Love Apartment (10)
/Text: Green Plum Sauce
Under the warm light, a dinner with lingering fragrance has just ended.
The sky outside has gradually darkened. After dusk left, the moonlight fell lightly into the eyes.
A few friends gathered in their own homes to enjoy sumptuous meals, feast and drink, and chat about everyday things. No matter which frame they captured, it was undoubtedly the life they had envisioned and longed for.
But now, this kind of life seems to be reflected in reality, which makes the smile on Chi Ting's eyebrows gradually become stronger.
Sure enough, this should be the beautiful feeling after having human friendship.
His lustful eyes passed over everyone's bodies bit by bit, Gong Jing, Xiang Xianwan...
When he was about to look at Li Tao, the latter finally wailed unbearably: "Brother Chi, can you control yourself a little bit? If this continues, I will really go blind!!!"
How happy Li Tao was when he met the big boss before, how miserable he was now.
So much so that when Xiang Xianwan asked him why he wore sunglasses at night, she didn't know where to start.
Li Tao's awakened personal skill is called [Friendly Assessment], which can clearly capture the good and evil values showed to him by other players, including NPCs.
It was precisely because of this skill that he was attracted by Chi Zing's radiant kindness from the very beginning, and decided to make him an ally.
However, it was only when he met Chi Ting that Li Tao realized that his always easy-to-use alarm system could be so deceptive.
After the whole dinner, he was blinded by the sight of Chi Ting. If this person continued to exude kindness like this, he highly doubted that he might not be able to pass the dungeon.
Chi Ting still smiled: "I'm already very restrained."
Li Tao hurriedly blocked the bright light over there, feeling blind for a while.
If he thought Chi Ting was interested in Xiang Xianwan before, now he has begun to vaguely wonder whether this person is interested in everyone.
How on earth does this person manage to be full of love for everyone! ?
"Stop playing now." Gong Jing kept lowering his head and fiddling with his phone after finishing the meal. In sharp contrast to the warm and harmonious atmosphere of Chi Ting's whole body, was his particularly solemn expression, "Currently, we are the only ones who have responded to messages in the group. There are 7 people in total, and the 3 people who didn’t respond are probably already..."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was silence all around.
Of course the others knew what he was talking about.
Just now, Li Tao had sorted out the clues he had obtained so far and posted them to the player group.
Although not every infinite game is suitable for being kind to others, it is not difficult to see from Chi Ting's rescue of Xiang Xianwan from the edge of assimilation. In this dungeon, it is not a bad thing at least for more people to advance and retreat together.
Anyway, I have already been reminded. As for whether you believe it or not, that is other people’s own business.
But regardless of whether they are willing to accept their kindness or not, the players who saw these messages have at least more or less responded in the group. Even now, after finishing the meal, they still haven’t shown up. There is a high probability that they have...
In fact, there was no need for Gong Jing to remind him, Li Tao had also observed it.
In addition to the four players here, the players who have appeared so far are Li Hou on the 11th floor, Xian Lang on the 17th floor and You Qian on the 18th floor.
As for other people, if they hadn't had time to see the group chat due to some specific reasons, they might have been completely integrated into the life of the Love Apartment like Chang Hefeng and became a member of the NPC.
Their mobile phones may be somewhere in the room at this moment, and they are even vibrating again and again with newly received messages, but even if they pass by, they still cannot feel the presence of the mobile phones——
All things related to the players, for the assimilated NPCs, have been completely erased from their world like the original memories.
I don't know if the night wind outside leaked in. Everyone who had just finished dinner and was still warm all over their bodies felt a chill on their bodies, and a layer of chill suddenly appeared.
If they don't leave here as soon as possible, that's probably what they will end up like.
In order to cover up his inner anxiety, Li Tao adjusted the sunglasses on the bridge of his nose with lingering fear.
Chi Zhanyou noticed his actions and suddenly asked, "I didn't seem to see you wearing sunglasses when you came here. Where did they come from?"
Damn it, he’s been wearing it all night and he only noticed it now!
Li Tao didn't know where to start complaining for a moment, so he held back for a while and replied: "Of course I took it from the storage space."
Xiang Xianwan was curious: "What is the storage space?"
"This is your first time entering the dungeon. You will know after you clear the level. It is a dimensional space used by players to store props." Li Tao knew that Xiang Xianwan was a complete newcomer, so he answered patiently, but when he looked up, he noticed Chi Ting also looked a little surprised, and finally couldn't help it anymore, "Brother Chi, don't you have one yourself?"
He raised his head slightly and nodded at the red stone hanging on Chi's chest.
In fact, Li Tao had wanted to ask about it a long time ago, but after rescuing Xiang Xianwan, he was in a hurry to increase his favorability, and then he moved and sent notifications to other players. He was so busy now.
Taking advantage of this moment, he also used this opportunity to change the subject in this depressing atmosphere: "Speaking of which, you took out the string of beads from the storage space before, right? Is this an exclusive prop after you awakened your ability? Then The beads look quite beautiful, can you let me take a look at them again?"
"You like my beads too?"
Chi Ting was indeed a little surprised that there was storage space in this infinite world, but he couldn't understand any of the following words about "ability awakening" and "exclusive props".
However, he was also very happy that Li Tao would be interested in his handicrafts. He immediately pinched the strange stone on his chest, took out the beads and handed them over.
Seeing Li Tao looking through it carefully, Chi Ting's expression was vaguely hopeful: "How is it? The craftsmanship is not bad."
Li Tao nodded repeatedly: "Yeah, very beautiful."
Exclusive props are often born in conjunction with personal skills, but not every personal skill is worthy of a complementary exclusive prop. Many people like Li Tao may still not be able to have their own exclusive props until they die in a certain dungeon, and many more people cannot even awaken their personal skills.
Precisely because of the extreme scarcity, this was the first time that Li Tao observed the exclusive props so closely, and the other two people immediately gathered around them out of curiosity.
At first glance, this style of beading looks like a Buddhist item. If it is placed in the hands of an enlightened monk, it should not feel out of place. However, the difference from ordinary beads is that the material used is not the common material of those beads.
This is a very beautiful white color, not bleak, nor that cold. Naturally, it is not the kind of wood that exudes the quality of purifying all living beings, nor is it jade...
Li Tao gently stroked and studied it, but it was still somewhat unrecognizable: "Brother Chi, can your string of beads grow infinitely? What kind of material are they made of?"
Chi Ting had just returned from the kitchen and poured a cup of hot water. He replied casually: "Oh, it's made of bones. I polished it myself. Isn't it beautiful?"
Li Tao's stroking movements paused slightly, and he looked up stiffly: "Huh?"
After a while, he squeezed out the second half of the sentence: "...What bone?"
Chi Ting even blinked with interest: "Guess."
Li Tao laughed twice, thinking he was humorous and asked: "It can't be human bones, right?"
Chi Ting smiled silently and did not answer.
Following a long period of silence, the expression on Li Tao's face finally cracked bit by bit.
Damn it, what do you mean by not denying it?
He actually didn't deny it! ? ?
Just when Li Tao shook his hands and was about to throw the beads out, Chi Ting seemed to finally catch the clear panic in the eyes of the three people, and slowly put the mouthful of hot water into his mouth. He swallowed it and said: "Don't worry, I'm just teasing you. How could it be human bones, right?"
I don't know why, it was clearly a denial, but seeing Chi Ting suddenly glance meaningfully at the beads in his hand, Li Tao felt that the strange feeling in his heart became more intense.
He straightened his back slightly and returned the beads stiffly: "It's okay, don't be so scary, Brother Chi."
Chi Ting put the beads in his hand and gently stroked them twice. The corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and then he put them back into the strange stone.
He didn't continue the topic: "By the way, I thought I saw you throwing two things, and they were pretty dodgey."
"You mean the flash bomb?" Li Tao was a little confused when he said this, "Have you never seen the basic props in the Points Mall?"
Chi Ting: "Points Mall?"
"..." For a moment, Li Tao couldn't tell whether the person in front of him really didn't know, or was just pretending to be stupid to tease him. However, seeing that Xiang Xianwan, a newbie, also cast a curious look, he was still very patient after all. He started to explain, "These are all basic common sense that you will know after clearing a dungeon. The points mall is..."
[Hahahahahaha, I feel like this player regards the newcomer as some kind of boss. 】
[I don’t blame him, I really don’t blame him. If I had met someone with exclusive props in the dungeon, I would never have thought about companion items. 】
[But the beads by Chi Ting are not really made of human bones, are they? 】
[What are you thinking? Even in the infinite game, no one, no matter how perverted, likes to carry around human bones as decorations, and they polish them with their own hands? 】
[What time is it in the dungeon? Isn’t this newcomer going to introduce Moon Blade to them? I can’t wait. 】
[I really want to tell him that this is really not a good introduction...]
[Today’s hot spots are coming one after another. I can hardly watch it anymore. This newcomer’s live broadcast is so exciting! 】
The barrage in the live broadcast room scrolled rapidly.
As soon as the news came out that a newcomer had obtained exclusive accompanying props, the number of people online continued to soar.
In the dungeon, Teacher Li’s novice class officially started and lasted until late at night.
They didn't know whether it was because there were other people with them, or because the sense of security brought by Chi Ting was not enough, but the three of them felt that even the movement of NPCs wandering around at night seemed much quieter than when they were at their "home".
It wasn't until the sound of the elevator running vaguely came from outside that the originally harmonious classroom atmosphere was broken.
Feeling the nervousness of others, Chi Ting took a look at the time and stood up from the sofa: "It should be Moon Blade who is back. Wait a minute, I will introduce him to you."
Xiang Xianwan was still a little confused about today's experience, so she asked hesitantly: "...It's already so late, how about we watch it tomorrow?"
Chi Ting shook his head: "He is a social animal. If he is not on vacation, he can only go home after ten o'clock in the evening. You tried it last time and you often don't see him during the day. My suggestion is that you'd better get enough favorability tonight. Otherwise, you should also know that we don’t know how much time is left.”
The other three people: "...Sigh."
Chi Ting adjusted his clothes a little and walked to the door. When he pushed the door out, the elevator door just opened.
The tall figure paused slightly when he walked out of the elevator, and then saw Chi Ting showing him a friendly smile: "Have you just gotten off work? Thank you for your hard work. It's so late today."
The words were spoken as naturally as if they were old friends who have known each other for a long time.
Yue Ren's eyes swept over this flawless smile bit by bit. When he stepped forward, through the crack in the door on the side, he happened to catch the three heads poking out from behind like a stack of Arhats.
He lowered his eyes slightly and smiled lightly: "Mr. Chi's house is quite lively."
Chi Ting did not deny it. He turned sideways at the right time and moved out of the way: "We are all friends, do you want to come in and have a chat?"
The shadow under Yue Ren's feet was stretched thin by the light, vaguely eager to climb towards the house. In Chi Ting's eyes, it was obvious that he wanted to enter the house.
However, the man's eyes only turned around so slowly, and then he looked back calmly: "Anyway, I just took my annual leave and will be at home for the next few days. I'd better make an appointment alone when I have the opportunity."
His eyes fell on Chi Ting, and his tone became longer and longer: "I'm afraid of society, you know."
The moment the words faintly dissipated around him, Chi Ting was silent for a rare moment when facing this seemingly polite man.
So, is this the legendary hardcore character?
Seeing that Yue Ren nodded politely to the three people in the room and was about to leave, Chi Ting finally spoke again: "Are you hungry? I'll treat you to a supper. After office workers go home, don't they all like to eat a hot meal? A late-night snack? I’ve seen it written like this in many stories.”
Yue Ren's steps stopped. After thinking for a moment, he finally changed his mind: "That's okay."
Half an hour later.
Yue Ren finished his supper with a satisfied expression, and then sat on the sofa in a very relaxed and comfortable posture.
When Chi Ting came out of the kitchen after washing the dishes, he saw the other three squatting in the corner far away.
Among them, Li Tao was the most exaggerated. He even hid thousands of miles away. He almost huddled behind the curtains, wishing he could wrap himself up and disappear.
Chi Ting: "?"
He walked over and opened the curtains a crack, and asked strangely: "Aren't you going to have a chat?"
Li Tao was forced to stick out half of his head, but when he raised his head, he met Yue Ren's gaze from behind with a half-smile. His whole body trembled with alarm, and he immediately wrapped himself back up again: "You I don’t understand... I can’t go, I really can’t go... I have to stay away from this man, he will die, believe me, he will really die.”
Li Tao's [Friendly Assessment] not only targets players, but also has the same effect on NPCs.
The moon blade in front of him was in stark contrast to Chi Ting.
If Chi Ting's kindness is clear and honest like the blazing sun, then this moon blade in Li Tao's eyes is like an endless abyss that cannot reach the bottom. One glance is enough to completely swallow him into the bottomless abyss. In the dark.
It was a dark, evil feeling that had no way to escape no matter how hard one struggled.
Although it is called "Moon Blade", the moon still has light, but there is only darkness in this man's world.
Chi Ting really didn't understand much, so he could only mobilize the allies in front of him like he encouraged the team members before: "It doesn't matter. If you don't have enough favorability with him to go downstairs, you will still die. You will die anyway, otherwise you should do more while you are alive. Something meaningful."
Li Tao: "..."
Wow, I feel encouraged.
After all kinds of struggles, everyone finally gathered around the table in a "harmonious atmosphere".
Yue Ren's eyes passed over the group of people without warmth, and the faint smile was still on the corner of his mouth: "Do you want everyone to get to know each other?"
The smile on Xiang Xianwan's face was almost stiff: "C-is it okay?"
"Since I am Mr. Chi's friend, of course I can." Yue Ren glanced at Chi Ting out of the corner of his eye. He looked very kind and friendly. "I just want to relax after working overtime for so long. Since everyone is in such high spirits, , in order to better enhance the relationship, why not play a game together."
The faint ending fell heavily in the night, like a needle, gently piercing everyone's heart, causing a numb feeling in an instant.
Li Tao saw the endless darkness surrounding that man that almost swallowed up the entire space around him.
