Chapter 62
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Chapter 62:
Qi Leyuan raised his head in surprise, quietly observing her. He felt as if beneath Li Chunzhou’s delicate appearance, there was a suppressed madness growing steadily, even though she showed a calm face, as if nothing had happened. Qi Leyuan felt as if he could hear the sound of her blood flowing vigorously beneath her thin skin.
From Li Chunzhou as an individual to the entire Dungeon World, it seemed like everything was slowly crumbling.
Qi Leyuan shuddered, never doubting his sixth sense. For the first time, he began to question if it was right for him to stay by Li Chunzhou’s side.
Li Chunzhou’s hand landed perfectly on Qi Leyuan’s neck, her soft voice always carrying a smile came from above, "Li Li, let me check the messages in the group again."
People under the roof had to lower their heads, especially when their necks were still in Li Chunzhou’s hands. Qi Leyuan obediently opened the communication channel, where the messages were messy. Most players chose to wait and see after learning that they had completed the Dungeon mission but couldn’t leave temporarily and to see if Jian Hou could solve the problem.
"You guys are completely like scattered sand," Li Chunzhou said with a chuckle after reading the lines of text on the floating screen.
Qi Leyuan said, "That’s just how humans are."
Li Chunzhou was silent for a moment, smiled, and said, "That’s true."
She returned to the courtyard with Chihong silently following behind. Without looking back, Li Chunzhou said before entering the house, "The crows outside are too noisy… Chihong, take care of them."
Chihong nodded, took out a slingshot from the room filled with odds and ends, and started shooting at the birds. However, all the crows hit by the stones dispersed like smoke and then re-formed together.
With the sound of birds being shot outside, Li Chunzhou curled up on the bed and hugged herself. She closed her eyes, and Li Zhexuan silently climbed onto the bed, enveloping her in a protective gesture from behind.
"Please end it soon, all of this…" Li Chunzhou murmured absentmindedly, "I can barely hold on anymore…"
Qi Leyuan felt uncomfortable watching Li Chunzhou burying her head on her knees on the bed, unable to see her expression clearly. He stood for a moment, feeling uneasy, then flew cautiously out of the window.
After his figure completely left the room, Li Chunzhou slowly lifted her head, opened her emotionless eyes, reached behind her head, gently touched Li Zhexuan’s cold and smooth cheek, silently curved her lips, and softly said, "Good child."
Qi Leyuan hid in the corner, recalling Li Chunzhou’s weary expression just now. If he quickly resolved this cycle, Li Chunzhou’s pain could also be relieved. He made up his mind, opened the chat box with Jian Hou, and sneakily sent a message to Jian Hou, "Have you found the Time Beast?"
Jian Hou’s response came quickly, "No, I only know that it’s probably near you and Ming Xiang."
Qi Leyuan, "?! Do you mean there’s something on me and Ming Xiang that you use to monitor us? When did you put it on us?"
Jian Hou defended himself, "…It’s not something I put on you, as long as you have the system on you, the Administrator has the authority to query."
Qi Leyuan, "Didn’t you say skills and tools couldn’t be used?"
Jian Hou, "Authority is not the same as skills. It doesn’t have the ability to intervene in the Main God System’s permissions yet."
Qi Leyuan understood. The Time Beast in this Dungeon could block players from using skills because it had consumed players’ consciousness before. It could understand the basic structure of "skills" and how they function. However, Jian Hou was the first Administrator to enter this Dungeon, and the Time Beast was encountering "permissions" for the first time, so it didn’t fully understand what permissions could do.
In other words, if Jian Hou’s consciousness were also consumed by the Time Beast, it would have the ability to freely invade the Main God System. It wouldn’t be as simple as disturbing a Dungeon World anymore when that happened.
Qi Leyuan, "What are you planning to do if you find the Time Beast? Are you going to kill it?"
Jian Hou, "No, I will definitely hand it over to the Main God System. It’s the only Time Beast in the entire star alliance… It will probably be protected."
Qi Leyuan, "Can’t we just reboot directly? You could escape earlier to report to the higher-ups, and we could also leave smoothly."
Jian Hou sent a message without hesitation, "The learning ability of the Time Beast is much stronger than you think. Once the reboot function is used in this world, it will be almost impossible to catch it in the future, and the Main God System will not let me go… It is an endangered species, but I am not."
"It’s a tough situation…" Qi Leyuan thought, feeling sorry for Jian Hou.
However… Qi Leyuan squinted his eyes and pondered again. Although what Jian Hou had just said seemed to suggest that the only option left for him was to catch the Time Beast, he did not completely dismiss the suggestion of "reboot" either!
In other words, when pushed to a dead end, Jian Hou might still choose to reboot.
With some understanding now, Qi Leyuan changed his mind and decided not to tell Jian Hou about Li Chunzhou’s strange behavior.
When Jian Hou saw him silent, he sent a new message, "Are you sure who the Time Beast is?"
Qi Leyuan cleverly pretended, "Not yet, just asking you."
After sending this message, he planned to close the chat box.
"Li Li, didn’t expect you to be quite reliable." Li Chunzhou’s cheerful voice came from behind.
"Oh my!" Qi Leyuan was startled, almost jumping in the air, "Lady Chun, when did you come over?"
As he spoke, his voice lowered, but realizing he hadn’t leaked Li Chunzhou’s message to Jian Hou just now, he regained his composure, "You… you, you were deliberately testing me?!"
Li Chunzhou leaned on the railing, half of her body leaning out, saying, "Didn’t I say it before? I can’t trust anyone."
"Hmph, do you trust me now?" Qi Leyuan said a bit petulantly, feeling relieved he hadn’t blurted out everything just now.
"Yes, I trust you," Li Chunzhou smiled, "but Li Li, tell him ‘Li Zhexuan is the Time Beast’."
Qi Leyuan was taken aback, not quite understanding Li Chunzhou’s intentions.
Li Chunzhou said, "Don’t worry, just tell him what I said."
Qi Leyuan looked at Li Zhexuan standing next to Li Chunzhou, and for the first time, he noticed how strong his presence was. Qi Leyuan realized that it was probably because Li Zhexuan couldn’t use his powers on himself right now.
Feeling like a pawn being played with was not a good feeling, but Qi Leyuan still obediently followed Li Chunzhou’s instructions and reopened the dialogue box.
He organized his thoughts and messaged, "Someone was behind me just now, I couldn’t say anything. I’ve found out who the Time Beast is – it’s a guy named Li Zhexuan who is with Li Chunzhou. I suggest investigating him thoroughly!"
After sending the message, Qi Leyuan glanced at Li Chunzhou and asked her what she thought.
Li Chunzhou smiled and said, "Li Li, you’re so clever. If I didn’t know I told you to send that message, I would’ve thought you were up to something naughty."
"What are you talking about?!" Qi Leyuan coughed awkwardly and asked, "But why did you tell him about this?"
"Because I couldn’t wait," Li Chunzhou propped her chin up with her hand and tilted her head, saying, "I was originally planning on waiting for the enemy to make a move before I did, but… I just couldn’t bear it anymore."
Li Zhexuan nodded behind Li Chunzhou, still looking blank.
"And he just said, we can’t figure out what ‘permissions’ really are and what they can do. I don’t want to start a fight with him, so I’ll just let him take the lead."
Qi Leyuan thought the same. Right now, Li Chunzhou and Jian Hou don’t know each other’s strength well. One doesn’t understand how far Administrator’s permissions go, and the other is unfamiliar with this Dungeon World. So, both sides chose to stay silent, avoiding sending any signals or taking destructive actions, leaving room for maneuver, to keep their true abilities unknown to the other.
But time is running out. Once thirty days pass, Jian Hou will be in a difficult situation. Among the three possible outcomes, either Jian Hou successfully catches Li Zhexuan, or Jian Hou chooses to start over, or Jian Hou dies in this Dungeon. The last two options are good news for Li Chunzhou, only the first one offers Jian Hou hope.
Therefore, Li Chunzhou felt confident, calmly waiting for Jian Hou to fall into her carefully set trap like a bird in despair.
***
The next day, Li Chunzhou stayed in the courtyard all day playing with Ming Niang, as Gu Lingfan was not around. She didn’t bother to dress up for tomorrow’s Oiran Contest.
Hongdou cooked. Whenever they couldn’t eat their fill from the communal pot meal, she would buy groceries to cook separately.
When Hongdou returned today, her face looked strange. Li Chunzhou asked her what was wrong, and Hongdou showed her the eggs she was holding, saying with an unsettled look, "Miss, the price of eggs outside has risen to ten coins each!"
"How much are they normally?" Li Chunzhou was not familiar with the price of eggs.
Red Bean shook its head and sadly said, "Usually a penny could at least buy two…"
"No worries, we have plenty of money!" Li Chunzhou confidently waved her hand and was about to take money out of her purse.
Ming Xiang, who was cutting watermelon on the stone table in the yard, glanced at Qi Leyuan and whispered, "Don’t we have chickens…?"
Qi Leyuan: ??
Li Chunzhou suddenly realized as she looked at Li Li on the ground, her eyes showing a hint of excitement.
Qi Leyuan let out a sharp and complaining sound, "Not?! Do you really expect me to lay eggs?!"
"Miss, it’s not about money," Red Bean didn’t take the silver handed to him by Li Chunzhou, with a worried look in his eyes said, "I’m thinking maybe we should pack our bags?"
Li Chunzhou thought about it and realized, even though Chihong didn’t have to worry, it wasn’t the same for Red Bean and Ming Niang who were ordinary girls. Although Ming Xiang was a player, Li Chunzhou didn’t want to see her die at the hands of the Turks either.
Li Chunzhou lowered her head in thought, hesitated, then spoke, "Ming Xiang, why don’t you go find other players…?"
Ming Xiang saw the look on Li Chunzhou’s face and softly shook her head, saying, "Don’t worry about me, I’ve always lived like a bug, if I die, then I die… I don’t want to go anywhere else, I want to stay by your side."
Li Chunzhou was amazed by Ming Xiang’s calm attitude towards facing death, even Ming Niang turned to look at Ming Xiang.
"There, there," Li Chunzhou comforted, continuing to figure out how to take care of their matters.
Chihong played with birds all day, her slingshot broke, so she went out to buy a bow and arrows. When she came back, she brought a letter for Li Chunzhou from the people at Northern Marquis Mansion.
Li Chunzhou opened it and was surprised to find a letter from Mi Hongbao.