearably sleepy, he shuffled straight back to his bedroom in his slippers to sleep.
Before bed, he even chatted for a while with the very busy Si Yan, who had only just finished work at this hour.
Though it was Si Yan doing all the talking, Jiang Nuo held his phone as his eyelids fought to stay open, occasionally murmuring in response.
In the end, he fell fast asleep before the call was even over.
On the top floor of a hotel in Hengdian.
Noticing that Jiang Nuo's breathing had steadied, Si Yan stopped talking and listened quietly.
Strangely enough, despite insomnia so severe that even sleeping pills barely helped, drowsiness gradually swept over him, and his mind felt a weariness it hadn't known in a long time.
Relaxing his body, Si Yan rolled over, set his phone by the bed, and closed his eyes to sleep.
"Jiang Nuo! I'm sorry... I didn't mean to. I-I thought it would be fine..."
"It's lucky you only lost your left eye. At least you're alive, right...? You're a newbie. Without our team's protection, you definitely wouldn't survive!"
Jiang Nuo's eyes were tightly shut, cold sweat pouring down him. He felt as though he was being torn apart.
The pain returned: a ghost's sharp claws plunging into his eye and churning, watching his left eyeball burst under the pressure.
The pain ran through his tendons, through tendons and bones into his heart, into every part of his body.
His reason shattered, utterly routed.
Every point was spent treating his wounds, but his left eye was gone forever.
He learned to make deals with ghosts and monsters.
But humans couldn't be trusted, and neither could ghosts and monsters.
The person who had cost him his left eye became an offering to that monster. Through a twist of fate, he recovered a wisp of his soul, but his reason never returned.
Jiang Nuo became the madman of the world of trials.
Wary of him, the system actually compensated him with an eye.
An eye... that belonged to a monster.
His dreams were chaos. Bombarded by memories, Jiang Nuo's breathing grew erratic. He felt an inexplicable fire rise within him, burning through his internal organs.
Everything around him began to spin, too.
One moment, he was in a castle, contending with ghosts and monsters.
The next, he appeared amid a horde of zombies, fighting and killing. The instance players around him were afraid, yet enjoyed the breathing room his slaughter of the zombies afforded them.
Those memories, hazy yet incredibly clear, brimmed with killing intent at that moment.
They seemed determined to trap Jiang Nuo in the dull ache of the night and melt him into ashes.
In the dim room, Jiang Nuo jolted awake.
A sharp, seemingly endless stabbing pain began in his left eye.
He sat up, breathing heavily, his handsome face pale. Cold sweat dripped from his jaw and slid down to his neck.
Even three straight glasses of cold water couldn't suppress the agitation surging from the depths of his soul.
After sitting motionless on the bed for a long time, Jiang Nuo took off the object tied around his neck.
It was a lustrous piece of bone that, from a distance, would be mistaken for jade.
It was also the source of Jiang Nuo's nightmares that night.
"You want to tame me? Dream on."