Chapter 17

There was no one around.

In front of Jiang Liu was a huge garden. The summer sun shone down generously, and flowers of all colors bloomed in competition, creating a vibrant scene as far as the eye could see.

The dizziness from the teleportation lasted only three seconds before disappearing, along with Zhang Xiaochen and the others.

Jiang Liu briefly scanned her surroundings and took out her phone, tapping out a couple of messages.

Unlike the complete lack of signal in the Curtain Dream Theater, the network here was smooth. However, there was no response from the other side. It was unclear whether they hadn’t seen the messages or couldn’t receive them.

She casually put her phone away. Just as she was about to take a step forward, The System’s voice rang out—

[Warm Sun Town is a town with a pleasant climate. Li Xun’s younger sister, Li An’an, went missing while traveling here half a month ago. The player is requested to assist him in finding his sister’s whereabouts.]

[Main Quest: Successfully find Li An’an.]

[Upon completion of the mission, rewards and punishments will be determined based on the level score. Players are advised to proceed with caution.]

[We wish the player a pleasant game.]

Jiang Liu stroked her chin thoughtfully. Finding someone, huh?

As the electronic voice faded, the previously silent garden suddenly came alive with activity. She paused for a moment and followed the sound, only to see a group of children playing on the grass.

Plastic shovels and buckets were scattered around them. They were burying something in the soil, excitedly discussing when it would sprout.

Jiang Liu was about to get a closer look when an arrogant voice rang out from behind her, shouting in a commanding tone, “Hey, wait for me.”

Her steps paused, and a smile suddenly appeared on her lips.

She was just worrying about not having a chance to find the guy, and The System delivered him right to her. This was… perfect!

She pretended not to hear and continued walking, her fingers unconsciously stroking the ring as she waited quietly.

The owner of the voice, as expected, grew anxious, his footsteps quickening. “I told you to slow down!”

Just as he was about to reach her, Jiang Liu suddenly turned, her foot landing heavily on the person’s instep as if by accident.

“Ow, ow, ow!!”

A wail rang out. The person sucked in a sharp breath and hopped back a couple of steps, looking at Jiang Liu miserably. “What are you doing?”

Jiang Liu blinked in surprise, her hands spread wide in an innocent gesture. “Oh, it’s you? I thought it was some creep sneakily following people.”

The hip-hop guy’s nose crooked with anger at her words. “Who are you calling a creep?”

Jiang Liu gave him a ‘figure it out yourself’ look, crossed her arms, and looked him up and down, her tone unfriendly. “What are you doing here too?”

The hip-hop guy flashed a big smile, no longer crying out in pain. “This is an instance. Isn’t it normal to run into each other?”

Jiang Liu snorted at this explanation.

She only knew a handful of people here. To be scammed by him in the morning and then run into him in an instance in the afternoon—no one would believe it was a coincidence.

Besides, this guy wasn’t surprised to see her at all. There must be something else going on.

But since he wasn’t talking, Jiang Liu couldn’t be bothered to waste her energy guessing. She just continued to look at the lawn in the distance.

Thanks to his interruption, the children on the lawn had disappeared at some point, leaving only a few fresh mounds of dirt with signs of recent watering.

A gentle breeze blew past. Jiang Liu had only blinked, but the scenery before her had completely changed—

The newly planted seeds burst through the soil, and tender green shoots shot up. One of them grew its slender branches infinitely long, tightly wrapping around the other shoots until they withered completely.

Jiang Liu was speechless.

She knew it. How could an instance ever be normal?!

“Buzz…”

The phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated. Jiang Liu took it out and saw a strange contact name—Xiao Si.

She answered the call, and a pleasant female voice immediately came through, though her tone sounded a bit anxious.

“Sister Liu, have you found anything over there?”

***

Sitting in the spacious Western-style house, Jiang Liu couldn’t help but sigh.

Oh boy, today was really a good day. Why was it full of familiar faces?

Zhang Xiaochen and Xu Meng sat on chairs by the window, waving at her excitedly, looking as if they had just seen their savior.

To her right, the hip-hop guy had a lollipop in his mouth and his hands in his pockets, casually commenting on the house’s layout, not acting like an outsider at all.

To her left, two boys, no older than twenty, were squeezed together, looking at them with trepidation, as if they were new players.

And directly across from her—a girl with Yang Caisi’s face held a cup of water uneasily, her brows furrowed with worry. She kept looking outside, looking listless and dejected.

“Her acting is really not bad.”

Jiang Liu muttered under her breath, her voice too low for anyone to hear.

Only Yang Caisi—or rather, Xiao Si from the phone call—paused her fingers almost imperceptibly. Her gaze swept over Jiang Liu without a trace, a hint of shyness appearing in her eyes.

Warm Sun Town was a small town where it was spring all year round. Its unique and pleasant climate attracted a large number of people to settle down. This time, Li An’an and Xiao Si had come for a site inspection.

Everything had been arranged, but last night, Li An’an had mysteriously disappeared. Fearing something had happened, she quickly contacted Li An’an’s brother, Li Xun, and asked them to help find her.

Jiang Liu’s current identity: a good friend Xiao Si met on a tour group.

Looking at Yang Caisi’s completely engrossed performance, Jiang Liu couldn’t help but feel that it was a waste for her to be just an extra. If this were the real world, she would be an award-winning actress at the very least.

After understanding the backstory, someone hesitated and asked, “If she’s missing, shouldn’t we just call the police?”

Xiao Si’s voice paused for a moment. She pretended not to hear the question. “I don’t know where she could have gone. Sister Liu, you think she’ll come back safely, right?”

Her eyes reddened with emotion, and she leaned forward, closer to Jiang Liu, her voice filled with an indescribable anxiety.

Being stared at by such eyes, no one could help but soften. But Jiang Liu’s mind kept flashing back to Yang Caisi’s serious, unsmiling face, and for a moment, she couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Yang Caisi was speechless.

She was too close to Jiang Liu. When Jiang Liu chuckled, her warm breath practically brushed against her face, making her cheeks inexplicably hot. But she could only endure her racing heart and struggle to finish the scene.

“Sister Liu?” Xiao Si called out pitifully.

Only then did Jiang Liu realize her reaction was inappropriate. She cleared her throat and said seriously, “Sorry, I just thought of something happy.”

Under the speechless gazes of the others, she calmly pulled out a tissue for Xiao Si, her tone sincere. “She’ll definitely be fine.”

Xiao Si smiled excitedly and nodded with great solemnity. “I believe you, Sister Liu!”

She hastily wiped her tears and forced herself to cheer up. “It’s getting late. I’ll go make dinner first. Li Xun won’t arrive until tomorrow. Everyone must be tired today, so let’s get some good rest.”

Jiang Liu’s mouth twitched as she watched her walk towards the kitchen.

You’re a horror game NPC. You say it’s fine, but do you believe it yourself? Do you really believe it?!!

As soon as Xiao Si left, Zhang Xiaochen eagerly came over. “I can’t believe we’re all together again. This is great!”

When he first arrived and saw no one around, his heart had sunk. Heaven knows if he could have cleared the instance on his own without Jiang Liu’s help.

Jiang Liu clicked her tongue. “You didn’t get the message?”

Zhang Xiaochen was stunned. “What message? Did you leave some kind of secret code?”

He thought about it carefully. It seemed like something Jiang Liu would do. He and Xu Meng exchanged a look.

Jiang Liu was almost driven mad by his train of thought.

On the side, the hip-hop guy also looked at him as if he were an idiot. “Idiot. Instances are all independent spaces. You can’t receive messages except from authorized numbers.”

The authorized number referred to Xiao Si, who had called in the afternoon.

“You seem to know a lot?” Jiang Liu didn’t like the look of him and narrowed her eyes, looking him up and down as she asked.

The hip-hop guy snorted proudly. “My name is Zhao Ziming. I’ve already cleared three instances, with a comprehensive rating of B-rank.”

He had expected praise after this announcement, but when his words fell, the room was surprisingly quiet.

He frowned, looking at Jiang Liu in disbelief. “Hey, didn’t you hear what I said?”

Jiang Liu looked at him calmly. “Is B-rank very high?”

Zhao Ziming was furious, but thinking about Jiang Liu’s A-rank rating, he couldn’t say anything. He had to shift his gaze to the other two.

The two looked at each other and said tremblingly, “What’s a B-rank?”

Zhao Ziming froze on the spot.

A moment later, he jumped up excitedly and rushed over to the two, in disbelief. “Impossible! You’re newcomers? How is that possible!!!”

The two were startled by his tone and cast a pleading look at Jiang Liu.

“Running into newcomers in an instance, isn’t that normal?” Jiang Liu stood up calmly, mimicking his earlier innocent tone.

Zhao Ziming was speechless.

He scratched his head frantically. After confirming the identity of the two, he sat down on the floor. “It’s over. I thought I was matched with a Big Shot, but I ended up with four noobs. It’s over, it’s over.”

“Hey, who are you calling a noob?”

Zhang Xiaochen’s face changed, and he stared at him with an unfriendly tone.

Zhao Ziming ignored him. As if remembering something, he suddenly pulled a card out of his pocket. “I want to complain! The System has a bug!!”

Following his shout, a mechanical electronic voice suddenly popped up.

[Player Zhao Ziming, the Team-up Pass has been successfully bound to player Jiang Liu. Usage is normal.]

“Impossible, how could it be with her…”

Zhao Ziming muttered in disbelief, but Jiang Liu had understood everything. She squatted down with amusement and looked at him, saying playfully, “So your B-rank came from hugging someone else’s thigh?”

A hint of embarrassment appeared on his face, and he stammered, unable to speak.

Jiang Liu slowly pulled a card from her pocket and threw it at him. “Mutual Aid Pass. The next instance will definitely have two newcomers. If you hadn’t tricked me into buying a lottery ticket, I might not have gotten it.”

Zhao Ziming’s face turned pale, and he stared at the lottery ticket with a complicated expression.

Seeing his defeated look, Jiang Liu was in a great mood. She pointed to Xiao Si, who was busy in the kitchen, completely undisturbed by the commotion here, and said lazily—

“Now I’m the only thigh you can hug. If you don’t want to be abandoned, be a good boy and go help with the cooking.”

Yang Caisi had just finished one role, and before she could even catch her breath, she was back to work again. This system was too inhumane, not treating its employees like people at all.

Cursing the exploitative system in her heart, Jiang Liu couldn’t help but stand up and look out the window.

The sun was setting, casting a dark red glow on the ground. The number of people on the streets gradually dwindled, as if some beast was hiding in the darkness, observing everything.

Unconsciously, night had fallen.