Chapter 12

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Chapter 12: Resurrection Overture (XII)

{cw: brief suicide mention}

After this day’s hellish diving training, Qi Leren, who was as heavy as lead, had no strength to climb aboard. He was floating on his back beneath the boat like a miserable little mermaid under the gaze of Chen Baiqi’s disdain. Finally, Chen Baiqi dragged him back onto the boat.

On the way back, Qi Leren slept as if dead. When he was woken up by the coastal evening wind, Qi Leren suddenly sat up and the coat that had been covering him slipped down. It was Chen Baiqi’s.

“What time is it?” Qi Leren asked in a hoarse voice. He remembered that it was about five o'clock when he’d come back, but after entering the border of Dusk where it was sunset all day, it was difficult to tell the time.

“It’s seven o'clock,” Chen Baiqi said without looking back as she kneeled on the bow against the wind. “You can hurry home after you wake up, but don’t expect me to carry you back."

Qi Leren responded. After a short sleep, his spirit was much better and he could walk.

The two people got off the boat together. Chen Baiqi put her hands in her pockets with a cigarette in her mouth and looked at the distant sunset with empty eyes, her expression unreadable.

"Thank you,” Qi Leren suddenly said.

“Hmm?” Chen Baiqi was puzzled.

When he first woke up, Qi Leren was slow to respond, but now he had recovered. How could it take two hours to sail from Undead Island to Sunset Island’s port? The ship had already landed, but Chen Baiqi hadn’t woken him up after seeing that he was tired enough to sleep. She’d smoked on bow for two hours, waiting for him to wake up. In this world where time was life, she had expended two hours for a person who wasn’t even a formal disciple… No, it took far more time than two hours. This kindness was tantamount to a life-saving grace.

“Nothing, just wanted to thank you.” Qi Leren said sincerely, “For many things… I should thank you."

The two of them having arrived at an intersection, Chen Baiqi was going back to her store to have dinner with her sister, and Qi Leren was going back to Dr. Lu where he was still spending the night.

Chen Baiqi stopped and stamped out the cigarette butt: "It’s no use thanking me. Come and show me your potential."

"I’ll work hard."

"I’ll watch it, too,” Chen Baiqi said, then turned and left, waving goodbye at him over her back.

Qi Leren stood in silence for a moment, looking at Chen Baiqi’s back. She really was a woman with many stories and many worries, but she refused to sell her own stories and was reluctant to share her past. She was tightly wrapped in secrets, and no one knew her age. Even the name Chen Baiqi didn’t seem to be her real name.

What had she done in the real world? What kind of experiences had she had in the Nightmare World? Why did she want to adopt a player’s child and love her as a sister? How was her half-field broken? Qi Leren didn’t know any of this. His understanding of Chen Baiqi was limited to the words she had revealed—she had once worked in the Heresy Court of the Trials Court, was an assassin who mainly focused on intelligence and assassination, and had a summoning book that sealed many strange creatures, which were accumulated when she traveled in the Nightmare World.

He wondered if he could be as strong as Chen Baiqi once he had spent eight years in the Nightmare World. He should be able to, at least, as long as his luck didn’t stop him from reaching his eighth year. Qi Leren gave a wry smile in his heart, got rid of the idea, and set foot on his way home.

When he returned to Dr. Lu’s clinic, Dr. Lu was treating a familiar young man and nagged, “Jumped from the third floor? I see you’re young, why do you want to die like this? Do you think you’re a superhero? Doesn’t it hurt to jump from the third floor in one breath? Sometimes people jump off buildings. If you can stop it, stop it. Otherwise, forget it. What kind of hero is that? Hey, you’re back? I’m starving for dinner right now."

The young man who was being treated by "Doctor’s Orders” also turned his head and leapt up from his chair in surprise: “Qianbei! Long time no see! How have you been recently? I thought about it, and the house should be returned to you. It was originally your house. I’ll find another residence. I have a lot of time to live now!"

"It doesn’t matter, I live here as well,” Qi Leren said in a reserved way.

The last time when he signed the confidentiality agreement with Du Yue, he’d felt that he was very sorry for the other. How dare he take the house back?

Recently, he had had to buy an extra bed. Otherwise Dr. Lu, who was grudgingly made to sleep on the sofa, would have continued to look at him bitterly and even dare to be angry at this “evil guest” who had taken over his nest.

Du Yue looked at Qi Leren, who refused to move back, as if he was wronged. He lowered his head like a big dog who had been reprimanded by his master. Dr. Lu looked at him pitifully and invited him to have dinner with them. Du Yue immediately perked up: “Good, good, I have no place to eat!"

So the meal became three people together. If Qi Leren’s training ended early, he would come back to cook. If it ended late, Dr. Lu would do it. Dr. Lu’s culinary skills were not bad. You could see it from how Du Yue ate three bowls in one go.

After dinner, Du Yue rushed to wash the dishes. Qi Leren and Dr. Lu had a brief exchange about today’s events.

"Du Yue had come several times even before you came back. I’m telling you, he’s a personal event trigger! Almost every time, it was a courageous injury. Walking on the road the day before yesterday, he witnessed a robbery. He went up and beat the robber who then stabbed him. Today, he met a pregnant woman who wanted to jump off a building. He saved her but fell off himself. Fortunately, only his arm was broken…” Dr. Lu gushed about Du Yue’s glorious deeds, and he was very optimistic about this young man.

“Are you talking about me?” Du Yue came out of the kitchen after washing the dishes.

“Yes, talking about the series of accidents that you’ve encountered almost daily,” Dr. Lu smiled.

Du Yue scratched his head and said with a silly smile: “It’s okay… It’s not every day."

"Does it have to happen every day?” Qi Leren vomited a sentence.

“Is the pregnant woman you saved today okay?” Dr. Lu asked smoothly.

“Okay? Ah, Her friend persuaded her to go with her after a while and asked for my contact information, saying that she would like to thank me next time,” Du Yue said.

“If you want an abortion, between the Village of Dusk’s medical facilities plus the monthly tasks, isn’t it only too easy?” Dr. Lu said.

“Yes, that’s what I told them."

A young man who had just grown up and a young man who looked like he was underage talked seriously about the problem of pregnancy and childbirth. This picture was a bit funny. After listening for a while, Qi Leren suddenly remembered the laptop. He quickly got up and said, "You two take your time talking, I’m going to go for a walk."

After leaving Dr. Lu’s clinic, Qi Leren followed the address that Chen Baiqi had given him before, and went to find the house of the tech savvy player who was still alive.

The place where the player lived wasn’t far from Dr. Lu’s clinic. Qi Leren was still worried that he still hadn’t come back after leaving for his task. However, this time he was lucky. After ringing the doorbell, a mechanical voice that sounded like a young girl came from behind the door: "Master is busy. What can I do for you?”

“Hello, I was referred by Chen Baiqi. I need to make an electronic appliance please,” Qi Leren said.

“Just a moment, please.”

After a few minutes, the door opened and Qi Leren saw at a glance that the three foot tall robot on the ground looked like a moving trash can. It opened the shoe rack and found a pair of shoe covers for Qi Leren: “Please come with me."

It was indeed a high-tech house. Qi Leren sighed with emotion in his heart and followed the little robot all the way to the basement.

The basement was very big. After Qi Leren went in, he suddenly saw a screen on the wall facing him!

However, it wasn’t like the HD display screens common in the real world, it was like the oldest gray TV screens in an antique shop. There were constantly black and white pixels moving on this display screen, which was actually playing a simple shooting game like a computer in the 1980s!

As Qi Leren approached, the man who had his back to him as he watched the screen suddenly lost the game, one hand coming down on the table: "Shit, lost again!"

"Hello.” Qi Leren made a noise.

The man’s back froze and he turned slowly. He was a young man with glasses who looked a little dull: “…Oh, hello."

Qi Leren felt that he was more nervous than him. His voice was a little shaky and he stuttered a little, obviously the type that didn’t have contact with others often.

After Qi Leren stated his purpose, the techy suddenly got excited: "Did you bring your laptop into the game? Sell it to me, I’ll pay a high price!"

Qi Leren suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, not to mention that the laptop was still in Schrodinger’s state, appearing and disappearing irregularly. Even if the laptop was in his item bar now, he couldn’t give it to others. But if he refused this person’s request, would he still help him make the charger or transformer? He had to find a suitable reason…

Qi Leren secretly gritted his teeth and made a decision.

"No, there’s very important information on it. I can’t give it to anyone,” Qi Leren resolutely said.

“I can print the information for you!” the techy said enthusiastically, without stuttering.

“This… is not that kind of information.” Qi Leren looked embarrassed and his eyes wandered. “It’s the kind of… hundreds of G, you know…"

The techy’s eyes grew brighter: "Dude! I haven’t seen a movie in such a long time! Sell it to me! Lend it to me without selling it!"

Qi Leren coughed twice: "To tell you the truth, all I watched were pure men’s shootouts…"

The techy was stunned for a moment, then resolutely insisted: "It’s okay, anti-Japanese drama, gun battle film, American blockbuster, I watched all of these."

Qi Leren covered his forehead: "I’m talking about GV, GayVideo, a film made by a group of men, understand!"

”…………….I understand.“

In order to keep the laptop far away, Qi Leren, who did not hesitate to destroy his image, showed a kind smile: "Do you want to see it? I have quite a few varieties there, from gangbang to S/M to people and animals-"

"No, I, I, I, I, I still like girls."

"Oh, that’s a pity,” Qi Leren said regretfully.

After he dispelled the techy’s idea of buying the laptop off him, Qi Leren quickly finalized this order with him: to make a mobile power supply that could be externally connected to a laptop, which was equivalent to a large charging battery—"When I go to a copy task without electricity, I also want to watch these films to reduce stress.“ Quote by a serious Qi Leren.

"By the way, make another transformer, because the voltage in the Village of Dusk is different from that in the real world—of course, you should watch movies to relax when you’re in the Village of Dusk.” Quote by a still serious Qi Leren.

The techy wanted to warn him that “a little joy hurts his body”. In particular, he looked at Qi Leren walking a little bit. He looked like he was worn out and exhausted. He was finally defeated by Qi Leren’s kind smile and closed his mouth silently.

Out of the techy’s house, Qi Leren gave a long sigh. Today, he once again made himself into a gay man with strange taste. He was still a wretched gay man who watched hardcore porn every day. It seemed that the path to building an upright image only grew longer.

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Editor’s Notes: Happy first day of pride month, everyone! 🌈

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